Someone is DEFINIELTY excited to see Jeremy Roach back with Duke next season.

Apparently summer vacation is over.

Brennan Marks is back to work. Basketball is like months and months and months away. We don't even have Operation Basketball, whatever it's called, ACC Media Day in Charlotte until like October. But there's recruiting to deal with and stories to write and Brennan Marks is on top of it.

And he joins us on the Adam Goldshow covers the Tar Heels and the Blue Devils for the athletic. Alright, you were down there with all of the sweaty people in South Carolina at Peach Jam. How was that? Was that fun? Explain that to us. Yeah, well I was one of those sweaty people too. This is definitely not me not being a part of that group.

But no, it's great. You get to see obviously some of the best high school players in America. Cooper Flagg, if you don't know that name already, definitely get to know it.

He is as good as advertised. And then also obviously it's good to spend time with the coaches. It's good to spend time with some agents. And just try and get a grip for what's coming down the pipe in terms of stories this summer.

We'll be here before we know it. I do not follow recruiting at all. I've always made that very plain to people. I will learn about the players when they show up. But I asked my son who follows, because he's on social media all the time, so he has seen all of these players that I've seen you now write about or tweet about. And I asked him the other day, I said, who's Cooper Flagg?

He goes, oh my gosh. Alright, so there's some talk that he might reclassify. I thought he was like a year away from being in school. But we're talking about somebody going into his junior year right now?

Yes. So for the time being, Cooper Flagg is in the 2025 class. But he's a little bit on the older side. He's already 16 years old.

I believe he's got a December birthday. So in theory, he can reclassify up to 2024, which would mean that he would be an incoming freshman next summer. And certainly that's what a lot of the buzz was down at Peach Jam. That would be something that would be beneficial for him. We started to see elite prospects the last couple of years reclassifying to get to the NBA as quickly as they can. And he's no different. I mean, this is a guy who he's going to be the number one, number two recruit in the country, depending on what service you look at. But he is easily one of the best players to come out of high school basketball in the last couple of years. Like, all of the hype. Your son is not wrong. All of the hype is 100% warden.

If he's listening to this now, I'm in trouble. Brendan Marks from The Athletic is joining us here. Carlos Boozer, a Duke alum, has two kids who are very highly thought of.

I think it's Caden, right? Or Cam. No, Cam Boozer is apparently the number one player in the 2024 class.

I know theoretically people would think that Duke is a lock, but I don't get that at all. I don't get that being the case at all. Yeah, and it doesn't sound like that is the case. I've had a chance to talk to the boozers a couple of times now. I spoke to them back in April when this grassroots session was sort of first starting.

I also had a chance to talk to him at Peach Jam. And you know, I would honestly say they've gotten stronger in terms of telling opposing programs. Like, if you're thinking about recruiting us, please do. I mean, they said that verbatim. They said, We want to be recruited.

We want to know what our options are. You know, obviously everybody assumes because of Carlos that they're just going to be there. Carlos that they're just going to be Duke locks. And let me make no mistake. Duke is certainly recruiting them both very heavily.

Would love to have both of them. You know, Cameron's the number one player in this class. Caden is a top 25 ish guy, but certainly these guys are saying, Hey, Kentucky, North Carolina, Miami. They are. They played out in Miami right now in high school. They're saying, come and recruit us.

We want to know what's out there. So, um, you know, a lot of folks are assuming they're Duke locks. That is not the case at all from the way that they have said. So, and they've been pretty consistent in that messaging since April. So, um, I believe them again.

Duke is certainly a player, but it's not a done deal. Like a lot of folks assume, not only the way the two boys are talking about it, but the way Carlos is talking about it. He like, I don't believe at all that Carlos.

I don't. Maybe he would be upset. I don't know, but I don't think he'd be bent out of shape if both kids decided to go to UNC.

Not at all. I asked the kids that specifically this weekend. I even, you know, said, Did your dad make any jokes or anything with you? Davis offered you. And they said, no, like, you know, very stoically, very stone face because they said, Carlos understands their dad understands that you and he would be a great option. And, you know, Cameron was saying, you know, look what North Carolina did and it's powerful position two years ago with Freddie Manick.

Like, uh, so I, I think certainly that all the options are on the table. Again, I'm not saying Duke is not a player. I'm not saying that Duke is not going to be among the finalists. I would expect that. Um, but if they choose North Carolina or Kentucky or Miami or one of these other schools, that's recruiting them. I would not be nearly as shocked as it sounds like they are. They would be right now if it were to happen. Brendan Marks from The Athletic is joining us here at Brendan R Marks on Twitter.

All right. I know that you are very high on North Carolina's prospects. It might be a surprise to some people might be a surprise to them, but you think there is potential there coming off a very, very difficult season. Why? Why do you have that kind of optimism? North Carolina last season and they just want to tank the whole program.

And I just don't think that's fair. You know, I think realistically North Carolina brought back its two best players from last year and Armando, Baycott and RJ Davis. And it went out and it's, it's done a really nice job in terms of the transfer portal and you're getting Elliot could ever to reclassify. Um, you know, the, the two biggest issues that this team had last year, especially on the offensive side of the ball was sharing the ball. You don't have the few assistant program history and three point shooting.

So what do you do? You go out and you get a couple of elite shooters and Cormac crying, and then at the same time you bring in Elliot Cadeau, who is a guy that even as a true freshman could realistically probably average six plus assists a game. Um, you know, I, you know, I've seen some people say he's going to average double, double, double digit assist from the jump. I think that's a little ambitious, but I think North Carolina has done a really good job of saying, Hey, we, we got to look at what went wrong here, identifying those problems and then going out and making some very targeted addition. So I, I expect this offense to be much improved. And again, you still have a guy in RJ Davis who can be an all American, a guy in Armando, Baycott who can be an all American.

Um, I just think there's a lot of really good pieces there. And I especially think after the way last season when Hubert Davis and these returning guys are going to have some hunger to him. He's going to be the best passing point guard at North Carolina, probably the best passer period that North Carolina has had since Kendall Marshall. I mean, uh, some of the things that this kid was doing like in the high school level on the EYBL level, like it was insane. I mean, I remember very specifically, there was one, you know, a game earlier in this EYBL session before he reclassified where he went up, he got a defensive rebound, did not even turn around, did not take a single step, just turned and through a full court outlet alley-oop path. Um, I mean, it was like the sort of thing that you would do in NBA 2K.

It was ridiculous. So, uh, I'm expecting him to come in. I'm expecting him to start. I mean, are there going to be some defensive problems having two, you know, smaller side guards at the same time and him and RJ Davis?

Probably, but I'm betting that Hubert Davis is weighing that the offense will outweigh those problems. Let's get to the other team that you cover for the Athletic. Brendan Marks is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show. My son went to basketball.

I can't bring my son into this. He went to Duke basketball camp, saw some of the new guys. I think it was McLean, a picture taken with McLean. Kyle Filipowski is a gigantic human being. He's way bigger in person than you could ever imagine. It almost looks like he's on somebody else's shoulders.

Uh, he's that tall. Uh, and Jeremy Roach is back on campus. Uh, your thoughts on what the potential is for Duke? Yeah, like I'm expecting Duke is going to start the season, if not as the number one team in the country, then as a top three side. Like, they have, you know, comparatively, you think about last year, John Steiner only had two returners, only one of them who had serious minutes. Now he's returning four starters, another couple of guys who provide bench that's like, it's not inconceivable that, you know, these four or five star freshmen that John has brought in. They're gonna have to fight for minutes. Right. And quite frankly, I think that's a good thing. I mean, uh, you know, I'm just coming down from watching practice here.

We've been over, uh, had an opportunity to speak to Shire and a couple of the returners today. I don't think that TJ power or Caleb Foster missed a shot while we were just in the gym for 15 minutes. So, you know, I think it's a very different situation in the past couple of years where, you know, especially last year, you were relying so heavily on these freshmen from the jump, and it did take 1015 games for them to find a rhythm. Now those guys are going to have to really battle just to get on the court.

It's a completely different dynamic. So, um, you know, again, Duke has its own issues that it needs to deal with in terms of, you know, figuring out how does the depth work out? Who's going to play at center?

How do you manage all these guard minutes? But it's a good problem for John Shire to have. This is going to be one of the most talented rosters in the country. You can always find room for more guards in college basketball. I mean, a lot of teams are successful legitimately playing three guards. There will be times this year where Duke, I could see them playing four, four guards around Kyle Filipowski at times. Jeremy Roach is back real quick.

I know I'm just on your Twitter timeline. There was a comment from Roach that he was always coming back. Yeah. And, you know, I think realistically, that was what made the most sense for Jeremy. You know, I think people saw he was not invited to the NBA Combine. You know, in talking to NBA scouts and decision makers, there was not a tremendous appetite for him had he entered this year's draft.

I would have expected him to have gone undrafted in that situation. So it really just always kind of makes sense for him to come back. You can get to finish his degree. You know, it's crazy to think, but, you know, depending on what Duke does this season, he could end up as one of the more sexy, successful Duke players ever. You know, if he's able to lead them back to another final four, but it makes sense for him and that he gets to get his degree. He's going to be able to have been a four year player now again, still has the COVID year. And then on the same side of things, it's going to be a different role for him this year. He's not going to have to do everything offensively.

He's going to have help. And so I think that's going to allow him to really take advantage of his spots. It's going to really allow him to continue to grow as a leader. And like, this is the kind of player when we've seen the best Duke teams, it's when they have that experience being your point guard who can sort of steady the ship when things go wrong. He showed he had that potential last year. Now he's going to have another opportunity to do the same, but with a more talented roster around him. Might not have the same perimeter shot as a Quinn Cook had in his senior year, but maybe he has an impact that way.

And final thing, what do you expect? This is probably putting too much on your shoulders here, but what do you expect from Tyrese Proctor? I think that he's going to be one of the best guards in the country. I mean, I voted him last year as the ACC newcomer of the year because of all the positive praise coming out of practices from the staff, from scouts who had been to see NBA folks. I mean, by the end of last year, the second half of that Tennessee game, he was Duke's only offense.

He scored 14 of his 16 points in the second half, I believe. And you know, the way that teams were defending Duke by the end of last year with the drop coverages, you know, he's eating that up because he has the intelligence to make the pass coming off the screen. He has the ability to make a floater. He has the ability to make a pull up. He has the ability to get by people because he has such good length for the guard spot. So, I mean, he, I think is probably at this point, Duke's most promising pro prospect, even over Philipowski. I know that's saying a lot, but for Duke to be at its best this year for Duke to actually be in the national championship conversation, it's going to need Tyrese Proctor to carry that level from the last 10 or so games of the season. It's going to need him to do that for the entirety of this year. And the three-point shot was coming on in the second half of the year.

If he can be something close to a 40% three-point shooter, their offense could absolutely be unlocked. Brendan Marks, I appreciate your time, man. Sorry to bug you in the summer, but I'll probably do it again. Listen, I appreciate you having me. It keeps me relevant at least a little bit more than I would be, so I appreciate you. I'm just trying not to do too much damage to you, man. I'll talk to you soon.

Sounds good. Thank you. You got it, Brendan Marks. Trying to keep him relevant. Man is relevant. Man is awesome.