Alaa Abdelnaby - history 101

[roywhite]

If you're looking for big teams, the 1989 team not only was the biggest team Duke ever had, it was about as big a team as anyone ever had.

Danny Ferry
Alaa Abdelnaby
Christian Laettner
Crawford Palmer
Clay Buckley
John Smith
George Burgin

Ferry, Smith, and Burgin were seniors.

Now, that's some size. Buckley, btw, had chronic back problems. Always wondered how he would have done had he been healthy.

Yet Robert Brickey, at 6'4" or 6'5", started many games, jumped center, and played a key role inside, including being 2nd on the team in rebounding (behind Ferry).

Don't know if this means much to the 2009-10 team, or means much in general, other than that size alone does not lead to success or even playing time.

[jimsumner]

Brickey jumped center on the '88 team. He started the '89 season but on the wing. The addition of freshmen Laettner and Palmer and the maturation of Abdelnaby eliminated any need for Brickey to play inside in 1989. In fact, John Smith played much of the 1989 season as a 3, after playing the post his first three seasons.

[roywhite]

Brickey jumped center on the '88 team. He started the '89 season but on the wing. The addition of freshmen Laettner and Palmer and the maturation of Abdelnaby eliminated any need for Brickey to play inside in 1989. In fact, John Smith played much of the 1989 season as a 3, after playing the post his first three seasons.

Have to disagree with you there. Brickey was second on the team in rebounding. Individual rebound totals were as follows:
Ferry 260
Brickey 207
Laettner 170
Alaa 125
Smith 118

In addition Brickey shot 57% from the field, most from inside and many dunks; he was certainly not an outside shooter (6 3-pt FG attempts for the season).

Despite the size differential, Brickey was a very important inside player on that team.

[jimsumner]

Roy, you're confusing 1988 with 1989. Brickey was the second-leading rebounder on the 1989 team because Laettner and Abdelnaby split the 5, with Ferry at the 4. But Brickey did not play the 4 or the 5 in 1989.

Let's go to the scorecard.

That team played 36 games. 80 minutes per game at the 4/5. That's 2880 minutes.

Now let's look at the minutes played

Ferry 1162
Laettner 608
Abdelnaby 531
Buckley 141
Palmer 120
Burgin 32

That's 2594. Plus Smith played some of his 716 inside.

Doesn't leave much for Brickey inside. Doesn't leave any actually.

As for the other stats, that simply demonstrates that Brickey never developed any perimeter offensive skills, which was why he never played in the NBA, despite jaw-dropping athleticism and starting for three FF teams. Note that in 1990, when Laettner and Abdelnaby averaged well over 70 mpg as the inside starters, Brickey shot 51.2% from the field, was 0-2 on 3s, and had 21 more turnovers than assists. He also averaged 5.4 rpg. Doesn't mean he was playing the 4, just means he had mediocre perimeter skills.

[Olympic Fan]

The late 1980s are an interesting period that illustrate how flexible Coach K was about lineups. In different years players played very different roles and he played very different lineups.

Because of that, people make a lot of mistakes about the roles various people played. I think Jim is right about Brickey's role and about the 1989 team.

Let me survey the era, starting with 1986, K's first great year. Jay Bilas, the starting center in 1985 was injured to start the year. Duke opened with freshman Danny Ferry in the post. Although he later evolved as more of a wing player, Ferry was strickly an inside guy as a freshman (he was fourth on the team in assists with 1/4th as many as Amaker, 1/2 as many as Dawkins). Alarie played the other post spot -- with a game very much like the inside/outside game of Singler. Henderson and Dawkins were on the wings with Amaker at the point. At midseason, Bilas returned to the starting lineup and finished the year, turning Ferry into the team's sixth man. Sophomore Billy King was the top wing reserve (Snyder and Strickland played less than 10 minutes a game).

1987: The graduation of Dawkins, Alarie, Bilas and Henderson left a big void. Sophomore John Smith, who played just 91 minutes as a freshman, started at center at 6-7 with the 6-10 Ferry taking a more inside/outside role -- with 141 assists, he led the team with Amaker down from 241 in '86 to 120 as a senior. King, Strickland and Snyder split the two wing spots almost equally with Brickey getting almost 20 minutes a game as a frontcourt reserve and Marty Nessley getting just over 10 minutes a game.

1988: This was a small team -- at least in the post. The 6-7 Smith, who had started 30 games as a soph, started just nine as a junior and his minutes dropped from 23 a game to 17. The 6-5 Brickey and 6-10 Ferry started in the post -- as Brickey jumped center and played down low while Ferry was inside/outside again -- leading the team in scoring, rebounding and was second in assists. Snyder started at the point and led the team in assists. Strickland and King played on the wings. Smith and soph Phil Henderson were the two top reserves while Abdelnaby and freshman Greg Koubek played about 10 minutes a game each.

1989: This team got a lot bigger as Strickland and King's minutes were dived among Laettner/Abdelnaby -- with some going to Phil Henderson. Nominally, Abdelnaby (started 19 early games), then Laettner (started 16 latter games) and Ferry started in the post with Brickey on the wing, but it was a very flexible frontline. Defensively, Abdelnaby/Laettner and Ferry were usually down low with Brickley guarding a wing. Offensively, Abdelnaby/Laettner and Brickey were usually close to the basket with Ferry ranging on the perimeter. Laettner's minutes went up as the season went on -- he ended up starting 16 games. John Smith was again a top frontcourt reserve. Koubek also got about 17 minutes a game, but most of it on the wing. Henderson and Snyder were the backcourt.

1990: Abdelnaby emerged as a key player -- he and Laettner started in the post all year with Brickey playing on the wing. Hurley and Henderson started in the backcourt with Koubek, Thomas Hill and Brian Davis (who played little as a freshman) getting significant minutes on the wing.

The interesting difference between 1989 and 1990 is that in the former year, K almost always had a big frontline with Ferry, Abdelnaby, Laettner, John Smith and Brickey getting almost all the significant minutes up front. In 1990, Coach K started big with Laettner, Abdelnaby and Brickey, but every substitution made Duke smaller -- with Davis and Koubek especially getting key minutes up front. He had big men Clay Buckley and Crawford Palmer up front, but that played just 256 minutes between them (less than 7 a game ... almost most of those came in blowout games).

The other interesting thing is the evolution of several players. Ferry, as a freshman, was almost exclusively a low post banger. By 1987, he had evolved into a real inside/out player, becoming one of the best perimeter-oriented big men in college basketball history. Laettner followed a similar career path. He was strictly a post player as a freshman, but evolved into another of the great inside/outside big men in NCAA history.

Many people remember Brickey as a 6-5 center ... a role he played as a sophomore in 1988 ... his last two years, he was more of a legit wing forward, especially defensively.

I think all this is all relevant because it illustrates that K will play big and he will play small to fit his talent. It reminds us that he's the master at developing great inside/outside forwards from Alarie to Ferry to Laettner -- especially since that's the role Singler will play last year. It reminds us that roles can change and just because a player is a marginal player one year (John Smith for '86 to '87/Alaa from '89 to '90) doesn't mean he can't emerge as a significant player. And Smith (as Paulus last year) should remind us that even though a player is a key player one season doesn't mean he will have the same role again -- he has to re-earn his role.

I'll be fascinated to see how K uses his talent this upcoming season. He has a young center in Mason Plumlee who is reputed to have great potential as an inside/outside player ... but history would suggest that he'll start off this year as strictly a low post player. I expect to see Lance Thomas, an undersized post player for three years (as Brickey was in '88) to see more action on the wing (as Brickey did in '89 and '90).

Most of all, I expected to see Singler get most of his minutes on the wing, while still contributing inside -- as Ferry and Laettner did later in their careers.

[jimsumner]

John Smith is a great example of how a player can adapt his game to new circumstances. In 1987 and 1988, Smith took exactly one three-point shot. Prior to the 1989 season, K suggested to Smith that he would play more on the perimeter and might profitiably expand his perimiter game. Smith went 25-53 on threes as a senior. That's an astonishing change for a senior.

It wasn't just shooting. Smith had 13 assists in 1987, 7 in 1988. As a seniorin 1989, he had 32 assists. Again, a stunning improvement.

Not saying that Lance Thomas can or will make that kind of improvement but the example is out there.

[miramar]

IIRC, in 1988 Brickey played down low on offense, but on defense Ferry would often play the opposing team's center. So that's another example of how Coach K adapts to his players.

[-jk]

Didn't Alaa get the ACC record for consecutive field goals? He had a fabulous FG% from the floor.

-jk

[jimsumner]

Alaa made 20 consecutive field goals over several games at the beginning of his junior season. That is the ACC and Duke record.

[Dukeford]

Thanks Olympic Fan. That was a great writeup and I enjoyed reading it immensely.

Since you seem to be a great historian of the program, maybe you can shed some light on something that I have always wondered about.
I thought Greg Newton was very athletic and I kept waiting for him to break out. But if anything, he seemed to regress his Sr. year.
All I ever recall was that he showed up on TV during a weeknight game in the middle of the season with a shaven head, and it seemed like it was all downhill from there. Anyway, that was in 1997, no internet info like the here and now to get the scoop on things.
So what happened??

[JasonEvans]

Alaa Abdelnaby was before my time. I'm trying to get an impression of the kind of player he was from those who remember watching him the best. What memories do you have?

Hadn't George Burgin given up basketball by his senior year?

Wow, is this thread ever a trip down memory lane for me.

You see, I was in the class of 1989 and George Burgin was one of my good friends at Duke. He even attended my wedding a few years after graduating. More on him in a moment.

As for Alaa, as some of you who know me a bit know, Alaa and I lived next door to each other for a couple years and he roomed with one of my best friends at Duke. It would not be at all inaccurate to say that Alaa and I partied together well over a hundred times during our time at Duke. Anyone remember Alaa getting a DWI while at Duke? I knew everyone in the car when the minor accident happened. Heck, it was only blind luck that did not have me in that car. So, I have a lot, lot, lot of Alaa memories I could share... but I am going to stick to the basketball stuff

My most vivid basketball memory of Alaa was in the wake of his 20 straight FG streak early in his junior season. A bunch of us who were good friends, including the buddy of mine who was Alaa's roommate, were having dinner at the Oak Room and talking basketball. Alaa was not there but his roommate asked me if I thought Alaa would ever make the NBA. I proceeded to go down a list of 6-10 other players in the ACC who would be dead-lock cinches to be All-ACC ahead of Alaa next year (Alaa was a junior at the time). I opinined that Alaa had almost no chance at all to be All-ACC, even 3rd team, and that if he could not be All-ACC, it was insane to think that he might become an NBA player.

Then I paused and said, "unless he actually starts trying. Then, the sky is the limit for him."

Thank goodness for that post-pause comment or I'd have been dead wrong



As for George Burgin, I am trying to remember the whole story but I think it was this-- He was on a 5-year program to get a double major in Computer Science and Mechanical (or was it Electrical?) Engineering. It was a 5-year program to get degrees in both subjects and was extremely demanding academically. George redshirted his freshman year for academics but later in his academic career he decided to drop the 5 year program and just graduate with the class of 1989 after 4 years at Duke. As a result, it may appear that he skipped his senior season but he was still at Duke for 4 years and just chose not to stick around and use that 4th year of elligibility. Frankly, while he had height, he did not posess many of the other skills to be a successful basketball player so there really was no reason to stick around for another season.

As an aside, after leaving Duke George went to work for GE Aerospace. So, when he would walk down the street and people would look at his 7-1 size and ask the inevitable question, "are you a basketball player?"

George would respond, "No, I'm a rocket scientist."



--Jason "wow, the memories are really flowing back at me right now... many a drunken night spent with both these guys-- they could pound beer at an impressive rate" Evans

[miramar]

Thanks Olympic Fan. That was a great writeup and I enjoyed reading it immensely.

Since you seem to be a great historian of the program, maybe you can shed some light on something that I have always wondered about.
I thought Greg Newton was very athletic and I kept waiting for him to break out. But if anything, he seemed to regress his Sr. year.
All I ever recall was that he showed up on TV during a weeknight game in the middle of the season with a shaven head, and it seemed like it was all downhill from there. Anyway, that was in 1997, no internet info like the here and now to get the scoop on things.
So what happened??

He was kicked out of school for cheating on a test and came back, but he had his share of problems his senior year. He had trouble keeping on weight, plus he had a child by that time and his personal situation seemed to make him lose focus. Instead, he would shave his head and get tatoos. The team desperately needed a big man, but unfortunately by the end of the year they ended up playing better with him on the bench. John Feinstein's "March to Madness: The View from the Floor in the Atlantic Coast Conference" has a lot of information on that season.

[Olympic Fan]

Miramar has it right -- Greg was a head case, who drove the staff crazy.

He was a highly touted player out of Canada -- a fairly quick, agile 6-10 player without much bulk. He played little as a freshman on the 1994 Final Four team and in 1995 -- with Parks and Meeks ahead of him, there wasn't much time in the post.

He became a starter in 1996 -- K's "Bridge Team" -- and put up some good numbers, playing just under 30 minutes a game and averaging 12.2 points and 8.2 rebounds. Although that was solid production, Newton was somewhat frustrating because he often screwed up assignments and lost focus on the court.

That problem got worse in 1997. He did have academics problems (reported to be plagarism -- although the details were supposed to be confidential) and was suspended from school, but he rejoined the team in time to start the season.

He wasn't the same player in 1996-97. As noted, he had numerous off-the-court issues ... he began to cover his body in tattooes and piercings.

The staff kept trying to reach him, but he got less and less productive. That Duke team -- which was much stronger overall in '97 with the addition of McLeod, Langdon (out 1996 with knee problems), Carrawell, Chappell and James (although he was hurt much of the year) -- played well at times, but Newton became more and more of a problem.

He got his butt kicked by Andrae Patterson (who had 39 points) in a loss to Indiana in the finals of the preseason NIT. A week later, "Tractor" Traylor ran him down as Duke blew a big lead and lost to Michigan. The key play in the game came late with Traylor barrelling to the basket ... Newton was in perfect position to take a charge, but he ducked out at the last moment.

In early January, Newton had a chance to win the game at Clemson in regulation, but he blew a wide-open layup and Duke lost in OT.

In his next game, Newton got whipped by Duncan (26 points, 14 rebounds) in a home loss to Wake. Now, a lot of guys got whipped by Duncan ... Newton's problem was that after the game, he ripped the Deac star, saying "he's not that good."

The last straw came in late in January at Maryland. Newton was awful in a game Duke barely lost. Hoping to light a fire under his increasingly erratic big man, K benched him for the next game -- a home game with UNC, starting 6-6 Chris Carrawell in his place. It was a stunt -- Newton still played 28 minutes and Carrawell just 14 as Duke beat UNC for the first time in four years.

Even though Newton hag just 3 points and 3 rebounds in the game, he did what K asked him and that was enough to move him back to the starting lineup. But the next timeout, he resumed his undisciplined, unfocused play (although Duke beat Georgia Tech anyway).

So the NEXT game -- at Wake Forest -- K benched Newton again. This time was no stunt: Carrawell played 25 minutes and Newton six. Most importantly, Carrawell was in the game at the end and he succeeded in denying the Deacon All-American the ball down the stretch (he did NOT as is often asserted shut down Duncan -- he still had 26 points and seven rebounds -- but he did shut him down in the final three minutes).

From that point on, Newton was buried on the bench ... he didn't even play a week later in the famous ice bowl game against Virginia or at FSU a few days later. Taymon Domzalski was getting more minutes.

Well, as you know, Duke won seven straight ACC games down the stretch to win the ACC regular season title. But the Devils were clearly out of gas at the end of February, suffering tough losses at UCLA, at UNC and -- worse of all -- to 8th seeded NC State in the ACC Tournament opener.

Coach K wanted to give his tired team a little spark going into NCAA play, so he gave Newton one more chance. He wanted to use the troubled big man in much the same role that he gave Casey Sanders in 2001 after Boozer's injury -- rebound, play defense and on offense, set good screens to free the team's plethora of 3-point shooters.

There was one small problem -- Newton had a bad habit of raising his forearms on screens ... ramming them into the defender. That is a foul. So all week before the NCAAs, the staff worked with Newton to set a proper screen.

So in the NCAA opener against Murray State, Newton gets in the game. The last words out of K's mouth are to hold his arms down on the screen. So, the first screen Newton sets, he raises his forearms and draws the foul.

That pretty much sums up the sad end of Greg Newton's career at Duke.

[jimsumner]

Ah, Greg Newton. The stories.

OF mentions the Clemson game at Death Valley in '97. Newton may have had the worst minute in Duke history in that game.

Duke up by four with about a minute left. Clemson's super-quick guard Terrell McIntyre has the ball about forty feet from the basket. For some inexplicable reason Newton decides to come out and double-team McIntyre. The result was predictable and the two foul shots cut the Duke lead to two.

Duke comes up empty and Clemson has the ball down by two. McIntyre has the ball, trying to create something when darned if Newton doesn't do the same thing. Leaves his man, jumps McIntyre and commits a monumentally stupid foul.

McIntyre ties the game from the line.

Duke doesn't call time, gets the ball to Wojo, who pushes it upcourt. Newton, to his credit, has beaten everyone down the court and is all alone under the basket. By all alone, I mean all alone. He's got 10, 15 feet from the nearest Clemson defender and he's just standing there. Wojo makes a perfect pass and Newton fumbles it out of bounds.

Clemson wins in OT. I'm not sure Newton ever recovered from that epic collapse and I'm not sure he ever regained the confidence of his coaches or teammates.

It should be noted that Newton represented his native Canada internationally, including at least one Olympics. So give him credit for hanging in there.

[miramar]

I just dug out this blurb on Alaa in the college basketball section of Sports Illustrated (12/12/1988):

CHECK HIS STAATS

Alaa Abdelnaby, the 6’ 10” junior center for top-ranked Duke, is called Alphabet, for obvious reasons, and the Pharaoh, because he was born in Egypt. Now point guard Quin Snyder has come up with another nom de hoop, which was previously applied to the Boston Celtics’ Kevin McHale. Noting that Abdelnaby didn’t get his first assist of the season until the Blue Devils’ third game and has a grand total of only 10 for his career, Snyder said, “We call him the Black Hole, because when the ball goes in to him, it doesn’t come out.”

But that’s at least partly because Abdelnaby does a pretty good job of losing it in the other hole, the one with the twine attached. After making his last two shots in Duke’s opener against Kentucky, Abdelnaby went 8 for 8 against the Citadel and 9 for 9 against East Carolina. His 19-for-19 streak put him four over the old ACC record but six short of the NCAA mark set by American University’s Ray Voelkel in 1978.

In Duke’s 86-62 win over Northwestern on Saturday, Abdelnaby made his first shot, but he missed his second to end the run. “Alaa was just taking what was there,” said Blue Devils’ coach Mike Krzyzewski. “You have to credit the guys who are passing him the ball.”

One of those guys, forward Robert Brickey, has a Spanish teacher who noted that Abdelnaby’s rebounding numbers are almost as modest as his assist stats—he had only one rebound in the first two games. The prof asked Brickey, “Why does your starting center have one more rebound than a dead person?” Abdelnaby heard about the crack and said later, “I thought it was pretty funny—but I kept it in the back of my mind.” Apparently so. By week’s end he had hauled down 11 more rebounds.

[Dukeford]

Olympic Fan, thanks again for the great detailed history.

I do remember good moments for Newton. As a soph, in the legendary double overtime loss to UNC he provided a great spark off the bench for a few moments. I seem to recall him blocking a shot and pinning it on the backboard.

Also in his Jr year he had a great putback slam right as the buzzer sounded to end the 1st half. I think that was against Wake Forest.

[6th Man]

I do have a funny story abour Alaa. My dad and I went to watch Duke play Davidson in what was then Davidson's new home basketball court. (Yes they actually played them in their gym and not the Charlotte Coliseum) Anyway, Duke is blowing out Davidson so it was not a very intense game. I look at Alaa on the bench and he is trying to get this girl's attention across the floor. Not sure if he knew her or had picked her out. I watch him go on for a minute or two (maybe longer) making face gestures, waving, and just trying to get her attention. The guy beside me yells out...Hey Alaa, GET IN THE GAME!. He punches Brickey beside him and points at where we are sitting and just starts laughing as he knew he was busted. He thought it was funny that someone called him out. Seemed like a pretty good natured guy.

[jimsumner]

Many of us remember Abdelnaby and Newton with some frustration because neither ever lived up to their potential, at least on a consistent basis.

Newton certainly had his moments. He had a very strong junior year in 1996 and started 1997 like he was heading for the NBA. That season's early Florida State game is remembered because of Jeff Capel's poor game and the crowd reaction to it. But Duke did win in overtime, largely because of Newton's 21 points and 13 rebounds. And that was against some decent bigs, Randall Jackson and Corey Louis among them. But Tractor Taylor and Michigan were next and Newton just couldn't build on the good moments and his career at Duke went into free fall.

In case you're wondering, there have been some Newton sightings at Duke in recent years, so apparently all is forgiven.

[JasonEvans]

I do have a funny story abour Alaa. My dad and I went to watch Duke play Davidson in what was then Davidson's new home basketball court. (Yes they actually played them in their gym and not the Charlotte Coliseum) Anyway, Duke is blowing out Davidson so it was not a very intense game. I look at Alaa on the bench and he is trying to get this girl's attention across the floor. Not sure if he knew her or had picked her out. I watch him go on for a minute or two (maybe longer) making face gestures, waving, and just trying to get her attention. The guy beside me yells out...Hey Alaa, GET IN THE GAME!. He punches Brickey beside him and points at where we are sitting and just starts laughing as he knew he was busted. He thought it was funny that someone called him out. Seemed like a pretty good natured guy.

This sounds a great deal like the Alaa I knew. He had a different girl every night-- well maybe not EVERY night but if he skipped one night he made up for it the next by hooking up with two different girls.

--Jason "TMI" Evans

[miramar]

This sounds a great deal like the Alaa I knew. He had a different girl every night-- well maybe not EVERY night but if he skipped one night he made up for it the next by hooking up with two different girls.

--Jason "TMI" Evans

And here everyone was saying that Alaa didn't start scoring until his senior year...