Duke
99.9 The Fan's Tim Donnelly on Mark Mitchell's decision to transfer from Duke
Tim Donnelly, host of The Drive on 99.9 The Fan, discusses Mark Mitchell's decision to transfer from Duke.
Day one of the 2024 2025 college basketball season watched a two year starter for the Duke Blue Devils hit the portal. Mark Mitchell according to on three they had at first, but it's since been corroborated by a bunch of different uh uh uh outlets. Mark Mitchell hitting the portal. I have to admit, surprised because here's the thing with Duke, they can recruit out of high school till the cows come home. They can recruit out of high school as well as anybody. The thing that they've been missing is the three or four vets, right? The things that they've been missing are the three or four grizzled, been around, been through it, put through the meat grinder came out on the other side, still feeling good players. They had Jeremy Roach last year. They still might have Jeremy Roach next year. He's a COVID year if he wants it. But, but Mark Mitchell to me could have been that dude, the sales pitch from, from John Shire and the coaching staff would have been a tough one, right? Because when you're Mark Mitchell, you, you, you, you know, everybody is the main, main character in their own movie. But if you are somebody that was recruited that highly and had that much ability, uh You're definitely the main character in your movie. It's like, it's like a series, there's a whole cinematic universe and you're the main character of it. So, so bringing in that, that recruiting class would have come with maybe some sacrifices, right? Hey, guess what? You're kind of built in a similar way to Cooper flag, right? You kind of would play similar minutes, meaning, uh, you would play maybe the, the, the same role and that obviously means a little bit less for you. But, you know, I'm, I'm gonna use a, uh, uh, a Mark Cuban is from Shark Tank. I love Shark Tank. Uh, I can watch that all day. I, I watch the old ones so then I, I can look up how good the, the business is. You know, 10 years later I go back and watch like season four and then just to see if they became anything, it's, it's, that was a flash in the pan and then of course, you know, you can go look it up and they'll tell you there's websites, whole websites syndicated to it. But Mark Cuban, right? When someone starts haggling over the, uh, equity, right, I'm gonna give you 250 grand for 10% and they're like, no, I want 250 grand for, for 5% and when they start doing that. He hits them with this. He goes, I'd rather own 80% of a watermelon than 95% of a grape. The sales pitch to somebody like Mark Mitchell is, do you wanna be the number one option on a grape or do you wanna be the number three or four option of a watermelon? By the way, that's not super like appeasing to one's ego. You really gotta massage that bad boy in there. But it's, it's hey, we might win, we expect to win a national championship next year. You wanna be a part of it, even if that is not the role you're hoping or do you wanna go somewhere else where they promise you the world and you'll finish fifth in your conference and you'll be, be hoping for an at large bid again. Cold glass of water to the face, not super nice, not super bedside manner. I wouldn't use those exact words, but I thought Mark Mitchell had a role that would have been vital for Duke next year may not have been the biggest role that he was hoping for, but the role that he would have played would have been vital and now they have to go fill that role somewhere else probably in the transfer portal because he would have been if, if Jeremy Roach comes back would be like the second oldest guy on that roster really when you think about it because Ryan Young is leaving Philip or anticipating Philips and mccain going to the NBA um again to be determined when it comes to that, but still, he would have been like, like you said, the grizzled vet on a team where it's being proven now, that age matters when it comes to the NCAA tournament. If, if roach comes back, they would have 1/5 year, senior, fifth year starter, they would have a third year starter. And if Proctor comes back another third year starter and then you pair that with probably Malas and, and flag in the, the starting lineup, Caleb Foster Foster off the bench, the rest of that high class recruiting the, the Harris, the Evans, the uh kni the, the TJ power. If he develops into something, there's like that becomes suddenly a team that played due to Caleb Foster's injury. Five guys right with, with one of them being a freshman to suddenly you can play nine with an equal amount of experience and inexperienced. And as we saw this postseason, just the nature of having like three or four juniors and above your, your team handles the, the roller coaster of March madness significantly better. But here's the thing with Duke and here's the like, you know this, when you go to Duke, by the way, the year, they, they don't mourn the, the, the left, right. If you, if you leave, once you're gone, they're not saying, oh, poor us. We had this great player and now he transferred to blah, blah, blah, they're going, who's the next five star that's gonna take his minutes? ESPN put out their way too early. Top 25 they do it every year. It comes out minutes after the, the, um, the final, right minutes after the championship ends, they put out their way too early. Top 25 which actually has never really made more sense because really the 2024 2025 season started a month ago with transfers and everything else going on. Uh, so there's actually something to judge as far as like, how well you're doing for next season. Keats was for NC State was already bringing in transfers for next season before the run was even done. And, and, and, um, who do we talk? Oh, Brad Underwood from Illinois, uh, the head coach for Illinois we talked to between the sweet 16 and the Elite eight. They have like, you know, 42 hours or whatever, between games. He's like I was making calls into the portal. I was, I was recruiting in between those two games. So next season has already started. Duke number one according to ESPN, number one team in the country and that's not even accounting for, they're assuming Jeremy Roach Leaves, they had some blanket rules for ESPN S way too early. Top 25. 1 of them was if the only year you have remaining is a COVID year, they assume you're gone. Until you, you announce you're coming back. So Jeremy Roach, they did not have as a returner. Jeremy Kin and Philip Posy, they did not have returning because one of the other rules was if you were projected to be drafted in the top 60 they said you're going. Yeah, and now Mark Mitchell is in the transfer portal. Guess what? I still believe they would be number one because that's the nature of Duke Mark Mitchell's gone. Cool Cooper flag will play more minutes. He's the projected number one pick in the NBA draft next year. He's the number one recruit in the country. Sean Stewart probably gave you a lot more minutes, a lot more opportunity. He'll have to battle with Evans and he'll have to battle with Harris and he'll have to battle with whoever else is in the mix. Some transfer. I guarantee you, they bring in a transfer big, I guarantee you. They noticed they did not have a, a true veteran rim protector. Um And, and they'll go bring in that transfer, right? Because as good as, as Mala was, is as good as some of these recruits are, they're, they're gonna want somebody that's a proven shot blocker and rebounder at the college level and there's some out there, right? Like a CAA player of the year, an Ivy League proven guy who, unlike Mark Mitchell, who's a twoyear starter at Duke and leaving. They, they probably would just get pretty, pretty jazzed up to wear the Duke uniform. Right. It's, it's a completely different, uh, thought process when you haven't done it for two years. So Mark Mitchell out, I'm surprised, I thought he would play a vital, vital role. Uh, and, and, and really help a team that's gonna have a ton of talent, but I really don't think it slows things down. Right. It's, it's Duke now goes from number one on the ESPN way too early. College basketball pole and, and Mark Mitchell leaves and they tumble all the way down to still number one in the ESPN way too early college basketball pole. I think it also goes to show you as well is that when it comes to the world of college athletics, just because you have success at a high end program, doesn't mean your players aren't gonna potentially leave. Everyone has their own reasons for why they want to go, whether it's they want a different opportunity, whether it's nil money, whether it's more playing time, whatever it is. Like you said, Mark Mitchell was a starter, started, what, 60 plus games over the last few years, points this year at Duke. Like not many. I mean, guys would kill for that opportunity, you know, to be like, yeah, I'll be the number three or four scoring option and start every game my first two years of my collegiate career at Duke. Yeah, I want to be part of win an AC C championship and go to an elite eight. I'm like, who would want to be part of that? The, the interesting part is, I, I wonder what the uh the per percentage of once one of your parents tweets something about your role on a team. How many of those players transfer the upcoming off-season? It's probably near 100% if you early in the season. Mark Mitchell maybe wasn't scoring as much as, as he hoped or, or was expected. And his, his dad tweeted something out about, you know, he, he, he's a scorer and da da, da da. Then he had a stretch of like a bunch of 20 point games and I was like, hey, look, his, his dad lit the fire in the right place, ends up in the transfer portal. I like it's gotta be above 90% if your parents at any point in time during the year tweet something about how your role or you're not being used correctly or you should be doing more of this. It's like, well, enjoy him while he's here because he's gonna be in the portal pretty quickly.