YouTube Gold: Duke-Baylor 2010 Regional Final

The 2010 season had some amazing highlights, but one of our favorite moments came from the Duke-Baylor game in the regional finals.

Brian Zoubek moved into the starting lineup late in the season and while he was much less mobile than Duke’s typical interior players, he became an absolute rock and an emotional leader of that team.

Go back and watch his brilliance - there is no other word for it - in the last 30 seconds of the championship game, where he influenced nearly every play on both ends. The man was superb.

In the Baylor game - the entire game is linked here - there was one moment that still gives us chills.

Zoubek fouled out late and Miles Plumlee, who at that point was still pretty erratic, replaced him. Before Zoubek left the court, he had some ferocious words for his teammates on the court, and when he did leave the court, he put his finger in Plumlee’s face and told him, in so many words, you finish it!

Plumlee just bumped fists and nodded - then did his job and Duke won.

It was a superb leadership moment and foreshadowed Zoubek’s absolutely critical contributions against Butler in the title game because without Zoubek, Duke couldn’t have stopped the Bulldogs.