Azura Stevens is transferring. Salvadores says she will go pro. It is hard to think of a program that could not benefit from Stevens. I won't be surprised if she ends up at UConn. There have already been a lot of high profile transfers this year. http://www.swishappeal.com/2016/4/1/11345868/duke-stevens-salvadores-leave-program http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.d...846&DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=210855391&DB_OEM_ID=4200
Would love to have Stevens, she is a great player. Huge loss for Duke. With several players leaving and them missing the tourney this year gotta wonder if Coach P is on the verge of being fired, I know several duke fans want her gone but not sure what her contract is
Rather remarkable to leave after a starring sophomore season. It's pretty late to make such a drastic change and have to sit out a year, if she's staying in college and not turning pro. This is one more case of a star, like Alexis Smith and others, fleeing the Duke program. There has to be some very persistent personal dysfunction at the player-coach level. Duke's a great university with a tremendous basketball heritage. These players were eager to go there...then it all turned sour. On the surface everybody's positive and sweet in the press releases: "Loved it here"..."We wish her the best." Lots of fans blame the coach, of course. Duke has had a horrible run of bad luck with injuries the last few years, kind of like the bad luck Goestenkoers had at U.T. The Duke program has slowly drifted downward on the national level. It's a slower running version of the North Carolina debacle, where Diamond DeShields and a whole top ranked recruiting class departed, even after having a wonderful freshman season. I didn't pay much attention but to my knowledge there were never overt criticisms of the North Carolina program by any of the departees; but something fundamental changed how they perceived the school, the coaches, and the program. Every school, including Texas, has transfers---usually players who realize they won't get enough playing time. It's a free country and kids change their minds. In some cases they're probably given strong hints they should leave. In the modern era transferring is getting more frequent because there's less of a stigma on both the coaches and the players. But Duke seems to have a deeper, more basic problem.
