What 2,000 Means To Me [Archive]

Gmadaduke

03-27-2013, 11:51 PM

cf-62

03-28-2013, 02:40 AM

There's a big game on Friday and I know that's been foremost in my thoughts this week. But I think it's worth it as well to pause for a moment and reflect on the milestone that we reached with our win over Creighton.

I've been a Duke fan since I was 10. I remember the day - March 28, 1992 - that Christian Laettner delivered victory in the greatest college basketball game I have ever watched. Watching Duke over the years has changed my thoughts about being a fan of a team and a program. I'm not a cold weather person, but I now welcome the onset fall and greet the waning daylight hours with the thought that Midnight Madness is on the way. I enjoy seeing the strides that our players have made from the end of our last spring campaign - how they've become more physical, talented, confident - while they battle their way through a challenging non-conference schedule. When it's not basketball season, I crave even the tremendous lows (the stomach churning defeat in the 1999 championship game, watching Okafor hack away and remarkably not get whistled for fouls in the 2004 final four, or watching any game where UNC emerges victorious), and dizzying highs (seeing Jason Williams deliver the gone in 54 seconds game, Dunleavy bring down Arizona in the 2001 final, the 2010 team's gritty championship run, and Austin Rivers capping a tremendous upset on Carolina's home court by swishing a three over Zeller's helplessly extended arms). Best of all, I love never having a dull moment in a room full of college basketball fans - knowing that they will either love or hate my team, but will do so with passion and out of respect (and a healthy dose of fear).

I hope to see the Duke program win another 2,000 games. I hope to see Coach K win another 4 championships and lead our national team to at least 2 more golds (even though he says he doesn't plan to). I hope to see another final four berth this Sunday.

What does 2,000 mean to you?

Go Duke!!

I moved to Raleigh in 1983. I fell in love with college basketball that year - it was inevitable. I actually went to the game in Reynolds when they raised the banner.

Then Duke's sophomores beat Carolina in the ACC semis, and the world changed. My first low happened a day later when Len Bias led Maryland to victory. After I arrived on campus in 1985, I was lucky enough to get a Duke Basketball media guide (of which, scarily, I now have 27). In the media guide, the top 10 programs in wins was listed. We were #10. The list, naturally, was a who's who of college basketball.

During those first few years, I would count down as we caught those other programs - UCLA, Temple, St. John's, Indiana. After a while, I stopped counting, and now we're fourth.

Kentucky, UNC, Kansas, Duke. The Blue (literally) bloods.

Since that first media guide, we've won ~900 games, 13 ACC championships, gone to 11 Final Fours, won 4 national championships, 5 Maui invitationals, and countless more.

I've had the privilege of meeting my wife throughthe Duke band and sharing these basketball experiences our whole lives together - from sharing the team hotel with Bon Jovi in Cincinatti to phenomenal Final Four trips from 1988 - 1992, a few trips to Hawaii (keep playing those coach), and countless games in our three home arenas (Cameron, Madison Square Garden, and the Meadowlands).

And the games - they've been incredible. The opening game in the Dean Dome, Len Bias scoring at will, JJ scoring at will, Shaq vs. Christian, the Fab Five, Timmy Duncan, Twinkies, Shoegate, pizzagate, Olden and UVA - Team Xerox, Spud Webb, Muggsy Bogues, tennis balls.

Through it all, there have been several constant beacons - a stream of incredible young men who also dazzle us with their basketball prowess - Dawkins, Amaker, Bilas, Alarie, Henderson, King, Strickland, Ferry, Snyder, Abdelnaby, Brickey, Laettner, Koubek, Hurley, Hill (x2), Parks, Meek, Capel, Collins, Wojo, Langdon, Brand, Battier, James, Carawell, Williams, Dunleavy, Boozer, Duhon, Redick, Williams (S), Paulus, Smith, Scheyer, Zoubek, Singler, Irving, Rivers, Curry, Plumlee, Kelly, Sulaimon, ...

It honestly pains me to leave people off this list. Just because they weren't a star doesn't mean they weren't just as great a person, or just as important to the overall success of the program. The list goes on and on. Every one of them a great person first, a student second, a basketball player third.

Soon after graduating, I was on campus with a friend from Michigan State. We happened to run into a friend of mine, one of the players, on the quad. I introduced them, we chatted for a few minutes, then he was off to class. My MSU friend asked if all the players just walked around campus unmolested like that. I pointed out it would be difficult to go to class if they didn't. He said at MSU, the players can't do that. They're swarmed by students , many of them seeking autographs.

That was one of the personal moments for me that so many of us have experienced over the years - where we realize that what Coach (and Duke) has built is truly unique. And we all contribute, through being the Crazies to not just "saying" they're fellow classmates, but TREATING them as classmates, and countless other ways that makes Duke basketball special.

Down the road, Dean Smith built a family within his program, one that spans multiple generations like ours. The difference, though, is that the Carolina basketball family is limited to those INSIDE the program - the Duke basketball family encompasses all of us. That's what 2000 means to me.