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Al Featherston Feature

Singler and Smith Bring Experience to 2011 Blue Devils

By Al Featherston

Obviously, talent is a crucial ingredient for any

successful college basketball team. But talent is not enough to win championships. “To go along with talent, experience is every-

thing,” Duke guard Nolan Smith said. “When you have guys who have been through a lot – been through the ups and downs – it can really help your team. That’s what this past year’s team had. We had guys as seniors, who started out with a difficult freshman year. They had it rough that year. Kyle and myself, we were also part of teams that lost [early] in the NCAA Tournament and lost some hard games. Just having guys who have gone through all those tough experiences is what it takes to win champion- ships.”

The Blue Devils did win championships in 2010

– first a share of the ACC regular season title, then the ACC Championship in Greensboro and finally the National Championship in Indianapolis. Signifi- cantly, the Blue Devils did it with a starting lineup that consisted of three seniors and two juniors. The value of all that experience can’t be overestimated. “There’s no question that having older players

– and seniors in particular – having them on your team helps immensely,” Blue Devil forward Kyle Singler said. “It just brings a different dynamic – a sense of urgency. For those seniors, it’s their last year and they’re trying to accomplish something that they’ll be proud of.” That’s not just true of Duke. It’s fascinating to

look at the teams that made it to the 2010 Final Four in Indianapolis. In an age where freshman talent is glorified – two first-year players made the consen- sus first-team All-American team – and one-and- done talent is often the rule, none of the four teams in Indianapolis started a freshman. Overall, the four national semifinalists combined to start seven se- niors, seven juniors and six sophomores. Even in this modern era, that’s been the rule in

NCAA play. Some freshmen-dominated teams have come close in recent years – freshman point guard Derrick Rose brought Memphis to within overtime of a title in 2008, while center Greg Oden and point guard Mike Conley led Ohio State to the title game as freshmen in 2007 – but the fact is, no team with a freshman starter has won a title since 2004, when first-year forward Josh Boone started for UConn (that team also featured senior Taliek Brown and ju- niors Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon). Indeed, over the last decade, the 10 national

champions have started 16 seniors, 20 juniors, nine sophomores and just four freshmen – Boone in 2004; Carmelo Anthony and Gerry McNamara for Syracuse in 2003; and Chris Duhon for Duke in 2001.

tles.

Freshmen make headlines. Veterans win ti- That’s why it was so important to Duke’s 2010-

11 title chances that Singler and Smith, a pair of ris- ing seniors who had a chance to go pro after cutting down the nets at Lucas Oil Arena last month, decid- ed instead to return to Durham for another season. They are the reason the Duke basketball team

will have a chance to be something very special next season. Coach Mike Krzyzewski returns plen- ty of talent from this past season’s 35-win national championship team. It starts with Singler, the most outstanding player in the Final Four, and Smith, the most outstanding player in the South Regional. Four other contributors to that title team return. And Coach K is adding five newcomers who bring even more talent to the roster. Yet the key for the 2010-11 Blue Devils will be

the experience that Singer and Smith should pro- vide as seniors. Krzyzewski might have been able to get by without their talent, but he never could have

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found a substitute for their experience. “Experience in the NCAA Tournament is defi-

nitely everything,” Smith said. “I think that starts from day one for veterans to grab those young guys and get them ready. They come in as McDonald’s All- Americans and they have their high expectations to do what they did in high school. At times, that’s the case, but at times that might not be the case. In order for a team to win a championship, everybody’s got to be on the same page. You get those young guys and give them the mentality that it’s not going to be easy. If they’re ready to fight from the get-go, it can really make a difference. By the ACC Tournament, NCAA Tournament time, they’re playing like juniors and seniors. They’re not freshmen anymore.” The three seniors who started for Duke in In-

dianapolis didn’t have the luxury of senior leader- ship when they first arrived on campus. The gradu- ation of the core players off the No. 1 ranked 2006 team, combined with the early NBA defection of players such as Luol Deng and Shaun Livingston, who would have been upperclassmen that season, stripped the 2006-07 Blue Devils of veterans. Junior DeMarcus Nelson was the only upperclassman on a senior-less team. “We didn’t have anybody to learn from as fresh-

men,” Brian Zoubek said just before the Final Four. “We didn’t have any established players to ride the

coattails of or to teach us what to do.” The result was that “rough year” that Smith

mentioned earlier. Actually, it wasn’t so terrible by most standards – Duke won 22 games and played in the NCAA Tournament – but it was a far cry from what Krzyzewski’s teams usually accomplish. In- deed, the unranked 2007 team is the only Duke team since 1996 that didn’t finish in the final AP top 10.

“Although we didn’t start out the best, we were

still 22-11,” senior guard Jon Scheyer said going into the 2010 NCAA Tournament. “As bad as it seemed to us, we probably had four or five games where we either lost in overtime or at the end of games, so we got some bad breaks. I think we’ve grown and gone a step farther in each of our years. It says a lot for our group to get to this point.” Singler and Smith were along for three years

of that ride. They arrived before the 2007-08 season and made an immediate impact. Singler was a starter from day one, averaging

13.3 points and 5.8 rebounds for a 28-win team that finished No. 9 in the nation. The 6-foot-9 Oregon na- tive improved to 16.5 points and 7.7 rebounds as a sophomore, earning second-team All-ACC honors for a 30-win team that claimed the 2009 ACC Cham- pionship and finished No. 6 in the nation.

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