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Truth
04-24-2008, 11:45 AM
During Markie's senior banquet speech, he shared insight into his history with Duke basketball, including a short story revealing that Wojo was his first idolized Duke player. He specifically mentioned that Wojo was his first real tie to the Duke program and singled out Wojo's memorable dive into the crowd against Arizona as one his earliest memories of Duke basketball. This game was during Wojo's senior season, which happens to align with my freshman year at Duke.

Aside from making me feel old, this also made me think about my earliest Duke memories. Let me preface this by stating that I consider myself an extremely passionate Duke fan with a rather solid history of the program. That said, we are all constrained by our age in regards to how much Duke history we have personally experienced. My "experienced" history begins with faint memories of Johnny Dawkins. I was too young at the time to truly appreciate what he meant to the program, and honestly, too young to understand just how amazing his talents truly were. I have clearer memories of Danny Ferry and several of his great performances, but if asked to pick a defining "experienced" moment, I would have to go back to Laettner's shot vs. UConn in the Elite Eight in 1990. For perspective, I was 10 years old at the time and in 5th grade. It's hard to me to believe that the joys, and equally important the pains, of a deep-rooted passion can truly be felt much earlier in life.

If I were in Markie's position giving my senior banquet speech, I'd have to mention Johnny Dawkins and Danny Ferry for their key roles in making the program great, but my "Wojo-dives-into-the-crowd" moment would be the aforementioned Lattner shot. For comparison, my Duke moment occurred when I was 10, and DeMarcus was 12 when his moment occurred. I think this gives some credence to my personal theory that the double digits through very early teen years are typically when most hard-core allegiances are fully developed.

Analyzing further, this makes me wonder what reference points the recruits of today have in regards to their Duke "experience." I have not done much research into the specific ages of our incoming recruiting classes, but I think its safe to say that the members of the next two incoming classes are approximately 5 years younger than DeMarcus. Consequently, their Duke moments likely occurred 5 or so years after Wojo's senior season. Interestingly, this leaves a surprsingly short period of "Duke relevancy" from initial recognition through recruitment of 4-6 years.

Greedily, I would like to think that this incoming class may reference the 2001 title game as their Duke moment, but it is quite likely that their first Duke "experience" begin a bit beyond that Championship game. (I tend to believe that the overall signifance of winning the championship extends the shelf-life a bit.) Regardless, I recall having multiple conversations as a student in 2001 where my friends and I were thrilled not only about the title, but also the future positive impact this would have to help sustain our stellar recruiting. (By no means do I want to turn this into a re-hash "quality of recruiting" thread for past seasons, and for the record, I do think our recruiting classes have been consistently excellent.) My point is that I am somewhat in awe of how quickly time passes, and even more in awe that an extremely defining moment in my life, the 2001 title during my senior year, is now quite likely beyond the realm of incoming recruits.

It's interesting to take this realization a step further and project how recruiting classes a few short years into the future will define their first Duke "experience." JWill's missed free throw is nearing the end of its life span, as is the brilliance of his phenomenal career... Very, very soon incoming classes will reference the one-and-done ability of Luol Deng as an introductory moment. The amazing shooting capabilites of JJ Redick, and the defensive prowess of Shelden Williams will soon become the building blocks of Duke's future (if they aren't to some extent already.)

On the flipside, some may argue that Duke's recent lack of post-season success, whether real or perceived, will also play a role. Some will point to Duke's lone Final Four appearance in 7 years following the title as liability considering the previously established 4-6 year period of "Duke relevancy" prior to recruit commitments. I suspect that some will see the next few seasons with an increased level of urgency that a Final Four run is critical in order to sustain our position as one of the very top elite programs.

While I am not prepared to debate this viewpoint here in this initial post, I will be interested to see where this thread heads. I am hopeful that it will not denigrate into a "quality of recruiting" discussion, unless specifically related to prognastications of future recruiting class quality based upon Duke's records and levels of success since 2001. Alternatively, I could see the thread spinning off a branch including everyone's first Duke "experiences" which would be quite enjoyable fun to read.

Lastly, apologies for the overall length of the post, but with Markie's senior speech fresh in my mind, I found the topic quite interesting. This concludes my ramble of the moment - have at it...

Truth
04-24-2008, 11:49 AM
As soon as my thread hit the boards, I noticed the typo in the title... can a mod update the title with "Influence" spelled correctly?

Much appreciated...

Feel free to delete this post once updated - thanks!

rsvman
04-24-2008, 12:29 PM
I find it amazing that people as young as you "feel old." In 1990 I was 2/3rds through my pediatric residency, and I had spent 8 years tooling around in college before I went to medical school.

I guess the good news is that because of the amount of television coverage that Duke teams get, there will still be the possibility that up-and-coming talents will see a "Wojo diving into the crowd" moment with which to identify. Getting to another Final Four (or having at least a little more post-season success) would certainly be a plus, but, unlike some teams, the post-season is not the only exposure Duke gets.

To me the surprising thing is that a play as routine as diving into the crowd after a loose ball is enough to make somebody identify with the team. If that's the case, there should still be many kids who see something to like about the Duke team they see on their television set, whether Duke makes another Final Four soon or not.

Nugget
04-24-2008, 01:26 PM
My "Duke moment" was the series on nationally televised games from Cameron on three consecutive weekends in 1986: the "Dawkins blocks Rivers" Notre Dame game, followed by Johnny D's jersey retirement and the steamrolling of a top 5 Oklahoma team, capped off with a Senior Day win against Carolina.

I was a high school junior in California at the time, and didn't have cable, so had basically grown up only knowing about UCLA, North Carolina, Indiana and Notre Dame in basketball. The UCLA program was fairly lifeless (the fan experience was soulless and passionless) and I knew I hated Carolina because of the Four Corners and the sense of entitlement that radiated from UNC's program and fans.

I was simply blown away by Cameron and the connection between the team and student body which was evident from seeing those games.

A visit to Duke the following summer while I was interning in DC -- which happened the day after Len Bias died and I saw how devastated people at Duke were even though Bias had been a rival -- sealed the deal for me.

Truth
04-24-2008, 02:16 PM
I find it amazing that people as young as you "feel old." In 1990 I was 2/3rds through my pediatric residency, and I had spent 8 years tooling around in college before I went to medical school.

I guess the good news is that because of the amount of television coverage that Duke teams get, there will still be the possibility that up-and-coming talents will see a "Wojo diving into the crowd" moment with which to identify. Getting to another Final Four (or having at least a little more post-season success) would certainly be a plus, but, unlike some teams, the post-season is not the only exposure Duke gets.

To me the surprising thing is that a play as routine as diving into the crowd after a loose ball is enough to make somebody identify with the team. If that's the case, there should still be many kids who see something to like about the Duke team they see on their television set, whether Duke makes another Final Four soon or not.

Re: "Feeling old" -- perhaps a bad choice of words on my part. It's not so much a feeling of aging as it is an increasing awareness of time passage in general. Though, the fact that members of the next recruiting class will have been born in the 90s is still a bit mind-boggling...

To your other point, it is an interesting theory as to whether our increased level of TV exposure compared to other teams will help, hurt, or otherwise compensate for the team's success or the perceived lack thereof.

I'm trying to think of another team to compare against, but no team sticks out to me as a "2nd place" in regards to national air-time. UNC?

SupaDave
04-24-2008, 10:35 PM
I grew up in Durham. I've had LOTS. Johnny D came to my best friend's birthday party when I was like 10 - we just knew that him and Amaker were good and they played for Duke. As I grew, so did my interaction with the players. They really did try to be a part of the community - especially Grant and the gang. Grant brought a sense of realness to that team, he's honestly one of the coolest humblest most fortunate rich kid I've ever met.

And I mean that in a great way. We got our haircut at the same barber (and yes - my cuts were horrible too). I've seen him fall asleep with his books in his lap. That's Duke to me. We partied at Science and Math (seriously, they had an unusually high amount of pretty girls in 91-92 for some reason). Man I could go on but I think you guys get the point that it's really not JUST one experience.

Honestly, Sean Dockery's shot against Virginia Tech still drives me bananas. You can't forget Duhon's coast to coast against Carolina - I think I honestly blacked out when he hit that shot. Wojo slapping the floor. Hurley throwing up in National Championship games. Jason Williams uncanny ability to hit anything BUT a free throw. Melchionni's ill-advised but yet sometimes spectacular threes (b/c they were ALWAYS just what we needed). McRoberts freshmen year and what we thought could be. Gerald Henderson growing right before our eyes - like DURING the game. NEVER backing down (something I'm VERY happy this year's young team brought back to the forefront - good things coming...). I could go on but I'll leave yall with this...

I asked Grant one time how he was able to handle all the attention and autograph seekers. He made it real simple - to do good business you must be good to your customers and every autograph is essentially like signing a check. I was like whoa. Why? He was 19 at the time. Foresight, humility, generosity, and business - all in that one little statement.

yancem
04-25-2008, 09:14 AM
Growing up in Durham and being the child of 2 Duke alumni, I have eralier memories about Duke basketball than most. A few start when I was only 5 or 6 when my favorite player was Tate Armstrong (although to be honest, I don't remember much of anything about him other than he was my favorite player). I vaguely remember watching Spanarkel and Bender but the first player that truly sticks in my mind is Giminski.

My defining moment though came in 1981 when Gene Banks hit a last second shot to send the UNC game (senior night) to over time. Duke went on to win the game and I headed out to my drive way and mimicked his shot for probably an hour. As much as the Laettner shot against Kentucky was amazing, Banks' shot will always rank as one of my favorite plays. Probably the other of my favorite plays was Capel's in 1995 half court shot to send another UNC game into double overtime. We lost that game but when he hit that shot, I think that was the loudest I have ever heard CIS get.

As for recruiting, I do think that Duke always being on TV increases our chances that defining plays will be seen by future basketball stars. I have a hard time imagining it not. Of course being in the final four every few years certainly helps as well.

Truth
04-25-2008, 10:33 AM
Probably the other of my favorite plays was Capel's in 1995 half court shot to send another UNC game into double overtime. We lost that game but when he hit that shot, I think that was the loudest I have ever heard CIS get.

I've often said that single play ended my college selection process, not that it was really heading in any other direction anyway. When Cameron erupted like that (the best analogy I have is that the student section looked like sea of fish fighting over a handful of popcorn tossed off a dock), I knew I was going to Duke... great shot, great memory!