Duke, McDonald's All-America Team Share Long History

3/30/2016 5:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

McDAAG: Jackson & Tatum Shine at JamFest McDAAG: Jackson Interview with Jay Williams Jackson Interview with Jay Williams Jackson & Tatum Shine at JamFest

By: Al Featherston, GoDuke the Magazine

DURHAM -- McDonald's is one of the oldest and largest fast-food franchises in the world.

It's also become the standard of measure for college basketball recruiting, sponsoring a prep All-America basketball team since 1977. The McDonald's All-America team — flawed as it is in many ways — has become the most recognized gauge of recruiting success.

And no college program has enjoyed its Big Mac experience over the last 39 years more than the Duke Blue Devils. With the selection of 2016 recruits Frank Jackson and Jayson Tatum to the 2016 McDonald's All-America team, Duke has now landed 68 McDonald's All-Americans over the years — 69 if you count guard Shaun Livingston, who signed with the Blue Devils in 2004, but elected to jump straight to the NBA.

That's more than any other school.

The parade started with Philadelphia forward Gene Banks, who made the very first McDonald's team in 1977. There was no McDonald's game that season, just a 15-man team. The roster expanded to 20 prospects in 1978, when Duke-bound Vince Taylor — a guard from Lexington, Ky. — played in the first McDonald's All-American Game.

Those two players were recruited by Bill Foster and both enjoyed successful four-year careers at Duke.

Mike Krzyzewski has been responsible for Duke's other 66 “Big Macs” — starting with Washington, D.C., guard Johnny Dawkins in 1982. Coach K added point guard Tommy Amaker and center Marty Nessley in 1983, then after missing in 1984 (neither Billy King nor Kevin Strickland were selected), scored again with forward Danny Ferry and guard Quin Snyder in 1985.

That class represents a milestone; starting in 1985, Coach K has landed at least one McDonald's All-American every year. That's 31 straight seasons and counting.

But it's not just one player a year. Over the last three decades:

• Duke has landed four McDonald's All-Americans three times — 1999 (Carlos Boozer, Jason Williams, Mike Dunleavy, Casey Sanders), 2002 (Sean Dockery, J.J. Redick, Shavlik Randolph, Michael Thompson) and 2014 (Jahlil Okafor, Tyus Jones, Justise Winslow, Grayson Allen).

• Duke has had three McDonald's All-Americans seven times — 1994 (Trajan Langdon, Ricky Price, Steve Wojciechowski), 1997 (Elton Brand, Shane Battier, Chris Burgess), 2005 (Greg Paulus, Josh McRoberts, Eric Boateng), 2006 (Jon Scheyer, Lance Thomas, Gerald Henderson), 2007 (Kyle Singler, Taylor King, Nolan Smith), 2011 (Austin Rivers, Quinn Cook, Marshall Plumlee), 2015 (Luke Kennard, Brandon Ingram, Chase Jeter).

• Duke has had two McDonald's All-Americans nine times — 1983 (Amaker, Nessley), 1985 (Ferry, Snyder), 1986 (Phil Henderson, Alaa Abdelnaby), 1988 (Christian Laettner, Crawford Palmer), 1989 (Bobby Hurley, Billy McCaffrey), 2009 (Mason Plumlee, Ryan Kelly), 2012 (Rasheed Sulaimon, Amile Jefferson), 2013 (Jabari Parker, Matt Jones), 2016 (Jackson, Tatum).

It's also interesting to check out names that are NOT on this list.

The first one that pops out is 2016 recruit Harry Giles, rated the number one prospect in his class. Giles was left off the team because he has missed his senior season of high school with a knee injury. Physical problems also cost former Duke star Chris Carrawell a spot on the team — he was a top 10 prospect as a prep sophomore, before a pair of shoulder injuries slowed him as a prep junior and prep senior.

Then there was Shelden Williams, the consensus No. 8 prospect in the class of 2002, who also missed his senior year of high school for an off-court incident and thus missed selection to the team. Had Williams been chosen, Duke could have had five McDonald's All-Americans in the Class of 2002!

Reclassification can also cost a player McDonald's status. Derryck Thornton almost certainly would have been honored had be returned for his senior year in high school. Andre Dawkins and Alex Murphy probably would have been McDonald's All-Americans had they stayed in high school.

And the first Duke player to reclassify — Mike Gminski in 1976 — would have been a prep senior in 1977 and would very likely have earned a spot on the first McDonald's team.

Most of Duke's greatest players from the Coach K era have been McDonald's All-Americans. Just to put it into perspective:

• Coach K has produced eight national players of the year — Dawkins, Ferry, Laettner, Grant Hill, Brand, Battier, Jason Williams and Redick. All were McDonald's All-Americans.

ACC players of the year Nolan Smith and Okafor were also McDonald's All-Americans. Carrawell is the only one who was not.

• Coach K has recruited 29 different players who have won All-America honors — and 23 of those were McDonald's All-Americans. The exceptions? Mark Alarie, Carrawell, Shelden Williams and transfers Roshown McLeod, Dahntay Jones and Seth Curry.

• Coach K has produced 30 first-round draft picks — 24 were McDonald's All-Americans. And 35 of the 45 players that he's had drafted were McDonald's All-Americans.

• Every one of Duke's national title teams has been anchored by a core of McDonald's All-Americans. The 1991 team featured Laettner, Hurley and Grant Hill, but Greg Koubek was a starter and McCaffrey came off the bench to win All-Final Four honors. A year later, the Laettner-Hurley-Hill trio was still the heart of the team and freshman Cherokee Parks was a top sub, although non-Big Macs Thomas Hill and Brian Davis were huge contributors.

Every key player on the 2001 nation champs was a McDonald's All-American. The 2010 champs did feature non-Big Mac Brian Zoubek , but four starters and the top reserve (freshman center Mason Plumlee) were McDonald's honorees.

And all eight players who appeared in the 2015 national title game were Big Macs.

Of course, the McDonald's selections don't always get it right. The team is picked by a panel of respected recruiting experts, but sometimes politics get involved. The most notorious example might be 2000. The McDonald's Game was scheduled to be played in Boston and to pump the crowd, 7-6 Neil Fingleton, who played his prep ball at nearby Worcester, Mass., was selected to the team — even though he wasn't regarded as even a top 50 prospect.

Sometimes the voters, and the coaches on the recruiting trail, simply get it wrong. Not every McDonald's All-American is a success at the college level. Duke has endured its share of McDonald's disappointments.

Nine Big Mac players have transferred out of Duke to finish their careers elsewhere. At least four of those found success at their new schools. McCaffrey played his last two years at Vanderbilt, where he was the SEC co-player of the year; Crawford Palmer played his senior year at Darmouth, where he was a first-team All-Ivy pick; Elliot Williams played one year at Memphis, then was a first-round NBA draft pick; and Rasheed Sulaimon, dismissed from the Duke team last season, is currently starting for a top 5 Maryland team.

Five others who floundered at Duke also struggled to achieve success elsewhere — Joey Beard, Chris Burgess, Michael Thompson, Eric Boateng and Taylor King.

Almost every McDonald's All-American who stuck it out at Duke has found at least some measure of success, although it hasn't always come easily. Current senior Marshall Plumlee redshirted a year, then spent two seasons buried on the bench. But he emerged as a key reserve on last year's national title team and is currently Duke's starting center.

The Blue Devils have seven McDonald's All-Americans on this year's roster. They are the heart of this team — just as Big Mac players have been on almost every team in the Krzyzewski era.
The McDonald's All-America team is not a perfect measure of college potential, but it has proven to be a very good way to project talent.

DUKE/McDONALDS FUN FACTS

• Three Duke players have won the McDonald's Slam Dunk Competition (contested since 1987): Price (1994), Gerald Henderson (2006), Allen (2014)

• Nine Duke players have won the McDonald's 3-point competition (contested since 1989): Collins (1992), Langdon (1994), James (1996), Battier (1997), Duhon (2000), Redick (2002), Kelly (2009), Sulaimon (2012), Kennard (2015)

• Two Duke players have won the skills competition (contested since 2002): Nolan Smith (2007), Tyus Jones (2014)

• Three Duke players have won or shared the John Wooden MVP Award: Hurley (1989), Redick (2002), Okafor (2014).

• Redick is the leading Duke scorer in the game (26 points in 2002); Nelson (2004) and Boozer (1999) each had 22-point games. Hurley (1989) and Tyus Jones (2014) each had 10 assists in the game; Paulus had nine assists in 2006