The Story of the 2010 National Champions
get my hat and my shirt. Hanging a banner up there in Cameron means everything to me. I will wear my championship shirt for like 30 days in a row. I’m going to wash it though.” Although Duke would lose to a Villanova squad that
played lights-out basketball in the Sweet 16 two weeks later, the core group of Devils heading into 2009-10 had accumulated hundreds of meaningful reference points. They had tasted victory and experienced heartache. They were united by their shared experiences.
SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE Coach K, at the start of the 2009-10 season:
“We are playing good basketball. This is really the first time in about five years in our program that we have had this many veterans that know how to play defense. They just know how to play. That makes it a lot easier for our younger guys, while out on the court, but also when they are in practice just to pick things up."
The 2006-07 freshman class had come full circle
after wrapping up a successful 2008-09 campaign with 30 wins and the ACC championship trophy. Now, the group that never had the seniors to show them the ropes had become those seniors they never had. And they knew it. Said Thomas, "I don’t want our freshmen to have to
go through what we went through -- that was a really tough time. You start to question yourself, and when that happens your confidence is down and you have no edge. It’s tough to play like that. I told those guys, 'You don’t want to go through what I’ve been through, you don’t want to experience that, it’s not fun.' But us going through that, I feel like it prepared us for what we went through this year and we’ve seen every possible situation we could." The Blue Devils had seen almost every scenario. So when they started the 2009-10 season minus Gerald Henderson (NBA) and Elliot Williams (family reasons), they weren't phased. They had been through the ups and downs, and were ready to finish on a high note. The "experts" didn't think this group could do it -- Duke was ranked ninth in the preseason AP poll and rarely were projected as a top seed in the season's various "Brack- etology" reports. But the battle-tested group believed from the beginning. For his entrance music at the first- ever Countdown to Craziness, Scheyer chose the song "All These Things I've Done" by The Killers.
While everyone's lost, the battle is won With all these things that I've done All these things that I've done If you can hold on If you can hold on
Throughout the evening, you could sense this team
was a close-knit group with unifying camaraderie. Whether it was Smith revealing the Johnny Dawkins uniform for the dunk contest or Zoubek dancing to a Va- nilla Ice song, the team's ability to have fun could ease the burden the team felt to make the Final Four. “As a team, now you see us smiling more, having fun, just making plays and loving playing this game," stated Smith. “We’re brothers on and off the court, and that’s really helped our chemistry.
It’s helped us enjoy playing
together. It has helped us in everything we do." “Our friendship has helped us," said Singler. "Guys are close, we have a tight bond. We’ve won a lot of close games because we trust each other and have tough- ness. We care about each other." "Our togetherness as a team, I can promise not every
team has that," Scheyer said. "This group is the closest I've been on."
JON SCHEYER averaged 12.2 PPG in 2006-07 and 18.2 PPG this season. 145
WORTHY CHAMPS BRIAN ZOUBEK recorded more than half his career rebounds in 2009-10. BOYS TO MEN 2006-07 2009-10
LANCE THOMAS improved his FT% from 59.3% in 2006-07 to 74.3% this season.
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