This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.
Death, taxes and Duke landing the top recruits in college basketball. I’m certain that those are the only certainties in life. They’re all terrible.
Top hoops prospect Cooper Flagg has officially committed to Duke. Slam Magazine broke the news and then dropped a cover confirming it.
BREAKING: Cooper Flagg officially commits to Duke… and is on the cover of SLAM 247. https://t.co/FsuijqYx29 pic.twitter.com/lUKLDvbQUB
— SLAM (@SLAMonline) October 30, 2023
How does Duke keep getting away with this? Duke cannot keep getting away with this, man.
For those of you wondering if Flagg is good enough for me to be this upset, the answer is yes. Absolutely yes. He’s Duke’s highest ranking recruit since RJ Barrett in 2018 and he’s easily its best talent since Zion Williamson.
He’s an early lock to be the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA draft and it’s so easy to see why. He’s elite at everything.
Cooper Flagg, the projected No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA draft, announced he's committed to Duke. The 6'9, 16-year old averaged 26.8points, 12.4rebounds, 5.2 blocks and 4.7 assists, shooting 37% for 3, in the Nike EYBL 16U for Maine United this summer. pic.twitter.com/gwzt9JgqqA
— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) October 30, 2023
I’m seething.
It doesn’t matter who mans the head of that bench. It could be Mike Krzyzewski. It could be Jon Scheyer. It could even be me. Duke is always going to find a way to land the best prospects in the country and it’s maddening.
Man, I’m so foolish. For some odd reason, I thought that with Coach K out of the picture, Duke would come back down to Earth with the rest of us. I thought the school would have to play in the mud for once — that it’d have to learn how to be human like the rest of the college basketball teams around the country.
I was wrong. Dead wrong. It turns out the sheen on those championships doesn’t fade away so fast, unfortunately. Duke has a long history of, well, being Duke. And it’s not shocking that Flagg would choose that over anything else.
Ultimately, for the Flagg, it reportedly came down to choosing between Duke and UConn. No disrespect to our current national champion, but once it got to that point we knew where things were going.
Flagg is a self-described lifelong Duke fan and called it his dream school over a year ago. It was an inevitability that Flagg would choose Duke. And, honestly, I’m happy that he’ll get to live out his dream.
It’s just a shame that I’m going to have to hate him now. If he’s a Washington Wizard by 2025 I’ll be over it, though.
Jim Harbaugh has nowhere to go
Jim Harbaugh is done. It feels like there’s a strong chance he won’t be at Michigan next season. He probably won’t be coaching football at all.
The sign-stealing scandal has officially caught up to the Wolverines head coach. Michigan reportedly pulled an extension offer off the table for Harbaugh over the weekend.
I know what you’re thinking. “OK, fine. If Michigan lets him go, he can just jump back to the NFL and pick up where he left off there.” Wrong. The NFL is reportedly prepared to honor any suspension levied against Harbaugh by the NCAA, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport writes.
“The NFL is unlikely to make itself a safe harbor for Harbaugh to escape what could be substantial NCAA discipline, league sources say, raising the strong possibility Harbaugh would need to serve some or all of any possible suspension he could face in college if he returns to the pros.”
The man has nowhere to go, folks. He’s going to have to eat this one. And good. This is exactly what he deserves. His team broke rules under his watch — again. He doesn’t just get to run off and have his players take it on the chin in his stead.
He can claim to not know what Connor Stalions was doing all he wants, but I find it hard to believe that Jim freaking Harbaugh didn’t know how an extra $55,000 was being spent under his watch? Please. Come on, folks.
The story of Jim Harbaugh is a tragic irony. He’s a man stranded out at sea on a speedboat with an empty tank of gas and no oars.
That’s how this season feels for Michigan. This is probably his best season at the school and his best chance to finally win it all. The Wolverines are the No. 2 team in the country and it looks like they could potentially stand up to Georgia in a potential championship game.
Instead of talking about that, though, we’re all talking about the mistakes of the team’s head coach.
Hate to see it.
The LeBron minutes limit is already over
Darvin Ham said the Lakers were trying to keep LeBron James with a workload of around 30 minutes per game at the start of the season.
That’s already out the window.
Since then, the Lakers have played two games. One was a win against a Phoenix Suns team minus two of their stars. The other was an overtime loss to the Sacramento Kings. James played at least 35 minutes in both of those games. In the Kings game, in particular, he played 40 (!!!)
James has been productive — he’s nearly averaging a triple-double. But this isn’t a good look. He’s playing far too much too early right now. Bron is superhuman. We get it. But there’s no way he’s going to last if he has to hold this sort of workload at 38 years old.
It says a lot about the Lakers’ talent that James and Ham have to pull out this card already. Let’s hope it doesn’t come back to bite them anytime soon.
Quick hits: Brock Purdy took a HUGE step back … The best and worst of Week 8 in the NFL … and more
— Not only is Brock Purdy a confirmed system QB, but he also just doesn’t look great anymore. Robert Zeglinski has more in his weekly NFL awards column.
— Christian D’Andrea has the best and worst of Week 8 from the season, including that awful Jets-Giants game that I hope you didn’t watch.
— Speaking fo awful, Christian has you covered with the worst QB performances of Week 8. Enjoy. Or don’t. I hope your QB isn’t on the list this week.
— Kirk Cousins seemingly tore his Achilles but he still was out there cheering his teammates on. Zeglinski has more for you.
— I don’t care what anyone says. The Flavor Flav national anthem was awesome — even if y’all do have jokes. Charles Curtis has them here.
— Steph Curry had the best reaction to completely frying Dillon Brooks. Mary Clarke has more.
That’s all, folks! Happy Monday. Let’s chat again tomorrow. We out.
-Sykes ✌️
