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View Full Version : Nostalgia? 1999 SI article about #1 Duke



houstondukie
01-09-2009, 05:31 PM
http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1015137/1/index.htm

Some of my favorite parts of the article:

"There's a perception of Duke that you have some highly publicized Caucasian athletes who are soft," Grant Hill says. "When I was there, it was quite the contrary. We had a nasty streak. There was a feeling of complete confidence, complete arrogance and total disrespect for whoever we played."

"Coach raised the bar for us a little each season," says Steve Wojciechowski, who played at Duke from 1994-95 to 1997-98, "but you're also motivated by the Hills and Laettners who come back to play pickup every fall and carry themselves like national champions. They don't say, 'Sit down, son, I'll give you the formula.' It's more like 'Where's your banner?' "

"Point guard William Avery arrived at Duke last season already forged by a trip he took as a high school junior to meet Krzyzewski, who had bluntly told Avery that with his mediocre grades he would never be a Blue Devil. Avery walked out of the room, turned to his mother and said, 'I am going to Duke.' After switching from his high school in Augusta, Ga., to Oak Hill Academy in Virginia as a senior, he made the grade ..."

"Sometimes the players reach their own epiphanies without the coaches. The Duke staff had stewed all season over sophomore forward Battier's reluctance to shoot. Then on Feb. 2 Battier watched a documentary about martial arts on the Discovery Channel featuring China's Shaolin monks, a Buddhist sect that preaches the concept of chi, a person's inner strength. Battier saw a sword slice through a tree stump and then bend in half as it was thrust against a monk's stomach. Against Maryland the following night, inspired by the power of chi, he launched 13 shots and scored 27 points, both career highs, to spark a Blue Devils rout. Predictably, three Cameron Crazies came to last Saturday's home game against Wake Forest dressed as monks and flashing letters that spelled out CHI whenever Battier, who had 19 points, scored."

"On the eve of the Jan. 27 home game against North Carolina, Krzyzewski spoke inside Cameron Indoor Stadium to the mob of students who had been sleeping outside in tents for the better part of a month to get the choicest seats. 'If you're not going to be intense,' Coach K said, 'then don't f———show up.'"

The part on Chris Carrawell was also very good.

Greatest team to never win a national championship, for sure. According to the article and when it was written, Duke was beating teams by 25+ points despite playing the 4th toughest schedule in the country (according to opponents winning %).

CameronBornAndBred
01-09-2009, 08:06 PM
That's a great cover.

Rich
01-09-2009, 10:21 PM
Interesting coincidence that the writer of that article on the '99 team is the same guy who wrote the Gerald Henderson article highlighted on DBR's front page today -- http://www.accsports.com/articles/200901094510/crothers-the-curious-case-of-gerald-henderson.php.