Enough credit for 2004 duke FF team?

[BCGroup]

I remember I was in Columbus Ohio for a business meeting. I have NEVER stayed at that hotel again--painful memories. Then I had to get up at 4 am the next morning for my flight. ICK.

[Classof06]

I may be biased since that was the best duke team during my college days, but I don't feel like we talk about the 2004 team as much as they deserve.

Duke started the season just 3-0 before losing to Purdue in Maui but then the very next game they blewout a top 5 Michigan St. team @ their place, destroyed highly ranked Texas by 28 in MSG (the yr. before Redick went for 40+) then Duke started the ACC regular season on fire, going undefeated for a long time (21-1; 10-0) including beating UNC (May, Felton, McCants) at Chapel Hill (Duhon's layup).

They had 6 NBA players (Duhon, Redick, Ewing, Deng, Sheldon Williams and Shavlik Randolph), 2 of which had their numbers retired, and another who we all agree that had he stayed for more than 1 yr. he would have had his retired too (Deng). Plus, we had a great captain/leader/pg who won the national championship his freshmen yr. and who we all grew to love cheering for (Duhon).

Despite all that, they ran into a better UCONN team (Okafor, Ben Gordon) who we nonetheless should have beaten if not for some bad calls, bad luck (UCONN made everything down the stetch) and a semi-choke job by Duke (pains me to admit it but we went ice cold at the end). We all knew that game was pretty much for the national championship (GT was a very good team who even beat us once in the regular season at home, but we knew we had a great shot of beating them).

The 1999 Duke team who also lost to UCONN, this time in the real national championship game, who also had many many NBA players (better overall compared to the 2004 ones), was one of the most dominant, if not most dominant, Duke teams. They certainly are the best Duke team to not win a national championship. We talk about them a lot and we should.

But why don't we also talk about that 2004 team very much? Has any Duke team since then make you feel like Duke could actually win the national championship? How I miss those days (maybe next yr?)

Not only did the 2004 team beat UNC at Chapel Hill, we actually swept UNC and it was the last time Duke has done so.

Beyond March results, this was the last really really good Duke team. The balance and depth they had was superb. And Luol Deng was the piece that put them over the top. If you look at the '05 and '06 teams with JJ and Shelden, I'd say they subtly missed Luol's presence, even with two All-Americans. Like I've said, it's no surprise that, IMO, JJ Redick had his best NCAA tournament the year Luol was at Duke; you couldn't afford to pay too much attention to Redick or Deng would give you 20, maybe more.

That team will always be special to me because they were the best team of my four years at Duke as well. Unfortunately, it doesn't change the fact that I still have nightmares about the last 4 minutes of that UCONN game and will probably continue to until we win another national title.

[weezie]

I remember I was in Columbus Ohio for a business meeting. I have NEVER stayed at that hotel again--painful memories. Then I had to get up at 4 am the next morning for my flight. ICK.

I feel the same way about San Antonio. Not that I would have passed up a trip back there for this year's championship, of course, but the idea of going to Texas, after all the grief Duke has suffered there over the years, ugh, makes me feel sick.

[houstondukie]

Another thing I remembered from that year was after we beat Carolina in Chapel Hill with Duhon's layup in overtime, Sean May said after the game that Duke was "the best team in the country." I can't remember the last time or even another time when a Carolina player had something great to say about Duke and mean it. Shows you how great that team was...And May had a pretty good game with 15 points and 21 rebounds.

[jma4life]

2004 is particularly painful for two reasons.

1. It marks the start of a short, yet seemingly lengthy period in which UNC has had the upper edge in the rivalry. The fact that UNC won the ship the next year did nothing to ease the pain of 04.

2. It's now been 4 seasons since that final four with nothing beyond a sweet 16. Contrast that with the one sweet sixteen with an overachieving team in 00 and the national championship in 2001. And even though 02 was a disappointment and 03 was a solid yet unspectacular season, UNC was not exactly thriving.

That said, I really loved the 04 team. Duhon put up a heckuva senior campaign, Ewing and Redick were a solid combo at the wings, Deng was the ultimate freshmen and Duke 4.


By the way, am I the only one that thought the UCONN game was Shav's coming out party. I really expected him to simply dominate in 05 after that game. Again, I know he had mono that season but the game he put up against Okafor was truly impressive to me. This is a guy who probably had double figures less than 10 times in his two year career prior to this game, and in the biggest game of his life, he puts up double figures on a very high field goal percentage and looked impressive in doing so. I don't think people realize how big of an impact injuries probably had on him. While I do believe that his hs ranking was a little too high, people should realize that in his healthy period in the NBA, he has actually outperformed Shelden. I actually saw that Shav played a minute today, so it's good to see him back and playing. Hopefully, his NBA career does not end.

[houstondukie]

2004 is particularly painful for two reasons.

1. It marks the start of a short, yet seemingly lengthy period in which UNC has had the upper edge in the rivalry. The fact that UNC won the ship the next year did nothing to ease the pain of 04.

2. It's now been 4 seasons since that final four with nothing beyond a sweet 16. Contrast that with the one sweet sixteen with an overachieving team in 00 and the national championship in 2001. And even though 02 was a disappointment and 03 was a solid yet unspectacular season, UNC was not exactly thriving.

That said, I really loved the 04 team. Duhon put up a heckuva senior campaign, Ewing and Redick were a solid combo at the wings, Deng was the ultimate freshmen and Duke 4.


By the way, am I the only one that thought the UCONN game was Shav's coming out party. I really expected him to simply dominate in 05 after that game. Again, I know he had mono that season but the game he put up against Okafor was truly impressive to me. This is a guy who probably had double figures less than 10 times in his two year career prior to this game, and in the biggest game of his life, he puts up double figures on a very high field goal percentage and looked impressive in doing so. I don't think people realize how big of an impact injuries probably had on him. While I do believe that his hs ranking was a little too high, people should realize that in his healthy period in the NBA, he has actually outperformed Shelden. I actually saw that Shav played a minute today, so it's good to see him back and playing. Hopefully, his NBA career does not end.

I'm with you on that...Shav had 13 points and 6 rebounds in only 14 minutes. He didn't miss a single field goal, going 6 for 6. Too bad Shav's best game of the year was one of Shelden's worst: 4 points, 6 rebounds, 5 fouls, 1 for 9 shooting in 19 minutes.

I'm not sure if I ever rooted harder for a player to "break out" than I did for Shavlik Randolph. You could just see how talented he was and I'm dissapointed things didn't work out better.

How does Nick Horvath foul out in 8 minutes?