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Duke’s 2010 national championship might have been the most unlikely of the five Duke has won.
Look who started for the Blue Devils in the championship game: Kyle Singler, Lance Thomas, Brian Zoubek, Nolan Smith and Jon Scheyer. Mason and Miles Plumlee came off the bench as did Andre Dawkins. As it turned out, only Mason Plumlee had a significant pro career (in fairness, Scheyer’s career was cut short by an eye injury).
Zoubek really had very limited talents but he could defend inside and rebound and he was really good about kicking the ball out to the three point shooters when he pulled the ball down. And he would play a critical role in the championship game, making virtually every correct move in the last 30 seconds. Other than Christian Laettner’s buzzer beaters against Kentucky and UConn, Zoubek’s play at the end of the Butler game may have been the most impressive 30 seconds any Duke big man ever turned in.
Duke played prominently in 2010’s One Shining Moment of course, but there are lots of familiar faces in here. Look for Joe Mazzulla, currently coach of the Boston Celtics, former Blue Devil Taylor King pops up with Villanova (we saw a post by King this week that he is clean and sober - congrats!), Scheyer gets a couple of moments of face time, Draymond Green’s name is called out and Bob Huggins gets unexpectedly tender with Da’Sean Butler after he injured his knee in the Final Four against the Blue Devils.
The end though, inevitably, was Gordon Hayward’s epic near-miss at the buzzer that nearly stole the game for Butler. ESPN later established that he was off by the width of a shoelace. It was agonizing for Duke when it was in the air and looked good, and much more so for Butler when it bounced out.
By the way, when the video was released, Jennifer Hudson, who provided the vocals, took a lot of heat because she was in the video in some places, taking time away from the players.
If you’re at all interested, she portrays Aretha Franklin in the biopic Respect and honestly, she’s terrific.
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