I hope Devil in the Blue Dress doesn't mind me posting this, but this is part of a private message she sent me in correspondence
..."I think many of the folks who post on this board are young enough that they may not appreciate (meaning understand and value) the significance of some of the earlier players. Their frame of reference is perhaps too narrow. How about a series of montages? The first one called, "Foundations" and focusing on the great pre K players. (Werber, Groat, Heyman, Mullins, Banks, etc.) The second could be called something like "Builders" (Dawkins, Ferry, Alarie, etc.) and include early K players. The third could be called "Legacy" and focus on more recent K players. You could also consider a montage of the coaches and assistants: Eddie Cameron, Gerry Gerard, Hal Bradley (who went to Texas), Vic Bubas, Chuck Dailey, Hubie Brown, Coach K"
I have to agree with her that my scope is WAY too narrow, and it is very difficult to pick and choose. And in a lot of ways there have been multiple eras than just pre and post Coach K. So it looks like I am going to have to either make my own canvas and do one HUGE painting or three paintings. The problem with doing one painting is I had hoped once donated prints could be made and sold to benefit the receiving party. There are limits to how big a painting can be and reduced in size when made into prints. (And still see details....Sistine Chapel for example.) So to cover all the bases I think I am going to have to do three paintings.
Foundations: Start of Duke and or Trinity basketball to 1972. 9 players and coaches Bubas. Heyman, Groat, Verga, C. B. Claiborne, Bill Werber, Ed Koffenberger, Mullins, Mike Lewis, Randy Denton.
Builders: 1976-1990. Coach Foster and Coach K. 8 players Gminski, Jim Spanarkel, Gene Banks, Johnny Dawkins, Mark Alarie, Danny Ferry, Tommy Amaker. This is where it gets tricky for me, deciding on one other player, Vince Taylor, Kenny Dennard, Jay Bilas, Quinn Snyder etc. I REALLY need some help deciding that last player.
Legacy: The era would be 1991 to present and would have Coach K and 9 other players. Laettner,G. Hill, Hurley, J. Williams, Boozer, Battier, S. Williams, JJ and Brand. Or maybe Dunnleavy instead of Brand? That's a hard pick, Mikey D was awesome against AZ in 2001. But Brand was player of the year in 1999.
So that is the tentative plan for now. Any suggestions as to better titles or the 8th player on the second painting feel free to add input. And anyone with action photos of the players mentioned can e-mail them to me at
lattawill@yahoo.com. Also if you think one player should be dropped in favor of another deserving player feel free to say so. As stated this is a tentative plan.
Oh and does anyone remember Dan Meghar (sp)? He was a guy I think left over from the Foster era or maybe one of Coach K's 1st guys. Ask Jim Sumner for details. He was a Canadian and would bang with anyone who wanted a piece of him. I loved that guy, he took zero crap from anyone. I think he probably should have been a hockey player but was too tall.