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It's Duke's choice who they admit.

Actually the NCAA set the lower limit below which Duke nor anyone else can admit a student on athletic scholarship. So Duke can admit whomever they wish. But only people admitted who meet NCAA minimums can be on an athletic scholarship. [There are partial qualifiers but I do not want to get into too much detail.]

Would you be in agreement if I rephrased to say that Duke admits, as athletes, only students who take their classwork seriously, are capable of doing the classwork, and are required to complete classwork at the same level as non-athlete students?

Nope. Duke admits some maybe many student athletes, heck it could even be most athletes who are interested in getting a degree. But the better the University, and I will admit Duke is decent, the further behind the athlete is. Athletes who qualify by NCAA standard may in fact be among the upper half of all admitted at NCCU. Duke has to look for high level athlete who are maybe better students than the average high level athlete, but the average Duke athlete maybe still be further from the average student than say the average NCSU or UNC athlete.

For example the average NCCU student may have an 800 SAT while the average NCCU athlete might have the minimum 840 on the SAT making the athlete better than the average NCCU student. The average NCSU student might have a 1200 SAT while the average NCSU athlete might have a 900 SAT making them a good bit behind the average student. The average Duke student might have a 1350 SAT while the average Duke athlete [or money sport athlete] might hve a 950 SAT making them the cream of the crop of athletes but further behind the student body that the athlete at either NCCU or NCSU.

If Duke and its coaches didn't take seriously the academic success of its student athletes then it would not matter what the student athletes did. There's a reason some schools are known as "football factories".

And there are reasons some schools are known as basketball factories. You don't compete for a national championship in basketball without stressing basketball ability first in recruiting.

I am a second generation University of Florida graduate. UF is known for many sports. UF may be harder for an athlete to get into than Duke. UF certainly has standards higher than the NCAA minimum as does UND. [UF just had a basketball signee go to Memphis instead because UF did not admit him despite him meeting the NCAA qualifying minimum.] But UF is very hard for undergrads to get into these day, someplace in the UNC range, harder than NCSU but probably not quite Duke admission. Which just goes to show you that "football factory" reputations are not necessarily based in reality.

BTW, much of this is moot for anything but revenue sports. So it may not be as germane for lacrosse as for football and basketball.