Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
-- "Why is it unacceptable for Duke but not any other school? Why is Duke Women's lacrosse in a different category than so many others?" --

Several reasons come to mind. Duke is a Top 10 Academic Institution, They Compete in the ACC, The University fully funds and supports the program, The Program has Admission Slots, Beautiful Campus, Great Weather, Easy to get to from Hot Bed areas, Up until the past 3 years the program was consistently Top 10.


Correct. Duke has a ton of inherent advantages that should lead to a very successful program. Look at their counterparts on the Men's side. The school supports these programs wholeheartedly. There's no reason that Princeton and Penn are stronger programs than Duke. How has Stony Brook become more successful than Duke? How has USC become more successful when east coast girls have to go all the way out there? How did Florida become more successful?

There's no excuse for what's gone on at Duke over the last 4 years and the school is running out of patience. A great replacement is now on staff and it would be an easy enough transition. If Duke struggles again I believe the change will be made.


The two biggest factors in a programs long term success are: Coaching and talent. The best coaches constantly identify the best players, convince those players to become a part of their program, coach and develop the players and create a culture that is constantly successful.

Duke was one of those programs but it looks like they have fallen off a bit the past few years. What changed? Are they not bringing in the talent? Did an important assistant coach move on? Did the fact that Duke did not aggressively jump on the band wagon of early recruiting? Duke should absolutely be one of the Top 10 - 15 Programs.

looking at the situation (without inside knowledge of the program) I think they missed out on too much talent during the 3 - 4 year stretch of "early recruiting". If they missed on 1 or 2 Top Recruits per year during that time frame it would be enough to hurt their program just enough to keep them out of that top group of 10 - 15 Programs. For sure it would keep them out of the top 4 - 6 programs.

It seams to me that the coaches at the top programs are able to identify the best players and then convince the players to choose to attend their school. When you look at the top programs it is easy to see why the coaches at those schools can land the best talent. The Duke coaches have everything they need in order to compete for the top recruits. Not so easy for many other programs.

Big year for The Blue Devils.