I know this is a late response.
I have met and talked to Kevin Jermyn and think he is a quality guy and coach. I am glad he is a Georgetown grad (reasons below).
I have not met Coach Reckart. But the way the issue was handled was unacceptable to me, and it speaks to a part of Duke I don't like. It is on one hand the most social of top schools, and that impacts the performance of athletes. Some of my teammates back in the day caught the West Campus disease - in their defense - that place was hopping - I stayed away as an exceedingly poor person and with athletic and academic goals, but even then it was a distraction.
But the social aspect extends beyond students. I don't know - but everything about this situation strikes me that Coach Reckart was "Bill Fostered". For those of you who don't know, he was the coach on the 1978 runner-up NCAA squad. The press seemed to indicate Foster was tired of duking it out with Dean Smith, but Duke didn't treat him well due to his Bloomsburg State pedigree. I know this is unprovable but at the same time Duke pressured the coach to not play John Harrell (an NC Central transfer) in favor of Bob Bender, a transfer from Indiana and part of basketbal royalty. Foster simply wasn't treated well or respected and a nationally known reporter and I talked about it long ago. I know this perspective comes from a person too poor to attend Duke and who was ostracized, but it is a part of Duke I don't like. And the matter leaves doubts with me.
I had breakfast with Johnny Dawkins a while back. Johnny in essence saved Coach K's job. But once locked and loaded, Coach K's West Point pedigree was acceptable to Duke and was an asset. Jon Scheyer went to one of the best public high schools in the nation and was an alum - an easy fit for Duke. Johnny himself was an excellent student at Mackin high school, a Catholic school now closed.
I don't agree that academics are to blame. My twin brother at UNC - recently passed away - was a multiple NCAA finalist at UNC and fourth in the ACC in XC (first American). He was Phi Beta Kappa and certainly a student the equal of anyone at Duke (he married a Duke student too). I cannot describe what a great human being Coach Joe Hilton at UNC was. Reggie McAfee, Tony W, Ralph King, Jimmy Cooper - Joe stood in their corner until the ends of the earth. It saddened me when UNC lost its way with the academic scandal.
. And I can attest at Duke you do run out of easy classes by your junior year, contrary to the assertion above. But Duke is not a difficult place to get B minuses, although very difficult to consistently get A's (I had an A minus average but a 3.9 in law school where the midpoint on the curve was 2.9, if that is illustrative). The education at Duke was excellent, but it is an imperfect place (I think of the comments Kate Van Buskirk made years ago and while I would have explicated matters differently she was on the right track).
Duke's history is to me easily the most fascinating of top universities. Brash, arrogant, young, and borne from Buck Duke's social ambitions and all started with his father walking home as a Confederate prisoner to avoid spending the five dollar gold coin Lincoln gave all POW's. That coin started a tobacco business. Just a surreal history. Buck married a NY socialite, important to his social aspirations. Portions of that culture survive today.
I was surprised at all of this because Nina King is from all accounts a first rate AD. Track likely didn't attract the attention it deserved in this situation. Again, I can't comment on the substance - but if Duke doesn't treat people well, who will?
I wish both Coach Reckart and Coach Jermyn well.