WEBVTT - The 2009-10 Duke Blue Devils: The Butler Almost Did It 0:00:00.840 --> 0:00:04.240 Welcome to Special Teams, a production of I Heart Radio 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:22.439 Greetings and Welcome Inside Special Teams with Jason Smith and 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:26.040 Mike Harmon our weekly podcast, as we spotlight one season, 0:00:26.079 --> 0:00:30.360 one team, what made them relevant, what made them incredible. 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:32.519 It could be a championship, it could be getting so 0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:35.200 close to a championship, it could be not winning a game. 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:38.840 But every week we spotlight one team in sports history 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:41.040 and take a look back at what made them so 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:45.760 special part of our march to the national championship in 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:49.840 college basketball. We're gonna celebrate today the two thousand nine, 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:52.760 two thousand ten Duke Blue Devil's team that won the 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:57.360 fourth national championship in program history as they beat Butler 0:00:57.440 --> 0:01:01.800 in a thrilling championship game where the heye The Butler 0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:04.240 Bulldogs were a team that took everybody by surprise their 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:07.360 march to the national championship and maybe, as we get 0:01:07.360 --> 0:01:10.760 to it later on, one of coach Mike Schefski's biggest 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:13.600 coaching mistakes that he got lucky didn't come back to 0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:16.399 bite him. Sometimes you you luck into it. And this 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:20.399 is a Duke team. When you take outside looking in 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:24.399 the hateable Duke Blue Devils for as long as you 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:27.240 and I have been watching college basketball, it has been 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:30.440 the al right, here's Duke again. There was nobody on 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:33.080 this team that you said, all right, he's the hate 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:37.000 herble one because other than coach k And that's one 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:40.080 of the themes of college basketball is the you love 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:44.200 or hate coaches. There they're they're like the forest. They 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:49.120 stay right there there, evergreen and and the guys cycle through. 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:52.000 But this team not a lot of big names, not 0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:55.200 a lot of guys that you necessarily remember and and 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:57.680 had that target on them like so many Duke teams 0:01:57.680 --> 0:01:59.880 had before. And and that's the big thing is that 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:02.440 the big player on this team was John Shire. I mean, 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:04.800 he was All American point guard. But it's not like 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:07.960 John Shire was Zion Williamson or one of the other 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:10.880 big stars do Academy. This is a team that wasn't 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:14.080 a classically great Duke team. Look, it was John Shire 0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:17.000 was really good. He led the team in scoring. Kyle 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:19.840 Singler played really well, he led the team in in 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:23.680 in three point shooting, Brian zoo Beck, Mason plum Lee, 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:25.960 you know this team was Hey, they were good. They 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:30.480 were talented. Nolan Smith as well, eventual player solid, They 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:32.680 were very solid, but at this point it was, well, 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:38.120 here's a pretty decent, pretty typical Mike Szewski Duke Blue 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:40.560 Devil's team, and whether you expect them to win the 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:43.000 national championship. Look, they hadn't been to the final four 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:46.679 in five years. This is back when in two thousand ten, 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:48.640 you know, the early odds, you were expecting Duke to 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:50.880 go to the championship every couple of years. It would 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:53.120 have been a five year drought for them trying to 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:54.720 get back to the final four. Yeah, I mean you 0:02:54.760 --> 0:02:57.760 look at that period before you didn't get past the 0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:03.000 round of six team in straight years, which nowadays you're like, 0:03:03.040 --> 0:03:04.640 all right, does the guy get to keep his job? 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:08.799 I mean, obviously Schefski with his long track record, even 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:11.480 at that point you're not looking to fire him, but 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:14.640 certainly you're raising eyebrows of what happened in the program? 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:17.880 Is he losing it? Are the players coming in just 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:20.680 not as good? What about scholarship reductions? You have all 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:24.440 those ancillary conversations that then flow out of it. But 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:26.840 for college basketball, it's kind of like the Patriots not 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:30.880 making it past you know, their first playoff game following 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:35.600 the regular season is We're done with them for a minute. 0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:38.440 There could be another champion, There could be another team 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:41.440 to become a villain and become hated, and no, here 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:43.720 they were. They were Duke again. Yeah, this was a 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:47.160 team that was pretty deep. You add Shire singler Nolan 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:50.240 Smith each scored over six points during the season. All Right, 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:51.880 the last time Duke had done that. You gotta go 0:03:51.920 --> 0:03:54.960 back almost a decade. And those are names like Jason 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:57.840 Williams and Mike Dunlevy and Carlos Boozer, you know, guys 0:03:57.840 --> 0:03:59.400 who went on to play in the NBA for a 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:02.480 long time. Like I said, this wasn't a classically great 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:06.440 Duke team, but they started out, Hey, all right, maybe 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:08.960 Duke is gonna be pretty good. And then what happened 0:04:09.000 --> 0:04:12.480 was they began their eventual rise in their rise to excellence, 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:14.120 and they turned into a Duke team that when they 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:16.520 got to March, it's okay, I'm ready to hate Duke again. 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:19.760 It's a phenomenon that that is just you know, great 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:22.560 in college basketball. That Duke can start and and the 0:04:22.920 --> 0:04:25.560 best college basketball season can start, and it's all I 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:28.520 want Duke to lose. And then Duke loses, and you 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:30.279 kind of forget about them for a while, then they 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:31.880 get back up to them. One you saying I want 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:34.200 Duke to lose again. Then they losing it. Then you 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:36.000 get to the n c A Tournament and you go, oh, 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:38.960 I really want Duke to lose. But then Duke loses 0:04:39.440 --> 0:04:44.360 and you go, oh, wait the tournament we just lost Duke. 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:46.120 Duke was a lot of fun. It's a lot of 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:49.320 the personality and look what people like to hate watched right, No, 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:51.320 but it's it's the it's the same thing. Look, I 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:54.839 think a perfect year for every college basketball fan would 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:57.320 be for Duke to make it to the National Championship 0:04:57.320 --> 0:05:00.480 Game and lose. It's the same thing for Major League 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:02.880 baseball every year. The perfect season would be for the 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:06.080 Yankees to get to the World Series and lose. We 0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:08.359 can hate them and they can keep the attention of 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:10.279 everybody all the way, but then at the end, the 0:05:10.320 --> 0:05:12.760 majority of the country is not rooting for them. They're 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:16.040 rooting against the quote evil empire, and you want them 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:18.640 to lose, and that's that would be the perfect season 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:21.839 for college basketball baseball. You have an evil empire, get 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:24.039 all the way because you want them to lose. That's great. 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:26.480 You have r night of partying. Hey, Duke loses, they 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:28.800 lost to Belmont or whatever, and then it's oh man, 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:30.600 but we just lost too. Can now the tournament is 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:34.120 less interesting? Well, it is the curiosity of college basketball 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:37.600 as it relates to the sports calendar anymore anyway, where 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:41.000 a lot of times it gets lost for the season. 0:05:41.279 --> 0:05:43.279 Much of it has been all right, here's a bunch 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:46.359 of top ten teams getting upset. But it became so 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:49.279 routine that it was no longer a top headline for 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:51.960 you and I on the show each United Fox Sports Training. 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:54.440 It's like, all right, that's now an update. This was 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:58.600 Mike Sachowski's thirtieth year as head coach at two. Can 0:05:58.600 --> 0:06:00.760 you think about where we are now and you go 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:04.760 this This was his thirtieth season. He has started in 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:08.479 nineteen eighty two thousand ten was his thirtieth year. And 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:12.000 it's the longevity that he has had. He never wanted 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:14.680 to go someplace else, you know. The closest came was 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:17.120 a few years ago when Kobe Bryant called when Phil 0:06:17.200 --> 0:06:19.799 Jackson left the Lakers, and it was hey, come coach 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:22.720 the Lakers, and coach k talked to Kobe. He got 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:24.279 off the phone and went to his assistance and said, 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:25.680 you never to believe he just called, he wants me 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:27.960 to go coach him Kobe Bryant. You know, But the 0:06:28.000 --> 0:06:31.400 fact that he always stayed, he never left it was 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:34.840 it was a something that we took for granted. Coach 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:37.599 K and do Coach K and do where everywhere else 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:40.880 people want to leave, no matter what they accomplished. They oh, 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:43.320 there's always someplace else. I gotta it's to scratch. I 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:45.440 want to go, And Coach K never did well. It's 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:48.520 like ed Orangeron and his ham sandwich. No matter how 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:52.120 great the heights, you still want what you know. And 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:55.480 for Coach K, he's never tried to leave it. How 0:06:55.680 --> 0:06:58.720 how interesting would he have been not only coaching Kobe Bryant, 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:02.880 but Coach K and his personality in l A a 0:07:02.920 --> 0:07:05.359 guy who gets mad if you go anywhere near the baseline, 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:10.720 if you're a fan after a game. You know, honestly, again, ah, 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:13.760 these celebrities coming up, get out of here. I got 0:07:13.840 --> 0:07:16.520 basketball in the coach. Every time the Lakers lose, other 0:07:16.560 --> 0:07:19.840 fans would rush the court. He would get on principle 0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:22.280 you'd have to when you he would get so chapped 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:25.720 about it. Uh so the two thousand ten do Blue 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:28.760 Devils getting set for what would end up being a 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:31.280 phenomenal year. At the beginning of the year, coach case listen, 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:33.480 I have a good team. And you know he would know, 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:36.800 being thirty years and having won three national championships. He said, 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:39.440 we have a good team. So that's where it stood 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:42.960 for Duke as they began the campaign, and since they 0:07:43.360 --> 0:07:47.160 ended with a championship in how about for what happened 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:50.080 we look back at the magical year of two thousand 0:07:50.080 --> 0:08:01.560 and ten being discovered on YouTube. It was Justin Bieber. 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:04.840 I can't believe it's only been ten years we've been 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:10.320 talking about Justin Bieber. No. I I feel like Bieber 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:13.080 is like early two thousand's, like when everybody started listening 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:15.560 to eminem and all that. That's when Bieber came right now, 0:08:15.640 --> 0:08:17.400 No, No No, two thousand and ten for Justin bie not 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:22.520 quite that that long ago. Hurt Locker wins Best Director 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:26.480 for Catherine Bigelow over James Cameron and Avatar, which was 0:08:26.560 --> 0:08:29.680 maybe one of the biggest upsets in the history of 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:33.120 the Oscars. I'll be honest with you, Um I didn't 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:38.200 like either film. Well, I like parts of hurt Locker, 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:42.440 but overall, just I don't know, I want to be 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:48.680 Unerst and Avatar. I just so speaking of Obtineum was 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:52.280 pretty cool. Uh That's when I first thought, oh, you know, uh, 0:08:53.040 --> 0:08:56.520 what's his name? Who was a star? Uh? Sam, what's 0:08:56.559 --> 0:08:59.200 his name? Sam Worthington. I said he could he could 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:01.360 play Philip Rivers in the Philip Rivers story. I kind 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:03.800 of thought that about still an opportunity. But even you 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:06.320 talk about evil Empire James Cameron, nobody liked the guy 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:09.960 Catherine Bigelow wins his X And honestly, hurt Locker was 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:13.719 just okay. The first seventy minutes was great, but then 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:16.320 the last hour was everything you just saw. It's like, okay, 0:09:16.520 --> 0:09:17.959 I have no other story to tell us now, I'm 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:20.680 gonna just do the same movie for the next hour. 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:25.240 And they had the characters were such were so cookie cutter. 0:09:25.320 --> 0:09:29.160 You had the one kind of crazy army guy and 0:09:29.200 --> 0:09:30.760 then the one guy who was scanned and the one 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:32.360 guy who was in the middle. And I'm like, really, 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:34.880 this was this Win's best direct I mean, come on, really, 0:09:35.120 --> 0:09:37.679 you just ate James Cameron. Just say it. There is 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:40.960 something to be said for that texting while driving bands 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:43.600 go into effect in some states in two thousand and ten, 0:09:43.800 --> 0:09:46.160 you could not text and drive. There in effect, in 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:51.080 in theory oftentimes and making their debut something that many 0:09:51.120 --> 0:09:54.120 people wish never debuted. The vous Ella's at the two 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:58.240 thousand ten World Cup sounded like cicadas. No, you sounded 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:02.000 like Chewbacca right there. No, not quite a little bit. Yeah, 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:07.640 I mean you're gonna get the tongue roll there. I 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:10.120 debated bringing something to my daughter's soccer tournament. I was 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:12.280 told I really shouldn't. Oh, I think you would get 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:13.640 thrown out. I'll tell you what, though there was there 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:15.439 was a refer I would make sure the reference one 0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:17.680 couch that I thought needed to be tossed out. He 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:20.120 was warming up like there's a game being played on 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:22.760 the field and they're doing warmups. He brought two giant 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:28.800 speakers and was blasting music while his team stretched. I 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:30.520 think you should have been punched in the next Well, 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:33.360 what movie? What music? Was he blasting some kind of 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:36.880 dance thing, and then it drifted into something like you 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:42.920 would be in a yoga studio. Now get down, up, dog, 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:46.640 down dog, And now he's say, don't forget to breathe 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:49.400 not mistake. That's horrible warm up music, and it was. 0:10:49.480 --> 0:10:51.679 It was awful. It's horrible, Like it went from like 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:57.640 a pulsating disco kind of thing to this, like this 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:01.920 was his mix. Bad girl, I'll talk. You got a 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:04.720 game where they're trying to communicate with their teams and 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:11.120 they can't because this guy, this dope dope has his 0:11:11.320 --> 0:11:13.240 music plan. I just walked by it. I just shook 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:16.240 my head. One of the dad's goes, I know, I know, 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:19.199 like it's one of his kids is on the team, 0:11:19.440 --> 0:11:22.720 and he understood exactly why he got the head shake 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:25.920 as I walked by. So that's what was going on 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:28.120 in two thousand ten, the magical year for the Duke 0:11:28.160 --> 0:11:32.040 Blue Devils as they win their fourth national championship. Coming up, 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:34.839 we get into the regular season and we get into 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:37.800 the big heroes of the n c A Tournament and 0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:41.280 the big coaching mistake that coach came made in the 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:44.560 championship game that he got lucky didn't come back to 0:11:44.600 --> 0:11:46.839 bite him and costing the championship. But special teams with 0:11:46.920 --> 0:12:05.800 Jason Smith and Mike carp We continue on special teams 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:08.080 with Jason Smith and Mike Harmon as we look back 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:11.120 at the championship year in college basketball for the Duke 0:12:11.160 --> 0:12:14.800 Blue Devils in two thousand nine, two thousand and ten, 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:17.880 the regular season began for Duke, and it was a 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:21.600 typical Duke year. They ended up with a thirty five 0:12:21.640 --> 0:12:25.520 and five record. And it was just like you see 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:28.559 Duke play. They'd win seven or eight row, they would lose. 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:30.880 They win seven or eight row, they would lose. They'd 0:12:31.120 --> 0:12:34.160 win seven or eight row, they would lose. Their losses 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:37.719 in two thousand nine, two thousand and ten at Wisconsin 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:40.720 during the a c C Big Ten Challenge, they lost 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:44.840 at number twenty Georgia Tech, they lost at North Carolina State, 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:48.719 they lost at number seven Georgetown, and they lost at 0:12:48.880 --> 0:12:52.680 number two a number twenty two Maryland. Those were their losses. 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:55.280 They did not lose at home. All their losses were 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:58.440 away from Cameron Indoor. And suddenly at the end of 0:12:58.440 --> 0:13:00.560 the year you look up in thirty five and five 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:02.480 and this was Duke. You know, they didn't have a 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:05.640 lot of close calls during the season. It was typical Duke, 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:08.679 looks like they're better than everybody else. At the beginning 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:10.880 of the year, they win their couple of early games, 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:13.120 they don't go out of state too much with Coastal Carolina, 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:16.840 North Carolina, Charlotte. They beat Arizona State by double digits. 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:20.360 They beat number thirteen Yukon by near double digits. They 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:23.480 beat St. John's. They beat Gonzaga, who was ranked number 0:13:23.520 --> 0:13:26.000 that was in the country, right because you're you're talking 0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:30.319 about Gonzaga neutral site, big spotlight game at the Garden, 0:13:30.880 --> 0:13:35.520 and they just pummel them and limit them into forty one. 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:38.559 That was your big statement win. Okay, wait a minute, 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:40.480 Duke is for real because you look, Duke starts eight 0:13:40.520 --> 0:13:42.640 and one, nine in one. But you get to nine 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:45.319 and one, your number seven in the country at this point, 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:49.160 and you beat Gonzaga, whose program really started to rise 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:52.520 whereas they started out. Hey, Gonzaga is a fun team. 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:54.640 They win their conference and they can maybe pull an 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:56.400 upset or two in the tournament. But this is when 0:13:56.440 --> 0:13:59.480 Gonzaga started to get really good in every year. Suddenly 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:02.679 Gonzaga was a big time top twenty five team. Seventy 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:05.320 forty one is your final score of this game, and 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:08.440 this game in late December, this was Okay, we gotta 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:10.679 deal with Duke this year. Yeah, and now it becomes 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:13.680 the narrative. All right, let's start learning about the plumb leaves. 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:16.800 Let's learn about the different guys on this roster that 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:19.520 are making an impact, because this is gonna be a 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:21.840 team with some legs. Because you beat a couple of 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:27.520 top twenty programs, they're heading into the Christmas week, as 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:31.800 it were, and now you're rolling into conference play on 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:34.840 a high. You know, the thing about this Duke team 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:39.680 is that this team was led by a couple of upperclassmen. 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:42.520 And Duke was one of the last teams to see 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:46.480 players show up for the one and done. And even 0:14:46.480 --> 0:14:49.040 when players were doing that and coming or going right 0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:50.520 to the end, but whatever it was, we're not staying 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:54.080 very long. Duke still was a school that would have 0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:57.400 players come and stay until their senior year. Look, John 0:14:57.480 --> 0:14:59.960 Shire was a senior and he was the best player 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:02.560 on the team. Kyle Singler was a junior, Nolan Smith 0:15:02.880 --> 0:15:05.480 was a junior. These are all upper classman. Brian zoo Back, 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:08.800 their center, was a senior. These were all players who 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:12.320 stayed all the way for coach k through the last 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:14.640 couple of years they have and this is when you 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:16.560 would end with a championship, and you know, you don't 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:19.400 get that anymore because the general consensus is if you're 0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:21.600 staying until you're a senior, then you suck. And why 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:23.520 aren't you in the NBA? And why do I want 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:25.520 a twenty two year old guy in the NBA when 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:27.920 I could have an eighteen year old kid and he 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:31.000 can spend four years getting used to play, and suddenly 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:33.120 a twenty two he's a great player, whereas a guy 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:34.840 could come out at twenty two and not be good 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:37.480 until he's twenty five or twenty six. But this is 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:39.680 this is how Duke always did. I always admired that 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:42.720 about coach k was he got people to stay. Doesn't 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:44.440 mean he still does. Look where there are now your 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:47.240 guys coming for a year and staying and leaving. That's 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:49.320 just the way college basketball was. But Duke was like 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:51.800 the last bastion of Hey, I'll come and i'll stay, 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:54.880 and I'll go junior, senior year, stay as many, win 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:56.800 as much as I can, then I'll move on. Yeah. 0:15:56.840 --> 0:16:00.720 The change in philosophy as we've seen it role, Look, 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:03.720 it's gonna flip back again here pretty soon, where guys 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:05.720 won't even have to go for the cup of coffee 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:08.880 into the collegiate ranks, but it was always one of 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:12.440 the curiosities of Duke. And let's face it, you start 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:15.440 talking about the quality of education, not that you can't 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:19.680 find quality education at each of these institutions, but Dukes 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:24.240 and nationally ranked academic institution. The crazy part of the 0:16:24.280 --> 0:16:27.760 season is that Duke was never number one until the 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:29.960 end of the season. As good a year as they 0:16:29.960 --> 0:16:32.080 had look twenty nine and five going into the n 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:34.560 c A Tournament, the highest they would get at the 0:16:34.640 --> 0:16:36.800 end is number four. It was enough for a number 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:39.560 one seed in the South Regional. But this was not 0:16:39.600 --> 0:16:41.720 a Duke team that got to number one lost a game. 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:45.360 They they started in the top ten and they never 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:47.760 really left the top ten. You know, after they had 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:50.200 a couple of losses, they dropped to tenth overall, but 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:52.600 then they started winning a few more games and they 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:55.080 finished at number four. They go into the a c 0:16:55.240 --> 0:17:01.000 C Tournament after absolutely pasting North Carolina eight two to fifty. 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:03.120 And that's the thing about this Duke team, even though 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:06.400 they were just okay, all their big wins this year 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:09.840 were by big numbers. You know, they beat North Carolina 0:17:09.880 --> 0:17:12.560 both their games by double digits. They beat Georgetown when 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:15.480 Georgetown was number seven, they beat them by twelve. You know, 0:17:15.640 --> 0:17:18.399 these were games that it was whoa. Not only are 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:20.320 they beating these teams, but it's not an escape, it's 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:23.120 not a lass second shot by Shire. This is they 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:25.000 are just whooping up on teams when they play a 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:26.760 big team. Yeah, and I mean that was the story 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:29.040 of the year. I mean there weren't. You had the 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:31.520 five losses, but other than that, not a lot of 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:34.760 close calls. I mean we're talking double digits number of 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:37.679 times they were hanging a hundred points on teams. And 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:40.399 again you go back and you you run off the names, 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:46.600 and if you're not really huge college basketball fans, you're 0:17:46.680 --> 0:17:49.359 kind of looking at each other going these this was 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:52.720 a team running up a hundred guys, right, I mean, 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:55.400 no disrespect great college athletes, and a lot of these 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:59.560 guys played and had some time in in the NBA 0:17:59.800 --> 0:18:02.920 and rolled on. But it's it's one of those teams 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:05.439 that you don't have that face, right, you don't have 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:07.919 that guy that stands out that went on to the 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:11.240 next level or became the embodiment of this team. You 0:18:11.240 --> 0:18:14.800 can pick one of any of these guys really and 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:18.040 trying to put it to the forefront, putting statistics aside 0:18:18.040 --> 0:18:21.040 for a minute. You know, it was about coach k Yeah. 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:24.640 The highest of an individual honor everybody got was John 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:28.240 Shire was a second team All American. Alright, dude, Duke 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:30.639 didn't have anybody in the first All American team. This 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:33.320 that's why this was a deep team that got a 0:18:33.320 --> 0:18:36.560 lot from different players. And this was a Duke team championship. 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:38.760 And not well, we were led by Grant Hill, we 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:40.800 were led by Bobby Hurley, were led by one of 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:43.919 those players. This didn't happen that way. Uh. They go 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:47.560 through the a CC tournament pretty easy, to beat Virginia, 0:18:47.600 --> 0:18:50.520 they beat Miami, they beat Georgia Tech. They enter the 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:53.879 n c A Tournament as the number one seed in 0:18:53.920 --> 0:18:58.000 the South Regional, number three overall. And this n c 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:00.439 A Tournament, before we get into Duke's run, told you 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:02.600 about Butler, which we'll get into in a couple of minutes. 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:06.120 But really the moment of this tournament, if you can remember, 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:11.240 was Ali Ferrickmanesh for Northern Iowa. They pulled a couple 0:19:11.280 --> 0:19:14.040 of huge upsets in the tournament. They beat u n 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:17.640 l V on his three, They beat number one Kansas, 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:21.080 the big the big three he had when Northern Iowa 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:23.600 in the final minute of a frantic comeback by Kansas, 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:26.240 instead of killing the clock, he gets the ball in 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:29.720 the corner and hits the three. By by the number 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:36.800 of times people mention is who's this year's tournament, I mean, 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:40.439 I could still see that three in which Northern Iowa 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:43.760 gets the rebound, throws it down court with a few seconds, 0:19:43.760 --> 0:19:45.679 with like twenty seconds left in the game. Whatever it was. 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:47.960 You're thinking, Okay, now, Northern i was going to just 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:50.880 kill the clock and and try to take much time 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:54.399 off and shoot free throws and and Farrukmanesh gets the 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:56.960 ball in the corner. It was a pretty awkward play. 0:19:57.080 --> 0:19:59.560 He got it turned with nobody on him because the 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:01.919 floor spread, because you're thinking, okay, he's not gonna and 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:03.439 he turned and shot at three and it was one 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:06.280 of those no no, no, no, no, no, Oh my god, 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:07.960 he made it. Oh my god, he made I mean, 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:11.280 he was it. Most guys in an n c A tournament, 0:20:11.680 --> 0:20:14.320 if you're a Cinderella team, if you have one shot 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:18.120 that is legendary, that's more than you can ask for. 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:20.800 And he had too. In the n C a tournament, 0:20:20.800 --> 0:20:23.440 you know, back to back. Hey, I'm announcing I'm a 0:20:23.480 --> 0:20:25.800 superstar here in this tournament. By beating U N l V. 0:20:25.920 --> 0:20:28.520 And then we have it by beating Kansas, who was 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:31.719 a number one seed in the tourney, becomes a college 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:36.280 coaching or a college legend taking down you know, Bill Self, 0:20:36.320 --> 0:20:39.480 who was year to year one of those guys like, 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:41.919 all right, when I fill out my bracket, is this 0:20:41.960 --> 0:20:44.080 a year that he chokes away in early game? Where 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:46.080 do I have Bill Self in Kansas losing? Where do 0:20:46.119 --> 0:20:48.639 I Bunny? You did that with Duke, and you always 0:20:48.640 --> 0:20:50.600 did that with Kansas A right, is this the year 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:52.960 that he's gonna make a deep run or are they 0:20:53.000 --> 0:20:56.159 bowing out early? With those two coaches, That's really what 0:20:56.240 --> 0:20:59.480