View Poll Results: What is the best Duke team Coach K has ever coached

Voters
121. You may not vote on this poll
  • 1986

    7 5.79%
  • 1991

    1 0.83%
  • 1992

    58 47.93%
  • 1999

    34 28.10%
  • 2001

    16 13.22%
  • Other

    5 4.13%
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  1. #21
    92...by far. I'm not sure how a strong case can be made for the '99 team. '92 was a basketball machine that would have gone undefeated if Bobby Hurley had not broken his foot. They're still regarded as one of the great teams of the past several decades.
    However, all that could have changed if "Here's the pass to Laettner...puts it up..." had not ended so perfectly. It's pretty amazing to consider how the legacy of a team, based upon an entire incredible season, would have been entirely different if one single play had a different result.

    Remember these shirts?: "You can talk the game, but can you play the game? Duke: We can play."

  2. #22
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Atlanta, GA
    Quote Originally Posted by Coballs View Post
    It's pretty amazing to consider how the legacy of a team, based upon an entire incredible season, would have been entirely different if one single play had a different result.
    It's true. If Hill had underthrown the pass or Laettner had missed the shot, and Langdon had passed to Avery for the trifecta instead of the travel, I would have given my vote to the '99 squad.

    I saw all games of both seasons, and both teams were incredible.

  3. #23
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Washington, North Carolina
    Quote Originally Posted by Coballs View Post
    Remember these shirts?: "You can talk the game, but can you play the game? Duke: We can play."
    I still have mine.

    I voted '92, and even though I rank both '86 and '92 ahead of '99, that '99 team was incredible. I just think that the other two teams were more mature and more complete. The 1986 backcourt is Coach K's best - Amaker and Dawkins - though I'd say the 2001 backcourt gives them a run.

    These are great discussions, because the teams are separated by so little - as mentioned above, if any of the following had happened: Bobby misses his shot against UNLV, Christian misses his shot against Kentucky, the team isn't gassed in the last 5 minutes of the '86 title game, or Trajan pulls out the win in '99, and our perceptions would be totally different. The other difficulty wit rating the teams going back to 1986 is that they were playing a different game then than they do now (and if you think I'm exaggerating, watch some pre-shot clock and three point line games - IIRC, there was a 45-second clock in '86).

  4. #24
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    I voted '99 based solely on what I thought the original question was going for: "Best Team" (i.e. most talented, most dominant). I loved the '86 team and the Christian/Bobby/Grant teams tremendously. But watching that 1999 squad cut a gaping swath through the ACC was just a thing of beauty and power that I can't ignore. I still think that was the best college team I've ever seen. Perhaps a part of my love and admiration for that team was the way they destroyed UNC 3 times that year. I'll never forget Corey's wicked crossover in Chapel Hill where he all but broke some Heel defender's ankle on his way to a slam. I just loved that team and have to rank them as the best Duke squad of all time.

  5. #25
    http://www.dukeupdate.com/Seasons/20...lue_devils.htm

    my favorite team and against Indiana - my least favorite Duke game ever... I hope we get a team that can put points on the board like that again.

  6. #26
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Clifton, VA
    JWill 2001-02 lighting up Kentucky in a 95-92 win has to be one of the great Duke performances (by an individual) of all-time.

  7. #27
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Steamboat Springs, CO

    Smile 1992 and 2001 > 1999

    Quote Originally Posted by Gary View Post
    I voted '99 based solely on what I thought the original question was going for: "Best Team" (i.e. most talented, most dominant). I loved the '86 team and the Christian/Bobby/Grant teams tremendously. But watching that 1999 squad cut a gaping swath through the ACC was just a thing of beauty and power that I can't ignore. I still think that was the best college team I've ever seen. Perhaps a part of my love and admiration for that team was the way they destroyed UNC 3 times that year. I'll never forget Corey's wicked crossover in Chapel Hill where he all but broke some Heel defender's ankle on his way to a slam. I just loved that team and have to rank them as the best Duke squad of all time.
    As a point of rebuttal t dominance in the ACC, I have four words for you: Antawn. Jamison. Vince. Carter. All of the above left early after the 1998 season.

    As I have posted elsewhere, player by player and team by team, I favor 1992 and 2001 over 1999.

    The 1992 team has three jerseys in the rafters. The 2001 team has (when healthy) four very, very good NBA players still playing plus JWill.

    1999 was a young team with only one senior and one junior. K would never rate that team superior to 1992.

    1999 did not have a penetrating playmaker comparable to Bobby Hurley or JWill, which proved to be a problem in the finals.

    Also, the St. Pete FF was a very disappointing experience, and I am not holding myself responsible.

    sagegrouse

  8. #28
    Quote Originally Posted by Johnboy View Post
    These are great discussions, because the teams are separated by so little - as mentioned above, if any of the following had happened: Bobby misses his shot against UNLV, Christian misses his shot against Kentucky, the team isn't gassed in the last 5 minutes of the '86 title game, or Trajan pulls out the win in '99, and our perceptions would be totally different.
    Or if Jason Williams hits the last-second free throw against Indiana in '02...

    Or if Luol Deng had managed to secure the rebound against Emeka Okafor in '04 with 30 seconds left...

    It all comes down to poise. The Battier-led 2001 team had that in spades... for such a dominant team, they played a ton of close games, and after a miscue or two against Stanford and UNC, they always seemed to find a way to overcome adversity and close out tough games... in my book, that puts them ahead of the 1999 team for that alone.

  9. #29
    by a whisker, I'll give the nod to the 92 squad, based on a criteria of who I think would win a hypothetical mathcup between them & 99 (or 86 for that matter). It's hard to envision that squad going down to defeat to anyone (even with the miracle needed against Kentucky), while unfort. with 86 & 99 I have miles of destroyed videotape proving their mortality.

    One play I can think of that sums up the 92 squad perfectly was from the 2nd round NCAA tourney game against Iowa. Laettner gets called for a charge in the first half wiping out a fast break dunk, yet instead of turning to the ref to complain or throwing his arms in the air wondering what he did wrong, he turns to a teammate (Tony Lang I think) with a huge grin on his face & high fives him. That act was far more damaging to the opposition psyche than any 2 points could have been- it was basiclly "who cares if I got the foul & the basket is waved off, you know we're going to win anyway & I just dunked on you".

    86 was a great, great team that won a then-record number of games & rose to the top of the ACC during what I would probably consider the conference's greatest era ever when you consider the other players in the conference coming through that time.

    99 was a brutal juggernaut that absolutely annihilated its opposition, including some laughers against very talented Depaul & Maryland squads (ironically, the UMD "hostility" towards all things Duke really spawned from this season, for whatever reason). Unfort. in their biggest game everyone outside of Trajan & Elton collectively had probably their worst games of the season. To this day I probably have more "what-ifs" regarding this team- what if Shane hit a couple early open looks from 3 in the first half, what if C-Well & Avery were able to stay in front of Hamilton & El-Amin a little better, what if Avery brought the ball up instead of Trajan, what if the refs ignored Calhouns calls for a 3-second lane violation against Elton every time down the court... 10 years later its still depressing

  10. #30
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    '92.

    Mass underclass defections to the NBA didn't begin until '93/'94/'95 with guys like Webber, Hardaway, Stackhouse, and Wallace setting the trend. The high school to NBA trend didn't exist until after Garnett laid the groundwork in '95 with his jump.

    The level of competition in the early 90's was just different.

    Imagine if Greg Oden were ten times better and stayed until he was a senior. That was Alonzo Mourning. Now imagine if he had a clone playing alongside himself; that was Dikembe Mutombo. Now, imagine if Oden were 100 times better and stayed until he was a junior. That was Shaq. Beasley staying 4 years? That was LJ. Derrick Rose as a sophomore? Kenny Anderson.

    Those things just don't happen anymore, and they didn't happen 10 years ago, either. Mateen Cleaves was a first-team All-American in 1999. Evan Eschemeyer, Chris Porter and Trajan Langon were second-team.

    Love the '99 team. But they rolled an extremely weak ACC and nation to look more dominant than they really were.

    Hurley > Avery
    THill > Langdon
    BD > Cwell
    GHill > Battier
    Laettner > Brand

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