What If Sports

[mr. synellinden]

I just spent a good amount of time on the WhatIfSports web site: www.whatifsports.com. If you are not interested in getting sucked in and killing a lot of time, I would recommend not going there. (If you don't know what the site is, it is a site that allows you to match up teams from different years, or put together random teams of players, and play simulated matchups to see who would win. It even spits out a box score.)

Anyway, I thought I'd put the best Duke team ever argument to the test. First, I played a three game series between '01 and '92, which I think of as the best two Duke teams of all-time. Interestingly, '01 won all three games. The first two were by identical 102-90 scores, and the third was 100-97. Then I played '01 against '99, and '01 was even more dominant, winning all three, 87-73, 98-83, and 91-75. So '01 won 5 out of 6 games by at least double digits, similar to what it did in the actual '01 tournament, winning every game by double digits.

I then played '01 Duke against '02 Duke, and '02 actually won the first game, 102-100, but then got blown out in the next two, 96-72 and 97-82.

What was apparent to me from all of these games (and to the extent you trust the simulation), is that Jason Williams was the most dominant player ever to play at Duke. In almost every game he outplayed the other Duke "stars" - including Hill, Laettner, Hurley and even teammate Battier.

I am going to try '01 Duke against other great NCAA teams to see how the site stacks them up. Again, I wouldn't recommend going to the site unless you have a lot of time to kill.

[mr. synellinden]

So I was feeling pretty good about the '01 team as one of the best of all time. I put them up against:

'09 UNC

'01 Duke won all 3 games: 103-100; 107-84; 102-90


'85 Georgetowon
'01 Duke won all 3 games: 84-79; 81-71; 84-69


'86 Duke

'01 Duke won all 3 games: 91-79; 95-74; 83-69


So, I was feeling pretty good until I put them up against '91 UNLV, and they got demolished by Larry Johnson and the Runnin' Rebels in all 3 games: 109-99; 106-85 (in that game JWill had 35 points on 9-11 shooting from 3 point range); 118-96. This just shows how good that UNLV team was that we beat on our way to our first national title, and what an upset it was.

[Wander]

Sounds about right. I don't understand why it isn't universally agreed that 2001 was Duke's best team.

[mr. synellinden]

Some more teams the '01 Duke team swept:

'73 UCLA:

106-78
102-75
113 - 72

'76 Indiana

107-76
96-70
109-72

'07 Florida

90-81
90-79
105-75

'95 Kentucky

94-91
92-80
107 - 61 (WOW!)

[Namtilal]

Try '01 Duke against Team USA '08! Or even '92!

I don't buy most of those predictions. I never felt that '01 would stack up to either '92 or '99.

[Newton_14]

This is too cool. Thanks for sharing!

I ran a 2 game set with 2001 Duke against 1982 unc. Duke won the first game 89-75 and 2nd game 93-68.

Battier went for 29 and 20...

Off to see what 1999 Duke can do....

[_Gary]

Interesting. I tweaked the '99 team just a bit (gave Corey more minutes at both SG & SF) because that's what I would have done if I were coaching that team. I then played the '01 team 3 times and each and every time the '99 team dominated them (winning by 14, 15, and 13). I'm now off to try that '99 team, which I think was the best team we've ever had a Duke, against other competition.

Gary

[_Gary]

'99 Duke defeated '99 UConn ten straight times on a neutral court. The closest game was 6 points, but most were double digit victories, several topping over 20 point margins. Oh, what should have been that year!

Gary

[Duke #33]

That site is a huge time burner! I was just playing around, and then I look at the clock and it has been 45 minutes!

[Edouble]

'99 Duke defeated '99 UConn ten straight times on a neutral court. The closest game was 6 points, but most were double digit victories, several topping over 20 point margins. Oh, what should have been that year!

Gary

Can you try to keep the salt out of my wound there, buddy? ;)

[MIKESJ73]

91 UNLV vs. 91 Duke. neutral court. I gave up after 40 games. Duke was within 10 points once, lost by 40 about 7 times. I guess someone needs to fix that because by my calculations, Duke should win 100%.

[Duke #33]

Just played 09 Duke vs 09 Nova. Duke only won 1 time, while nova won 4 times.

[Duke #33]

Just to boost my spirits, I played 2000-2001 Duke vs 09 Nova. Duke won all ten games, with the smallest margin of victory being 9 points.

[Edouble]

Just to boost my spirits, I played 2000-2001 Duke vs 09 Nova. Duke won all ten games, with the smallest margin of victory being 9 points.

Folks, Jason Williams is not walking through that door. Shane Battier is not walking through that door. ;)

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

If you ask me, the entire website is in doubt... Putting last year's football team on the road at Michigan, apparently we win 33-14. Would have been the biggest Duke football victory in decades.

Look at the box score. http://www.whatifsports.com/ncaafb/boxscore.asp?GameID=1012248&nomenu=1

[DueBlevil]

If you ask me, the entire website is in doubt... Putting last year's football team on the road at Michigan, apparently we win 33-14. Would have been the biggest Duke football victory in decades.

Look at the box score. http://www.whatifsports.com/ncaafb/boxscore.asp?GameID=1012248&nomenu=1

I love how they simulated that Surgan would miss all 5 extra point kicks...