History. Legacy. Longevity. Tradition.

I live by these four words in my own career. Whether I am teaching, deejaying, making 
beats or even working with basketball, these are foundational to everything I do. Throughout life and experience, I have admired, revered, supported and studied people and institutions that believe in those same pillars and that same sturdy foundation. Those ideals are what lead me to Duke Men’s Basketball.

Why Duke Men’s Basketball, you ask?

As an African American, I’ve had to answer for many years. Any university can be judged simply by the sports team, especially by race. As a kid, I thought that Georgetown was a Black school, due to what I saw on my television set. It even became a fashion statement in hip-hop itself (thanks, Chuck D). Duke has always been judged by what you’ve seen on the court. Maybe it’s the way the kids played. Maybe it was the tenacity and fire of the winningest head coach in DI history, the only coach who’s known by one letter: Coach K. Maybe it’s the five championships, the 17 Final Fours, the 21 ACC tournament titles, the buzzer beaters, the comebacks and the memorable moments. Could it be the Cameron Crazies, the campout in Krzyzewskiville or Cameron Indoor Stadium itself? Maybe it’s the rivalry—arguably the best rivalry in American sports—or the conga line of players who enter the NBA year after year. Maybe it’s coach Jon Scheyer, the first coach to become head coach at the same program where he won a championship as a player and an assistant coach…

Or…

…Maybe it’s the African and African American Studies program, one of the tops in the nation. Maybe it’s Washington Duke’s connection to Black Wall Street in Durham and his business partner, John Merrick, the Black businessman who started NC Mutual Life. Maybe it’s the works of the legendary architect Julian Abele, or the John Hope Franklin Center. Maybe it was all the kids I saw with that infamous haircut, “The Duke Starting Five.” Maybe it was that time we saw Tupac Shakur in a Jeff Capel jersey. Maybe it’s my good friend Grant Hill, Duke Men’s Basketball legend and head of USA Basketball. Could it be the many faces in NBA front offices, NCAA coaches and ESPN broadcasters who all carry the shield of what my brother and Duke Basketball alum Jeff Capel coined “The Brotherhood?”

Whatever the reason is, whatever your journey was toward hating or loving the program, the institution or the brand, there is no denying the History. The Legacy. The Longevity. The Tradition.  Welcome to the story of The Brotherhood. 

Welcome to Duke Men’s Basketball.

—9th Wonder, Guest Editor

SLAM Presents DUKE is available now.

SLAM Presents DUKE is also available in this exclusive Blue Metal Edition. Crazies, this one is for you.

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On his radio show, Keyshawn, JWill, and Max, Williams said that the main reason he thinks Coach K would come out of retirement is that Duke could lose the No. 1 recruiting class for 2022.

The concern of Duke recruits jumping ship stems from Duke great Nolan Smith leaving the Blue Devils to become the new associate head coach at Louisville. Since the Cardinals and Blue Devils are conference rivals, Williams believes he could recruit against Duke for his newest program and that the ranking could change if any 2022 commits decide they want to go elsewhere.

“Here’s why I give it [Coach K returning] a legit chance because if you’re Nolan Smith, and you have a great relationship with all these players, you’re in the conference, man. You’re at Louisville,” Williams said. “It turns into recruiting battles, man, and it weakens your hold on the number one class. So, if you’re Coach K, how do you strengthen that hold? By coming back.”

Duke has the consensus No. 1 ranked recruiting class of 2022, highlighted by Derrick Lively and Dariq Whitehead. The class was recruited mainly by head-coach-in-waiting Jon Scheyer. It’s unknown if Coach K will come out of retirement, but the program seems to be in good hands with Scheyer taking over.

The post Duke Legend Jay Williams Believes Mike Krzyzewski Could Return Next Season appeared first on SLAM.

Before tipoff, Pittsburgh played a tribute video to Krzyzewski where Sam Clancy, Dick Groat, and Coach Jeff Capel shared heartwarming remarks to the Duke coach.

“Coach, congratulations on the most amazing career in basketball. You have given so much to the game and given so much to us that have been fortunate enough to play for you. I’m grateful for you, I appreciate you, I love you and wish you nothing but happiness and joy in stepping away from the game” Capel said.

Capel played for Krzyzewski and the Blue Devils from 1993 to 1997. In 2011, he joined the Blue Devils coaching staff as an associate head coach until 2018, when he took the Pittsburgh head coaching position.

Duke’s 86-54 dub over Pittsburgh clinched a share of the Blue Devils’ first ACC regular-season title since 2010-2011 and ensured that they’re the No. 1 seed in the upcoming ACC tournament with a 27-4 record.

This weekend, Krzyzewski will coach the final home game of his career against bitter rival North Carolina in the last chapter of his rivalry with the Tobacco Road powerhouse.

The post Jeff Capel on Coach K: ‘Congratulations on the Most Amazing Career in Basketball’ appeared first on SLAM.

Scheyer began his career at Duke as a player from 2006 to 2010, averaging 14.4 points per game, and culminating his senior season with an NCAA championship. Scheyer scored 2,077 points during his time as a Blue Devil—good for ninth all-time.

Our 20th head coach. Starting April 2022.

@JonScheyer #𝔗𝔥𝔢𝔅𝔯𝔬𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔯𝔥𝔬𝔬𝔡 pic.twitter.com/9FRpdM6pVM

— Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) June 2, 2021

Scheyer returned to the program as a coach in 2013 as a special assistant, and after previous Associate Head Coach Jeff Capel left the program to become the head coach of the University of Pittsburgh Panthers, Scheyer stepped into the role.

Scheyer almost made a significant impact as a recruiter; he’s been responsible for the recruitment of future NBA players such as Jayson Tatum, Cam Reddish and Luke Kennard. He also recruited Jalen Johnson, a likely lottery pick in the 2021 draft, and Paolo Banchero, the top high school prospect in the incoming freshman class.

Jon Scheyer was responsible for recruiting

Jayson Tatum

Cam Reddish

Luke Kennard

Jalen Johnson

The Blue Devils will be in good hands when Coach K steps down pic.twitter.com/4nNZ6yB6yF

— 247Sports (@247Sports) June 2, 2021

In his first statement since being named Head Coach-in-waiting, Scheyer emphasized the momentous impact that Coach K has had on him, and the Blue Devil program.

“This is absolutely humbling.,” Scheyer said. “Coach K has built the premier program in our sport thanks to his unwavering competitive edge, a tireless attention to detail, a family-first approach and a remarkable compassion and care of his players, coaches and staff. He has set a standard that every coach at every level should strive to achieve.”

The post Jon Scheyer Named as Duke Head Coach Following Mike Krzyzewski’s Retirement appeared first on SLAM.

The winningest coach in Division I history with 1,170 career victories, Coach K hung five national championship banners in Cameron Indoor in his 41 seasons of coaching.

Widely regarded as the best head coach since UCLA’s John Wooden, Krzyzewski has 1,097 career wins at Duke, securing 12 Final Four appearances and 12 regular-season ACC championships.

Coach K’s resume is A1

– 5 national titles
– 12 Final Four appearances
– 12 ACC regular-season titles
– 15 ACC tournament championships
– Most wins ever with 1,170

Is he the GOAT college coach? pic.twitter.com/AdtIEpY3Um

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) June 2, 2021

According to ESPN, Krzyzewski and the Blue Devils are in the final steps of locking in associate head coach Jon Scheyer as K’s replacement. The starting point guard of Duke’s 2010 championship squad has been on Krzyzewski’s staff since 2013 and was the lead recruiter for Duke standouts like Jayson Tatum and Zion Williamson.

Combined with his five years as the head coach of the Army basketball program, the 74-year-old Krzyzewski holds a 1,170-361 record.

The post Duke Blue Devils HC Mike Krzyzewski to Retire After 2021-22 Season appeared first on SLAM.

“Playing 41 games here wouldn’t be so bad,” Williamson told reporters.

Zion Williamson on Knicks: I think this is RJ's team. RJ, u wanna play for the Knicks? If they draft me, I'd love to play for the Knicks. I don't really care where I go. Just the experience of being in the NBA whoever wants me & whoever sees the most in me that's where I wanna be pic.twitter.com/HHYlKLlKK1

— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) December 21, 2018

Zion fouled out late in the fourth quarter, finishing with 17 points and 13 rebounds in 25 minutes, helping lead Duke past Texas Tech 69-58.

Per ESPN:

“Forty-one games at the Garden, I mean, it would probably be incredible,” the projected top-five NBA draft pick said after helping Duke come back for a 69-58 win over Texas Tech.

And given that the New York Knicks are among the worst teams in the NBA this season, Williamson — as well as fellow Duke freshmen RJ Barrett and Cam Reddish — could be available to be selected to play his home games at MSG next season.

“This is the Garden,” Williamson said. “A lot of greats have come through here. My favorite great to come through here was probably Bernard King because my stepdad talked about him a lot how he just put the ball in the basket. … I had to go watch his highlights. He could really score the basketball. He was incredible how he did it.

“Playing 41 games here wouldn’t be so bad.”

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Zion Williamson is DOMINATING College Basketball

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The 17-year-old showed out for a host of elite head coaches—including Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, Kentucky’s John Calipari, Texas’ Shaka Smart, Kansas’ Bill Self.

https://twitter.com/SLAM_HS/status/987873417939640320

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No. 1 Class Of 2020 Point Guard RJ Hampton’s Sophomore Mixtape

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In honor of their partnership with Coach K, the Swoosh has dedicated an entire building to him on their man campus in Beaverton, Oregon.

The Coach K Fitness Center is a 47,000 square-foot facility that has workout studios and exercise equipment. There’s a basketball court on the third floor that “pays homage to Coach K, his family and Duke University,” according to a Nike press release.

Check out the gallery above to see a preview of the Mike Krzyzewski Fitness Center, opening in early 2018.

Photos via Nike

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In a B/R Mag feature, Coach K recounts the time when he first noticed Kyrie, who was playing high school ball for St. Patrick.

Krzyzewski watched Kyrie destroy the best teams in New Jersey and would later tell him, “You’ll be one of the best of your generation.”

They thought he would end up at a mid-major program, but Coach K saw something different #BRmag https://t.co/LAZVXcksLf pic.twitter.com/goUWd4TI78

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) May 17, 2017

“He wasn’t playing with the best team in New Jersey,” Krzyzewski tells B/R Mag. “But he was single-handedly killing all these teams.”

 

Later, when he could talk to Kyrie, he told him: “You’ll be one of the best of your generation.”

RELATED:
Kyrie Irving: One Championship Not Enough

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When we linked up with him a few months back, the top point guard in the Class of 2017 had narrowed his list down to Arizona, Seton Hall, Kansas, Baylor and Duke.

Via The Player’s Tribune, Duval officially announced today that he’s headed to play for Mike Krzyzewski and the Blue Devils.

Duval’s known for his athleticism and ability to run the offense. He’s poised to join the WNBA’s Elena Delle Donne as the only hoopers from Delaware to currently play for either the NBA or WNBA.

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Trevon Duval’s Hardly Home, but Always Reppin’

Photo by Grant Meeks

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More from ESPN:

“His back has been bothering him way worse than he’s let on,” a source told ESPN.

 

Associate head coach Jeff Capel will coach the team while Krzyzewski recovers. Capel’s first game will be Saturday against Boston College.

 

“Dr. William Richardson, Dr. [Allan] Friedman, and our medical team have worked tirelessly to help manage this issue for several weeks,” Krzyzewski said in a statement. “Together, we have determined that surgery is the best course of action at this time. During my recovery process, the team will be in the capable hands of Coach Capel, Coach [Nate] James and Coach [Jon] Scheyer. As soon as the doctors clear me to do so, I look forward to returning and giving our team 100% of my energy and attention, which is certainly something that they deserve.”

Coach K, who is 69 years old, underwent four surgeries in the offseason including a knee replacement.

The news continues a tumultuous time in Durham. A few days before Christmas, star player Grayson Allen was suspended indefinitely for intentionally tripping a player for the third time in the past year. Over the weekend, the team lost its ACC opener to Virginia Tech and it was announced that Allen had been stripped of his status as a team captain.

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The SLAM Podcast Episode 29: College Hoops Talk

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In the video above, 2K assembles Paul George, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Draymond Green, Andre Drummond, Jimmy Butler and Karl-Anthony Towns. That’d be the squad on the real or virtual hardwood.

For those who preordered the game, it’ll be available on September 16. Then its release goes wide on September 20

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If played well, basketball showed that the players on the court, their teammates on the bench, and their coach could all meaningfully participate and contribute to achieving goals, often with personal sacrifices being made so as not to be selfish. And with hard work, and within a framework of rules of the game.

Along with achievement come friendships, respect for others, camaraderie, as well as the benefits of physical fitness. It’s a game that respects great individual talent, but understands that teamwork trumps individuality and selfishness. The person who helps out on defense, sets a pick, takes down a rebound, makes the right pass, and moves to the right spot is a valued member.

This past Friday morning as I was on my way to the New Yorker Hotel on 34th Street and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan for the 2015 Joe Lapchick Character Award luncheon and ceremony, I passed through Times Square.

Times Square. In the heart of mid-town Manhattan where Broadway and Seventh Avenue join, stretching from 42nd Street to 47th Street. It’s the world’s most visited place. Millions of people from all over the world visit annually. The Crossroads of the World.

It looked to me that many of the over 200 attendees at the Lapchick award ceremony grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, and some in the 1940s. For them the crossroads of the basketball world was a short distance from Times Square—at Madison Square Garden.

The ballroom at the New Yorker Hotel was filled with silver and gray-headed people whose love of the game has enriched their lives and kept them youthful. In the audience were former or current coaches, players, athletic directors and administrators, scouts, basketball camp owners, fans, sportswriters, and probably refs.

For those in the audience who also believe that basketball is a metaphor for life, then perhaps the Garden was the real crossroads of the world. From 1925 until February 1968, the Garden was in full bloom on 49th Street and Eighth Avenue and since then, at 33rd Street and Eighth Avenue.

Before the building of large campus arenas and large professional team arenas, the explosion of cable television, the start of holiday tournaments in exotic locations such as Hawaii and the Virgin Islands, and the expanded powers of the NCAA, Madison Square Garden was unquestionably the mecca of men’s college basketball. The best teams from all over the country and from New York City played before large crowds and countless New York newspaper writers in the greatest city in the world.

There were the Holiday Festival, the National Invitation Tournament (NIT), and the college triple-headers. The NIT was more prestigious than the NCAA tournament in the 1940s and still considered very prestigious into the mid 1970s when the NCAA opened up its tournament to more teams. In the early 1970s, the Garden was the mecca of professional basketball as the Knicks won two NBA championships.

Jack Kaiser, the famed former athletic director and baseball coach at St. John’s, who was on the podium for the awards ceremony, had recently reminded me that Coach Al McGuire chose to have his Marquette team play in the 1970 NIT instead of the NCAA because he was upset that his highly-ranked team was going to be sent to a distant regional location instead of closer to home. Then known as the Warriors, Marquette won that NIT championship. The NCAA later made a rule forbidding a team to go to the NIT if it qualified for the NCAA tournament.

Don’t get me wrong. Given its history and location, the Garden has always captured the imagination of any basketball ballplayer and is a thrill to play in. It’s probably still the most prestigious basketball court in the world.

So it was fitting that the annual luncheon honoring the memory of Joe Lapchick and two great college basketball coaches took place a block away from Madison Square Garden and in front of an audience that comprised mostly of people who remember the Garden as the mecca of college basketball. Joe Lapchick, Lucile Kyvallos, and Mike Krzyzewski all graced the Garden court back in the day.

And for me personally, the day represented an intersection of different roads traveled.

Joe Lapchick

The Joe Lapchick Character Award was established in 2008 to honor the legacy of Joe Lapchick and pay tribute to those in the game of basketball that share his good character, commitment to excellence, and leadership skills.

In the game for over 50 years, Joe Lapchick was a great ballplayer and coach. A Hall of Famer. His stats back up his successes. A 6-5 agile big man, Lapchick played pro ball with a number of teams in the 1920s and 1930s either in professional leagues or on barnstorming tours. His teams won a number of championships in the old American Basketball League.

As coach of St. John’s, four of his St. John’s teams won NIT championships, two of which were in the 1940s. His Redmen had a 334-130 record. He left St John’s in 1947 to coach the New York Knicks and led the Knicks to eight straight winning seasons and eight trips to the Playoffs, including three straight NBA Finals. He returned to coach St. John’s in 1956 and retired in 1965.

Joe Lapchick loved the game of basketball and was successful in it. He also loved integrity and humility.

One of his former players, Gus Alfieri, who came up with the idea for the Lapchick Character Award and also wrote a biography of Lapchick, spoke at the ceremony. He spoke of when Coach Lapchick sent one of his St. John’s players home before a game when he didn’t feel well, despite willing to play because the team could have used him. Alfieri spoke about the Knicks’ President Ned Irish picking Coach Lapchick to coach the New York Knicks in 1947 over many other good and successful coaches because of his character.

In the foreword to Alfieri’s book, Bill Bradley—who was one of the honorees at the 1965 annual metropolitan sportswriters dinner, which turned out to be a Joe Lapchick “retirement party given by his many sports-media friends”—wrote the following:

As speakers came forward, and Joe Lapchick’s life unfolded before the five hundred guests, I realized how much the sports world loved and admired him, and would miss him. He was a gentleman who was always concerned for his friends and the integrity of the game he loved. As I listened to the speakers, I identified with Lapchick’s passion for the game, which sent chills up my spine.

In the book there are at least two Bob Cousy stories. Cousy talks about Lapchick dissuading him from transferring to St. John’s from Holy Cross because it was not in Cousy’s best interest. And in a Playoff game against the Celtics, Lapchick lets the refs know that a basket scored by the Celtics was not properly credited, giving the Celtics two points they deserved.

Coach Lou Carnesecca, the most beloved New York City sports figure today, was also on the podium for the ceremony. This past spring, Carnesecca summed up Coach Lapchick’s humility when the new St. John’s coach Chris Mullin was introduced to the media and the students. Carnesecca gave Mullin a small beat up card that he always carried with him. Coach Lapchick gave it to him when Carnesecca took over the coaching job at St. John’s upon Lapchick’s retirement. The card read, “ Peacock today, feather duster tomorrow.”

I remember watching on television Coach Lapchick’s last game in 1965 as the Johnnies won the NIT at Madison Square Garden in a thrilling game against Villanova. As I was watching the game, I told my mom that Coach Lapchick was coaching his last game and was being forced to retire because he was 65 years old. You know how moms always seem older than they are when you’re a kid. But she was not even 50 yet. As a mom she did not follow sports, although she did as a girl. I remember my mom feeling very bad about Lapchick’s forced retirement. It didn’t seem right.

Mike Krzyzewski

At 68 years old, Mike Krzyzewski was one of the kids in the ballroom.

This past spring he coached his Duke Blue Devils team to the NCAA championship for the fifth time. He has coached more victories than anyone in men’s Division I college basketball. His record going into this season was 1,018-310. Coach Krzyzewski is a Hall of Famer who has also coached the U.S. Olympic Men’s Basketball teams to gold medals in 2012 and 2016. Simply one of the best coaches in the history of the game.

Krzyzewski played at West Point for Bobby Knight, and was a captain his senior year. He served in the army for five years before going into coaching. He became the head coach at West Point in 1975 and at Duke in 1980. Although a Chicago native, Coach Krzyzewski has New York City bona fides. West Point, New York is not far from New York City. Krzyzewski played in the Garden. And his West Point coach, Bobby Knight, had a close relationship and learned much from Joe Lapchick.

Coach Krzyzewski spoke lovingly of New York City basketball, St. John’s basketball, Coach Carnesecca, and Joe Lapchick. And when he talked about his mom, he felt tears coming on.

He joked how when he played at West Point, he and his St. John’s opponent Carmine Calzonetti, who was in the audience, guarded each other and each had done their job, holding the other to no points. And the punch line was that their coaches did not want them to shoot.

He was grateful for all the good people he has been associated with his whole career. His mom worked as a cleaning lady. Hid dad was an elevator operator who had to change his last name to make sure he would not face prejudice in getting a job.

Right before he started high school, his mom wanted to go over his bus trip to school. Krzyzewski told his mom he knew which buses to get on. But that’s not what she wanted him to learn. Krzyzewski’s mom wanted him to learn about his life’s upcoming journey. She told him that he would now be driving the bus, and it was important that he only let good people on that bus with him. And that if he got on someone else’s bus, to make sure it had good people on it.

This past Friday afternoon was the second time I had ever seen Mike Krzyzewski in person. The first time was in the spring of 1969. I was sitting in either the first or second row behind the far end of the Army bench in the new Madison Square Garden. Army was playing Tennessee in the consolation game of the NIT tournament. Remember consolation games?

It was the new Madison Square Garden that opened a little more than a year earlier. My cousin Mershe was able to get tickets for my cousin Allan and I. I wanted to see the championship game between Boston College and Temple. It was Bob Cousy’s last game as coach of BC. Although Cousy had retired from the Celtics by the time I became a Celtics fan, I wanted to root for his BC team because he had been a Celtic.

Less than a year and a half later I was in college at Queens College.

Lucille Kyvallos

Queens College was considered the crown jewel of the City University of New York (CUNY) when I attended and the years leading up to 1970. It was known for its strong academics and students who were active in civil rights and the political and social causes of the day. Queens College put women’s college basketball in New York on the map. Its women’s basketball team was one of the best in the country with national prominence. It’s a continuing source of pride to many who attended Queens College. And it was Coach Lucille Kyvallos who led the Queens College women’s basketball team to tremendous success.

Coach Lucille Kyvallos was hired by Queens College in 1966 as an assistant professor of physical education, and she taught courses in theory and sports skills. In 1968, in addition to her teaching responsibilities, she became the women’s basketball coach, and received no extra money for taking the position, just extra paid vacation days.

Raised in Astoria Queens, Kyvallos became a terrific basketball player growing up in the 1940s and 1950s. She played in schoolyards and playgrounds with boys. She played in rec leagues, the Police Athletic League (PAL), and semi-pro leagues. She played in the old Garden in a PAL championship game. She played every chance she could, often playing on numerous teams at the same time. The older she got, the farther and wider she traveled to play in games. A true hoopster.

Her high school in Queens, Bryant High, and her undergraduate college, Springfield College, did not have women’s varsity basketball teams. But that did not deter her from finding leagues and tournaments in which to play. She also found games that used men’s rules as opposed to women’s rules. During those years, women’s rules confined each player to one side of the full-court, limiting a player’s movement to half the court. Back then, women’s rules also limited the number of dribbles and limited the aggressiveness of a defensive player.

Kyvallos’ first college coaching position was in 1962 at West Chester State College in suburban Philadelphia. Kyvallos had a strong pool of women players coming out of high schools and CYO leagues that encouraged girls to play basketball and dedicated the resources to teaching the game. At West Chester, her coaching record was 54 -2 over four years.

The NCAA did not govern women’s college sports back then. There was no national governing body of women’s college basketball until the founding of the Commission of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (CIAW) in 1967 that in 1971 became the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW).

Women’s college basketball had its first national tournament in 1969, an invitational tournament. In 1971 the AIAW adopted new rules that made the women’s college game rules almost the same as the men’s college game. The one major difference was the implementation of a 30-second shot clock in the women’s game. In 1971, regional qualifying tournaments had to be played in order to qualify for the national championships. Queens won its regional tournament in 1971 and played in the national championships. It ended the season ranked 11th in the nation. Queens played in the national championship tournaments again from 1972 through 1976 and in 1978.

The AIAW started having separate national championships for “small schools” in 1975. When Queens made the national championships in 1975, 1976, and 1978, it was in the top division, for big schools. At the time, the Queens College men’s varsity teams were in the CUNY Conference and were in Division III of the NCAA.

In 1973, Queens hosted the national championship tournament at Fitzgerald Gymnasium on the Queens College campus. Coach Kyvallos was the tournament director, responsible for running the tournament and managing the logistics, in addition to coaching her team. As tournament director, Kyvallos knew that sportsmanship was important. People from all over the country and with different perspectives were there.

Jill Hutchison in the book A Century of Women’s Basketball writes, “Coach Kyvallos had to urge her fans to show positive support for the Queens team, but not rudeness to their guests.”

Queens made the championship game losing to Immaculata College in the finals before a sell-out crowd. It was Immaculata’s second straight national championship. Queens was the number two team in the country that year. Almost a year later, during a regular season rematch in February 1974 before another packed house in Fitzgerald Gymnasium, Queens beat Immaculata, breaking Immaculata’s winning streak of 35 games.

It was a one-point victory that went down to the wire. Queens took the lead with 25 seconds to go and did not allow Immaculata to get a shot off in the remaining time. It was a stirring game. I was there.

Before the 1974-75 season began, Coach Kyvallos was invited by Rob Franklin, Madison Square Garden’s director of amateur athletics, to play in the Garden that upcoming season. It would be a historic game. The first women’s college basketball game ever played in Madison Square Garden. The Garden was the most prestigious stage for a basketball player.

Franklin said Queens could pick the opponent. Kyvallos called Cathy Rush, the Immaculata coach and invited Immaculata to play in that game. By then, Immaculata had won three straight national championships.The game drew close to 12,000 fans, many of whom were women. Immaculata made a comeback after being down by eight points in the second half to win 65-61.

It was an incredibly meaningful day for many young female athletes, in the stands and on the court. It validated their love of the game of basketball, a game that added meaning to their lives, and allowed them to believe their dreams could one day come true.

In 1977, Kyvallos coached the U.S. team in the World University Games to a silver medal. During her career, Kyvallos served on committees for the U.S. Olympics, the AIAW, lectured at basketball clinics, and ran basketball camps.

Lucille Kyvallos coached Queens from 1968 through 1979 and then coached Queens one more year in the 1980-81 season. Her record at Queens was 239-77. Her teams won the New York State and regional championships multiple times. She is in the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame, the Queens College Athletics Hall of Fame, and the West Chester University Hall of Fame.

Like all great coaches, Coach Kyvallos took her coaching responsibilities seriously. The practices were well organized. And long and hard. Drills, drills, and more drills. It was about teaching the fundamentals of how to move on the court, being aware of where and when to move, where to make the right pass, how to ball fake, making layups, getting down the court as fast as possible, and when to drive and when to shoot. And getting her players physically conditioned.

Her priorities were defense, rebounding, and then offense. Her teams often played tight man-to-man defense. Defense would create offensive opportunities with steals, deflections, and resulting errant passes. Offensively she wanted her teams to push the ball up the court quickly. Her teams would sometimes scrimmage in practice against men.

When all was said and done, Coach Kyvallos wanted to teach women what they were capable of if they put in the work. To play basketball with a high degree of skill, athleticism, intellect, and in a team-oriented fashion. And to compete as hard as possible, and to find better competition as they improved.

And Coach Kyvallos is proud that the lessons of teamwork, leadership, discipline, taking responsibility, hard work, thinking on your feet, preparation, and working through difficult situations on the court, carried off the court in the post-collegiate lives of her players.

At the award ceremony and luncheon, many of her former players were present. Near the end of her speech, Coach Kyvallos proudly called the names of a number of former players to stand up while announcing their professional accomplishments. Lucille Kyvallos has taught all of us, both men and women, a unique lesson. Women can love and be as passionate about the game of basketball—and when you think about it, anything else—as much as men, and for the same reasons.

Photo courtesy of Andy Lipton

The post Greatness and Character appeared first on SLAM.

He’s arguably Duke’s most important offensive player, but he barely played until the NCAA Tournament last season.

“It’s not like Grayson is this combat veteran,” head coach Mike Krzyzewski reminded reporters after his team’s first game at the 2K Classic.

He’s a scoring guard who rarely handles the ball. On offense, he floats between the elbow and corner on the weak side; when he springs into motion, his constant curls and rub-offs seem to be resurrected from JJ Redick’s Duke playbook.

He’s become known for his dunks–even before his highlight reel slam against Michigan State, he won the McDonalds’ All-American dunk contest as a high school senior–but he did most of his damage from the perimeter at MSG. He had a few smooth lay-ups, but most of his drives were to set up assists.

Talking about a Duke player’s intangibles comes dangerously close to cliché. But the person who sees Allen play the most and has presided on over 1,000 wins thinks the kid has something special inside.

To get a perspective on that X-factor, look at the stats from Allen’s last game before coming to New York. He looked bad and the team floundered with him. Kentucky clogged the lane forcing Allen to focus on simply getting a shot off in traffic rather than scoring; he finished that game with four turnovers and only two baskets.

Even more dangerously, he didn’t act like a player up for a fight. “He didn’t have a strong face,” Krzyzewski said. “When he saw it, he said ‘Whoa.’ But we watched it and I said, ‘Look at your face. Is that how you want to look?’ He said, ‘I can’t believe it.’ And I said, ‘That’s what I’m looking at. But that’s what Kentucky is looking at and that’s what your teammates are looking at.’ When you’re an outstanding player, you win not just by how you perform, but you win by how you look and how you act. You set up an environment that’s conducive to winning. That’s the responsibility of your best players. My best players have done that and [Allen] is as good of a player as we have.”

Jump ahead to the first game at MSG on Friday. It’s a big game for Duke and Allen to rebound. Except he isn’t starting. Even when he comes into the game, Derryck Thornton is the primary ball handler.

“I just told [Allen] ‘You’re not starting,” Coach K later explained. “We have a great relationship. When we got back from Kentucky the next day, I met with half my team individually and just told them ‘This is what I think.’ And with Grayson, I said I was disappointed. ‘You didn’t make an adjustment. You’re not going to start. You don’t have to be great, you have to be consistent.”

He might not have been looking for greatness, but that’s what Coach K got.

Allen entered the game against VCU for the first time at 16:25; 40 seconds later, he knocked down a three. Nine seconds after that he pulled down a defensive rebound before driving the length of the court to draw a foul. After the TV timeout, he made both free throws. The tone was set.

Allen would go on to finish the half with 15 points; the second half would be a mirror performance, giving him a career-high 30 on the back of his benching.

“The response that Grayson had from Kentucky is huge. I think it’s spectacular, to be quite frank with you,” Krzyzewski said. “A lot of kids would question themselves, and he never did.”

To make things more impressive, Allen wasn’t the beneficiary of any set plays. Coach K revealed that for much of the game, his players were running a motion offense. So when Allen received a pass near the top of the key after running off a screen, it was up to him to assess the defense and react. When the defender lagged behind, he hit his jumpers; when they pressed him, he drove to the rim. It’s simple in concept, but the sophomore executed it without a hitch.

“For us, it’s all about moving on,” Allen said after the VCU game. “There was obviously a rough film session after the Kentucky game where we talked about the improvements that needed to be made. Once you see that you move on to the next game. You make those improvements and move on. For me, coming off the bench it was nothing different as if I was starting. It’s the same aggressive, attacking mindset.

When asked specifically about what adjustments he made, Allen said he focused on “seeing lanes to drive—not forcing the issue every time and finding the open guy.”

“He was driving to score, not driving to get a shot off,” his coach added.

And how did Allen follow up a career-high performance at Madison Square Garden? By setting another career-high in the championship game against Georgetown on the way to MVP honors. His performance was one that even his coach had to marvel at.

“I’ve leaned on my great players my whole career,” Kryzewski said. “It’s not about coaching, it’s about allowing your great players to be great and putting them in positions to do things you can’t orchestrate. We kept doing a few things that would give him an opportunity to make his reads. His stat line is one of the sensational stat lines, just ask someone who’s been doing this for 41 years. 32 points on 12 shots is crazy. It’s just a crazy stat. I’d like to see him do that again and again and again. Maybe we should get him more shots; he’d get about 40.”

But even with Allen’s scoring, the most noticeable thing about him is his emotion. That’s nothing new for Duke; the Coach K era has seen plenty of floor slapping, fist pumping, and hugging. But the ferocity and the frequency of Allen’s fist pumps, which are closer to haymakers than anything else, seem different. Part of it likely comes down to inexperience–these are big shots at big moments for a relatively new player–but another part is his personality. He’s a player who knows he can walk the walk and wants to prove it.

Coach K is careful to note the youth and inexperience of this Duke team, which has seven freshmen as compared to four upperclassmen. “One talks that because we’re Duke and because I’m coaching, that’s it you’re supposed to be great,” he said. “We’re a good team, and we hope to be a really good team. But we’re not this juggernaut or anything. We’ve got to fight for everything.”

Despite that, Grayson Allen sent a message at Madison Square Garden. This Duke team might not be great, but he can be. And Duke can go as far as he takes them.

The post Blue Steel appeared first on SLAM.

Part One: Coach K on His West Point Days, Becoming a Leader
Part Two: Coach K on Building a Team

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34 players, including 8 who are new to the MNT, are expected for the USA minicamp. http://t.co/5sq3eUQNJ7 #USABmnt pic.twitter.com/iRJMxyiWcF

— USA Basketball (@usabasketball) August 6, 2015

Newcomers to Team USA include Harrison Barnes, Jimmy Butler, Michael Carter-Williams, Mike Conley, Draymond Green, Tobias Harris, DeAndre Jordan and Victor Oladipo.

The coaching staff is made up of head coach Mike Krzyzewski, assistants Jim Boeheim, Tom Thibodeau and Monty Williams.

Practices will run from Aug11-12, and the camp will conclude with a televised USA Blue vs USA White exhibition game at the Thomas & Mack Center on Thursday, Aug.13.

From the press release:

USA National Team members confirmed for the 2015 Las Vegas minicamp include: LaMarcus Aldridge (San Antonio Spurs); Carmelo Anthony (New York Knicks); Bradley Beal (Washington Wizards); DeMarcus Cousins (Sacramento Kings); Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors); Anthony Davis (New Orleans Pelicans); DeMar DeRozan (Toronto Raptors); Andre Drummond (Detroit Pistons); Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City Thunder); Kenneth Faried (Denver Nuggets); Rudy Gay (Sacramento Kings); Paul George (Indiana Pacers); Blake Griffin (Los Angeles Clippers); James Harden (Houston Rockets); Gordon Hayward (Utah Jazz); Dwight Howard (Houston Rockets); Kyrie Irving (Cleveland Cavaliers); LeBron James (Cleveland Cavaliers); Kawhi Leonard (San Antonio Spurs); Kevin Love (Cleveland Cavaliers); Chandler Parsons (Dallas Mavericks); Chris Paul (Los Angeles Clippers); Mason Plumlee (Portland Trail Blazers); Klay Thompson (Golden State Warriors); John Wall (Washington Wizards); and Russell Westbrook (Oklahoma City Thunder).

 

“With this being a summer where we do not have an official competition that we need to prepare for, this year’s minicamp is an opportunity to continue and expand the brotherhood and camaraderie that has been built,” said Colangelo, who has served as managing director of the USA National Team since 2005. “It will be a celebration of all that we’ve accomplished with USA Basketball since the National Team program was formed in 2006 while also looking ahead to 2016. The minicamp is going to be low key with light workouts, no contact, and the USA Basketball Showcase on Aug. 13 will be a fun all-star type game.

 

“We recognize and understand that some of our players’ availability to participate is still up in the air. Some players are coming off of injuries and are not yet ready to actively participate, or they are getting ready for their NBA seasons. So, it’s a good thing that we don’t have a competition to get ready for this summer. […] We’re also excited about the eight players who have been added to the National Team roster. Seven of the players have been involved in past national team training camps or have participated in past camps as a member of our select teams. All of them enjoyed outstanding NBA seasons in 2014-15 and have been on our radar for a while,” added Colangelo.

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Part One: Coach K on His West Point Days, Becoming a Leader

The post Coach K on Building a Team (VIDEO) appeared first on SLAM.

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In his 40-plus years of coaching, Mike Krzyzewski has over 1,000 wins, 9 National Title game appearances, 5 National Titles, 2 Gold medals with the USA men’s national team and has inspired an unbelievable number of people.

Last night I had the chance to attend “An Evening with Coach K” put on by Steiner Sports at the Hudson Theater at the Millennium Hotel in the heart of New York City. During the Q+A session hosted by Brandon Steiner, Coach K told a great story about his 2015 National Champion team.

After a player had transferred and another was dismissed from the team, Duke was down to a roster of eight. He said, “On the board that morning, I drew the number 8. I said, “Eight is enough.” I looked at each one of the guys and told them why they’d be important.

I asked them, “What do you see when you see the number 8?” and they didn’t have an answer. So I drew a sideways 8, which is the infinite sign. Eight is never-ending. It became a mantra for us. I told them that means every one of you is with us and important.”

That team of course went on to win it all in dramatic fashion over a very tough Wisconsin team. Coach K also said, “This is so damn cool. The eighth man who averaged 8 minutes a game scored 8 straight points and we won the damn game.”

So, with the theme of 8s, I decided to pick 8 Awesome Things from the Coach K event last night.

1. He never thought he was going to fail.

When asked if he ever thought the profession of coaching wasn’t for him following a poor record in his first season in coaching, Coach K said, “No, I never felt that I was going to fail, although I was failing for a while. I was too young to think about failure. I was a head coach at 28 at the United States Military Academy and although we were 11-14 the first year, they had only been 7-44 the two years before that. So, I had a chance to really learn how to build a program. We ended up 73-59 at West Point, then at 33, I got a chance to coach at a great University (Duke).”

2. He helps send kids to college with a center inspired by his mom Emily.

Coach K’s mom Emily never went to high school. She was a cleaning lady in inner city Chicago. Emily passed away in 1996, but not before inspiring Coach K to show the world some love in memory of her.

“I’ve been a lucky guy. I was lucky to have Emily as my Mom. She’s been the best person in my life. She was there all the time for me and always gave me good advice. We have the Emily K. Center at Durham that services hundreds of kids. Those kids are going to be the first generation of their families to go to college. It’s in its 9th year. It’s really to show the kids there that, first of all, you should love your mom and dad and secondly, it was because of her that I’m first generation college in my family. We get kids from about 45 different schools that aren’t getting the proper education, but they’re talented. They come (to the Center) and all go to college and all get aid. So, it works. And it’s a cool thing. It’s one of the things we’re most proud of.”

3. The crux of his life is finding good people to be around.

“I love Coach (Bob) Knight. I love what he did for me. A lot of what I’ve learned about the game I’ve learned from him. I got to meet other great people. Mr. (Henry) Iba, one of the great coaches of all time, Coach Pete Newell, who is one of the great teachers of the game. So you meet all these people. You keep putting yourself in a position to be around good people and good things happen for you and that’s really the crux of my life is finding good people to be around.”

4. He looks for three traits in Duke recruits: talent, academics, character.

“What we try to do, we’re in a constant search for kids that we feel fit our profile. They have to have talent so we can compete for Championships. Not everyone has to be a pro right away but they have to have good talent. They have to have academics. They have to have been touched by good academics. The third thing is character. Character is the separator.”

5. He says Grayson Allen owns the best Duke moment ever.

“Of all the moments everyone has had for our program, to me the best moment thus far is what Grayson did in the Wisconsin game.”

Regarding the freshman’s title game performance, he said, “For every single game in the Tournament we had 3 Es—energy, effort and emotion—and he (Allen) knew we needed all of them.”

6. He loves LeBron and thinks he is the most unique player to ever play.

“I love LeBron. I’ve been with LeBron since he was 20. He and I are very, very close. He, over these last 10 years, has learned to not just be a great athlete, but to use his other great qualities. He’s so smart. He’s such a good leader and talker. I love LeBron. He really is going to be the most unique player to ever play because he can play every position offensively and he can defend every position defensively and no one’s been able to do that in the history of the game.”

7. He picks a “leadership group” on Team USA and gets close to them.

“With the Olympic team, I’ll pick a leadership group that I want to get close to. My first Olympic team, it was Jason Kidd, Dwyane Wade, Kobe and LeBron. I wanted to be close with them. With the (2010) World Championship team, you couldn’t do that with the young kids, so I had Chauncey Billups. Actually on that team, you wouldn’t believe this, a great leader for us was Lamar Odom. On the 2012 Olympic team, it was Chris Paul, along with LeBron and Kobe. In ’14, for me it was James Harden, Steph Curry and Kyrie (because I had coached him before), but I try to pick out a leadership team, not just a leader.”

8. He drops knowledge about winning Championships.

“There are a lot of programs in the country that put their hat on winning a game. There are very few programs that put their hats on winning Championships. The last 18 years or 19 years on the road, we’ve lost I think 57 games. In 48 of those games, they stormed the court. That means that was a Championship game for that school. There’s a losing record for those teams in the next game that they play. That’s not what our program is built on. Our program is built on winning a Championship and doing it the right way.”

—

Coach K continues to share stories and inspire people all around the globe and there’s no denying why. He lives his life and coaches basketball the right way and it shows in his success.

For more stories, feel free to follow me on Instagram @jordanhagedorn.

Images via Getty

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Sulaimon was dismissed by the Blue Devils in January because Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski claimed he “has been unable to consistently live up to the standards required to be a member of our program,” and it is believed that his dismissal stemmed from multiple sexual assault allegations.

From ESPN:

Former Duke Blue Devils guard Rasheed Sulaimon told ESPN he has committed to Maryland and will spend his final season in college with the Terps.

 

“For everything I’ve been through, my family and I wanted me to be at a place where I trusted everyone,” Sulaimon said. “I’ve known Coach [Mark] Turgeon and [assistant coach Dustin] Clark since I was 13. I trust them.”

 

Sulaimon, who was dismissed from the Blue Devils program in January, took a visit to College Park over the weekend and met with athletic director Kevin Anderson, president Wallace D. Loh and the Maryland players.

 

“We did our due diligence,” Turgeon told ESPN. “We were extremely thorough and talked to a lot of people and vetted the entire situation. I’ve known Rasheed and his family since he was 13, and I believe in him. There’s a trust factor, and we’ve had a strong relationship.”

 

Sulaimon said he is on track to graduate in early August. Due to the NCAA’s graduate transfer rule, he will be eligible next season — his final one in college.

 

His addition makes Turgeon’s team a legitimate candidate to cut down the nets in April.

 

“They have a chance to be a special team,” Sulaimon said. “They are great guys off the court, and they embraced me. At the end of the day, I wanted to go somewhere to have the opportunity to be part of something bigger than myself.”

 

Said Turgeon: “He wanted a chance to win at the highest level. He’s a piece that fits what we’re doing here — both personality-wise and on the court. He’ll add leadership. We had other options, but we felt like Rasheed was the best one.”

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From GoDuke.com:

Duke freshman Justise Winslow will enter the 2015 NBA Draft, head coach Mike Krzyzewski announced Tuesday.

 

“We’re very happy for Justise and his family,” said Krzyzewski. “He had a sensational year, both on and off the court. He was an amazing factor for our success in winning the national championship. From everything we have found out, Justise is projected to be a high lottery pick and we believe that to be true. This is a great time to take advantage of this opportunity. We’re behind him all the way and love him and his family.”

 

Winslow, an All-Final Four team selection, joins Corey Maggette (1999), Luol Deng (2004), Kyrie Irving (2011), Austin Rivers (2012), Jabari Parker (2014) and teammate Jahlil Okafor (2015) as Blue Devil freshmen to enter the NBA Draft after just one season of college basketball.

 

Winslow, the third-highest freshman scorer in the ACC this season, averaged 12.5 points per game on 48.6 percent shooting from the field. In 31 of his 39 appearances, Winslow scored 10-or-more points, the second most double-digit scoring games by a freshman in the ACC this year, behind only Okafor (35). Winslow’s 31 double-digit scoring games ranks tied for third on Duke’s freshman list, while his 492 total points tied with Jason Williams for eighth on the Duke rookie chart.

 

Winslow also averaged 6.5 rebounds per game, second most by a freshman in the conference. He became just the second player 6-6 or under for Krzyzewski to average at least 6.0 rebounds per game, joining Chris Carrawell (6.1 rpg. In 1999-00). Winslow posted seven double-doubles during the 2014-15 season, including three-straight double-doubles in games against Virginia, Georgia Tech and Notre Dame. Winslow was recognized for his athletic prowess by being named to the All-ACC Freshman Team and the USBWA All-District III Team.

 

“This year at Duke University, my dreams and aspirations have literally come true,” said Winslow. “Since I was a kid in third grade playing for the Houston Jaguars, I envisioned one day playing at the collegiate level and winning a championship. If you fast forward 10 years and my dream became a reality. The friendships and relationships I’ve formed with those a part of the Duke and Durham community have been even better than winning the National Championship. With that being said, my family and I have decided that I should declare for the NBA draft this year. Considering the success and growth that I have experienced over this past year as a player and as a person, I believe it is time to take the next step on my career path and play at the highest level.”

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Today, a report in Sports Illustrated elaborated on Sulaimon’s current situation. According to the report, Sulaimon is “not currently under investigation by the school,” and his dismissal was because of “an accumulation of events.”

From Sports Illustrated:

Dismissed from the Duke basketball program in January, Rasheed Sulaimon has been in the national spotlight this week because of allegations that he committed sexual assault, while the school has had to deflect inquiries of an institutional coverup.

 

Yet SI.com has learned that Sulaimon is not currently under investigation by the school. This was confirmed by Bob Ekstrand, who is serving as Sulaimon’s advisor. While Ekstrand is a local Durham attorney, he is reluctant to identify himself as Sulaimon’s “lawyer,” since the former player is not subject to any current legal proceedings.

 

Multiple sources say there was not one specific incident that served as the impetus for Sulaimon’s dismissal. Rather it was an accumulation of events that led to that action, including a missed 11 p.m. curfew that occurred shortly before he was kicked off the team.

 

On Monday, Duke’s student newspaper, The Chronicle, published a story claiming two female students told peers at two separate retreats last year that they were sexually assaulted by Sulaimon. The Chronicle reported that high-ranking figures within the Duke athletic department, including men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, became aware of these allegations as early as March 2014, roughly 10 months before Sulaimon was dismissed.

 

Krzyzewski and the athletic department have not publicly addressed any specifics regarding the situation, citing federal privacy laws. The university looked into allegations against Sulaimon at some point last year, SI.com has learned. The alleged victims did not file an official complaint to the school or the local police department. It is unclear if they participated in the investigation.

 

Sulaimon was notified when an investigation was opened, and then told weeks later that the matter was closed and the university did not have enough information to proceed.

 

A source tell SI.com that that was the last time Sulaimon had heard from Duke’s Office of Student Conduct in Student Affairs. There is currently no open investigation against Sulaimon, at least to his knowledge. However that should be telling: It is standard procedure for accused students to receive initial notice if an investigation is being opened against them.

 

The Durham Police Department confirmed that it had no report on Sulaimon.

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From The Chronicle:

Rasheed Sulaimon’s dismissal from the Duke basketball program is clouded by allegations of sexual assault, which surfaced nearly a year before he was released from the team in January. Multiple sources close to the situation have confirmed that members of the athletic department were made aware of the allegations as early as March 2014.

 

The Duke men’s basketball department has not provided a detailed explanation of the dismissal, which was the first in head coach Mike Krzyzewski’s 35 years at the helm of the program. Sulaimon, a junior, was dismissed from the Duke basketball team Jan. 29 after he “repeatedly struggled to meet the necessary obligations,” Krzyzewski said in his official statement.

 

Sulaimon’s dismissal came not from a singular incident, but was the result of multiple actions detrimental to the program, Matt Plizga—the men’s basketball sports information director—told The Chronicle the day of the dismissal.

 

The Duke athletic administration declined to speak with The Chronicle after multiple attempts were made to discuss the allegations.

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Mike Krzyzewski’s squad has another mid-week game this week, as it travels to Blacksburg to take on Virginia Tech on Wednesday. Fortunately for Duke fans, Coach K says that Okafor is progressing, and he is hopeful that the Blue Devils will have their star center back for the ACC matchup.

From CBS Sports:

Duke coach Mike Krzyzweski said Monday he is hopeful star freshman and leading scorer Jahlil Okafor will be able to return to the lineup Wednesday against Virginia Tech after missing Saturday’s 78-56 win against Clemson due to a sprained left ankle.

 

“He’s showing progress as far as coming off his injury,” Krzyzweski said, per The Post-Standard. “(I’m) hoping he’ll be ready for Wednesday.”

 

Krzyzweski added Okafor did not have a walking boot on his foot Sunday, and the hope is Okafor will be able to run Monday.

 

The 6-foot-11, 270-pound Okafor leads the No. 4 Blue Devils in scoring (17.9 points per game), field goal percentage (66.1), rebounding (9.4 rebounds per game) and blocks (1.5 blocks per game).

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From The Herald Sun:

Duke junior guard Rasheed Sulaimon has been dismissed from the Duke basketball program as announced by head coach Mike Krzyzewski Thursday. Sulaimon remains in good academic standing and is expected to finish the spring semester.

 

“Rasheed has been unable to consistently live up to the standards required to be a member of our program,” said Krzyzewski. “It is a privilege to represent Duke University and with that privilege comes the responsibility to conduct oneself in a certain manner. After Rasheed repeatedly struggled to meet the necessary obligations, it became apparent that it was time to dismiss him from the program.”

 

Sulaimon averaged 10.0 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game over 90 contests as a Blue Devil. The Houston, Texas, native posted a .391 career three-point field goal percentage (115-of-294) and scored in double-figures 49 times. Sulaimon earned ACC All-Freshman Team honors in 2013 after averaging 11.6 points and 3.4 rebounds per game. As a sophomore, he shot a career-best 41.0 percent (43-of-105) from three-point range but saw his scoring drop to 9.9 points per game due to inconsistent play on both ends of the floor.

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The victory didn’t come easy. Down by 10 and on the ropes with 8:35 left in the game, the Blue Devils went on a six-minute 18-2 run led by freshman point guard Tyus Jones and center Jahlil Okafor to seal the win. Jones finished with 22 points, 6 assists and 4 rebounds and Okafor bullied his way to 17 points, 10 boards, 2 assists and 1 block while Phil Jackson and Carmelo Anthony watched from the stands.

The Red Storm took a 43-39 lead into the half after senior guard D’Angelo Harrison hit a shot clock-beating three-pointer. The Johnnies carried the momentum into the second half and stretched the lead to eight with 15:15 left. Senior forward Sir’Dominic Pointer was causing havoc all over the floor and finished with 21 points, 10 boards, 4 assists, 3 blocks and 3 steals. Sophomore point guard Rysheed Jordan was equally as impressive with 18 points, 4 boards, and 3 assists.

St. John’s was able to effectively get in the paint and finish by pushing the tempo and forcing Duke to play an up-and-down game. With 11 minutes to go and Duke down 57-49, Coach K made an unexpected substitution when he put in reserve big man Marshall Plumlee in place of Amile Jefferson. With Okafor and Plumlee up front, the Blue Devils were able to take advantage of St. John’s undersized front court, and Duke’s physical presence and rebounding was a big enough factor to change the course of the game. On the road in front of a hostile crowd, a young Duke team with an old coach grew up quickly and survived down the stretch to lead Coach K to the historic milestone.

“We didn’t feel any pressure, but at the same time we knew we wanted to win this game for [Coach],” said Tyus Jones after the game. “We didn’t want to lose this game when we knew we could win at the Garden and make it a special moment for him…We did all we could for him. He didn’t say anything specific about the 1,000th but we know how special this is for him. It’s really unbelievable that he has 1,000 wins.”

“Coach K’s main focus is to make sure we weren’t stressed out about the [1,000th win] or we weren’t overhyped,” added Okafor. “We wanted to come here and finish our non-conference schedule undefeated so he did a good job.”

Following the final horn, Duke players, coaches and personnel donned “1K” t-shirts and hats and surrounded their coach giving the win more of a Final Four feel than a regular season non-conference game in January.

“It was tough to get involved with 1,000 wins. I was just trying to focus on the game,” said Coach K during his post-game press conference. “There was a little while there when it looked like we weren’t gonna make it. I am glad its over—I am honored. Don’t get me wrong. I am the lucky guy. I have been at two great institutions in Army and Duke. Never had a day to worry about my back… To do it here and have seven of my nine grandchildren and two of my three daughters and my wife, it has always been a family thing, I am glad we were able to share it here today.”

For Duke, Quinn Cook finished with 17 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists and Amile Jefferson scored 11 while grabbing 3 rebounds. The win puts their record at 17-2 (4-2) with road games against No. 8 Notre Dame and No. 2 Virginia coming up this week.

Phil Greene IV finished with 13 points and D’Angelo Harrison scored 12 on 5-14 shooting for the Red Storm. Steve Lavin’s team sits at 13-6 (2-4) and will take on Creighton on the road on Wednesday night.

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Yahoo! Sports accused Krzyzewski and other college coaches on his staff of using the program as little more than a recruiting tool for the nation’s best high school talent.

Coach K and Jim Boheim (a Team USA assistant) both downplayed the allegations, and claimed that the national hoops program doesn’t help them gain any recruiting advantages. Per Syracuse.com and USA Today:

“The thing that [Adrian] Wojnarowski wrote was completely off-base,” Boeheim said. “The thing I hate about writers is they want to state their case and they use false information. He put in that Mike went to the hospital for publicity. Paul George’s parents took the picture. They put it out there. We had no cameraman. It was his parents. That was unbelievably low.”

 

“It’s a concern [Kentucky coach John Calipari] has raised before,” Boeheim said of the extra access to top recruits USA Basketball affords coaches. “That particular case he has mentioned. He’s said he thinks it’s an advantage. He got the No. 1 recruit in the country. It’s a little bit disingenuous of him. I like John. We get along fine. He feels Mike is getting an advantage. You could make that argument. But Duke isn’t getting any better players than they ever have.”

 

“We recruited a lot of really good guys before I coached the United States team,” said Krzyzewski, referencing Grant Hill, Tommy Amaker, Johnny Dawkins and others from Duke’s past. “In fact, a lot of them have their jerseys retired. A lot of them have been national players of the year. I don’t think anybody I’ve recruited since I’ve been the head coach of USA has been national player of the year.” […] “Actually, it’s probably hurt us in recruiting,” he deadpanned. “I’ve got to look into that. Not enough time on the road.”

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According to Yahoo! Sports, USA Basketball might start sending 22-and-under squads to international competitions:

As one GM said, “[Outside of the U.S. team], there’s more talent and more interest from basketball fans in the NBA summer league than this event.”

 

For all the inspiration the U.S. coaches and players tried to drain out of [Paul] George’s injury, understand something: It was in vain. He lost a year of his career for the chance to play in a tournament that few watched back home, and even fewer felt mesmerized by across the world. The risk-reward for NBA stars participating in FIBA tournaments has never been so low, the gains of the Mike Krzyzewskis and Jim Boeheims on the bench so high. George will be the impetus to end the full participation of NBA stars, but far from the reason. After the 2016 Olympics in Rio, the World Cup of Basketball and Olympic Games are destined to become an under-22 developmental tournament.

 

”We need to get our vets out and move our younger players in,” one NBA general manager said. “The support’s there for the change, and it’s getting stronger.”

The post Report: There is a Push to Get NBA Vets Out of FIBA Basketball World Cup appeared first on SLAM.

Rose says he’s ready to put an end to his offensive struggles – he’s putting up just 4.5 points on 21.6 percent shooting in Team USA’s 6-0 start at the FIBA Basketball World Cup — and tries to assuage Chicago Bulls supporters that he’ll be hoisting up a lot more shots next season. Per the Chicago Tribune:

“I think I found it now, just changed one little thing,” Rose said. “But we’re winning so I’m not worried.” […] What did Rose change? […] “You’ll see (Tuesday),” he said playfully.

 

”Everybody is getting mad because I’m not shooting the ball more. That’s strange,” Rose said. “I’m not going to change my game just because people want me to shoot more. I’m going to do exactly what the game tells me to do. The shots that I’m taking are open shots. I’m not forcing shots. That’s the way the game should be played. This is my role on this team. With the Bulls, of course I’m going to get up 20-25 shots. That’s not going to change anything.”

 

“I think he’s trying to get everyone else involved and he looks for his stuff not just fifth sometimes but sixth or seventh on the court,” Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “We need him to look at it like he’s one or two on the court, and when he’s making a play, look to make plays for people, but try to make plays for yourself, too. […] He’s being very unselfish, trying to be a good teammate. It all comes from a good place. He knows the defensive ball pressure is there. He wants to distribute the ball. He’s in a lot of times when DeMarcus (Cousins) is in to try to get him the ball. We would like for him to look for his stuff as well.”

The post Derrick Rose Promises to Break Out of His Shooting Slump appeared first on SLAM.

“I think at some time that everybody should stop asking about him physically, and just say, ‘How’s your game? What do you think? You think we’re going to win? How’d you like that pass?'” Krzyzewski said with a smile during his comedic-but-deliberate bit. “Although it’s nice when people say how do you feel, when that’s the only thing you say then they say, ‘Come on man, let’s have a more in-depth conversation. And I think he’s ready for that.”

 

The advice kept coming. And to be fair, Krzyzewski’s questions were much more intriguing near the end.

 

“I saw you in a shooting drill, you looked happy; How’s your crossover going?” Krzyzewski continued. “You’re getting up on your jumpshot. Is Coach K calling enough plays for you? Do you have a rift with Coach K? Why is he limiting your minutes? It’s because he’s from the south side of Chicago, and not from the north side. Those are all more questions that will stimulate his mind and will help him.”

The post Mike Krzyzewski: Stop Asking Derrick Rose About His Health appeared first on SLAM.

Head coach Mike Krzyzewski can hardly believe his good fortune when it comes to Faried’s play thus far. Per ESPN:

“Expect the unexpected,” Faried said Tuesday night, unable to muster a better explanation for it all after another evening in the spotlight against a helpless New Zealand club.

 

“Overall, from the start of training camp, he’s been the biggest and best surprise and has turned out to be a very, very important player for us,” Krzyzewski says. “He’s made that happen. We never call a play for him.”

 

“He plays with amazing energy and really is as good of a rebounder as there is, I think,” Krzyzewski said. “He plays hard every second he’s out there. I think these guys would tell you they love playing with him.” […] Said Faried: “We’re just trying to get the gold [medal]. We don’t care who’s out there scoring, who’s out there rebounding, who’s out there getting steals or the shine and glory. We just want to win games.”

The post Mike Krzyzewski: Kenneth Faried ‘Biggest and Best Surprise’ for Team USA appeared first on SLAM.

With Kyrie Irving starting at point guard, Derrick Rose also isn’t complaining about coming off the bench. Per ESPN:

“I’m just trying to put that behind me,” Rose said of any trepidation he’s feeling as he ramps up his comeback from the two devastating injuries that limited him to 10 games over the past two seasons with the Bulls. I know the questions are going to come and they’re going to be there the whole year. So I can’t get tired of it. I’m feeling good right now. Just trying to get in better shape, get in better condition, so that when I do need to score the ball, then it’ll be there.”

 

“I think we’ll have to see,” Rose said when asked a few days ago how he expects to cope with the grind of pool play. “I think I’m always staying positive. I know how much work I put into my body and how many hours I stayed in the gym. I’m just trying to stay positive right now and just trying to keep getting my conditioning better.”

 

“We have a deep team,” Rose said. “And that’s what makes us so good. […] “My role is coming off the bench right now. I’m fine with it. I know no second unit can win when I’m on the court or stick me when I’m on the court.”

The post Derrick Rose ‘Fine’ Playing Behind Kyrie Irving for Team USA appeared first on SLAM.

Despite initial rumors about his standing within the program, Boogie Cousins had a ton of confidence about making the final roster for the FIBA Basketball World Cup. Per ESPN:

Insisting he had zero worries about making the 12-man squad, Cousins brushed off the doubters Friday night in the bowels of Madison Square Garden, telling assembled reporters: “Y’all will see.”

 

Still recovering from the bone bruise in his right knee suffered earlier this month in Chicago, Cousins was the fourth player off the U.S. bench in Tuesday’s exhibition victory over Slovenia. Yet the rotation in that game confirmed that he’s firmly part of the “core group” of nine players so often referenced by Krzyzewski since this team started practicing together in late July.

 

For all the skepticism about his ability to win over Team USA staffers who haven’t forgotten his poor first impression in 2012 — as well as the questions that linger about how he’ll get along with FIBA referees — Cousins is clearly ahead of fellow bigs Mason Plumlee and Andre Drummond. (Ditto for 10th man DeMar DeRozan.)

The post DeMarcus Cousins Named Backup Center for Team USA appeared first on SLAM.

According to head coach Mike Krzyzewski, Irving and Derrick Rose may end up splitting starts at point guard throughout the tourney. Per ESPN:

“We’ll see as thing goes on,” Krzyzewski said after Monday’s two-hour practice. “We might alternate ’em. Both of them are going to play significant minutes.”

 

“I asked him today, and he said, ‘I feel great,'” Krzyzewski said of Rose. “He did everything. He’s full go. I think there’s a part of him that’s like: ‘Quit asking me how I feel. I’m good.’ So I’m not going to ask him anymore.”

 

Team USA arrived in Las Palmas early Sunday morning and held a two-hour practice Monday after voluntary workouts on their first afternoon in Spain. Going forward, Krzyzewski said, all practices will be noncontact amid a schedule that calls for five group games in a span of six days. The focus from here, when Team USA can get on the practice floor, will be on offensive and defensive execution and working on new wrinkles like starting center Anthony Davis’ cameos at power forward.

The post Derrick Rose and Kyrie Irving May Alternate as Team USA Starters appeared first on SLAM.

Both guys were likely thinking about their contractual futures, though Durant’s decision in particular—with free agency and a new sneaker deal looming—caught many in the USA Basketball program off guard.

Per USA Today and ESPN:

[USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo] said Durant’s decision was because of his “contractual situation.” The 2014 NBA MVP is under contract in Oklahoma City through 2016, but there’s already speculation he’ll return to his hometown of Washington D.C. when he’s a free agent. And with his Nike contract done, Baltimore-based Under Armour is reportedly making a run at him.

 

“I wasn’t surprised, and that was predicated on his week in Las Vegas,” Colangelo said. “He had a lot of things on his mind.”

 

“Yeah, I was,” head coach Mike Krzyzewski said after Team USA’s practice in Chicago on Thursday. “No question. I was.” […] “It’s one of those things; you don’t replace Kevin Durant,” Krzyzewski said. “You look different. And so we have today and [Friday] to look different before we play a really good team. That’s of concern for me because we were pretty far along. We had our best camp ever in Vegas since I’ve coached [Team USA]. Those guys were terrific. We had more in [game plan-wise], but we had more in to play a certain way. And then Kevin deciding not to play … it’s concerning. …. But hopefully we’ll be good enough on Saturday, and then we use New York and Gran Canaria to get better and get better during pool play.”

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USA Basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski says Derrick Rose has returned all the way back to his electrifying, MVP form. Per the Chicago Sun-Times and ESPN:

“In Derrick’s case, Derrick was sensational all [last] week,” Mike Krzyzewski said in a Tuesday teleconference with reporters. “He did that every day. He was fast, strong and decisive. He really created an air of excitement for the team … We were all anxious to see who he was [coming into training camp last week]. And who he is is very, very good. We’re all ecstatic for him.”

 

As Krzyzewski pointed out, Rose will headline a number of Chicago storylines (next week.) Big man Anthony Davis played his high school basketball in Chicago, as did Krzyzewski, who said it was an “honor” for him to return home. There’s also Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau, who is an assistant to Krzyzewski, and former Bulls marksman Kyle Korver, who also is among the 16 finalists.

 

“It takes an exceptional person, which is why we’re talking about Derrick,” Krzyzewski said, discussing how difficult it is to return to such a high level after missing so much time. “I think he’s exceptional in every way. He went right at it. The first defensive exchange in the camp, he was all over the ball handler, moving his feet, attacking him. There was a buzz right away because it was basically his saying, ‘Look, I’m not just back. I’m back at a level that’s elite.'”

The post Mike Krzyzewski: Derrick Rose Back to an ‘Elite’ Level appeared first on SLAM.

“I think there’s absolutely not one second of hesitancy,” Krzyzewski said on The John Feinstein Show. “I’d trade for Kevin Love. That’s not saying anything about any of the other (players involved in the deal). Love’s an All-Star.”

 

“He’s a double-double guy, but he’s a double-double guy that can spread the court,” Krzyzewski said. “There aren’t many double-double guys, if any, who spread the court. He can go inside and outside. There may be a low-post player that gets you a double-double, but Love does it and you can do a lot of different things with him.”

 

“I mean, I’ve coached him on two teams,” he said. “No pun intended, but I love Kevin Love. He’s young, too. He’s 25. He was 21 (when I coached him). We had six 21-year-olds on our 2010 Istanbul team, and Kevin was one of them. He’s grown. He’s terrific. I would make that trade right away.”

The post Mike Krzyzewski Would Trade Andrew Wiggins for Kevin Love ‘Right Away’ appeared first on SLAM.

Added to the 2014-16 USA National Team roster and participating in the July-28-Aug. 1 USA National Team training camp in Las Vegas, Nevada, are NBA standouts DeMar DeRozan (Toronto Raptors) and Chandler Parsons (Dallas Mavericks).

 

Previously named USA National Team members who are confirmed to participate in the 2014 Las Vegas training camp include: Bradley Beal (Washington Wizards); DeMarcus Cousins (Sacramento Kings); Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors); Anthony Davis (New Orleans Pelicans); Andre Drummond (Detroit Pistons); Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City Thunder); Kenneth Faried (Denver Nuggets); Paul George (Indiana Pacers); Blake Griffin (Los Angeles Clippers); James Harden (Houston Rockets); Gordon Hayward (Utah Jazz); Kyrie Irving (Cleveland Cavaliers); Kyle Korver (Atlanta Hawks); Damian Lillard (Portland Trail Blazers); Kevin Love (Minnesota Timberwolves); Derrick Rose (Chicago Bulls); and Klay Thompson (Golden State Warriors).

 

The 2014-16 USA Basketball National Team coaching staff features USA head coach and Duke University’s Naismith Hall of Fame mentor Mike Krzyzewski. Serving as assistant coaches are USA Basketball and Syracuse University and Naismith Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim, Chicago Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau and New Orleans Pelicans head coach Monty Williams.

The post USA Basketball Announces National Team Training Camp Roster appeared first on SLAM.

by Bill DiFilippo

It’s official: Jabari Parker is going pro.

In a exclusive article written for Sports Illustrated today, the superstar Duke forward and SLAM 177 cover star announced that he will forgo his final three years of eligibility and make the jump to the NBA, where he will likely be a top-3 pick in this year’s Draft.

Parker met with Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski yesterday to discuss his future as a pro, and after answering two questions — “Which environment — college or the NBA — offers me the best opportunity to grow as a basketball player?” and “Which environment — college or the NBA — offers me the best opportunity to grow and develop off the court?” — Parker decided to turn pro.

Via Sports Illustrated:

I realize how much of a privilege and an honor it is to join the ranks of the NBA. I will do everything in my power to help deliver championships to the franchise that drafts me. At the same time, I recognize the obligation to represent the league in an admirable way off the court.

Up to this point I haven’t given any thought to agents. But now that I’ve declared, I will turn my attention to the process of choosing someone to represent me. Money was not a factor in my decision to go pro. It won’t be a factor in my choice of an agent. My number one criterion in choosing a college coach was an impeccable reputation for integrity. I’m looking for the same thing in an agent.

This past year at Duke has been a cherished chapter in my life. I’m very fortunate to have worn the blue and white. And I will always carry with me the memories of playing in front of the Crazies at Cameron. Now it’s time to write the next chapter. I can’t wait to get started.

The entire piece is worth a read, as Parker discusses how he wants to make an impact on and off the court as an NBA player. The 2014 Draft will be held on June 26.

The post Jabari Parker Declares for NBA Draft appeared first on SLAM.

by Bill DiFilippo

Nearly two weeks after head coach Buzz Williams left the program to take the head coaching job at Virginia Tech, Marquette has found its new coach.

Longtime Duke assistant and former Blue Devil point guard Steve Wojciechowski has reportedly taken the Golden Eagle coaching job. The terms and conditions of his contract have yet to be announced, and the school has yet to make a formal announcement.

Via ESPN:

Wojciechowski, 37, played at Duke in the late 1990s. He has been on Mike Krzyzewski’s staff since 1999 and was elevated to associate head coach in 2008.

He replaces Buzz Williams, who led Marquette to the NCAA tournament in five of his six seasons at the helm.

Williams left last month for Virginia Tech following a 17-15 campaign in which the Golden Eagles failed to make the postseason.

Wojciechowski was widely considered a top candidate to replace Mike Krzyzewski when Coach K decides to retire.

The post Marquette Hires Duke Associate Coach Steve Wojciechowski appeared first on SLAM.

by Bill DiFilippo / @bflip33

College basketball fans will need to wait to see one of the sports’ biggest rivalry games, as Wednesday night’s showdown between 8th ranked Duke and North Carolina has been postponed due to inclement weather.

Via GoHeels.com:

“Duke’s bus is not able to get to their campus to pick up the team in time to be able to make the trip to Chapel Hill so we can’t play this evening.” Says UNC Director of Athletics Bubba Cunningham. “The safety of the teams and officials is the number one priority and this was the best decision to make at this time. Coach Williams, Coach Krzyzewski, (Duke AD) Kevin White and I will be on the phone with the ACC and make a decision as to when to play the game as soon as possible.”

The North Carolina Athletic Department also announced that a make up will occur, but it will not be played tomorrow for the same reason. However, the teams are scheduled to play on March 8 in Durham, and some are suggesting that tonight’s game should be rescheduled for March 9.

The post Wednesday’s North Carolina Vs Duke Game Postponed appeared first on SLAM.

Three of the most sought-after NBA draft picks in the 2014 class were on display last night, playing in front of a national TV audience as NBA GMs salivated. According to Coach K, no team would ever dream of tanking for the chance to nab Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker or Julius Randle next summer. No, sir: “If that is happening, shame on whoever is doing it,’ Coach K said in response to a question following No. 5 Kansas’ 94-83 victory over No. 4 Duke in the Champions Classic. Then he jokingly asked a reporter, ‘Are you doing it?’ At least one NBA GM told ESPN.com that he was effectively tanking. ‘Our team isn’t good enough to win and we know it … Sometimes my job is to understand the value of losing,’ he said. And an NBA executive told SNY.tv he believes as many as six NBA teams are doing something similar because they have ‘unqualified GMs’ who are using this loaded draft as an excuse. ‘They are [tanking] but they shouldn’t,’ that NBA executive added at the Champions Classic. ‘They are tanking to save their jobs from their own inadequacies not because Julius Randle can score around the basket and [Andrew] Wiggins can catch lobs.’ For a guy like Coach K, it’s just hard to ‘fathom’ that any NBA team would do such a thing. ‘As an American I wouldn’t like to think that an American team would [ever] want to lose or create situations where you would want to lose,’ he said. ‘I can’t even fathom. I can’t go there. I can’t believe that that would happen. Maybe I’m naive and I’m going to go ready a fairytale after this.’ […] No matter how you rank them, one thing is clear: All three are special talents who might be worth tanking for. Or at least, if you end up with a top 3 or 4 pick, you certainly have a lot to look forward to. ‘I don’t think anybody’s tanking,’ Kansas coach Bill Self said. ‘I know that guys that like to play, compete and I guess you can make sure that you don’t play certain guys, which I don’t think has happened. But I think that those three all have a chance to be special.'”

The post Mike Krzyzewski Can’t Fathom NBA Teams Tanking for Loaded 2014 Draft Class appeared first on SLAM.

by Bill DiFilippo / @bflip33

It’s not often that college basketball has its marquee night during the season’s first week, but due to State Farm Champions Classic in Chicago, four of the top five teams in America will play tonight. No. 1 Kentucky (2-0) will take on No. 2 Michigan State (1-0) at 7:30 p.m., followed by No. 4 Duke (1-0) vs. No. 5 Kansas (1-0) at 9:30 p.m.

The first matchup will be the first time February 24, 2008, when No. 2 Tennessee defeated No. 1 Memphis, who was ironically coached by Kentucky head man John Calipari, 66-62. The two teams haven’t played since 2005, when Michigan State knocked Kentucky out of the NCAA Tournament, 94-88 in two overtimes.

Beyond the fact that John Calipari vs. Tom Izzo could be college basketball’s best coaching matchup this year, it’s quite possible that we’re seeing several future NBA All-Stars in this game. Michigan State’s Adreian Payne and Gary Harris will almost certainly play in the League next year, while Kentucky has its usual bevy of freshmen NBA prospects, headlined by potential top-three pick Julius Randle, James Young, Andrew Harrison and Aaron Harrison.

Both teams have been dominant so far this season. Kentucky has trounced UNC-Asheville and Northern Kentucky, 89-57 and 93-63, respectively. The Wildcats are led by Randle, who has been a monster this year, averaging a team-high 22.5 points and 14.5 rebounds per game. As for the Spartans, they looked fantastic in their matchup with McNeese State, winning 98-56 behind 20 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists from Harris.

The night’s second game features another marquee coaching matchup, with Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski facing off against Kansas’s Bill Self. However, all eyes are on the matchup between two freshmen who have been both labeled as (possibly) the next LeBron James—Duke’s Jabari Parker and Kansas’ Andrew Wiggins.

Parker, a 6-8 forward from Chicago, shined in Duke’s 111-77 obliteration of Davidson on Friday night, putting up 22 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists on 80 percent shooting for the Blue Devils. Wiggins, a 6-7 guard from Ontario, wasn’t as impressive in the Jayhawks’ 80-63 victory over Louisiana-Monroe, but he did put up a very respectable 16 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists.

The two teams haven’t played since November 23, 2011 at the Maui Invitational. Duke, led by 17 points from both Ryan Kelly and Mason Plumlee, overcame a double-double from Thomas Robinson to defeat the Jayhawks, 68-61.

Tonight will almost certainly shape the course of the rest of the college basketball season, and could possibly have an impact on the 2014 NBA Draft. Get ready, because tonight is one of college basketball’s biggest regular-season nights of all time.

The post Kentucky-Michigan State and Duke-Kansas to Face Off in Chicago Tonight appeared first on SLAM.

“He may just be getting back into the groove of things on the court, but Derrick Rose isn’t afraid to look ahead. Rose and Team USA reps both want the superstar point guard on the roster for the 2016 Olympic Games. Per the Chicago Sun-Times and ESPN: “Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski coaches the team, and Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau is one of his assistants. ‘I would love to play on the team; it would be an honor,’ Rose said. ‘But at the same time it would take me trying out for the team and Coach K and his coaching staff along with Thibs would pick the players and allow me to play for them. So if I have the opportunity to play for them, I will.’ […] When asked specifically whether he would like to see Rose on the Olympic team, Krzyzewski said he was excited about the possibility, assuming the point guard’s surgically repaired left knee holds up throughout this NBA season. Rose is just returning to the floor after missing almost a year and a half as he recovered from an ACL tear in his left knee. ‘Oh yeah,’ Krzyzewski said on Tuesday night. ‘There’s a process that [USA Basketball chairman] Jerry Colangelo will orchestrate all that. But it’s not just 2016; we have to play in Spain next summer. It used to be the world championships and now it will be called the World Cup. And Derrick was our starting point guard when we won the world championships in Istanbul in 2010 and did a really good job. He was only 21 years old at that time and probably would have been on our Olympic team in London.'”

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It has long been believed that had Kobe Bryant attended college, he would have gone to Duke and played under his coach with Team USA, Mike Krzyzewski. But in a conversation with Jimmy Kimmel during Kobe Up Close on Thursday night, Kobe said he would have instead joined Vince Carter and the North Carolina Tar Heels (reported by the L.A. Times, via PBT): “Defying urban legend that he was Duke-bound, had he gone to college instead of the NBA straight out of high school, Bryant said he was leaning toward North Carolina. ‘I love [Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski],’ Bryant said. ‘The truth has to come out.’ Why North Carolina? Vince Carter, a Tar Heel, was one of the top guards in the country at the time. ‘I want to play against him, every single day,’ Bryant said.”

The post Kobe Bryant Says He Would Have Picked North Carolina, Not Duke appeared first on SLAM.

The apparel giant Nike plays a large role in the Team USA program (too big a role, some would protest). After failing in spectacular fashion on the world stage, USA Basketball is back firmly on top, and director Jerry Colangelo says a lot of that has to do with repairing the broken relationship with the Swoosh. Per NBA.com: “Nike had watched in horror in 2004 as (LeBron) James, in whom the company had already invested millions, couldn’t get off Larry Brown’s bench in Athens. Whether or not James, then 19 and coming off his rookie season in the NBA, was immature at that time, or hard to get along with, wasn’t the point. He was the future of basketball, and the NBA. He was Nike’s guy. And Nike wasn’t going anywhere. ‘The Nike relationship with the NBA had fallen apart,’ Colangelo said. ‘But I had a lot of relationships there myself. Phil Knight was a partner of mine in the baseball team in Arizona. I’ve known Phil Knight for so many years. Coach [George] Raveling [currently Nike’s Director of International Basketball], dear friend of mine for many, many years. So the relationships were there. And it was a matter of re-establishing a relationship. But I wanted to make it clear to them, this wasn’t an NBA deal. This was USA Basketball. This is our own entity and brand. And that kind of opened the door.’ Colangelo picked (Mike) Krzyzewski as the team’s coach in 2005, bypassing NBA coaches. Even though Coach K was already in the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame, having been inducted in 2001 after his third national championship at Duke, and was universally regarded as the finest coach in the college game, there were grumbles about his getting the job. It did not hurt his candidacy that Krzyzewski also had a strong relationship with Nike. Colangelo had to have three things. He had to have Nike as a primary sponsor. He had to have control over the selection process. And he had to have the financial resources to do what he needed to do. It wasn’t an easy sell with Nike, but ultimately, the company committed to a three-year deal. Colangelo knew if he got his foot in the door with Nike again, there was money to be made with them down the road. He was right. In the prior four-year period before the 2004 Games, USA Basketball raised just $9 million, with the NBA backfilling the costs. By 2008, when Colangelo was named chair of USAB’s Board, the organization raised $33 million in four years. And USAB raised another $35 million between ’08 and ’12. There is now a small cushion available after USAB invests in its Under programs, the World University Games and other youth programs. By 2012, according to Forbes, USA Basketball had a who’s who of corporate sponsors, including 24 Hour Fitness, American Express, Burger King, Cisco, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, Gatorade, Jeep, Las Vegas Events, MetroPCS and Right Guard. But Nike was the gateway company. ‘We put together some really good partnerships,’ Colangelo said Sunday. ‘We have some heavyweights. And we have some pending that are new. Nike has stepped up not only for this quad, but they’ve extended through two other quads, going all the way to ’24. Here’s the key. I set out to create our own brand. And we’ve done that.’ Having Nike on board was also a carrot for convincing players to come aboard. Whatever you think of the behemoth’s business practices, the pattern was clear: Once a guy signed with Nike, watch and car deals and all the rest soon followed.”

The post Jerry Colangelo Had to Fix USA Basketball’s Relationship With Nike appeared first on SLAM.

LA Clippers superstar point guard Chris Paul hooped in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, but he was ready to walk away from the Team USA program before the 2016 Games. Team USA head coach Mike Krzyzewski has CP3 thinking twice now. Per ESPN: “If it had been another coach than Coach K, I was prepared to be done,’ Paul said. Paul will be 31 when the 2016 Olympics, which will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, take place. He will still likely be a major piece for the team, despite a strong crop of young and talented point guards that includes Derrick Rose, Kyrie Irving, Russell Westbrook and Stephen Curry. Paul was in Las Vegas coaching his CP3 All-Stars summer league program this week shortly after returning from a trip to China with teammate Blake Griffin and New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony. Paul also watched the Team USA intrasquad scrimmage in Las Vegas Thursday night, which featured nearly 30 of the top young NBA players. Paul admitted there were times when he and Griffin weren’t on the same page last season, but said the trip gave the pair an opportunity to bond. ‘We talked about everything,’ Paul said. ‘We talked more than we ever have. As we get more familiar with one another, we get more comfortable. Last year we had our moments, but we’re both very competitive and just want to win.'”

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According to the AP, Mike Krzyzewski has recruited Tom Thibdeau and Monty Williams to his coaching staff for the USA Basketball program: “USA bringing the defense to the next Olympics: Thibodeau, Monty Williams joining Boeheim on Coach K’s staff, per source.”

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Despite Mike Krzyzewski’s return, going forward, USA Basketball will reportedly be without the services of assistant coach Mike D’Antoni (who has been with the program since 2006, and won two gold medals.) Per the NY Post: “Former Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni has told Mike Krzyzewski he will not be rejoining his new Olympic staff, according to a league source. Team USA will announce Krzyzewski’s return (Thursday) as U.S. Olympic coach but D’Antoni will no longer be part of it. According to the source, D’Antoni, who now coaches the Lakers, turned down the job as he didn’t want to make another four-year commitment because of his family.”

The post Mike D’Antoni No Longer on Team USA Coaching Staff appeared first on SLAM.

Just when Mike Krzyzewski thought he was out, USA Basketball appears to have managed to pull him back in. According to SI, Coach K will rejoin the program as they go for Gold at the 2016 Olympic Games: “Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski will be returning as the head coach of USA Basketball for the 2016 Olympics, according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation. A formal announcement is expected in the next 48 hours. Krzyzewski led Team USA to gold medals in both the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2012 London Olympics. He had maintained for months that he would not return before reversing course in an interview with SI.com on Saturday. Krzyzewski, 66, has a 62-1 record with USA Basketball, and his tenure will now be extended to coach in the 2014 FIBA World Championship in Madrid and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo has stayed confident since the end of the 2012 Olympics that he could persuade Krzyzewski to return. He waited until the end of Duke’s season in March to court Krzyzewski. In an interview on Saturday, Colangelo said he would not begin contacting other candidates until Krzyzewski said no.”

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After winning back to back Gold medals at the London Olympics, coach Mike Krzyzewski said that he didn’t plan to come back through the Rio 2016 Olympics. But the Duke head coach told SI.com on Saturday that he and USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo have been talking about his return “quite a bit”: “Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski acknowledged in a phone interview Saturday that he’s in discussions to return as head coach of USA Basketball through the 2016 Olympics. ‘There’s a chance,’ Krzyzewski said. ‘That’s correct.’ Krzyzewski said he hasn’t made a final decision, but his openness to the position represents a significant change. For eight months, Krzyzewski has maintained he’s not returning as USA Basketball’s head coach. On Saturday, Krzyzewski said he and USA Basketball Chairman Jerry Colangelo have been talking about his return ‘quite a bit.’ Colangelo said Saturday he and Krzyzewski have been discussing his return ‘in installments.’ ‘I think it’s very close to being resolved,’ Colangelo said. ‘That’s all I can say for sure.’ He added: ‘Give it another week and it should be resolved.’

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Despite USA Basketball’s hope that he’d reconsider, Duke University head coach Mike Krzyzewski confirmed today that he will no longer sit on Team USA’s bench. Coach K’s seven-year reign is over. Per ESPN: “Krzyzewski said USA Basketball will likely name his successor this summer in preparation for the 2014 world championships in Madrid. ‘I’ve loved, loved, loved, and it’s been an honor being with the USA Basketball team,’ Krzyzewski said. ‘And to coach the team and work with [chairman and president Jerry Colangelo] for seven years has been marvelous. And we’re in a good spot,’ Krzyzewski added. ‘We need to keep building.’ Krzyzewski was hired by Colangelo in the wake of the team’s disappointing sixth-place finish at the 2002 World Championships in Indianapolis and a bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics in Greece. Under Krzyzewski, Team USA beat Spain in consecutive Olympic finals, in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012. His U.S. team won the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey without a single Olympian on the roster.”

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Mike Krzyzewski made it clear that last summer’s Olympics would be his last, but Team USA doesn’t want him to walk away just yet. They’re reportedly waiting on Coach K to reconsider and return to the program. Per ESPN: “USA Basketball will not name its next men’s national team coach until after the college season is over at the earliest, according to sources familiar with the process. One key motivation for adopting that revamped timetable, sources said, is to give Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski as much time as possible to consider carrying on as Team USA coach. Krzyzewski initially announced last summer that the London Olympics would be his swan song with Team USA. USA Basketball officials, sources said, continue to hold out hope that Krzyzewski can be talked into one more tour in charge of the NBA stars who represent the United States at the highest levels of international competition. Krzyzewski, 65, was hired by USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo in 2005 and has served as Team USA’s coach in its last four major tournaments during his Duke offseasons. USA Basketball’s original plan called for the coaching situation to be clarified by late 2012 or early in 2013, with Colangelo expected to turn to San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich or Boston’s Doc Rivers if Krzyzewski held firm. But sources said that optimism within the program was rising that Krzyzewski might ultimately prove willing to reconsider his stance that London was ‘the last time.’ … ‘(USAB) is not going to make a decision until the summer,’ Krzyzewski said. ‘Nothing has changed with me. Usually in these situations, they don’t do it while basketball season is going on. Nothing has changed. Right now, obviously — I love USA Basketball — but I’m trying to keep my head above water with my own team.'”

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In a story about the relationship between LeBron James and his Olympic coach Mike Krzyzewski, former Dookie Shane Battier claims that James is one of the few NBA All-Stars who could have thrived on Coach K’s squad. Per the Miami Herald: “You know what? LeBron could have played at Duke, and I don’t say that about a lot of guys,’ Battier said. ‘There are a lot of All-Stars who couldn’t have played at Duke. LeBron is one of the few All-Stars who could have played there and survived. You have to be mentally tough. You have to know the game — you can’t be some idiot out there, some dummy running around. You have to play for the team and be selfless. Those are all of LeBron James’ qualities.’ On Tuesday, the Heat plays the Charlotte Bobcats in a preseason game at PNC Arena in Raleigh, N.C. It is the closest the Heat gets to Krzyzewski’s campus in Durham — just a few miles away. Krzyzewski hasn’t confirmed whether he will be attending the game, but James said on Monday that it would ‘be awesome’ if he did. ‘We have a great relationship,’ James said. ‘We’ve been together since ’05, and our relationship has grown every year. I’ve grown from a young man into a man into a leader of that team. He’s helped me develop that. I give a lot of credit to him.’ Krzyzewski has said that the Blue Devils scouted James back in high school, although it was a foregone conclusion that he would be skipping college and going straight to the NBA. Krzyzewski said he never saw James play live until his rookie year with the Cavaliers. Yet when the two met with Team USA, James gravitated to the successful coach. Perhaps it was Krzyzewski’s sense of humor. Krzyzewski recalls seeing James in the locker room one day. He noticed the huge ‘Chosen 1’ tattoo on James’ back and went up him. ‘He is a massive human being. And a gifted athlete. Those guys all have tattoos like crazy,’ Krzyzewski said. ‘In one light moment, he had his shirt off in the locker room, and I said, ‘chosen one?’ And he said ‘yep.’ And I said, ‘I think I’m going to get one of those.’ And he look at me and leaned over and says ‘No, coach, there’s only one chosen one.'”

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Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski played an instrumental role in forward Shane Batter signing with the Miami Heat last summer. According to Battier, Coach K advised him to join forces with the Big 3 because, pretty obviously, that’s where Battier had the best chance of winning a championship. Via DukeChronicle.com: “‘Shane is the kind of player who deserves to be a champion,’ said Nick Arison, who was a manager of the Duke basketball team while Battier played at Duke. While Arison sold Miami to Battier in free agency, he was also encouraged to go to South Beach by another Blue Devil. Battier said he received a call of congratulations from Duke basketball head coach Krzyzewski, who has seen just him and Danny Ferry leave Durham to become NBA champions during his tenure. ‘[Krzyzewski] was the one who wanted me to go to Miami more than anyone else,’ Battier said. ‘In the end, like always, he was right.'”

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If Mike Krzyzewski keeps his word and steps down as head coach of Team USA, two potential candidates for the 2016 Games are already on USA Basketball director Jerry Colangelo’s radar: Celtics coach Doc Rivers and Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. Louisville’s Rick Pitino is also in the mix, but at this point, he may be a longshot. More details, via ESPN.com: “Sources close to the situation told ESPN.com that Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers and San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich have indeed already moved to the top of the list to take over in 2013 for Krzyzewski, who is expected to remain with the program as a top aide to Colangelo if he can’t be convinced to extend his coaching tenure. Sources say Louisville coach Rick Pitino has also expressed strong interest in the position, but the general expectation in USAB circles is that Krzyzewski will be succeeded by an NBA coach.” 

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NBA Commissioner David Stern has been open about his interest in working with FIBA to establish an age ceiling in Olympic basketball, wishing to limit participation by implementing a 23-and-under rule. Well, even if those desires some day come to fruition, they probably won’t be in place for the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. More details, via SI.com: “The NBA’s interest in pursuing an age ceiling for Olympic basketball is ‘unlikely’ to be instituted in time for the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, according to the source, who has direct knowledge of the talks involving the International Olympic Committee and FIBA, the international ruling body for basketball. NBA commissioner David Stern has publicly floated the idea of establishing a maximum age for men’s basketball players of all countries at future Olympics that would mirror the rules of soccer, which requires that players in the Olympic tournament be no older than 23, with three exceptions (for players of any age) allowed per roster. The new plan for basketball would enable NBA owners to participate in and eventually profit from the rebranded FIBA World Cup, which—similar to the soccer World Cup—would have no limits on age, making it the preeminent international basketball event every four years.”

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by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni

It was supposed to be a time for celebration and relaxation. Team USA had just cruised to a record-setting 156-73 laugher over Nigeria, and preparing to take a day off.

Instead, coach K went on the offensive, angrily defending his squad from a reporter’s suggestion that they had tried to embarrass their opponents during the rout.

Per the NY Daily News:

A foreign reporter initially asked Nigeria coach Ayodele Bakare if he felt the Americans were guilty of running up the score. Bakare, though, sounded more impressed than angry by what the NBA players had accomplished. Moments later, Mike Krzyzewski, unsolicited, addressed the topic, and called the question offensive.

“We didn’t play LeBron [James] and Kobe [Bryant] in the second half, and with Carmelo (Anthony) shooting like that, we benched him,” Krzyzewski said after Carmelo Anthony scored a U.S. Olympic record of 37 points in 14 minutes and 29 seconds. “We didn’t take any fast breaks in the fourth quarter, and we played all zone. You have to take a shot every 24 seconds, and the shots we took happened to be hit. “I take offense to this question because there’s no way in the world that our program in the United States sets out to humiliate anymore.”

Coach K then turn to Bakare and said: “Coach would think it humiliating if we didn’t play hard.”

Some fans and media will try to turn this into a big story about the USA making a mockery of their foes, but that’s not the case at all. Aside from gunning for the 156 points late in the game after someone informed them that a record was within reach, the Americans simply played their game and ran the Nigerians off the floor (who seemed more impressed with the beatdown than angry.)

No shame in that … unless you’re on the losing end of the argument.

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Over the last week, Team USA has been out in Las Vegas training for what is shaping to be, at least on paper, an incredibly competitive Olympic stretch. With so much talent on the floor, putting the ball in the basket wasn’t the number one concern heading into camp.

The team’s main goal was to build team camaraderie and, while it’s obvious that the team still needs work when it comes to the Xs and Os, one thing is for sure: Everyone on this team genuinely likes each other and will play hard to achieve their ultimate goal.

The best part of last night’s dominating 113-59 win over the Dominican Republic wasn’t the spectacular dunks (which there were plenty of) or the tremendous defense (which will cause fits in London), but the guys cheering each other on from the bench and playing unselfish basketball.

Since camp opened, Coach K has stressed that he wants his team to play for each other, not with each other.

“They really like one another, you can see it,” Coach K said after last night’s victory. “They’re really good guys. Durant and LeBron are really close and Kobe has done a great job [helping the guys]. There are no cliques and they’re and I think that translated to how hard they played tonight and how unselfish they were with each other.”

With so many distractions surrounding the week-long camp—from the Strip to injury and trade talk, to contract negotiations taking place during practice—keeping focus and a winner’s mentality could have been a potential problem. Not with this group, though. Not when they are representing something bigger than themselves and especially not with Coach K at the helm.

“It’s not hard to focus at all,” Kobe said earlier this week at practice. “Coach K does a great job of surrounding us with motivation. You see some of the Armed Forces guys here who talk to us almost every day and share their stories about how they protect our country. This is our job, this is our way of serving this country. The motivation and the goal never gets lost.”

Last night, that focus was put on display as the United States never took their foot off the gas against an overmatched Dominican team.

Playing in front of a packed house that included NBA legends Gary Payton, Bill Russell, Scottie Pippen and Dominique Wilkins among countless others, Team USA got off to a slow start—which wasn’t overly surprising considering it was the first time these guys have played with each other in an actual game setting.

The slow start turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the team was able to showcase its defensive prowess, especially on the perimeter. Though they are thin down low, especially now that Blake Griffin has gone down with a knee injury, Team USA is downright scary on the perimeter. They are a long, fast, ball hawking group that will force a ton of turnovers that will lead to fast break opportunities.

And with Chris Paul and Deron Williams running the point and LeBron and Durant filling in on the wings, fans are in store for an incredible array of highlight reel alley-oops that will all start with a strong defensive effort.

“If you have team defensive rebounding, you have a chance to push on the other end and this part of our offense,” Coach K explained. “We have some halfcourt offensive sets, we just didn’t have to run it much tonight.”

One of the more fascinating aspects of last night’s contest was the tinkering of lineups by Coach K throughout the game. Without many options at the center position, the team used a plethora of different lineups that saw Andre Iguodala, Durant and James all getting a turn at the 5.

While the lineups worked last night against a much weaker Dominican team, Team USA will surely have matchup problems against bigger teams like Spain and Russia.

“They looked really good against us so it’s not such a fair gauge,” Dominican Republic center Al Horford said. “But having already played against those other teams and seeing them, they’re going to have their hands full with Spain and Russia… If they can speed up the game, I think they’ll have an advantage against those bigger teams, but if they play a smash mouth game, I think they’ll have a harder time.”

While Horford predicts that Team USA will face problems against bigger teams, he was quick to credit them for their intimidating defense.

“They can create problems with their defense,” Horford said. “We played Russia and all those other teams and we could get into our offense. Tonight, we couldn’t even get into our offense.”

After it was revealed that Blake Griffin would not be traveling to London with the team, the issue of size was the hot topic during last night’s postgame, and for good reason. With Griffin out, Tyson Chandler and Kevin Love (man, is it going to be fun watching him throw full-length outlet passes to his explosive teammates) will now shoulder an even bigger load. It’s highly likely that Anthony Davis will be added to the team, and even though he is an amazing talent, it cannot be forgotten that he is only one year removed from high school and playing on that type of stage will surely be overwhelming.

“I thought he (Davis) played extremely well and we rallied around him just like we rally around everyone else—but him in particular since he’s so young,” Kobe said.

“He looked fine to me out here, practice will be the big key when he goes up against us and we can put a body on him but I don’t think he’ll have much of a problem,” he continued. “You always want more size, but we’re happy with what we have. We really used our speed with LeBron at the 5, Melo at the 4, KD at the 3, myself and Russ. [Losing Blake], it’s very big. I wish he was still with us. We’ve all become close over this week in Vegas playing with each other.”

Fortunately for Coach K, the team is loaded. They will certainly miss Blake’s presence down low but to think that it will kill their chances of winning in London is absurd. This may be one of the most versatile teams ever assembled, with guys who can play a multitude of positions.

It will just be a matter of getting creative and finding the right lineups for this team to succeed. “We’re going to have to play some different lineups,” Coach K said. “You’re not always going to see a 7-footer out there… Iguodala, Carmelo, LeBron and Kevin [Durant] all played big, they all covered 4s and 5s and we have to get comfortable with that.”

The players echoed their coach: “You got guys that can switch,” Chris Paul added. “If we really want to go big, we can go Bron, KD, Kobe, Melo and Tyson Chandler and that’s probably the five biggest guys that would be on the court at the same time.”

The matchup that everyone—from players to media to fans alike—is looking forward to is the showdown with Spain. The Spanish team is talented and very strong up front and the ’08 Medal Game is still fresh in everyone’s mind.

“We learned how to handle adversity [from that game],” LeBron said. “That game was a very close game, and it almost got away from us. The fact that it was a close game going down the stretch and we were able to pull away from them shows how mentally tough we were.”

“We’ll get a chance to play them in an exhibition game,” Melo said. “It was one of the greatest Gold Medal games and it’s going to be a tough matchup [this year] too, but we’re loaded too… That’s why we play the game, to see what happens.”

With all the hype and talk surrounding this year’s Olympic team, it’s refreshing to see them actually hit the hardwood and show what they are capable of. Team USA isn’t worried about all the media, internet and talking head discussions, they are solely focused on representing the United States of America and bringing home a Gold Medal.

“At the end of the day, we all have one goal and that’s to win a Gold medal,” LeBron said. “No matter what goes on, we have the same goal and we’re pretty excited about getting out there.”

And we’re pretty damn excited to watch.

Special thanks to the good people over at Team Refuel who allowed SLAM to cover this week’s training camp and exhibition game out in Vegas.

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During this hectic and condensed NBA season, several Olympic hopefuls have gone down with significant injuries and therefore will be unavailable this summer, but USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo says the roster won’t be tweaked to address the matter: “Colangelo told ESPN.com on Wednesday night that the 12 players picked to represent the United States in London starting July 27 will come from the 16 names still available from the 20-man preliminary roster announced in January. Colangelo initially had left open the possibility last week that a replacement or two could be added in response to the recent losses of big men Dwight Howard, LaMarcus Aldridge and Lamar Odom. ‘We’re not going to add anyone,’ Colangelo said Wednesday. ‘Even with the losses, we still feel like we’re pretty well covered.’ With Howard undergoing back surgery, Aldridge headed for hip surgery and Odom ruled out of Team USA consideration after a nightmarish season in Dallas that led to him being deactivated by the Mavericks, Colangelo and coach Mike Krzyzewski are down to four recognized centers and power forwards on their list of 20 finalists: Kevin Love, Chris Bosh, Tyson Chandler and Blake Griffin. Los Angeles Lakers center Andrew Bynum told the Los Angeles Times last week that he also would not be available because he plans to undergo the same knee procedure in Germany this offseason that Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant underwent during the 2011 offseason. Team USA officials then decided to forge ahead with their plans to focus on the 20 players that already had been selected from the 2008 gold-medal winning team at the Beijing Olympics and the victorious squad from the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey. Sources close to the situation said that the Sacramento Kings have been quietly pushing for second-year center DeMarcus Cousins to be added to the preliminary roster and made eligible for the roster spot originally set aside for Howard. However, the sources said Cousins is only being considered for the select squad that will train in Las Vegas concurrently with the Olympic squad from July 6-11 and scrimmage against Krzyzewski’s team before Team USA’s five exhibition games leading up to the Olympics. Cousins and fellow Kentucky big man Anthony Davis, who is widely expected to be the No. 1 overall pick in the June draft, are among the players contending for select team invites.”

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Coach K used a sports radio appearance to rail against the current relationship between the NBA and college hoops. From The Sports Animal in Oklahoma City (via SRI): “First of all college basketball doesn’t control college basketball. The NBA controls college basketball. They are the ones along with the players union that sets the rule. College basketball just reacts to what the NBA does to include the early entry date. College basketball put out April 10th. Well that date doesn’t mean anything. April 29th is when guys have a chance to put their names in the NBA draft. I think one of the main things that has to happen is college basketball has to have a relationship with the NBA. There should be someone in charge of college basketball who on a day-to-day basis sets an agenda for our great sport. We don’t have anything like that. As a resolve we don’t have a voice with the NBA or the players union and that’s just kind of sad.’ Do you continue to go after superstar players who could be one-and-done players? Do you go harder after players that may stay 2-3 years as oppose to the superstar? ‘Yeah we can’t go after every one-and-done guy because a lot of the guys and they are great players and great kids, but school isn’t as important. A lot of those guys a number of years ago didn’t have to go to college. Dwight Howard. Kobe Bryant. LeBron James. Kids are…it’s not even going one year. They are going to spend maybe six-seven months. Sometimes…we have a great school, but it’s not as attractive as going someplace else, so we have to be careful with who we get involved with because it could be a monumental waste of time for us.’”

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This summer, the USA Men’s National Team will travel to four cities and play exhibition games versus Argentina, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Great Britain and Spain to prepare for the 2012 Olympics, which will be held in London from July 28th to August 12th. The announcement was formally made this morning, and our friends at USA Basketball have the details:

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Feb. 24, 2012) – Exhibition games versus Argentina, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Great Britain and Spain, and training camps in four cities highlight the 2012 USA Basketball Men’s National Team tour that was announced today.

USA Basketball also announced that the USA Women’s National Team will join the USA Men’s National Team for an exhibition doubleheader in Washington, D.C. versus Brazil on July 16 (5:30 p.m. local time), and will play an exhibition against Great Britain in Manchester, England, on July 18 (7:30 p.m. local time), one day prior to the men’s contest against Great Britain.

The American men will open their training July 6 in Las Vegas, Nev., the domestic home to the USA Basketball Men’s National Team since 2006. The USA squad will train daily July 6-11 at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, and will face the Dominican Republic on July 12 (6 p.m. local time) at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center.

The team will move its training to the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., to train July 13-15 and play an exhibition contest versus Brazil at the Verizon Center on July 16 (8 p.m. local time).

The USA will continue its preparations July 17-18 in Manchester and on July 19 (7:30 p.m. local time) will play Great Britain at the Manchester Arena. Tickets for both the USA men’s and women’s national team games against their respective Great Britain counterparts will be available starting March 6. To reserve your tickets please call +44 (0)844 847 8000 or visit www.ticketmaster.co.uk.

Twenty years after the USA Dream Team made its debut in Barcelona, Spain, the U.S. returns and will conclude its tour with a pair of exhibition games against FIBA’s No. 2 and No. 3 ranked world powers. Facing No. 3 ranked Argentina on July 22 (9:30 p.m. local time) at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona, the USA will close out its exhibition tour against FIBA’s No. 2 ranked power Spain on July 24 (9:30 p.m. local time) at the Palau Sant Jordi.

“We have again scheduled an extremely challenging lineup of exhibition opponents for our USA Men’s National Team. In addition to playing world powers Spain and Argentina, the team will also face FIBA Americas powers Brazil and the Dominican Republic. Add in what I’m sure will be a very competitive game in Manchester versus Great Britain, and we have an exciting tour schedule we believe will help get our team as best prepared as possible for the summer,” said Jerry Colangelo, USA Basketball chairman and national team managing director.

Ten members of the 2010 USA World Championship gold medal winning team, eight 2008 Olympic gold medalists, and two national team players were among the 20 players named on Jan. 16 by USA Basketball as finalists for the USA Men’s National Team.

Named a finalist for the 2012 USA National Team were: LaMarcus Aldridge (Portland Trail Blazers); Carmelo Anthony (New York Knicks); Chauncey Billups (Los Angeles Clippers); Chris Bosh (Miami Heat); Kobe Bryant (Los Angeles Lakers); Tyson Chandler (New York Knicks); Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City Thunder);Rudy Gay (Memphis Grizzlies); Eric Gordon (New Orleans Hornets); Blake Griffin (Los Angeles Clippers);Dwight Howard (Orlando Magic); Andre Iguodala (Philadelphia 76ers); LeBron James (Miami Heat); Kevin Love (Minnesota Timberwolves); Lamar Odom (Dallas Mavericks); Chris Paul (Los Angeles Clippers); Derrick Rose (Chicago Bulls); Dwyane Wade (Miami Heat); Russell Westbrook (Oklahoma City Thunder); and Deron Williams (New Jersey Nets).

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We’ve recently gotten peaks at who may or may not be on the Team USA squad for the London 2012 Games, and today, the official list of 20 finalists was revealed: “Eight 2008 Olympic gold medalists, 10 members of the 2010 USA World Championship gold medal winning team, one national team player and one newcomer to the USA Basketball National Team were among the 20 finalists named today for the 2012 U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team by USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo. The official 12-man U.S. Olympic team roster will be announced later this year. Named as a finalist for the 2012 USA team were: LaMarcus Aldridge (Portland Trail Blazers); Carmelo Anthony (New York Knicks); Chauncey Billups (Los Angeles Clippers); Chris Bosh (Miami Heat); Kobe Bryant (Los Angeles Lakers); Tyson Chandler (New York Knicks); Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City Thunder); Rudy Gay (Memphis Grizzlies); Eric Gordon (New Orleans Hornets); Blake Griffin (Los Angeles Clippers); Dwight Howard (Orlando Magic); Andre Iguodala (Philadelphia 76ers); LeBron James (Miami Heat); Kevin Love (Minnesota Timberwolves); Lamar Odom (Dallas Mavericks); Chris Paul (Los Angeles Clippers); Derrick Rose (Chicago Bulls); Dwyane Wade (Miami Heat); Russell Westbrook (Oklahoma City Thunder); and Deron Williams (New Jersey Nets). Griffin was also officially added to the USA Basketball National Team roster. The 2012 USA coaching staff is led by Duke University’s Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski, and serving as USA assistant coaches are Syracuse University’s Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim, New York Knicks head coach Mike D’Antoni, and Portland Trail Blazers head coach Nate McMillan.”

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With his mentor and former record holder Bob Knight in the building, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski picked up win No. 903 on Tuesday night to become the winningest coach in Division I history. The historic win came at Madison Square in the first game of the Champions Classic, Krzyzewski’s Blue Devils defeated Michigan State, 74-69.

While the unranked Spartans kept things close for the first 20 minutes, 26 points from Andre Dawkins and 20 points from Seth Curry were enough to bury Tom Izzo’s crew.

But even with the strong performance from the Blue Devils backcourt, the night was all about their coach. Krzyzewski’s 903 wins, which include stints at Army and Duke, include four national titles and 11 Final Four appearances. The Duke head coach played for Knight at Army, and after the game the two legendary coaches shared a moment together.

From The Washington Post:

“I just told Coach I love him,” Krzyzewski said. “I wouldn’t be in this position without him. It’s a moment shared. I know he’s very proud and I’m very proud to have been somebody who’s worked under him and studied him and tried to be like him.”

Krzyzewski’s resume doesn’t just stop with the 903 victories. He was elected into the National Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001 and led Team USA to a gold medal in 2008. The only men’s or women’s coach with more wins in Division I history is Tennessee’s Pat Summit, who has 1,071.

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Here’s the newest ad spot from the folks at Nike, featuring everyone from a solid lineup of NBAers—Lebron James, Kevin Durant, Amar’e Stoudemire and Dirk Nowitzki—to Duke’s Coach K to hip-hop acts like J. Cole and The Roots’ Questlove. Check it out above and do remember: #BasketballNeverStops.

The post Video: New Nike Commercial Featuring LeBron, KD, Amar’e, Dirk and Others appeared first on SLAM.

There were some rumblings when the NBA lockout began that League superstars might skip out on the Olympics in 2012 as a show of protest, and Coach K sounds more than a tad concerned about what this current work stoppage will mean for the Olympic hoops squad he’s going to coach next summer. From USA Today: “We’re obviously really concerned,’ the Duke Blue Devils’ coach said of keeping an eye on the NBA lockout when he was a guest on ESPN Radio’s Mike and Mike In the Morning show Wednesday. ‘What if there isn’t a season? What if they expand (the season past June) if they start playing? We begin (Olympic) practice the 4th or 5th of July. The gold medal game is Aug. 12. If the NBA has to go into July, what does that do for us? If they don’t have a season, will they play (in the Olympics)?’ And then, there is the prospect of injuries. ‘The main thing we’re worried about is just the game. NBA basketball is the highest level in the world. … The thing I would worry about is injuries … the conditioning,’ Krzyzewski said. ‘So you worry about that, just, would anybody get hurt? We’re going to wait until spring to announce who the 12 players will be on the team. We have a great pool, because everyone wants to play. … We have the world championship team (from last summer), plus (New York Knicks forward Amar’e Stoudemire and (Los Angeles Clippers forward) Blake Griffin. … It will be a good, tough decision to make.'”

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Here’s a little mix of highlights from Alex Poythress, the 6-8 forward who Coach K may or may not have committed a recruiting violation over. Vid courtesy of CLHTV.

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Mike Krzyzewski continued his climb to the top of college basketball Wednesday night when he passed Dean Smith for the second most wins in NCAA Division I history with Duke’s 108-62 win over UNC-Greensboro. The win gives him 880 wins for his career and puts him just 22 behind Bobby Knight for first all-time.

Krzyzewski is currently on pace to break Knight’s record some time in March. If his team does indeed run the table, that win would come in the first round of the NCAA tournament. An unexpected early exit might leave him waiting till next season to accomplish the feat.

As you would expect Krzyzewski isn’t really concerned on when he breaks the record.

From The Greensboro News & Record:

“I talk to Coach Knight about once a week, but we don’t talk about number of wins,” Krzyzewski said. “We talk first of all about whatever he’s shooting at that time, wherever he’s hunting. I always ask him ‘Who, um, what did you shoot?’ And hopefully it’s not somebody, it’s something.”

Krzyzewski said he won’t be thinking about Knight or his 902 wins from here on out. He’ll be thinking about the next game, Sunday against Miami, and then the game after that. But for one night, he was thinking about a lot of other things. He was thinking about Smith, and he was thinking about his players and his staff.

While it’s inevitable that Krzyzewski will pass Knight, his greatest competition might come from a few other current coaches. Jim Boeheim and Jim Calhoun have 843 and 833 wins, respectively, putting them about one season’s worth of wins behind Krzyzewski.

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With Coach K having the Team USA job on lockdown right now, any coach interested in coaching in the Olympics will have to set his sights elsewhere. Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino has his set on Puerto Rico.

Although Pitino has not officially accepted the position, the two sides are close. Puerto Rico missed qualifying for the 2008 Olympics and under Pitino would need to do well in this summer’s qualifying tournament in Argentina to even make the 2012 Olympics.

While nothing is official yet, Puerto Rican natives Jose Juan Barea and Carlos Arroyo plan to meet with Pitino on Sunday before he flies down to Puerto Rico on Monday to formally accept an offer.

Barea is among those who would be ecstatic to have a coach with so many accolades.

From ESPNDallas.com:

Barea said Puerto Rico typically prefers to stick with its own, but the failure to qualify for the 2008 Olympics, plus last summer’s disappointing first-round ousting at the World Championships in Turkey, prompted Puerto Rican Basketball Federation president Carlos J. Beltran to contact Pitino.

“He’ll bring defense and discipline and I think guys will listen to him more than they listen to the guys in Puerto Rico just because he’s Rick Pitino,” Barea said. “I think that will help.”

Having Pitino and Mike Krzyzewski potentially coach against each other in the Olympics will be one of the biggest storylines in 2012. There could be some magic in store. Remember, these were the two coaches when Christian Laettner hit that memorable shot in 1992.

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by David Cassilo

Kyrie Irving has a target on his back, and to begin to understand why it’s there, you need to look no further than his feet. Irving, this year’s top freshman point guard and a size-12 shoe, would have a bit of trouble filling the shoes of last year’s top point guard, John Wall, a size 13, even in the most literal sense.

But don’t tell Irving that. Don’t tell him it will be impossible to match the level our current cover subject was playing at last year. Don’t bring up all of the pressure that comes with being a freshman point guard taking over a National Champion. And forget about mentioning how he is expected to continue the legacy of New Jersey point guards winning titles at Duke started by Bobby Hurley and Jay Williams.

Irving has heard all that, and the point guard who has already been compared to the likes of Wall and Chris Paul isn’t too concerned about getting wrapped up in it.

“I don’t really pay attention,” Irving says in his soft-spoken yet confident manner. “The question for me is, how are you going to separate yourself from everyone else?”

“Quite nicely” would be the answer so far in Irving’s basketball career. Irving’s pre-college accolades already read like the beginning of a Hall of Fame plaque: McDonald’s All-American, New Jersey state champion, New Jersey Gatorade Player of the Year, gold medal at the FIBA U-18 World Championship. Not bad at all for an 18-year-old, but with every honor, there are even greater expectations.

“If I had to choose a point guard between John Wall and Kyrie Irving, I’d choose Kyrie,” Jay Williams says. “Wall is an unbelievable athlete, but Kyrie is an extension of the coach on the floor, who dictates tempo and isn’t concerned about his own.”

The 6-2, 180-pound PG started to build expectations like those behind his house in West Orange, NJ, playing basketball with the man responsible for much of that success-his father, Drederick.

“He’s kept me focused, and he’s been there since the beginning when no one knew about me,” Irving says. “Aside from being a fan, he’s also my father.”

His father was a great player in his own right, starring for four years at Boston University, where he is a member of the school’s Hall of Fame. His professional career took him to Australia, where Kyrie was born. When Kyrie was just 4 years old, his mother Elizabeth passed away, and it’s been just he and his father since.

After his sophomore year of high school, it became apparent that Irving was something special, and he, along with his father, made the decision to transfer from Montclair (NJ) Kimberley to nearby prep powerhouse St. Patrick, a team with a perennial bull’s-eye on its back.

“It’s the best decision of my life,” Irving says. “I was at the highest level, playing against and beating the best. I developed a toughness and confidence that I didn’t really have before.”

While developing those skills, he was also becoming a Garden State legend. In his first season at St. Patrick, Irving averaged 17 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists per game while leading his team to a state title.

At the same time, colleges were the ones really starting to target Irving, who had become the consensus top point guard in his class. His quickness and impressive handle were one thing, but the maturity and basketball IQ he showed was enough to have college coaches salivating.

Irving strongly considered Kentucky and Texas A&M, but an instant bond with Coach Mike Krzyzewski was enough for him to announce his commitment to Duke just prior to his senior season. “It felt like home on my official visit and with Coach K,” Irving says. “I’m really close to him. He said that he has a plan set out for me.”

Now the No. 1 freshman point guard in the country was going to a school viewed by many as college basketball’s Public Enemy No. 1. “We are the highlighted game on everyone’s schedule,” Hurley says. “Duke deals with that every year.”

The national spotlight would be on Irving every night to prove his worth, and that was even before people pegged him “the next John Wall.” Even before Duke won the title.

Before he could deal with that, he needed to finish his high school career as a marked man. However, his senior season and state title defense hit an unexpected bump in the road. Although Irving showed he could play with the bull’s-eye on him (his numbers jumped to 24.5 points, 5 rebounds and 6.5 assists per game), his team’s season was cut short due to unsanctioned off-season workouts, and Irving was unable to defend his title.

Although many, including his head coach Kevin Boyle, felt the team was unfairly targeted, Irving was able to do off the court what he has done so many times on it-turn a negative into a positive. “It was heartbreaking because I wanted to win another state championship,” Irving says. “But it all worked out because when I couldn’t play, I actually got to make it down to Duke vs. North Carolina, which was my first Duke game.”

After a summer spent winning the gold medal at the FIBA U-18 World Championship, Irving came to Durham to get ready for a more important first game-the first he will play in. Taking over as point guard for a defending National Champion can be daunting, but Krzyzewski has molded his team’s offense to adapt to Irving’s style of play. It is both a way to make Irving’s transition a smooth one, and a statement on what his coach already thinks of his freshman’s abilities.

“He’s a special player,” Krzyzewski said following the team’s exhibition game against St. Augustine. “I think he’s just mature, mentally and physically. He has great poise.”

Even with that maturity, one of the biggest challenges for Irving might be just getting his own teammates, who already have a chip, to follow him. While Wall may have taken the country by storm last season, it was Irving’s new teammates who cut the nets, and for his biggest goal, Irving needs to look no further than his own starting lineup.

“They already have a title, and I want my own,” Irving says.

And if he does that, those asking if Irving is the next John Wall or Bobby Hurley or Jay Williams might instead be asking, “Who’s the next Kyrie?”

The post Thank Me Later appeared first on SLAM.

Last night’s dominating 82-68 win over No. 4 Kansas State for No. 1 Duke confirmed what many already suspected: The Blue Devils are really, really good.

Already, this year’s squad looks even better than the one that won the national title last year. Kyrie Irving has flawlessly transitioned to the college level, Mason Plumlee and Andre Dawkins have taken the next step in their sophomore seasons and Seth Curry is making his case for the nation’s best Sixth Man. Returning seniors Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith aren’t too bad either.

Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s team is far and away looking like the country’s best right now, and although it’s only November, it is time to start bringing up the possibility of an undefeated season.

Aside from great talent, the Blue Devils schedule also works in their favor. Home games against No. 2 Michigan State (who are sure to drop after a loss to unranked UConn) and No. 21 Temple are the only ranked opponents left on Duke’s non-conference schedule.

Meanwhile, the ACC looks poised for a down year. No. 25 North Carolina is the only other team ranked, and Georgia Tech, Boston College and Wake Forest have already lost to mid-major opponents. Virgina Tech, the preseason pick to finish second in the conference, lost by 16 to the same Kansas State team Duke just dismantled.

After being on the other end of Tuesday’s loss, count Kansas State Head Coach Frank Martin as one of those who believes Duke is a special team.

From The Topeka Capital-Journal:

“They knocked the living (heck) out of us,” coach Frank Martin said. “If there’s one better than them, I don’t want to play them.”

The Blue Devils might just be 5-0, but they look like one of the elite teams in recent memory. So it’s time to start the undefeated talk because last night’s performance suggests it’s no longer enough to say Duke is just good. This team could be something more than that.

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You all know we have serious love for Kevin Durant. And we definitely respect the job Coach K has done with Team USA. Not sure what to make of this recent photograph, though. Do you have any good ideas for how to caption it? If so, please let the world know.

Whoever writes the funniest caption will win a dope prize from our vault and see their name in Trash Talk next issue.

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Typically, the summer sport’s world is dominated by baseball, pre-season football talk, and major tennis and golf outings, leaving hoopheads longing for something to watch. But this year (with the help of Nike and the ESPN family of networks), we were given the opportunity to see something great.

The Game in one of its purest forms. Guys playing not for the money, but for pride, driven by their passion for the game.

But as Team USA prepared for the FIBA World Championships, the hate was about as heavy as Shawn Kemp. The “B Team,” some called them. Granted, these weren’t the creamiest of the crop, but the “B Team”? Really?

Personally, watching them win left me a proud American, telling myself, “I Love This Game.” Seeing them play since early August, we were able to witness the entire ride. We got to watch them grow up and come together as a team, the final game being the fulfilling culmination of it all.

When they lost in ’02 (which was made up of “second-tier” guys just like the current team) and ’06, Americans were disgraced. Astonished. Ready to banish George Karl, Paul Pierce and the like from the country, forget the League. But the team that finally righted the ship, bringing home World Championship gold for the first time since 1994, hasn’t been met with the same enthusiasm.

Given all the hate, I think it’s time to show some love:

1. First and foremost, shout out to Kevin Durant. From day one, it was clear: He had to be the guy. Coach K had to ask him to be more selfish. With all the pressure on him, he stepped up. Big time. And when it counted most, is when he was at his best. Dropping 33, 38 and 28 in the final three games, setting all kinds of records for Americans in international play. Even when Team USA’s offense, or lack thereof, seemed to come to a standstill, Durant carried them singlehandedly, and was the lone Team USA member to average double figures, putting up just under 23 points per game.

2. Shout out to the the vets Chauncey Billups and Lamar Odom, or as ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla dubbed them, the “safety blankets.” Early on, both stumbled. Billups was suspect on D, and uncharacteristically missed free throws — the most clear indication of his struggles. Odom was quiet and ineffective, too. But down the stretch of the tournament, both, especially Odom, answered the call, and showed why you’re taught to respect your elders. Odom, in particular, was absolutely huge, snagging 33 boards over the last three games, and igniting the fastbreak that was so key to the team’s success. He seemed to be in the right place at the right time, time and time again. Billups steadied up, and finished as the team’s second leading scorer. The “old-heads” got it done.

3. Shout out to the energizer bunnies, Eric Gordon and Russell Westbrook. Early on, there was speculation that one, or both, would likely end up being cut. But in practice, scrimmages and friendlies, each earned his way on to the team and didn’t stop there. Both played their way into the rotation, and neither would have a bad game. When the starters came out flat — which happened on more than one occasion — Gordon and Westbrook were always able to provide a shock of life. Gordon solidified himself as one of the deadliest shooters in the game (if we didn’t know it already), looking so good that some thought he should even be starting. Westbrook was a highlight waiting to happen every time he touched the floor. His shooting was considered a weakness, but he knocked several nice mid-range jumpers (and even a couple threes, granted, the line is shorter), and used his explosiveness to serve as one of the team’s best zone busters. To top it off, both players locked up on D.

4. Shout out to Derrick Rose. His play tapered off a bit as the tournament went along, but that doesn’t discount the things he did earlier on; made some great plays late in games or in the shot clock, and, for a time, was the best offensive option next to KD. The confidence he was playing with was great to see (especially for Bulls fans), as he showed off his much improved jumper, and looked to have gotten even faster. If that’s possible. Even after not playing the entire fourth quarter in the semifinal game against Lithuania, he bounced back and helped seal the deal in the championship the next night.

5. Shout out to Andre Iguodala. The fact that he played as much as he did — starting every game — lets you know just how good of a defender he is. His shot looked terrible (though he shot 58 percent), but at the other end, he was all clamps. Guarding 4-men, he defended inside and out, post and perimeter. He got his hands on a countless number of balls and led the team in steals with 16 for the tournament.

6. Shout out to Kevin Love. Minute for minute, he may have been the most impressive, most productive player on Team USA. His playing time was inconsistent, but what he did when he got he in wasn’t. He dominated the boards, finished around the basket and stroked it from the outside. Until the late surge by Odom, he was the team’s best big man. All this in spite of the fact that he looked like Mike Posner (word to Lang Whitaker).

7. Last but certainly not least, shout out to Jerry Colangelo and Coach K. Colangelo has been phenomenal restoring a sense of culture and pride in Team USA, working from the ground up. Coach K proved why he’s one of the best to ever do it. While it helped to have a group of guys willing to put egos to the side, he developed the chemistry to a T and perfected the rotation by the end of the tournament. He’s on one hell of a run right now, also. Winning Gold in 2008, an ACC and National Championship with Duke, and now this. Not to mention, the Blue Devils have their best team in years and should enter — and possibly finish — the season as the best team in the country. And he’ll be with Team USA again in 2012, which he said will definitely be his last go-round. Calling him the greatest coach ever is arguable, of course, but especially given his current run, top three ever is not. If he wins another national championship or gold again in 2012, that case for best ever could be solidified.

The games were a chance to see the future of the NBA. Never before has there been a national team consisting entirely of players poised to have the best season of their life. Save Odom, Billups and Tyson Chandler, every player on that roster, from KD to KLove will enter the ‘10-11 season ready to have the finest year of their young careers. Playing with Team USA will be a major factor in their growth.

That being said, it will be very interesting two years from now when the Olympic squad is being put together. The big shots (Kobe, LeBron, etc.) will likely be back, but they will (or at least they should) have to earn it, because these young boys who played this year will be hungry, and if they’re not careful, somebody’s gonna get their spot taken.

They didn’t always look marvelous and certainly had their flaws, but Team USA 2010 went to Turkey and held it down. Shout out to them for doing so.

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On Friday Coach K evaluated Team USA’s starting lineup. Amongst other changes, Duke’s head coach admitted to contemplating benching Chauncey Billups in favor of Eric Gordon. Well, after Saturday’s practice, Coach said everything’s static, and the starting five will look the same come USA v. Angola on Monday. ESPN’s Chris Sheridan has more from Saturday’s practice in Turkey:

Coach Mike Krzyzewski has decided not to make any changes to his starting lineup for Team USA’s round of 16 game against Angola on Monday.

That was about the only piece of news to come out of the Americans’ practice today as they focused on two points of emphasis: communicating more on defense, and moving the ball more on offense.

“The last two ballgames you knew you were going to win, and you want to fast-forward into the medal round. And then what happens is you stop talking to one another out on the court, and you’re not as animated. And it’s still a game of being connected, and you’re connected primarily when you’re talking to one another,” Krzyzewski said. “They’d done that until the last couple games, so it was a matter of just kind of getting them to do it again.”

The practice was the Americans’ first since Aug. 27, coming after they were given a day off Friday to see the sights of Istanbul, which for Stephen Curry included a round of golf at a course a half-hour outside of the city, where he eagled the first hole — a 490-meter par-5.

“Driver, 6-iron, and a four-foot putt. With rental clubs,” said Curry, who plays to a 5 handicap and whose personal best is a 66. His score Friday was 78.

Kevin Durant’s day off included a stop at Popeyes Chicken, and for Andre Iguodala it included a stop at McDonald’s, where he sampled the MegaMac — a Big Mac with four patties instead of two. (Iguodala was so enamored of the burger, he inspired me to go out and try one for myself this afternoon. The verdict: Brilliant. We Americans are being cheated back in the United States by not having this item on the menu.)

Rudy Gay, who strained a right groin muscle against Tunisia on Thursday, was able to make it through the entire practice Saturday, and Krzyzewski planned to put Team USA through a less strenuous training session Sunday, the day before they will play Angola in the round of 16

Come game-time Monday AM, be sure to check back in. They’ll be plenty of real news, plus Matt Lawyue will be covering the game live for us from Turkey.

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Saturday marked the first day of the World Basketball Championship, and it couldn’t have come soon enough. These are the days where it is tough to find a basketball game to watch so the WBC gives fans around the world a chance to tune in for a few weeks.

Particularly, American basketball fans have something to watch and learn about, as the International game is much different than the traditional game. Try to take these games for what they are and enjoy watching players whom you don’t know about as much. A lot of these guys will be around for a long time to come.

Here is a quick rundown of a few of the games I caught on Day One.

– The French National team had the most impressive showing of the day. They were down by close to 10 points in the first and second halves against a heavily favored Spanish team, yet they kept fighting defensively and moved the ball amazingly on offense against the Spanish zone. This was in large thanks to the incredible drive-and-kick ability of point guard Yannick Bokolo. He kept the defense off balance with his vision and deft passes to big men near the hoop. The end result was an impressive win for the French team and a very disappointing loss for the Spaniards.

– Derrick Rose floater/short-range game is proving to be almost impossible to guard. This area of his game has been a major strength for him since the start of his second season in the NBA but it appears to be headed towards new heights. Rose also pushed the ball incredibly well up the floor and made the correct plays on practically every possession.

– Frenchman and Portland Trailblazer Nicolas Batum displayed his athleticism time and again. First he chased down Marc Gasol on the break and blocked him, then he had a nasty right-handed throwdown on the left side of the lane and then he ran down another Spanish player on the break and pinned his layup attempt on the glass. He was saddled with fouls early but that play brought his team to life with his athletic prowess. Spain held a comfortable lead for much of the first half but France came back to make it a 28-27 game at the half behind the inside-out play of swingman Mickael Gelabale, who drained threes and muscled points on to the scoreboard inside.

– Ricky Rubio controlled his Spanish team well but did not pass the ball as well as he normally does today. He tried to force some cross-court passes that were deflected/stolen and his drop-off passes down low were rather inaccurate. Apparently his neck was hurting but I don’t want to make any excuses for the highly regarded Spanish point guard.

– Marc Gasol was great inside in the few minutes he played in the first quarter, rebounding with efficiency and using jump hooks around the rim. Foul trouble forced him to sit for much of the first half which helped France to stay in the game and he struggled to work back into rhythm.

– Sergio Llull is an effective spark plug off the bench for Spain. He uses his quick first step and fights his way to the basket through contact. Once he got some open space he hit tough shots or dimed teammates around the rim.

– Eric Gordon’s game is perfectly suited for International Basketball. The shorter line aids his long distance range, he’s playing with teammates who are looking for him to shoot when he is in the game and he clearly has the confidence to take shots upon checking into the game. With so many other weapons on the floor EJ has consistently gotten good looks since joining this team and could prove to be a major factor in this tournament against better competition.

– Kevin Durant’s personality looks like it has become a defining factor on this team. He passed the ball well, made plays and shot the ball whenever he was in position to take the best shot for the team. Sure enough, the rest of the team seems to be making the extra pass and looking for the best possible shot for the team on each possession. When you’re best player is as unselfish as Durant, it helps to peer pressure everybody else into doing the same thing.

– The refereeing was, just as expected, shaky at best. Even though the USA blew out Croatia there were still an abundance of bad calls against the so-called B Team. Eric Gordon was called for a foul when simply boxing his man out defensively and a moment later when he tried going over a screen. Westbrook had a horrible charge call on him in the second quarter at the top of the key. A Spanish player battled innocently for defensive position in the paint early on and was whistled for a foul immediately. Croatia forward Luka Zoric took about 6 steps near the basket in the third quarter and there was no call. The International refereeing is shaky, at best, and if you watch closely you can pick out lots of differences in the way they do their job in FIBA ball. As the competition heats up later on look for the referees to call the games very intensely.

– Ante Tomic is a very talented low post player. He has go-to moves over both shoulders, can knock down the 15-footer, is confident putting the ball on the floor and establishes great position in the post. The major knock on him, though, is his lack of strength. If he can put some weight on the Utah Jazz could have a solid player coming over soon.

– Give credit to Coach K. In his month with this team he has been able to whittle the group down into a squad that has excellent chemistry, amazing quickness and very capable shooters from beyond the arc. As a result, the USA won its first game by 28 points and the product placed on the floor was one that showed excellent teamwork, something USA fans have to be proud of thus far and can look forward to for the rest of the tournament.

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Team USA continued its march to Istanbul with its third day of training in New York City late yesterday evening, albeit in a very particular way. Nike’s World Basketball Festival kicked-off its four-day event with a special Team USA showcase at Radio City Music Hall. Yes, there was a regulation sized FIBA court built on the stage.

“Literally, we played on the big stage tonight,” Lamar Odom says. “I think it was different. The ambiance, the background — as far as shooting the ball — but it was fun.”

It should have been fun for the Lakers forward (13 points, 2 threes in 18 minutes), who, along with Andre Iguodala (leading scorer with 15 points and 6 rebounds), shined the brightest when the lights came on. In two, 12-minute periods Team USA held an intra-squad scrimmage that was tied at the end of regulation sending it to an unprecedented, first-team-to-score-wins overtime. The Blue Team walked away victorious courtesy of a Rajon Rondo alley-oop to Tyson Chandler.

Blue Team: Derrick Rose, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Andre Iguodala, Tyson Chandler, Rajon Rondo, Jeff Green

White Team: Russell Westbrook, Chauncey Billups, Rudy Gay, Danny Granger, Lamar Odom, JaVale McGee, Kevin Love, Eric Gordon

(Bold denotes starters)

It was an ugly game, marred by too many attempted three-pointers (combined 7-36), missed jumpers (combined 39-92) and sloppy ball handling (27 turnovers in 24 minutes). Then again, it was just a practice, played under very unusual conditions. There was an open audience to the left of the court, while a curtain and enormous jumbo-tron stared at them from the right. Over the past two scrimmages against the USA Select Team at John Jay Criminal Justice, Coach K and his staff had focused on pressuring the opponent high up the court, working in some zone, which they utilized for all of two minutes yesterday, and building chemistry on the court.

For the most part, the battles for the 12 roster spots are near an end. As last night showed, Billups, who logged the most minutes of any guard, will most likely be the veteran point starting along side either Derrick Rose or Rajon Rondo. With the way Stephen Curry has been shooting the ball (4-10 from three last night; three coming in the second period) all week, he could be the first guard off the bench. Perhaps this edges out Eric Gordon of a roster spot, who has been productive during practice, although not quite at Curry’s level.

Odom showed last night his value to this team, doing a bunch of little things to be productive. Knocking down threes, driving to the hoop, and being a lengthy body on defense. The swingman positions seemed to be locked down by Iguodala, who was very impressive and has been all week, along with Durant, Gay and Granger, who returned to practice after sitting out Day 2 with a dislocated finger. This perhaps pushes Jeff Green out of the picture.

The center position is the most intriguing — and confusing — spot to predict. Tyson Chandler will surely have the five spot wrapped up, although in 21 minutes out of a total 24 yesterday, he grabbed just two total rebounds while the opposing team shot 19-46. JaVale McGee continues to show his inexperience, losing his footing on one play and unnecessarily throwing the ball at the rim. The thing about McGee, though, is do you bring him to Turkey just for insurance? He’s the only other legitimate center besides Chandler, but his skill level and mindset don’t seem to be what Team USA is expecting at this level. Then again, if Chandler goes down in an early game, who does Coach K use? Odom? Love? They’ll have to go even smaller than they expected, something that will surely hurt them on the glass. Jerry Colangelo said yesterday they could potentially bring all 15 to Turkey, before they submit their final roster, and make their decision then.

It’s difficult to judge everybody when they’re only playing against themselves, so their exhibition on Sunday against Team France should be a really telling analysis of where they stand. See you then.

The post Team USA Scrimmage appeared first on SLAM.

I’ll keep this short and sweet, as Team USA had already begun their scrimmage against the USA Select Team when the media entered the gym at the John Jay Criminal Justice gym.

-There was an emphasis on using the full-court press. With the plethora of quick, agile guards, Team USA should be able to disrupt and keep the pressure on the opposing guards looking to push the ball up the court. Russell Westbrook, Derrick Rose and Eric Gordon were prime examples of causing mayhem and forcing the Select Team to launch the ball down court where the likes of the lengthy Lamar Odom and Kevin Durant were waiting to intercept.

-This team will shoot the three ball. A lot. It’s scary to think a strategy of theirs might be to live and die behind the arc, but for most of the scrimmage yesterday, with the exception of some well-controlled drives to the bucket by Rose and Westbrook, Team USA was launching from down town. Durant, Stephen Curry, Rudy Gay and even Kevin Love, were putting them up, and hitting them for the most part. The shorter perimeter arc of the international game certainly helps things (FIBA: 20′ 6.1″ – NBA: 23′ 9″), although this shouldn’t be taken for granted. One cold streak against the up-tempo squads of Puerto Rico, Brazil or Spain could spell doom on the other end of the court. Long rebound, outlet and an easy layup – situations like these Team USA has to remember to hustle back on to defend.

-The scrimmages on Day 1 were four, 6-minute quarters. On Day 2, when the media entered the gym, they were finishing up their last two 10-minute quarters. A FIBA game is four, 10-minute periods, as opposed to the NBA’s four, 12-minute periods.

-Rajon Rondo missed practice due to a death in the family, and Danny Granger was out after injuring his ring finger during yesterday’s practice.

-Curry had a strong scrimmage. The 6-3 Warriors guard knocked down the open shots, pressured high up the court on defense and was aggressive on the offensive end, setting up plays for others:

“The lanes bigger, there’s a lot more space on the floor. Guys can sit in the lane, there’s no defensive three seconds. Big guys are always going to be down there if you go to the middle, which helps me, maybe I can shoot the three’s all day,” (facetiously).

On another note for Warriors fans, I asked him if he’s spoken with David Lee at all:

“Oh yeah, we’re pretty good friends right away. I think I’m gonna hang out with him this week. I think any time you add an All-Star with the talents he has to be able to pass, shoot, play the pick-and-roll game, rebound, defend – all those things we need at that position he’ll be able to come in and help right away.”

-The only other pure shooter on this squad, aside from Curry, is Eric Gordon. Here’s his take on his role on the team:

“I’d say mostly shooting and making three point shots, and playing really good defense and making steals. We (him and Stephen Curry) just got to do our job and makes baskets.”

-Jerry Colangelo on Team USA playing zone:

“It’s not gonna be a constant. It’s gonna be an in-and-out kind of a thing. More than anything else to get the offense off kilter. That’s how it should be used. That’s how the Europeans use it now.”

Day 3 should be a treat, as tonight kicks off the World Basketball Festival with a Team USA showcase at Radio City Music Hall. I hear Jay-Z is going to perform afterward…of course, I’ll have a post with all the details.

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Even though a pair of forwards led each team in scoring, depth and talent at the guard position, just as it had been throughout the USA Men’s National Team’s week-long training camp in Las Vegas, was on display in the USA White’s 114-96 win over the USA Blue in the 2010 USA Basketball Showcase at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center.

Both teams, playing in the intra-squad scrimmage that concluded the USA National Team’s 2010 Las Vegas training camp that opened July 20, combined to shoot 29-of-51 from 3-point range, and the White’s 14-of-29 (48.3 percent) mark from behind the arc helped lead it to a 114-96 win in front of a crowd of 11,635 and an ESPN2 national broadcast.

“We had a terrific week,” USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo said. “We had a great response from our players. They really worked hard. They were aggressive, and we really got a lot out of this week. (There’s) tough decisions for us going forward for us.”

The White’s Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City Thunder) led all scorers with 28 points, and was named the player of the game. But five more players scored in double figures for the White squad, including Andre Iguodala (Philadelphia 76ers) with 17, Eric Gordon (Los Angeles Clippers) had 16, Derrick Rose (Chicago Bulls) scored 15 and Tyson Chandler (Dallas Mavericks) was credited with 13 points (6-of-6 FGs) while raking in a game best nine rebounds.

Rudy Gay (Memphis Grizzlies) led the Blue with 23 points, while O.J. Mayo (Memphis Grizzlies) scored 18, Russell Westbrook (Oklahoma City Thunder) added 14 and Jeff Green (Oklahoma City Thunder) tossed in 11 points and grabbed a team best eight rebounds. Durant shot 10-of-17 from the field and 2-of-3 from 3 for the White, which shot 55.3 percent from the field. The Blue, meanwhile, hit only 45.3 percent of its fieldgoals, and out-rebounded the White, 39-37.

In addition to his 15 points, Rose led the White with eight assists, while Iguodala added five. Rajon Rondo (Boston Celtics), who scored seven points, led the Blue with six assists.

“As a coaching staff, we thought it was a really good week,” aid USA Men’s National Team and Duke University head coach Mike Krzyzewski. “As always, coming to Las Vegas for USA Basketball was terrific.  We want to thank the fans, so many people coming out for an intra-squad game, and it being on ESPN. It was a good showcase event for these guys.  They’ve done a really good job this week and we’re getting to have a personality for our basketball team right now and anxious to get down to 15 and go to New York and try and personalize the team a little bit more.”

Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors) previewed the kind of game it would be when Rose found him for an open 3-pointer 40 seconds in. That started the White on a 16-7 run to open the game, a run during which Iguodala and Gordon also knocked down 3s.

The White led 22-12 after Danny Granger (Indiana Pacers) hit a 3-pointer of his own midway through the first quarter, but the Blue charged back with 3s from Gay and Mayo to pull within 29-23 at the end of the first.

The Blue would fight back to tie it at 29, though, thanks to six straight points from 7-foot forward JaVale McGee (Washington Wizards) to start the second quarter. After falling slightly behind, the Blue again deadlocked the score at 38 with 4:30 to play in the second quarter after Gay hit his third 3 of the game. Gordon, Durant and Iguodala, though, led the White on a 18-6 run to close out the first half, giving the White a 56-44 lead at the break.

Durant perhaps sealed his player of the game honor in the first four minutes of the third quarter, scoring 10 points in that span. When Granger hit a bucket with 4:35 left in the third, the White’s lead had expanded to 74-59, and they appeared to have the game well in hand.

“We have so many great guys on this team,” Durant said. “We have three or four point guards, two or three wings and couple of bigs, so you can play hard for three minutes straight, and then somebody is going to come in and get you and play the same way. I think that’s what unique about this team.”

The Blue, however, refused to surrender.

Gay and Mayo scored on back-to-back possessions to end the third quarter, then Mayo hit a 3 and Westbrook cruised to a fast-break layup off a steal to start the fourth and the Blue had closed within nine points, 83-74, with nine minutes still to play.

“I think this game was definitely a test for us,” Gay said. “That’s what we scrimmage for. We came out here and we tested to see exactly where we need to be. Personally, I think – I can always get better – but I think I did pretty good out there.”

Chandler, though, scored eight of his points in a five-minute stretch in the fourth to buffer the Blue’s lead 99-84 and the White never threatened the outcome again.

Four of the White squad’s players made at least two 3-pointers, including Curry, who shot 3-of-7, Iguodala (3-of-3), Durant (2-of-3), and Gordon (4-of-7). Meanwhile, Gay shot 3-of-4 from 3-point range to lead the Blue, while Mayo made 3-of-6 tries.

Tyreke Evans (Sacramento Kings) did not play after suffering a right ankle injury during training camp.

The 2010 Showcase ended a week of training in Las Vegas for the Men’s National Team, which will compete in the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey from Aug. 28 to Sept. 12. While 19 players participated in the Las Vegas training, the USA official roster for Turkey will number 12. After a short break, finalists for the USA team will reconvene for training in New York City from Aug. 9-16.

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Before going out to win his fourth national championship as head coach of the Duke Blue Devils last night, there was talk that the New Jersey Nets’ incoming team owner was ready to offer Mike Krzyzewski a $15 mil/year contract to leave Durham. Such talk was quickly dismissed by Coach K.

Still … What else does this Russian guy have up his sleeve, and more importantly, just how far is he willing to go to make an immediate splash and turn the Nets into not only a winning team, but a relevant one?

The great Dave D’Alessandro of the NJ Star-Ledger tracked down a few league execs — people who Prokhorov will be competing against over the coming years in the NBA — for their opinions (and fears) of the new guy moving into the neighborhood:

What would the reaction be around the NBA if an owner threw a $15 million-per-year offer at a new coach — specifically, the reaction among his business partners, those fellow owners who are trying to keep expenditures under control in these difficult times? “They would love it,” the Mavericks owner replied in an e-mail. “It would show he is stupid money, and not a competitive threat.”

“But it only takes one owner to throw that out of whack,” said a third executive. “Even if it’s a combo job (coach and general manager), that $15 million figure is shocking to most people. Besides Phil, the only guy you can justify giving that money to would be Pat Riley, and only if he ran the whole show. But to give that to a coach, even Coach K, that’s going to irritate some people.

“But not me. I’m not surprised about the number. (Prokhorov) strikes me as the kind of guy who would throw money at a problem. And if there’s a bad reaction to it, he couldn’t care less. The Nets are at the bottom, he’ll take them to the top, and he doesn’t care how he does it.”

The Nets certainly don’t scare anyone. Their soon-to-be new boss does, because no one knows what he’ll do, but they’re perfectly aware that whatever it is, it will be big and bold.

One day, Nets fans can only hope, the team itself will strike fear and trepidation in the hearts of its opponents.

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by Michael Bradley

If you have to attack something big, it helps to break it down into smaller challenges. Many of them. Of course, to those of us crammed into Philadelphia’s Spectrum that fateful late afternoon in March of ’92, it could not be reduced to a pile of rubble. The job was too big.

That’s how it is when you have no control. You can’t see a solution, only the large, seemingly insurmountable problem. Sitting behind the Duke basket, looking across the arena to a destination which seemed so far away and so small, I had thoughts of nothing but desperation. What do you want? There were 2.1 seconds left in the greatest game I’d ever seen, and even if it had ended in a 103-102 Kentucky win, it would have been one of those I-was-there-and-you-weren’t moments.

To my left, the Kentucky fans were in full throat, convinced Sean Woods’ running banker in the lane had finally done the job. It was easy to root for them, despite the school’s history. These weren’t the Wildcats of cranky Adolph Rupp or corporate wonk Joe B. Hall. They were “The Unforgettables,” a team made up of Bluegrass State prep heroes whose dreams of playing for the Blue-and-White were realized largely because the NCAA’s probationary hammer had come down hard on the program in the wake of Eddie Sutton’s fast-and-loose days. Guys like John Pelphrey and Richie Farmer and Deron Feldhaus were role-playing types who had been forged into heroes by necessity and Rick Pitino. Woods was there, too. And so was Jamal Mashburn, a reminder that Kentucky wouldn’t always be so cuddly. The talent spigot had been turned on again.

“The so-called ‘All-Americans’ had transferred,” says Pitino, who had come to the program’s rescue two years before. “What was left behind were people nobody wanted. There was a group of three Kentucky kids who bled the colors of the university. They had dreamed about playing there since they were born.”

Everybody else in the gym was rooting for Duke, or at least it seemed that way. That’s what happens when you’re the defending National Champs and represent a prestigious private school. That goes a long way in Philly, where the Main Line is loaded with preppy, well-heeled fans who both attended and paid their children’s tuition at such schools. But even they, who were so used to getting their way, couldn’t see a solution. The 1992 NCAA East Regional championship was Kentucky’s. Those 2.1 seconds were just for dramatic effect. After all, the job was too big.

“We’re going to win.”

That’s how it started. Well, actually it started with Woods, a fearless point guard who had driven around Duke assist machine Bobby Hurley and banked in a 13-footer over the fingernails of Blue Devil center Christian Laettner to give UK a one-point lead with 2.1 left in overtime. “I wanted to get the ball up there, so that if I missed it, there would be a chance for somebody to tip it in,” Woods says. “I wanted it to hit the back of the rim, but I gave it some extra oomph, because of the excitement. It hit the square in the middle.”

Woods’ shot had seemingly capped a wild overtime ride that featured two huge baskets by Pelphrey and an old-fashioned three-point play by Mashburn. Duke had countered with a Hurley triple and six points by Laettner (four free throws and a bucket). Each punch and resulting counterpunch had brought the assembled throng to a heightened state of frenzy.

It had been that way the entire game, really. Duke led throughout much of the first half, but there was no impression the Blue Devils would run away with the thing. On the contrary, there was a sense of concern, since the game was being played at UK’s frenetic pace. “Kentucky was a run-and-gun team that scored so many points,” Laettner says. “I didn’t know if we could hang with them. That was the only way to beat us that year. You couldn’t slow it down on us or do anything else.”

Laettner’s right. Duke had been transformed from the lovable underdog that had slain the mighty UNLV bandits in the ’91 national semifinal into a leviathan, losing but twice (to North Carolina and Wake Forest). Laettner and Hurley were the best players at their positions in the land, and Grant Hill wasn’t exactly shabby at the forward spot. Thomas Hill, Brian Davis and Antonio Lang made significant contributions to one of the best teams of the last 25 years. Kentucky’s players felt confident, but they knew what they were getting into. “Make no mistake whatsoever,” Pelphrey says. “We understood who they were. We understood their personnel. And we knew these guys would play for a long time after we hung them up.”

Duke led 50-45 at the half and had a 79-69 advantage when the real fun began. “We had pressed them throughout, and we thought they would eventually get tired, and we would make a run,” Pelphrey says. Sure enough, Kentucky fought back. And at one point, things almost got out of control. After UK freshman Aminu Timberlake fouled Laettner, Timberlake hit the deck. Laettner, not too happy with some of the physical play going on, stomped on Timberlake’s chest, drawing a technical and some outrage. “I was losing my balance, and I put my foot on his chest,” Laettner says. “I wasn’t trying to hurt him, and that’s why the ref only gave me one technical foul.” While Kentucky fans screamed for Laettner’s head, the game rollicked toward its conclusion.

After regulation, it was 93-93. Kentucky led three times in OT before Woods’ shot. Duke was in front twice. And then it was 103-102. The Devils called timeout, and coach Mike Krzyzewski made his prediction. “We’re going to win.”

“I think we believed it, because Coach has a commanding presence, and whatever he said in that huddle, we came out of it feeling like we had a chance to win,” Grant Hill says.

The Pass

After assuring his team that it would win, Krzyzewski had a question for Grant Hill: “Can you make a good pass?” Hill said yes, and that part of the problem was solved. “That was a positive,” Laettner recalls simply.

In the Kentucky huddle, there were no questions about whether the game could be won. In most of the players’ minds, it had already been decided. Pelphrey thought about how probation had stripped UK of the SEC title it had won the previous year. About how the people of Kentucky had supported the team through Pitino’s difficult first year, when the Wildcats finished 14-14. “I thought we would have a ring [as East Region champs] that no one could take away from us,” Pelphrey says. Woods, meanwhile, felt some vindication, since he had struggled earlier in the year in some late-game situations. He was also impatient. “I wanted to hurry up and get the dad-gum game over,” he says. “People didn’t realize what we had gone through for the past two or three years. There was an urgency to get some satisfaction.”

Pitino prepared his team for the first part of the play with a decision that some still question: the Wildcats would not have anybody guard Hill. The reasoning was that having an extra man trying to intercept—or at least deflect—the throw was preferable to hoping a defender could distract the passer and playing one-on-one at the other end. “We wanted to make them hit the ‘Hail Mary,’” Farmer says. It’s not like Pitino concocted this one on the spot. UK had had success defending plays like that all year. “We worked on that play many times during the season, and usually we would steal the ball, because we were playing five-on-four,” Pelphrey says. “I like those odds with two seconds left.”

Not that Laettner was worried either way. “Grant could have made that pass if someone had been guarding him,” he says. “It wouldn’t have been as precise, but it still would have been as good.”

The Catch

The Blue Devils respective responsibilities went this way: Hurley was supposed to head toward GHill, bringing a man with him. Thomas Hill and Lang were to fake short and go long. And Laettner was to come from the far corner to the foul line. It didn’t matter that there would be at least two players around the pass. Since Mashburn had fouled out, the main challenge to any jump ball thrown Laettner’s way had been removed. Though he stood 6-11, Laettner was never considered a human pogo stick. “We always joked with him that he wasn’t an athlete,” Lang says, laughing. “He was a pretty good athlete, but we didn’t like to say it.”

The Wildcats understood their situation. Pelphrey went 6-7. So did Feldhaus. Timberlake was 6-9. “Duke had two out-of-bounds plays,” Woods says. “[The long pass] was one of them. We never thought that with two guys on him that the ball would get there.” So, it was Laettner going for a long pass against Pelphrey (in the front) and Feldhaus (in the back). “When I was standing in the corner, getting ready for the play, I said to myself, ‘Go get the ball big and strong,’” Laettner says. “I knew I had time to make a move and dribble.”

So, Laettner went to get the ball, big and strong, just like he said. And he caught it, just like he said.

The Shot

Laettner didn’t know he was perfect to that point. Maybe Krzyzewski did, but he wasn’t letting on. “I had no idea I hadn’t missed a shot, and the coaches were smart enough not to tell me,” Laettner says. We in the stands certainly didn’t know. A great game? Yes. Infallibility? No. Nine-of-nine from the field. Ten-of-ten from the line. “He was 6-11 and an outstanding shooter who could shoot the three-pointer, put the ball on the floor, take a couple dribbles and pull up or take it all the way to the basket, too,” Farmer says. “He was a difficult matchup.”

Laettner was more than that. Way more. His résumé is one of the most impressive in college basketball history. He won two titles at Duke and scored more points in NCAA tourney games than anybody in NCAA history. He piled up 2,460 points, pulled down 1,149 boards and led Duke to 123 wins during his four years. “I don’t know that there’s a player who accomplished what Christian accomplished in the last 35-40 years of college basketball,” Grant Hill says. “I mean, he was unbelievable. Unbelievable talent, unbelievable ability, unbelievable confidence.”

One of the things that few people realized about Laettner was his toughness. Let’s face it; he was a tall, soft-spoken dude with great hair and a look that screamed “Wonder Bread!” But then-Purdue coach Gene Keady, hardly a softy himself, once told me, “He’s as mean as a snake,” after having coached Laettner on a summer touring team. When Laettner positioned himself for that last play, he certainly wasn’t thinking about messing up or worrying that he might let people down. In fact, in his sophomore year, Laettner hit the game-winning shot that beat UConn to win the East Region title at the Meadowlands. “People don’t realize how competitive he was,” Lang says. “He’d rip your head off. Anything he played he hated losing, even pickup games in the summer.”

So Laettner was confident, and once he’d caught the ball he knew he could get a clear shot. The last thing Pitino had told his team was not to foul anybody. Could there be a worse way to lose a regional title game? “The last thing we wanted to do was put Christian Laettner on the line,” Woods says.

Laettner came down with the ball, faked right, dribbled once to gather himself and turned to his left unmolested. Pelphrey actually moved away with his hands up, as if to let the referees know he had no intention of touching Laettner. Feldhaus raised his arms straight up but lowered them as Laettner shot, again not wanting to give anybody a chance to call a foul.

The fallaway jumper was perfect. Duke had its win, 104-103. And Laettner had further cemented his legacy.

“You always work on buzzer-beaters,” he says. “When you’re a kid in the driveway, you say ‘3-2-1’ and then shoot. At Duke, the last thing I did every day was practice jumpers from the top of the key with the clock going down. I did it alone first and then with a defender there.”

The Aftermath

Lang and Pelphrey are close friends. The former Kentucky star is now the successful head coach at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, where Lang lives when he isn’t coaching ball in Japan. They see each other three times a week, because Lang works out at USA, and the two men’s children play youth sports together. And yet…

“We never talk about that game,” Lang says today.

You can’t blame the Kentucky players for not joining in the celebration of the game. They know its place in history, but they still can’t get past the fact that they had redemption in their hands, only to have Laettner take it away. Farmer, now the Commissioner of Agriculture in Kentucky, admits that he still struggles with the memory. “We thought we had the game,” he says.

The Duke players, of course, relish the memories and the victory. Says Lang, “It was our destiny.”

The rest of us, especially those who were lucky enough to be there, still can’t quite believe what happened. The impossible had become magical. Something which seemed so big had been taken apart with precision and reassembled perfectly. Mere mortals are left to marvel at the results, while the gods reap the rewards.

Laettner sums up the postgame emotion beautifully. “It was the most exciting, absolutely chaotic 20 minutes of my life,” he says. “It was the greatest feeling of utmost joy and happiness.”

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Sure, March Madness is going on, but this nexus of heavy metal icons and 50- and 60-something college hoops coaches just seems odd…

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Duke, Oregon, Gonzaga, Memphis, Oklahoma, UConn and Michigan State will all be wearing their own PE version of the Hyperdunk during the Dance. This year marks the first season players and NIKEiD teamed up to create one-of-a-kind sneakers to wear on college’s biggest stage. Starting March 17, you can customize your own at NIKEiD.com.

Of course, Nike’s not just stopping at the player’s toes. These Nike-sponsored programs will also be outfitted in lighter, less dense jerseys that use the same technology you saw on the 2008 Men’s Olympic team in Beijing.

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QUOTES OF THE DAY
“Aw, hell no.” — Nate McMillan, asked if he was surprised Bruce Bowen was invited to play with Team USA.

“They changed the basketball.” — Bob Sura, on how long it’s been since he played basketball.

THE LINKS
• Forget making the team play more cohesively or building a better roster, right now Coach K‘s biggest contribution to Team USA has been making LeBron tuck in his jersey! That and forcing everyone to drive GM cars in accordance with Coach K’s sponsorship deal.

Also strange that the story mentions Coach K speaking to the team as a whole and “littering” his talks with Polish jokes. Have Polish jokes been his secret weapon all these years?

• Good stuff about LeBron calling all the other Dream Teamers to see if they were going to play before he agreed to sign up.

• The man running the Charlotte BETcats, that Michael Jordan guy, won the latest round in his court case against Karla Knafel, the woman MJ thought he impregnated in the ’90s and allegedly agreed to pay her to keep quiet. Only problem was the baby wasn’t his.

• The Fort Worth Star Telegram says there’s some simmering beef in Dallas between the Mavs and Avery Johnson over AJ’s contract. Mark Cuban responds and says there’s no beef.

• If you were going to write something ripping a sports commissioner and accusing him of ruining his league, don’t you think the David Stern Robot would be about the last guy you’d want on your bad side? Not if you’re this guy, I guess.

• Looks like George Shinn‘s already worn out his welcome in Oklahoma City. And they’re calling for a Starbucks boycott in Seattle.

• How the Spurs rebuilt their roster. I’m still not convinced…

• It’s always good to get a shoutout from the mainstream press. It’s not so good when it’s in a story about Shawn Kemp and drugs. Speaking of Shawn, he faced the media this weekend and claims he hasn’t used drugs in two years and is willing to take a test to prove it.

• Hey Chauncey, we’ve all been there. You make a promise to your wifey, and then next thing you know you’re looking for ways to get out of it. (Nice photo with that story — didn’t they have any larger images?)

• Good long feature on Bruce Bowen and why he is the American Dream …..The Suns Dance team tryouts…do I really need to say anything else? ….. Catching up with Bobby Sura (bet he was at the tanning salon) ….. Why you should avoid Denny’s (low here).

The post LeBron, Coach K and MJ appeared first on SLAM.

Let’s get to it. Also, the Sonics situation is getting its own post momentarily…

QUOTE OF THE DAY
“In some ways, people are a lot like animals. I’m mesmerized by tigers. Their eyes, their stripes, their constant quest for survival. They almost have a sense of mysteriousness about them. They pull you in and make it difficult to look away. They make you wonder what is behind their gaze. A sense of eerie awe comes over you in their presence. The fear they give you when you pass them is stunning. Behold the beauty of the tiger.” — Britney Spears.

THE LINKS…
• The US Men’s National Team started practice yesterday out in Vegas, and already everyone’s gushing over Coach K and his ego-free attitude (well, except for his own ego, of course). Mike Wise says the team is running hard and fast, hoping to flourish in transition. Dwyane Wade has gone from an afterthought his first time on Team USA to “a key guy.” And Coach K divided the team into two groups, one of big time scorers and one that seems more balanced.

Anyone know why LeBron is wearing number 29 in this picture in the Washington Post?

What I’m curious about is that there’s 24 guys there, but no more than 15 will go with the team to Asia in two weeks. So who’s going to be left behind? My completely uneducated guess:
Kobe (injured)
Lamar Odom (family issues)
JJ Redick (injured)
Amare Stoudemire (recovering from injury)
Chauncey Billups (family reasons)
Paul Pierce (about to have surgery)
Shane Battier
Adam Morrison
Luke Ridnour
The real decision will come down next week.

• As it turns out, LeBron’s Nike contract does have location bonuses. And as this article points out, wait a few years until Nike gives Bron a new deal with even larger bonuses. Funny, because I’m still hearing that this is wrong and that there are no location bonuses.
• The Rockets have signed Vassilis Spanoulis, who I’m pretty sure works here in our advertising office.

• Don’t count Michael Jordan out! The BETcats have signed Othella Harrington. If he’s not able to contribute immediately, he’ll fill in on “College Hill” from time to time.

• Nets rook Josh Boone got some surprise cut-up yesterday. What’s strange is how they aren’t putting any timetable on his return. (Note how he shot 28 percent from the free throw line in summer league action.)

• Catching up with the Portsmouth Summer League.

• The Spurs will get Jackie Butler. Love the first line here.

• He’s back! It’s the sausage king of Chicago, Jackson Vroman.

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