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When we look back at the 2010 championship, we marvel at the Butler game - still - and just how great that was. Then we look at the players on that team. Nolan Smith, Kyle Singler and Miles and Mason Plumlee are all in the NBA and Brian Zoubek and Jon Scheyer might have been if injuries hadn't derailed their respective careers.
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And then there's Lance Thomas.
Zoubek was a long shot, but he was 7-0, very strong, and a powerful rebounder. Guys like that usually get a shot. But Thomas?
We'd bet that most Duke fans would have not expected Thomas to make the NBA.
But there he is, a lock solid member of the Knicks. He's not going anywhere, and it's mostly because of intelligent observation of his workplace and his defensive versatility.
Thomas has carved out a nice niche with the Knicks and he may be there for a good while yet. It's pretty cool
By the way, you probably saw that Butler's Andrew Smith, who played in the championship game, died recently of leukemia. With his health declining rapidly, his amazing wife, Samantha, said this: "The doctors tell me death is imminent and that Andrew is going to die from this disease. There are no treatments, no clinical trials…there is nothing left to do."
So while we are happy to pass this news on, we do wish it had come in time for the Smiths, not to mention the Valvanos, the Cases and everyone else who has lost someone to cancer: in Australia, there is a highly promising trial which has profound implications for treating cancer.
Like all trials, it's by definition not ready. Still, it's hard not to be excited by what the researchers report: positive results in 79% of cases and in several cases, complete and sustained remission. It appears to be effective against many forms of cancer and the term the researchers use to describe how it works is that the cancers just "melt away."
It works by inhibiting a protein which cancerous cells require.
We know some of you have loved ones who are facing this disease as you read this. Today, there is some hope.