The kid showing up drunk to practice? He needs intervention and help. And yes that would be a condition of returning to the team. If he is showing up to a practice drunk, he’s got a real problem. It is really poor judgment to make the kid run laps drunk. What was she thinking? In a college environment? With today’s liability backdrop?
I might add I cannot imagine signing that memo in the fall of 23. I would have figured out how to navigate the coach, including the difficult challenge of avoiding overtraining, which one can bet was a common problem. But I was a poor kid grateful just to get a great education and would not have felt entitled to engage in a wholesale revolt. I was trained in high school by a direct disciple of Igloi and knew what worked. How to fit that within the coach’s structure was on me. I am however two generations removed.
I was at the Virginia Invitational in 23 and talked to several of the parents. They were nice people - way more involved in their kids lives than I could imagine - but some clearly belonged to stratospheric socio-economic ranks - and they are used to getting their way. The coaches should understand like it or not this is part of the Duke landscape.
This isn’t a new thing at Duke. I used the term “Bill Fostered” in reference to the Duke basketball coach (successful) who was run off to South Carolina. He wasn’t a cultural fit despite being a good coach and recruiter, and one could see it would not last. I was on a committee in grad school with a prominent NCAA champion coach, and he confirmed the same to me. Foster didn’t have an elite education. Now, this coach was famous for instituting ferocious defense, and he did make clear to me that the passive zone Foster played wasn’t long for this world. And he thought once Coach K recruited Dawkins he would succeed (gives you an idea of how badly he wanted Dawkins). So there was some substance involved with the situation and not just culture. But I would approach Duke with caution either as an athlete or a coach.
I have met Kevin Jermyn and do think he is a good fit. Great coach too.