Marshall Plumlee to Join US Army after 2016
Marshall Plumlee is taking the road less travelled when he leaves Duke basketball and I wish him all the luck in the world doing it. Plumlee is going to join the United States Army as an officer after he finishes his ROTC coursework in April 2016. So he was sworn into the Army yesterday in their Contracting Ceremony, according to Ryan Hoerger of the Durham Chronicle.
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One of the running jokes around Duke basketball in recent years has been the recruitment by Coach Mike Krzyzewski of the entire Plumlee family from Indiana. The hyperbole had gone so far to say that Duke’s Basketball program was ‘Snow White and the Seven Plumlees.’
Even people who dislike Duke cannot fail to recognize the wisdom in K’s move now. Miles Plumlee is a productive player for the Phoenix Suns. The Brooklyn Nets are shopping Brook Lopez because they want to find more minutes for Mason Plumlee. Mason was added to the USA basketball roster that played in the World Championships if you don’t remember.
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Still, I think Marshall deserves a lot of credit for making the decision to pursue a military career. I think it is another sign of Coach K’s influence at work. Krzyzewski was an Army officer himself in a past life. It was the Army that brought him into contact with Bob Knight and it was the Army that gave him his first job in college coaching.
I don’t want to give Coach K all the credit for this though. He merely took the team to Fort Bragg in 2012 to hold a practice and do physical training. It was Plumlee who seized on this and decided this Army stuff was pretty neat. A 6’10” Army lieutenant will be quite a sight when all things get settled.