GoDuke Weekly l www.GoDuke.com/gdw


By Al Featherston Mike Krzyzewski has never been afraid to


turn his basketball team over to the freshman point guard.


The Duke coach has had considerable suc-


cess with first-year playmakers – Tommy Amaker quarterbacked Coach K’s first NCAA team as a freshman in 1984; Bobby Hurley helped the Blue Devils to the national title game as a freshman in 1990; Jeff Capel played point guard on a team that reached the 1994 NCAA title game in his freshman season; freshman Jason Williams directed the 2000 Duke team to an ACC title and a final No. 1 ranking in 2000; Chris Duhon became the starting point late in the season during Duke’s 2001 cham- pionship run; even freshman Greg Paulus led the ACC in assists and played point for a Blue Devil team that won 32 games, the ACC title and finished No. 1 in the 2006 final poll. Now it looks like freshman Kyrie Irving will


get his chance to try and match – or surpass – his first-year point guard predecessors. “We’ll change our whole offense, the way we


play because of Kyrie,” Krzyzewski told the New York Athletic Club in early May. “We’ll run a lot more and we’ll press. He’s fortunate to have Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler on the perimeter with him and the Plumlees [inside]. He’ll have good weapons with him.”


That’s a vital point. Those successful fresh-


men-led teams in the past all boasted a strong upper-class presence. Amaker was able to share the backcourt with Johnny Dawkins and had Mark Alarie up front. Hurley played alongside senior Phil Henderson, while Christian Laettner manned the middle. Capel shared the load with senior Grant Hill and sophomore shooting guard Chris Collins. Williams had senior Chris Carrawell and Shane Battier to help him out. Duhon had veterans Nate James, Battier, Williams, Carlos Boozer and Mike Dunleavy. Paulus played alongside senior J.J. Redick with senior Sheldon Williams in the mid- dle.


Irving will have Smith and Singler – a pair of


seniors who starred on last year’s NCAA title team – to carry the leadership burden. “It’s tough for a freshman in that role,” asso-


ciate head coach Chris Collins said. “Because no matter how talented you are, you’re still going to be a freshman. I think the fact that we’re going to have some older guys – Kyle and Nolan – will help ease that transition. It’s not going to leave a burden on our freshmen to do everything … to be our leader, to win.”


Feature of the Week Irving’s Impact Points to Up-Tempo Play Krzyzewski is confident that Irving has the abil-


ity to handle the role that will be thrust upon him this season.


“Kyrie is really good,” the Duke coach said last


summer. “We’ll see when I coach him on a day to day basis. He reminds me a little bit of Chris Paul with his toughness and his ability to change direc- tions. He’s a very, very good player.” Irving is a 6-foot-2, 180-pound product of St.


Patrick’s High School in Elizabeth, N.J. His combi- nation of playmaking and scoring abilities played a large role in convincing Krzyzewski to replace the patient, halfcourt game that led to the 2010 national title with a more aggressive, up-tempo, pressure de- fense style of play. “We’ll play just like we did when we had Jason


Williams,” Krzyzewski said. “Kyrie will make a big impact right away. [Last year] we didn’t have a guard who could make things happen for other people. And Kyrie can do that.” Jason Williams, who was also a New Jersey


prep product, got a good look at his doppelgang- er last summer, when he was covering the FIBA 18-and-under world championships in San Antonio for ESPN. He saw Irving lead the United States to the gold medal with 12 points, seven assists and two steals in a semifinal rout of Canada, then a team- high 21 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in a nar- row championship game victory over Brazil. His reaction? “John Wall is an exceptional talent, but if I had to pick a point guard, I’d take Kyrie,” Williams said. John Wall … Chris Paul … Jason Williams … those are pretty lofty comparisons. Can Irving live up to them?


THE EDUCATION OF A POINT GUARD Kyrie Irving is the son of an exceptional bas-


ketball player. Dederick Irving played his last college basket-


ball game as a senior at Boston University in 1988, when the elder Irving scored 14 points in an NCAA Tournament loss to Duke. “It’s kind of ironic that he ended his career


against Duke and I’m starting my career with Duke,” his son said. “He didn’t bring that up until I commit- ted.”


Dederick Irving, who was inducted into the


Boston University Hall of Fame in 1995, finished his career as one of the top scorers in school history. After a brief tryout with the Celtics, the 6-4 guard traveled to Australia, where he averaged 38 points a game for the Bulleen Bombers. Kyrie was born in Australia, meaning he has dual citizenship, but he grew up in New Jersey after


his father gave up professional basketball for a ca- reer as a Wall Street broker. The son did get to see his father perform in the highly competitive New York playground league. “I saw him play in different tournaments when


I was growing up,” Kyrie Irving said. “I’d have to say he’s among the top three basketball players I’ve seen play. I have a lot of pride wearing Irving on my back. He basically set the standard. I just want to take it a step further.”


The younger Irving took up the sport early. “I grew up around basketball,” he said. “I start-


ed dribbling the basketball when I was around 18 months, so I guess it was a predestined thing.” Irving began playing youth basketball when he was eight years old. “Two of my father’s close friends were my


coaches from when I was eight to 13,” he said. “Af- ter that, my father took over – from the fifth grade to the eighth grade. We won a bunch of county tour- naments. It was a recreation league. We played against other towns. We won four championships.” Irving said his father shaped his game. “When my father started coaching me, my


game changed,” he said. “Before, I was just a kid playing for fun. I wasn’t the best on that team – one of my cousins was the best on the team at that time. Once I started playing for my father, he gave me the confidence I needed. For me, confidence has al- ways been an important thing. That makes or breaks me. If I’m confident, I’m going to play well. And if my confidence is low, everybody can see it.”


Irving’s father also taught him to be a basket-


ball player, not just a point guard. “I was always just a guard,” he said. “He taught


me to play both spots. I could be the primary ball- handler or I could play off the ball.”


To Read The Complete Aritcle Head To GoDuke.com


GoDuke Weekly The official online magazine of Duke Athletics


Managing Editors Contributors


Jon Jackson Matt Plizga


Michael Tomko


Ben Blevins, Lindy Brown Art Chase, Chris Cook,


Ned McGraw, Kristina Morrison Meredith Rieder, Ashley Wolf


Staff Writers A.J. Carr


Al Featherston Barry Jacobs Jim Sumner


Digital Publishing YUDU


Letters to the editor and general feedback: letters@duaa.duke.edu


5


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6