I was making the point that thinking a player like Rose would want to go to Memphis over Duke was suspicious due to Memphis being a mid-major is utterly ridiculous.
In the two years before he got to Memphis, they had three players go to the NBA, two of which were drafted in the first round, two top ten finishes, two Elite Eights, a #2 seed, a #1 seed, and were never outside of the top twenty (I went back and saw that they did fall out of the top ten, but they were ranked in the top ten for the majority of the time, and if falling out of the top ten constitutes being a mid-major, then who the hell isn't a mid-major?). They were also selling out an NBA arena rather routinely.
The stories you heard about Duke keeping the offer out there for appearances don't sound very likely. That's really not Duke's style, and it would have kept them from being able to sign someone else in his place because it would have appeared they were holding a roster spot for him.
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