GoDuke The Magazine

RECRUITING • Basketball’s Prep All-America Parade • Football Enjoys Four-Star Signing Day

Men’s Basketball Tournament Information

TRAVEL

SUB-REGIONALS

Due to student demand, tickets may not be available for donor purchase in Raleigh.

Should tickets be available for any site, allocation will be based on availability and Iron Dukes priority.

MARCH 17 & 19 Denver, CO Des Moines, IA Providence, RI Raleigh, NC MARCH 18 & 20 Brooklyn, NY Oklahoma City, OK St. Louis, MO Spokane, WA

TICKETS Tickets can be purchased at www.GoDuke.com/tickets or at 919-681-6767 during your designated request time on Monday, March 14. You must use your Iron Dukes login and password to purchase tickets.

Group 1* 8:30–10:30am *Online ordering available Sunday, March 13 at 9:00pm Group 2 11:00am–1:00pm Groups 3 & 4 1:30–3:00pm Groups 5 & 6 3:30–4:30pm

Travel accommodations can be made through Anthony Travel at http://www. anthonytravel.com/dukembb/ or 1-844-845-5650 during your designated request time.

REGIONALS SOUTH REGIONAL March 24 & 26 Louisville, KY WEST REGIONAL March 24 & 26 Anaheim, CA MIDWEST REGIONAL March 25 & 27 Chicago, IL EAST REGIONAL March 25 & 27 Philadelphia, PA

TICKETS Tickets can be purchased at www.GoDuke.com/tickets or at 919-681-6767 during your designated request time on Monday, March 21. You must use your Iron Dukes login and password to purchase tickets.

Groups 1 & 2* 8:30–10:30am *Online ordering available Sunday, March 20 at 9:00pm

Groups 3 & 4 11:00am–1:00pm Groups 5 & 6 1:30–4:30pm

TRAVEL Travel accommodations can be made through Anthony Travel at http://www. anthonytravel.com/dukembb/ or 1-844-845-5650 during your designated request time.

Approximately 750 tickets are available for donor purchase. Allocation is based on availability and Iron Dukes priority.

FINAL FOUR NATIONAL SEMIFINALS April 2 NRG Stadium Houston, TX CHAMPIONSHIP GAME April 4 NRG Stadium Houston, TX

TICKETS Tickets can be purchased at www.GoDuke.com/tickets or at 919-681-6767 during your designated request time on Monday, March 28. You must use your Iron Dukes login and password to purchase tickets.

Groups 1 & 2* (6 tickets) 8:30–10:30am *Online ordering available Sunday, March 27 at 9:00pm

Group 3 & 4 (2–6 tickets) 11:00am–1:00pm Groups 5 & 6 (0–2 tickets) 1:30–4:30pm

TRAVEL Travel accommodations can be made through Anthony Travel at http://www. anthonytravel.com/dukembb/ or 1-844-845-5650 during your designated request time.

Approximately 2,000 tickets are available for donor purchase. Allocation is based on availability and Iron Dukes priority.

Women’s Basketball Tournament Information SUB-REGIONALS March 18 – 21 Location, dates, & ordering times are TBA

REGIONALS

FINAL FOUR

LEXINGTON REGIONAL March 25 & 27 Lexington, KY SIOUX FALLS REGIONAL March 25 & 27 Sioux Falls, SD BRIDGEPORT REGIONAL March 26 & 28 Bridgeport, CT DALLAS REGIONAL March 26 & 28 Dallas, TX

NATIONAL SEMIFINALS April 3 Indianapolis, IN CHAMPIONSHIP GAME April 5 Indianapolis, IN

TICKETS Tickets can be purchased at www.GoDuke.com/tickets or at 919-681-6767 during your designated request time on Wednesday, March 23. You must use your Iron Dukes login and password to purchase tickets.

TRAVEL Travel accommodations can be made through Anthony Travel at http://www. anthonytravel.com/dukembb/ or 1-844-845-5650 on Wednesday, March 23.

TICKETS Tickets can be purchased at www.GoDuke.com/tickets or at 919-681-6767 during your designated request time on Wednesday, March 30. You must use your Iron Dukes login and password to purchase tickets.

TRAVEL Travel accommodations can be made through Anthony Travel at http://www. anthonytravel.com/dukembb/ or 1-844-845-5650 on Wednesday, March 30.

We anticipate ample tickets to accommodate all requests for every round of the Women’s NCAA Tournament. Allocation is based on Iron Dukes priority.

GoDuke The Magazine 7.6 Dedicated to sharing the stories of Duke student-athletes, present and past

540 North Trade Street Winston-Salem, NC 27101 Phone 336-831-0769 Vol. 7, No. 6 February-March 2016 SENIOR EDITOR John Roth ‘80 ADVERTISING Patrick Streko General Manager

Johnny Moore Senior National Associate

Brian French Associate General Manager Ian Haynes Account Executive

Macey Hulvey Partner Services Coordinator CIRCULATION Sarah Brophy STAFF WRITERS Al Featherston ‘74, Leslie Gaber Barry Jacobs ‘72, Johnny Moore Jim Sumner ‘72, Lewis Bowling Brad Amersbach COVER PHOTO Jon Gardiner PRINTING RR Donnelley GoDuke The Magazine (ISSN 10668241) is published by IMG with editorial offices at 3100 Tower Blvd., Suite 404, Durham, NC 27707. Published monthly except July and August for 10 issues per year. Subscription price is $29.95.

Periodical postage paid at WinstonSalem, NC, and additional mailing office.

Postmaster send change of address to GoDuke The Magazine, 540 North Trade Street, Winston-Salem, NC 27101.

Advertising & Editorial Call 919-286-1498

Address Changes IRON DUKES MEMBERS: Call 919-613-7575 SUBSCRIBERS: Call 336-831-0769

GoDuke The Magazine is not owned or operated by Duke University.

Reproduction of contents without permission is prohibited.

© 2016 Blue Devil IMG Sports Network

4

Amazing Blazing Duke field hockey standout Lauren Blazing won’t soon forget the month of February 2016.

On Feb. 8 she was named the ACC Scholar Athlete of the Year in her sport for the second consecutive season.

On Feb. 10 came notice that she was the recipient of a prestigious Weaver-James-Corrigan postgraduate scholarship awarded by the ACC. Then on Feb. 12 she earned her first international cap with the United States senior national team in the finale of a tournament with Canada.

It was a Monday-Wednesday-Friday cornucopia of accomplishment that serves to illuminate one of Duke’s exemplary student-athletes of recent vintage.

Blazing, a Durham native and redshirt senior goalkeeper, has been one of the key forces for Blue Devil field hockey over the past four years. On the field she was a three-time All-America who helped her team post a record of 49-29 during her career while reaching the NCAA semifinals two of the past three seasons. Her goals against average and saves total rank third all-time in school history, while her save percentage this season led the ACC and ranked eighth in the nation.

Her academic credentials shine even brighter. A dean’s list student every semester of her Duke career, Blazing was a two-time first team Academic All-America and made the National Field Hockey Coaches Association national academic squad four times.

At the field hockey final four in December, she received the NCAA’s Elite 90 Award, which goes to the one student-athlete with the highest grade point average at the finals site for every NCAA championship; Blazing owns a 3.99 as a double major in cultural anthropology and political science.

The ACC postgraduate scholarship will provide Blazing with $5,000 toward her pursuit of a graduate degree; she’s considering law school. Three student-athletes from each conference school are awarded the Weaver-James-Corrigan prizes every year to recognize those who have performed with DARRYL MARSHKE distinction on the field and in the classroom while demonstrating exemplary conduct in the community. Blazing fits that criteria and then some.

Joining Blazing as Weaver-James-Corrigan recipients from Duke are football player Kelby Brown and track standout Megan Clark, with golfer Celine Boutier earning an honorary selection as one who intends to pursue her sport professionally instead of heading to grad school.

After an All-ACC performance in 2013, Brown missed the past two seasons due to injury but continued to serve his teammates and coaches behind the scenes as both a captain and a student volunteer coach.

He was a vital player in the transformation of Duke football into an annual bowl contender and last year was on the AFCA Allstate Good Works team for his extensive community outreach efforts.

Clark was the ACC pole vault champion indoors and outdoors last year, set the school and conference records, finished second at the NCAA indoors meet and was the 2015 ACC indoor field performer of the year.

Boutier was ACC freshman of the year in 2013, ACC player of the year in 2014 when she led the Blue Devils to the NCAA title, and ACC scholar-athlete of the year for women’s golf in 2015. She is a twotime All-America and won the 2014 Honda Award as national player of the year.

THESE FAIRWAYS HOLD A CENTURY OF LEGENDARY TALES. PINEHURST GOLF PACKAGE From $404 to $558* Resort accommodations A round of golf Overflowing breakfast buffet

What will your story be?

Village of Pinehurst, North Carolina • 866.990.9225 • pinehurst.com *Rate is per person, per night based on double occupancy. Valid 3.6-6.4.16. Subject to tax and resort service fee. Upgrade to a round on No. 2 for $195.

© 2016 Pinehurst, LLC

Before you step onto the first tee at Pinehurst, you sense it’s like nowhere you’ve ever played.

You take in the stories of champions as you walk the hallways of the clubhouse. You warm up on the nation’s first practice range. You gaze at the courses of Ross, Fazio, Maples, Nicklaus and Jones. Then you slowly exhale, step up to the tee and begin a story of you own.

5

> Blue Devil of the Month

6

JON GARDINER

7

> The Numbers Game

8

11

National broadcasts scheduled for the Duke men’s lacrosse team’s 16-game regular season: ESPN3 five times, ESPNU four times and CBS Sports Network twice. The ESPNU package will cover the Blue Devils’ four consecutive ACC matchups: Mar. 27 Syracuse, Apr. 1 North Carolina, Apr. at Notre Dame, Apr. 10 at Virginia.

15-1

Height, in feet and inches, jumped by Duke senior Megan Clark in the pole vault event at the Armory Track Invitational in New York. The performance set new Duke and ACC records and made Clark just the fourth woman in NCAA history to clear 15 feet in the pole vault indoors. She was the ACC champ and NCAA runnerup last season.

5

Former Blue Devils who participated in NBA AllStar weekend festivities in Toronto. Jabari Parker, Rodney Hood and Jahlil Okafor played for the U.S. team in the Rising Stars Challenge; J.J. Redick competed in the 3-point shooting contest; and Quinn Cook of the Canton Charge played in the D-League All-Star Game.

3

Goals scored by Duke women’s soccer player Rebecca Quinn in a recent Olympic Qualifying Tournament victory for her native Canada over Guatemala. The hat trick was Quinn’s first for Canada and came in a seven-minute span. Canada later earned its spot in the Summer Olympics in Rio with a victory over Costa Rica.

2

Number of times fifth-year senior track standout Teddi Maslowski broke her own school record in the 60-meter hurdles at a recent meet at Virginia Tech. Maslowski crossed the line in 8.38 seconds during the preliminary round, besting her old Duke record of 8.39 seconds. Then she ran 8.34 in the final for a win and another new mark.

13

Duke football players named to the 2015 Academic All-ACC football team, led by Academic All-America selections DeVon Edwards, Ross Martin and Will Monday. Duke has topped the league in Academic All-ACC picks for seven consecutive years. To qualify, players must have a cumulative 3.00 GPA, and a 3.00 for the semester.

6

Nations represented on the seven-player Duke women’s golf roster this year, with two from Ireland and one each from France, China, Italy, India and South Korea. In the latest Women’s World Amateur Golf rankings, Blue Devil Leona Maguire (Ireland) remained No. 1 and Celine Boutier (France) checked in at No. 18.

1.1

Cable television rating for ESPN’s coverage of the Duke-North Carolina men’s basketball game on Feb. 17, making it the most watched program among 18-49 year olds that night across all of cable TV. Last year the two Duke-UNC games were the most watched college basketball games of the regular season.

Pinstripe Bowl co-Offensive MVP Thomas Sirk suffered an Achilles injury during winter training

3428

Yards of total offense compiled last year by Duke football quarterback Thomas Sirk, the second best figure in school history behind Anthony Dilweg’s 3,713 yards in 1988. Sirk, a rising redshirt senior, ruptured his left Achilles tendon in a workout on Feb. 9. He previously missed the entire 2013 season with a similar injury to his right Achilles.

BEN SOLOMON PHOTO

WEDDINGS

TAILGATES

GRADUATIONS

CORPORATE EVENTS

Locally Sourced. Artfully Presented. Southern Inspired.

Catering@FarmersTableRG.com or contact our Catering Concierge at (919)600-0811

www.FarmersTableRG.com

A

PREFERRED

DUKE

AT H L E T I C S

C AT E R E R

9

Surviving The Crucible Freshman Derryck Thornton celebrates clutch play at end of win over Louisville

JARED LAZARUS

Blue Devils’ toughness on display during four-game February ordeal

By John Roth Fair or not, like it or not, Duke basketball teams and seasons will continue to be defined by their performance in the NCAA Tournament for at least as long as Mike Krzyzewski remains the Blue Devil head coach.

It has been that way for awhile, of course, and understandably so when the man in charge has won more games than any other coach in history, hung 12 Final Four banners above the court that bears his name and delivered five national championship trophies to the school’s basketball museum. It matters not if Duke’s roster is loaded with returning starters or populated with raw freshmen; the Blue Devils will be judged on their proximity to center stage when “One Shining Moment” trumpets the conclusion of the greatest three weeks in college sports.

With the 2016 edition of March Madness approaching, Judgment Day is nigh for Coach K’s 36th Duke squad. And while the final summation may be pending, this much we know: a grueling 13-day period in mid-February positioned these Blue Devils to harbor legitimate visions of postseason promise.

Between Feb. 8 and Feb. 20, Duke faced a daunting package of four straight skirmishes against nationally-ranked ACC teams, two at home and two on the road. Each of the opponents was rated among the top 15 in the Associated Press poll when the string began, and each resided above the Blue Devils in the conference standings. Duke was unranked at the time, riding a modest two-game winning streak but only two weeks removed from having lost four times in a five-game span that prompted open speculation over their NCAA viability.

By the time the scheduling crucible ended, a statement had been made. Duke was back in the poll, back in contention in the ACC and

10

back in the national conversation of teams to keep an eye on in March.

The Blue Devils had reached the 20-win mark for the 20th straight season and had gained a renewed level of confidence in themselves despite their youth and inexperience — and despite having played their entire conference campaign to that point without the services of injured senior captain Amile Jefferson.

“The four games are four games that would be extremely difficult for anybody,” Krzyzewski said, “and for us to be 3-1 coming out of it is phenomenal — and almost 4-0, but also almost 1-3 or 0-4. You’re a couple of possessions away, or one possession away, either way. The fact is, though, that when you fight that hard to be in a game like that, to be in it every possession, you learn. You also get worn out, but you learn.

That’s what experience does.

“So we’re a better team as a result of going through it. We’re tired and we’re beat up a little bit, but what we’ve learned from it — and what we’ve earned — are huge.”

“We’ve definitely gotten tougher,” noted sophomore Grayson Allen, now a 20-point scorer and All-America candidate after playing all of nine minutes per game last year in his run-up to Final Four stardom. “I think if you look at the games we’ve been in, we’ve been in a lot of close games that have come down to a few possessions. We were on the losing end of a lot of those close games earlier and now we’re winning close games. Being in close games like that is really tough because you are fighting for each possession down the stretch. And with the short bench that we have, we’re playing tired down the stretch, so we’re fighting through fatigue. You have to talk while you’re tired, you have to sprint

and play hard while you’re tired, and that makes you tough, mentally and physically. We just keep getting better.”

Duke’s February ordeal began with an ESPN Big Monday contest against No. 13 Louisville, the 1,000th game in Cameron Indoor Stadium history and the Cardinals’ first venture to the 76-year-old arena since their “Doctors of Dunk” unit paid a visit in 1983. Duke controlled the first half and opened up a 15-point lead in the second before Louisville went on a 17-3 run, the last 13 unanswered, to make it a one-possession game.

Duke’s defensive rebounding, paced by 7-footer Marshall Plumlee and freshman Brandon Ingram, picked up down the stretch to limit the Cardinals’ offensive opportunities, and the Blue Devils stared down game pressure by connecting on 10 of their last 12 free throws to grab a 72-65 victory that Krzyzewski postulated would not have happened only a few weeks earlier.

Seventh-ranked Virginia was next, the Cavaliers visiting Cameron on Coach K’s 69th birthday. For the fifth straight year it would be the only regular season meeting between the pair, with a couple of dramatic finishes carrying the Blue Devils to pivotal victories in the previous two.

In 2014, after a 1-2 ACC start, Duke turned its campaign in a positive direction with a 69-65 win that utilized a corner three-pointer from Rasheed Sulaimon and two clutch free throws from Amile Jefferson all in the last 18 seconds. Then last year, only two days after Sulaimon had been dismissed from the team, Duke regrouped against undefeated Virginia in Charlottesville and enjoyed perhaps its finest hour of the regular season with a 69-63 triumph — scoring on 14 of its last 15 possessions, with Tyus Jones delivering the decisive three-point dagger 10 seconds before the buzzer.

This year’s contest followed the same narrative. Virginia opened up an 11-point lead at one stage, but Ingram helped erase it by scoring 18 consecutive Duke points just before and after halftime. Matt Jones hit four three-pointers in timely spots but Malcolm Brodgen countered with a big second half for the Cavaliers. Brogden gave his team a one-point lead on an over-the-shoulder toss with 10 seconds left, but that gave Duke the ball for a final chance. After a timeout, Allen inbounded the ball to Plumlee, got it back, drove across the court to the left side of the lane and banked in a shot at the buzzer.

Whether he traveled or was fouled became a moot point — social media notwithstanding — because no whistles sounded. It was just Allen doing what he has done all season — attacking the basket, enduring contact and finishing strong — to give his team a 63-62 win. “It’s really surreal for me, this being my dream school, and just a moment like that is something you dream of,” admitted the young warrior whose 16-point scoring average bump over last year stands to be the best in ACC history.

“You do it a hundred times over when you’re a little kid and go through that scenario, so that’s really surreal for me.”

That sent Duke to Chapel Hill with a four-game winning streak to take on fifth-ranked North Carolina in the first Battle of the Blues for 2016. UNC utilized its advantages in depth, experience and inside presence to grab a first half lead but could never quite shake the Blue Devils, even after Duke’s personnel situation turned from tenuous to dire when Jones sprained his ankle and had to leave the game.

When the Heels went up 68-60 with just under seven minutes to play, Duke’s outlook may have appeared grim, but nobody informed the shorthanded Blue Devils. Ingram hit three straight baskets, Allen completed a three-point play, Luke Kennard drained the biggest shot of his young career and Allen knocked down two free throws with 1:09 to go. Suddenly Duke was up by one and made it stand with two defensive stops in the last 50 seconds, the final coming from Derryck Thornton’s pressure on UNC’s parting shot.

“When he pressures the ball the way he does, when he gives his all, that uplifts the whole team,” Plumlee said of Thornton. “He has a way of motivating all of us through his actions.”

“I thought our team was tough throughout,” said Krzyzewski, who saw his team improve to 11-3 vs. Carolina since 2010 (and 5-2 on its last seven trips to the Smith Center). “At times we had four freshmen and a

Brandon Ingram on the way to 20 points and 10 rebounds in his first UNC game JARED LAZARUS

11

A dream ending at his dream school for Grayson Allen vs. Virginia sophomore out there against a team that can beat anybody. Carolina is so good, and they were ready, their crowd. I loved our toughness throughout — you get punched, sometimes you get knocked to the canvas, but you got up and you punched. We fought well enough to be close. And then in the last part of the game we fought even a little bit harder. We really wanted to win.”

The four-game gauntlet concluded with a visit to Louisville, now ranked No. 18 to Duke’s No. 20, both with identical records of 20-6.

Jones warmed up on his injured ankle but didn’t play and Thornton fell on his shoulder in the second half and had to leave the court. Duke had no perimeter subs but put forth a valiant effort, controlling the scoreboard much of the afternoon before running out of ammunition just as the Cardinals staged a desperate late surge. Even while committing a season-high 18 turnovers and losing Allen at the 3:55 mark — he fouled out with 29 points — Duke was still within two with 1:30 left before falling 71-64. “Our kids played their hearts out,” Krzyzewski said.

Despite the loss, Duke had passed the test of its most difficult stretch of the year while battling numerous adverse circumstances against top-tier competition. Its three straight wins against Top 15 teams marked a first for the program since the 1992 team did the same in its final three contests (Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan) to capture the national championship.

In playing through foul trouble, handling injuries, overcoming deficits, battling on the defensive boards and displaying uncommon toughness, the Blue Devils showed they were developing the requisite survival skills that could help them thrive when their judgment time arrives.

Their offense, built around the multi-dimensional talents of Allen and Ingram, spreads out and challenges even the best of opposing defenses.

Outside of the Notre Dame shootout, their only losses have come when they’ve been held in the 60s in regulation. (Virginia marked their only

12

JARED LAZARUS

win when they scored in the 60s.) Defensively, using mostly man-to-man but mixing in zone, they’ve proved to be sufficient when they’ve been healthy and avoided foul trouble. And mentally, they’ve been exposed to as many challenging game situations as any recent Duke team.

“The best teacher is experience, especially if you look at experience truthfully, honestly, not making excuses,” Krzyzewski said. “Experience is growing up, and each team has to be in situations where you have a chance to grow up. Now do you? You will only grow up if you accept responsibility for what has happened and then make changes so that a bad experience doesn’t happen again. I think overall our guys have done a great job of that.

“Are we different than we were a month ago? Yeah, we’re way different. I laugh when I hear someone say Duke was down during that time.

We weren’t down. We were learning. We lost Amile (Jefferson) in the middle of December. When do you learn? It’s not a video game, where now this is supposed to work. You have to go through those experiences and when you go through them and lose tough games, you stand a chance of losing confidence and then getting knocked back for a long time and your season goes in a negative way. That’s not what these guys did. And they’ve won really tough games as a result of learning from the other tough games we’ve been in.

“I really like my team a lot. I’m proud of them. This is a unique Duke team in a unique situation, and I’m so impressed with them.”

In these days where television dollars drive so many aspects of college basketball, where top teams often find their schedules backloaded with multiple marquee matchups crammed into the ratings sweeps period, Duke stared directly into the eyes of the crucible of February and didn’t blink, displaying their burgeoning toughness while defining themselves and their postseason prospects in the process.

a blue devil tradition Since 1987, the University Club has been a home for our members -- alumni, faculty, staff & friends of Duke University.

AFFORDABLE MONTHLY DUES provide stunning views in the penthouse of University Tower, casual and formal dining, and seven elegant private dining rooms for meetings & events, CELEBRATIONS | FAMILY TRADITIONS | BUSINESS MEETINGS | FINE DINING For information on membership or private events, please visit www.universityclubnc.com University Club | 3100 Tower Blvd. Suite 1700, Durham, NC 27707 | 919.493.8099 13

JON GARDINER

The staff at work: James, Capel, Krzyzewski, Scheyer

Sticking Together

When Coach K had to miss an ACC road game, a coherent unit guided by Jeff Capel brought home the victory

By Barry Jacobs Maybe it has something to do with Atlanta. Or maybe there’s some quality to playing basketball at Georgia Tech that just doesn’t sit well with Mike Krzyzewski.

More likely, since it happened only twice in 21 years, with 16 uneventful visits in between, it was just bizarrely coincidental that Krzyzewski suffered health problems on the eve of a pair of trips to lead his Blue Devils against the Yellow Jackets. Those marked the only occasions he missed games during his Duke tenure, the first time precipitating a long absence that sharply divides his career at Durham.

The detour in early January 1995 was more serious and had far greater consequences both for the coach and his program than this year’s setback.

Beset by back pain and exhaustion, on the eve of a flight to Atlanta Krzyzewski told his team he was staying behind in Durham. Players thought he’d be gone for a game. As it turned out, that was the end of Krzyzewski’s season.

He passed the reins to assistant Pete Gaudet, previously his successor as head coach at Army. While Krzyzewski recovered both physically and

14

emotionally, battling a sense he’d betrayed those in his program by being absent, the ’95 Devils lost 15 times in 19 outings without him. Several of the defeats were among the most painful in modern Duke history. The club finished at the bottom of the ACC standings, ending an 11-year run of NCAA appearances. A staff purge followed.

(One lingering footnote from the 1995 stumble: that was the last time Clemson, N.C. State and Virginia won at Cameron Indoor Stadium.)

Skip ahead to Monday, February 1 of this year. As the Duke traveling party was headed to Raleigh-Durham airport, Krzyzewski fell ill. Rather than accompany the team farther, he went to Duke University Hospital for testing and observation. The next night, when the team rallied to victory at McCamish Pavilion in Atlanta, the head coach watched from a bed on the hospital’s seventh floor cardiac unit. By Wednesday he was back at work.

There was only one person present for both K-less visits to Atlanta.

The first time he was a starting sophomore guard on the Duke squad, the second a 40-year-old associate head coach. Jeff Capel admits a sense of déjà vu as Krzyzewski stepped away the second time. But he noted

&RPPLWWHG WR WKH %HVW LQ %LRORJLFV %LRYHQWXV LV D ELRORJLFV FRPSDQ\ WKDW GHOLYHUV FOLQLFDOO\ SURYHQ FRVW HIIHFWLYH VROXWLRQV WKDW KHOS SHRSOH UHFRYHU DQG KHDO TXLFNO\ DQG VDIHO\ :H UH ZRUNLQJ HYHU\ GD\ VLGH E\ VLGH ZLWK SK\VLFLDQV WR EULQJ ELRORJLFV WR WKH IRUHIURQW RI RUWKRSDHGLF FDUH H[SDQGLQJ WUHDWPHQW RSWLRQV DYDLODEOH WR FOLQLFLDQV DQG WKHLU SDWLHQWV 2XU KLJK TXDOLW\ VWDQGDUGV HYLGHQFH EDVHG PHGLFLQH DQG VWURQJ HWKLFDO EHKDYLRU PDNH %LRYHQWXV D WUXVWHG SDUWQHU IRU SK\VLFLDQV ² DQG SDWLHQWV ² ZRUOGZLGH

)RU PRUH LQIRUPDWLRQ YLVLW ZZZ %LRYHQWXV*OREDO FRP

‹ %LRYHQWXV //& %LRYHQWXV DQG WKH %LRYHQWXV ORJR DUH WUDGHPDUNV RI %LRYHQWXV //&

several key differences between the health scares.

For one, the 2016 problem occurred much later in the season, when the team was a more coherent unit. For another, “Coach wasn’t nearly in as bad a shape as he was in ’95,” Capel says. “I remember seeing him in ’95 when we were called back to the locker room where he told us that he would not be making the trip, and he looked horrible. He looked really bad. You’re looking at him like, ‘Holy smokes! Is everything OK?’” Capel vividly remembers an overwhelming sense of uncertainty, nervousness and worry as the team traveled to Atlanta for that ’95 game, which it lost 76-69. What he doesn’t recall is any of the assistant coaches soliciting the feelings or thoughts of the players.

The assistants were doubtless shocked by the sudden transformation of team and coaching fortunes. In the disorienting A two-time captain during his crush of events, Capel may have playing days (1994-97), blotted out some memories.

Jeff Capel had nine years Moreover, interest in player perof head coaching experience ceptions was not as keen in those at VCU and Oklahoma macho, suck-it-up days as it is before returning to Duke now.

This time, with the ‘95 experience and nine years as a head coach at Virginia Commonwealth and Oklahoma under his belt, Capel went out of his way to sound out Duke’s players in order to gauge their reactions and assuage their doubts and fears.

“Twenty-one years ago I was in their shoes,” Capel says. “My first reaction was, we have to make sure these players are OK. What are they thinking? That’s the one thing that I tried to do that was different than in ’95.”

So Capel checked with members of the underclass-dominated squad as their jet was in the air, and then spoke with them at a scheduled team meeting at their hotel. Perhaps his most important message, he says, remembering how the ’95 team “splintered” rather than grow closer, was that “Coach has always taught us to stick together. We need to be even more together.”

As the players stretched on the court prior to facing Georgia Tech, Capel again touched base and offered both a sympathetic ear and a reassuring message.

Over the course of the year the coaching staff had cited several previous seasons, 1995 among them, as emblematic of how things “can fall apart” and how nothing “can be taken for granted.” None of the ’16 Blue Devils knew specifics of Krzyzewski’s earlier, sudden separation from his team, which occurred before all but four members of the present squad were born.

Sharing those details wasn’t on the agenda. Instead the object was to harness the work of two “really good practices” in the wake of a loss at Miami.

Capel was personally helped by a phone call from Krzyzewski prior to leaving for McCamish, among several times they talked that day.

“One of the last things he told me was, ‘Look, you do what you feel out there. We have a game plan in, but you do what you feel.”

The encouragement proved prescient.

Despite nearly a decade directing his own squads, Capel had been

16

nervous at the prospect of abruptly trading his supportive role for that of bench leader. Even during the game he felt “rusty” and was taken aback at how little room there was between the end of the bench and the outer limit of the coaching box.

At one point game official Les Jones warned Capel to stay in the box, an admonition from which Louisville coach Rick Pitino and Pitt’s Jamie Dixon, chronic court roamers, are apparently exempt.

Duke’s pregame plan was to play zone defense against the Yellow Jackets, one of the ACC’s worst outside shooting squads, in order to counter troublesome dribble penetration. The strategy failed. With the home team en route to 58.1 percent first-half shooting, Capel had Duke LANCE KING

switch to man defense at the final TV timeout of the opening period.

“As I mentioned after the game, it was no exaggeration, we had not gone over one man-to-man play that Georgia Tech ran, and they maybe run as much stuff as anyone,” Capel said. The lack of specific preparation proved no handicap; while the Jackets missed 69 percent of their second-half shots, Duke rallied to an 80-71 victory.

Success under the circumstances proved a source of reassurance for all concerned and launched a five-game Duke winning streak. More broadly, though, the episode freshened speculation about how much longer the 69-year-old Krzyzewski would coach, and who would replace him.

Capel easily deflects any thought he has emerged as the likeliest successor whenever the master retires.

“I can’t imagine anyone else coaching Duke,” he says. “For me, my whole life of watching Duke is with him. And so, I haven’t thought that because I’m one of those people, I can’t envision anyone else. This has been my coach, our coach, the Duke coach since I’ve known about Duke basketball.”

After all these years, no one wants to change that — even as life brings us reminders that nothing lasts forever.

Injuries aren’t confined to normal business hours.

That’s why we’re open evenings and weekends.

Page Road Orthopaedic Urgent Care Hours Monday – Friday 1 – 8:30 p.m.

Saturday and Sunday 8 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Duke Orthopaedics at Page Road Urgent Care 4709 Creekstone Drive, Durham dukemedicine.org/ortho | 888-275-DUKE

Soccer games and spin classes don’t keep a 9-5 schedule.

That’s why if injury strikes, we’re here for you—evenings and weekends—with a quicker and less expensive option than a trip to the ER. Duke offers walk-in access to care for all orthopaedic related conditions, from breaks to sprains to concussions.

17

18

Parade of All-Americas Duke has signed at least one McDonald’s honoree in 31 consecutive recruiting classes

By Al Featherston

2015 Brandon Ingram USA TODAY SPORTS

2013 Jabari Parker MCDONALD’S

McDonald’s is one of the oldest and largest fast-food franchises in the world.

It’s also become the standard of measure for college basketball recruiting, sponsoring a prep All-America basketball team since 1977. The McDonald’s All-America team — flawed as it is in many ways — has become the most recognized gauge of recruiting success.

And no college program has enjoyed its Big Mac experience over the last 39 years more than the Duke Blue Devils. With the selection of 2016 recruits Frank Jackson and Jayson Tatum to the 2016 McDonald’s All-America

team, Duke has now landed 68 McDonald’s All-Americans over the years — 69 if you count guard Shaun Livingston, who signed with the Blue Devils in 2004, but elected to jump straight to the NBA. That’s more than any other school.

The parade started with Philadelphia forward Gene Banks, who made the very first McDonald’s team in 1977. There was no McDonald’s game that season, just a 15-man team.

The roster expanded to 20 prospects in 1978, when Duke-bound Vince Taylor — a guard from Lexington, Ky. — played in the first Mc-

Donald’s All-American Game.

Those two players were recruited by Bill Foster and both enjoyed successful four-year careers at Duke.

Mike Krzyzewski has been responsible for Duke’s other 66 “Big Macs” — starting with Washington, D.C., guard Johnny Dawkins in 1982. Coach K added point guard Tommy Amaker and center Marty Nessley in 1983, then after missing in 1984 (neither Billy King nor Kevin Strickland were selected), scored again with forward Danny Ferry and guard Quin Snyder in 1985.

19

Durham’s Favorite Destination

RELAXATION

20

ANTICIPATION

CELEBRATION

RECREATION

COLLABORATION

2014 Jahlil Okafor BRIAN SPURLOCK

That class represents a milestone; starting in 1985, Coach K has landed at least one McDonald’s All-American every year. That’s 31 straight seasons and counting.

But it’s not just one player a year. Over the last three decades: • Duke has landed four McDonald’s All-Americans three times — 1999 (Carlos Boozer, Jason Williams, Mike Dunleavy, Casey Sanders), 2002 (Sean Dockery, J.J. Redick, Shavlik Randolph, Michael Thompson) and 2014 (Jahlil Okafor, Tyus Jones, Justise Winslow, Grayson Allen).

• Duke has had three McDonald’s All-Americans seven times — 1994 (Trajan Langdon, Ricky Price, Steve Wojciechowski), 1997 (Elton Brand, Shane Battier, Chris Burgess), 2005 (Greg Paulus, Josh McRoberts, Eric Boateng), 2006 (Jon Scheyer, Lance Thomas, Gerald Henderson), 2007 (Kyle Singler, Taylor King, Nolan Smith), 2011 (Austin Rivers, Quinn Cook, Marshall Plumlee), 2015 (Luke Kennard, Brandon Ingram, Chase Jeter).

• Duke has had two McDonald’s All-Americans nine times — 1983 (Amaker, Nessley), 1985 (Ferry, Snyder), 1986 (Phil Henderson, Alaa Abdelnaby), 1988 (Christian Laettner, Crawford Palmer), 1989 (Bobby Hurley, Billy McCaffrey), 2009 (Mason Plumlee, Ryan Kelly), 2012 (Rasheed Sulaimon, Amile Jefferson), 2013 (Jabari Parker, Matt Jones), 2016 (Jackson, Tatum).

It’s also interesting to check out names that are NOT on this list.

The first one that pops out is 2016 recruit Harry Giles, rated the number one prospect in his class. Giles was left off the team because he has missed his senior season of high school with a knee injury. Physical problems also cost former Duke star Chris Carrawell a spot on the team — he was a top 10 prospect as a prep sophomore, before a pair of shoulder injuries slowed him as a prep junior and prep senior.

Then there was Shelden Williams, the consensus No. 8 prospect in the class of 2002, who also missed his senior year of high school for an off-court incident and thus missed selection to the team. Had Williams been chosen, Duke could have had five McDonald’s All-Americans in the Class of 2002!

Reclassification can also cost a player McDonald’s status. Derryck Thornton almost certainly would have

Duke recruits who were McDonald’s All-Americans (year indicated) and went on to become college All-Americans: Gene Banks Johnny Dawkins Tommy Amaker Danny Ferry Christian Laettner Bobby Hurley Billy McCaffrey Grant Hill Trajan Langdon Elton Brand Shane Battier Jason Williams Carlos Boozer Mike Dunleavy Chris Duhon J.J. Redick DeMarcus Nelson Jon Scheyer Kyle Singler Nolan Smith Mason Plumlee Austin Rivers Jabari Parker Jahlil Okafor

1977 1982 1983 1985 1988 1989 1989 1990 1994 1997 1997 1999 1999 1999 2000 2002 2004 2006 2007 2007 2009 2011 2013 2014

been honored had be returned for his senior year in high school. Andre Dawkins and Alex Murphy probably would have been McDonald’s All-Americans had they stayed in high school.

And the first Duke player to reclassify — Mike Gminski in 1976 — would have been a prep senior in 1977 and would very likely have earned a spot on the first McDonald’s team.

Most of Duke’s greatest players from the Coach K era have been McDonald’s All-Americans. Just to put it into perspective: • Coach K has produced eight national players of the year — Dawkins, Ferry, Laettner, Grant Hill, Brand, Battier, Jason Williams and Redick. All were McDonald’s All-Americans.

ACC players of the year Nolan Smith and Okafor were also McDonald’s All-Americans. Carrawell is the only one who was not.

• Coach K has had 29 different players who have won All-America honors — and 23 of those were McDonald’s All-Americans. The exceptions? Mark Alarie, Carrawell, Shelden Williams and transfers Roshown McLeod, Dahntay Jones and Seth Curry.

• Coach K has produced 30 first-round draft picks — 24 were McDonald’s All-Americans. And 35 of the 45 players that he’s had drafted were McDonald’s All-Americans.

• Every one of Duke’s national title teams has been anchored by a core of McDonald’s All-Americans. The 1991 team featured Laettner, Hurley and Grant Hill, but Greg Koubek was a starter and McCaffrey came off the bench to win All-Final Four honors. A year later, the Laettner-Hurley-Hill trio was still the heart of the team and freshman Cherokee Parks was a top sub, although non-Big Macs Thomas Hill and Brian Davis were huge contributors.

Every key player on the 2001 nation champs was a McDonald’s All-American. The 2010 champs did feature non-Big Mac Brian Zoubek , but four starters and the top reserve (freshman center Mason Plumlee) were McDonald’s honorees.

And all eight players who appeared in the 2015 national title game were Big Macs.

Of course, the McDonald’s selections don’t always get it right. The team is picked by a panel of respected recruiting experts, but sometimes politics get involved.

The most notorious example might be 2000. The Mc-

21

YOU LOVE BASKETBALL. SO DO WE. Continental Tire.

For what you do.

CONTINENTALTIRE.COM

22

LEARN MORE

Official Tire of the Duke Blue Devils

1994 Trajan Langdon Ricky Price VINCENT DUSOVIC

2007 Kyle Singler AP/HENRY RAY ABRAMS

2009 Mason Plumlee AP/HENRY RAY ABRAMS

Donald’s Game was scheduled to be played in Boston and to pump the crowd, 7-6 Neil Fingleton, who played his prep ball at nearby Worcester, Mass., was selected to the team — even though he wasn’t regarded as even a top 50 prospect.

Sometimes the voters, and the coaches on the recruiting trail, simply get it wrong. Not every McDonald’s All-American is a success at the college level. Duke has endured its share of McDonald’s disappointments.

Nine Big Mac players have transferred out of Duke to finish their careers elsewhere. At least four of those found success at their new schools. McCaffrey played his last two years at Vanderbilt, where he was the SEC co-player of the year; Crawford Palmer played his senior year at Dartmouth, where he was a first-team All-Ivy pick; Elliot Williams played one year at Memphis, then was a first-round NBA draft pick; and Rasheed Sulaimon, dismissed from the Duke team last season, is currently starting for a top 5 Maryland team.

Five others who floundered at Duke also struggled to achieve success elsewhere — Joey Beard, Chris Burgess, Michael Thompson, Eric Boateng and Taylor King. Almost every McDonald’s All-American who stuck it out at Duke has found at least some measure of success, although it hasn’t always come easily. Current senior Marshall Plumlee redshirted a year, then spent two seasons buried on the bench. But he emerged as a key reserve on last year’s national title team and is currently Duke’s starting center.

The Blue Devils have seven McDonald’s All-Americans on this year’s roster. They are the heart of this team — just as Big Mac players have been on almost every team in the Krzyzewski era.

The McDonald’s All-America team is not a perfect measure of college potential, but it has proven to be a very good way to project talent.

DUKE/McDONALD’S FUN FACTS • Three Duke players have won the McDonald’s Slam Dunk Competition (contested since 1987): Price (1994), Gerald Henderson (2006), Allen (2014) • Nine Duke players have won the McDonald’s 3-point competition (contested since 1989): Collins (1992), Langdon (1994), James (1996), Battier (1997), Duhon (2000), Redick (2002), Kelly (2009), Sulaimon (2012), Kennard (2015) • Two Duke players have won the skills competition (contested since 2002): Nolan Smith (2007), Tyus Jones (2014) • Three Duke players have won or shared the John Wooden MVP Award: Hurley (1989), Redick (2002), Okafor (2014).

• Redick is the leading Duke scorer in the game (26 points in 2002); Nelson (2004) and Boozer (1999) had 22-point games. Hurley (1989) and Tyus Jones (2014) had 10 assists in the game; Paulus had nine assists in 2006

23

Where will color take you?

®

To victory!

Sherwin-Williams is proud to support Duke University Athletics.

Whether you’re adding Duke blue & white to your home or want ideas, Sherwin-Williams can help you win with more than 1,500 colors, a lineup of quality products and experts to answer any questions.

For a store near you, visit sherwin-williams.com or call 1-800-4-SHERWIN.

SW 6886 INVIGORATE

334 SW 6 ER POT FLOW

SW 75 LEMON61 ME

RINGU E

©2015 The Sherwin-Williams Company

Join us on

Blue Chip Process How Duke raised its game in recruiting more top-tier football prospects

By Jim Sumner Scott Bracey, the high profile recruit who helped lure others They say that recruiting is the lifeblood of any college athletic program.

If that’s true, Duke football passed its annual physical with flying colors.

David Cutcliffe and his staff just finalized a 21-player class that on paper is Duke’s best haul since the 1980s.

It takes a very big scorecard to follow college football recruiting.

The numbers involved are enormous. High school football doesn’t have travel teams or summer AAU competition, meaning many top prospects rarely square off against their equals. Gratification is delayed. After arriving at college, most players sit out their freshman seasons, healthy redshirts taken to increase size, strength, quickness and comprehension of more complicated schemes.

Summarizing this for fans has become a big business. Subscription-based websites like Rivals.com, Scout.com, ESPN.com and 247Sports.com evaluate players, teams and classes for information-hungry consumers.

All of these sites agree that Duke has an impressive 2016 class.

ESPN.com ranked Duke 28th nationally. In a phone interview, Adam Friedman of Rivals.com called this “Duke’s best class by far, since we started compiling rankings.”

More than half of these new recruits were ranked as four stars on a five-star scale by at least one recruiting site.

There is another way to approach this — offer sheets. And they are impressive.

Long gone are the days when Duke fought recruiting battles against Southern Conference and Sun Belt Conference schools. Duke signed top-tier prospects that were priority targets of schools like Ohio State, Florida State, Stanford and Georgia. Not a few of them. Almost all of them. Duke got into the trenches with the big boys and won their share of brawls.

How did this all come together?

Let’s start with academics. Duke uses a “forty, not four” approach,

telling recruits they are making a forty-year decision, not a four-year decision.

Not every top prospect is receptive, but the ones who aren’t likely wouldn’t be happy at Duke anyway. Duke moves on.

But Duke football was winning academic achievement awards while going 0-12 on the field. The problem isn’t getting gifted students, it’s getting gifted students who can win at the Power 5 level.

That starts with evaluation, hands-on if at all possible. Cutcliffe tries to get prospective targets to attend summer football camps at Duke. He emphasizes that the camps are a two-way opportunity to learn.

“We don’t recruit them when they’re in camp,” he explains. “I want them to know how they’re going to be coached. I have to find out how coachable a guy is. As they climb the ladder, so to speak, of some of these recruiting services, they get a little harder to coach and we’re just not going to recruit a player who’s not coachable.

“They get the coaching and we get to see how they respond to coaching. At 4 o’clock in the afternoon and it’s 98 degrees and I’ve got a guy competing at the highest level he can compete at and he’s good enough, then you know you’ve got a candidate for your squad.”

Cutcliffe says about half of this class camped at Duke.

Zac Roper is Duke’s recruiting coordinator and new offensive coordinator. He cites defensive end James Hornbuckle-Smith, one of the more lightly-regarded members of the class. “We didn’t know much about him. He punched the clock, put in a good day’s work every day. That’s what we’re looking for.”

Cutcliffe also utilizes the personal touch. He’s been doing this long enough to develop relationships with not only coaches, but also principals, guidance counselors, even the custodial staff. He quizzes the high school coaches his prospects played against. He wants high character people and the more information, the better.

Cutcliffe has always brought in a handful of top-tier prospects at Duke but the state of the program at the time he took over required that he use his talent evaluation skills to find undervalued gems. Ross Cock-

25

More ways to get in the game.

Time Warner Cable’s TWC TV® App gives you more ways to watch more sports on virtually any screen. So you will always have the best seat in the house. >

Stream up to 300 live and local TV channels

>

Watch your favorite On Demand shows and movies for FREE

>

Explore and search for shows from your mobile device, and more Available on: twctv.com

Download the FREE app and learn more at twc.com/twctv.

Proud sponsor of

Duke Athletics

To receive all services, remote and lease of a Set-Top Box are required. As a condition of service, you may be required to have equipment for every TV in your home. Some services are not available to CableCARD™ customers. TWC TV® requires Standard TV or higher, Roku LT, 2, 3, iPad or iPhone with iOS 7, Kindle Fire HD/HDX, Xbox 360, Samsung Smart TV (2012 and 2013 models) Android 2.3 smartphone or Android 4.0 tablet and WiFi connection. TWC authorized modem required for in home viewing and minimum 1.5 Mbps connection recommended for out of home viewing. Some functions require compatible Set-Top Box or DVR. Programming is subject to availability in your area and the video package to which you subscribe. Not all equipment supports all services. All services may not be available in all areas. Subject to change without notice. Some restrictions apply. Time Warner Cable and the eye/ear logo are trademarks of Time Warner Inc. Used under license. All other trademarks remain property of their respective owners. ©2015 Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC. All rights reserved.

26

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY DUKE ATHLETICS

Dylan Singleton

Koby Quansah

rell and Jamison Crowder, for example, were two-star recruits.

Duke won games with these guys and started sending them to the NFL. Duke continued to upgrade its football infrastructure.

This enabled Duke to target prospects higher in the pecking order.

Friedman is Mid-Atlantic analyst for Rivals.com. He says Duke’s recruiting upgrades can be summed up in one word.

“Winning. Winning breeds recruiting momentum. Cut needed to prove he could win to attract higher-ranked players. Top recruits look at the wins and the stadium improvements and realize that Duke has made a commitment to football.”

Roper adds an additional perspective.

“The current players sell the program,” he says. “The recruits are comfortable with them. This class is the product of a lot of other classes who won a lot of games, guys who took a chance.”

How many of these players will see the field next season? Duke played five true freshmen last season, five the previous season.

Cutcliffe says it’s too early to figure out depth charts.

Conventional wisdom holds that the closer a player is to the ball at the time it’s snapped, the longer it will take them to see the field.

That’s certainly been the case with Cutcliffe. This class contains four top offensive linemen, Robert Kraeling, Liam Smith, Jaylen Miller and Julian Santos. But Cutcliffe has redshirted every offensive lineman in his Duke tenure and he has 11 recruited offensive linemen ahead of them.

That puts them in the delayed gratification category.

A handful of defensive linemen have played as true freshmen and Duke has three defensive ends coming in at a position of need. Marquies Price played at defensive end as a true freshman in 2015 and Cutcliffe says the incoming class will have a shot. Terrell Lucas, a 230-pounder from Hollywood, Fla., might be the best early bet.

Two recruits are almost certain to play big roles for Duke next season.

One is A.J. Reed, a placekicker from Prattville, Ala. He will be the only recruited placekicker on the roster. Reed camped at Duke, which increases the program’s comfort level.

“It’s the same formula we used with Ross Martin,” Cutcliffe says.

“I’ve had my hands on him. I’ve coached him and I know what he can do.”

The second is Scott Bracey, from Richmond. Bracey is the program’s highest-profile recruit and he was the first guy from his class to pledge for Duke. He was the Pied Piper who helped lure much of the rest of the class.

The 6-2, 200-pound Bracey played quarterback as a senior in high school but only because his team needed him there. He began his prep career as a wide receiver and that’s where Duke will use him.

Friedman has followed Bracey since the latter was a freshman. “He

Mark Birmingham should be the focal point of their offense. He’s a special player. He’s big, fast, with great hands. He has a very mature game. He has that ‘it’ factor.”

Cutcliffe calls Bracey “a special person. He’s such an impact person. A high-profile player. Probably helped get the rhythm going for this class. He has charisma.”

Roper says his job will be to “get the ball in Bracey’s hands. We’ll use him in direct snaps, reverses, end-arounds, design plays to get him open. We’re extremely excited with Scott” Rivals.com ranked Bracey as the No. 67 prospect in the country.

Other freshmen who might see the offensive side of the field next season are Virginia tight end Mark Birmingham and Georgia running back Brittain Brown.

Duke has played a true freshman at linebacker in 2014 and 2015.

Friedman calls Koby Quansah “fantastic inside, a sure tackler.” Others rank Orangeburg, S.C., native Brandon Hill higher.

Duke signed six defensive backs. Six true freshmen have played at defensive back at Duke in just the last three seasons, so a precedent has been established.

Dylan Singleton is a familiar name. His older brother Deondre is a rising senior at Duke. Dylan, who can play either safety or cornerback, committed to Duke early and remained firm despite major efforts from home state power Georgia and Ohio State.

Fayetteville native Mark Gilbert is enrolled early and could also play early, as a cornerback.

Also enrolled this semester is Jacob Morgenstern, another Connecticut recruit. An intriguing prospect, the 6-3, 215-pound Morgenstern could end up as a tight end, linebacker, safety or maybe even grow into a defensive end.

That’s the kind of versatility Cutcliffe looks for. Most of this year’s recruits played a second sport — frequently basketball — and most played on both offense and defense in high school.

Duke also is bolstering its squad with “preferred walk-ons,” a seeming oxymoron but a crucial part of the team’s success. Duke had only a handful of non-kicker walk-ons when Cutcliffe took over but had about two dozen last season. Cutcliffe says the walk-ons who don’t play on Saturdays enable Duke to practice during the week at the appropriate tempo and intensity.

Cutcliffe is big on process and came to Duke with a plan to recruit speed, find under-the-radar gems, build relationships and win games.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had as good a time realizing who they are, what they’re made of,” he says of the latest crop. “I think they’re all pure gold. You plan to win and you win and recruiting goes up at the same time. I think we’re ahead of schedule.”

27

DUKE UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS INVITES YOU TO THE

2016 Awards Celebration THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2016 6:30 P.M. DINNER & PROGRAM Floor of Cameron Indoor Stadium $55 for adults $15 for children 12 and under Business Attire 7:30 P.M. PROGRAM Stadium seats of Cameron Indoor Stadium $15 per person Dinner and Program orders will be filled based on Iron Dukes priority if received by Thursday, April 7. Seating based on Iron Dukes priority is not guaranteed after this date.

RSVP by Wednesday, April 13 by visiting www.GoDuke.com/tickets For questions please contact the Duke Ticket Office at (919) 681-2583.

MONDAY, APRIL 18, 2016 SCHARF HALL KRZYZEWSKI CENTER FOR ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE

7:00 pm Dessert Reception • Scharf Hall Patio 8:00 pm Awards Program • Scharf Hall $20 for adults, $10 for children 12 and under To RSVP please go to www.GoDuke.com/tickets. For questions please contact the Duke Ticket Office at (919) 681-2583. Parking will be available in the Public Policy Parking Lot. Check-In will be located at the patio entrance to Scharf Hall. Names will be on a guest list upon arrival. Banquet orders will be filled based on Iron Dukes priority.

RSVP’s must be received by Monday, April 11.

BUSINESS CASUAL ATTIRE

Summit Hospitality Proud Partners of Duke Athletics

DURHAM | SOUTHPOINT

Contact Jennifer Rabanal for Duke preferred rates: Jennifer Rabanal | S. Sales Manager - Sports 919.720.9798 | jrabanal@shgltd.com

28

DURHAM / SOUTHPOINT

www.SummitHospitality.com

CELEBRATING A DUKE LEGEND

DAVE SIME Olympian World Record Holder Hall of Famer 1936-2016

29

Who is the greatest

athlete in Duke University sports history?

Might it be Clarence “Ace” Parker, who played baseball, football and basketball at Duke before going on to be the Most Valuable Player in the NFL in 1940 and hitting a home run in his very first at-bat as a major league baseball player?

Or what about Dick Groat? Wouldn’t he have to be in anybody’s discussion about the best Duke athlete ever, as he was an outstanding basketball and baseball player? Groat averaged 26 points, seven rebounds and seven assists per game in his senior basketball season of 1952, while in baseball he led the Blue Devils to the College World Series. Groat averaged 12 points a game in his rookie season in the NBA with the Fort Wayne Pistons, but it was in major league baseball that he really left his mark. He won a Most Valuable Player award and was on two World Series winners.

Another name that absolutely has to be considered is Dave Sime, who passed away on January 12 at the age of 79. Sime grew up in New Jersey and received his first national publicity at the young age of 13 when he won a speed-skating contest at Madison Square Garden in New York City. This accomplishment made the front page of the New York Daily News.

As a high school athlete in Fair Lawn, N.J., Sime (pronounced Sim) led the football team to a state championship as a speedy tailback and

finished second in the broad jump, second in the high jump, and third in the discus throw. Also in 1956, Sime appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, was called the world’s fastest human and was named as the ACC Athlete of the Year. He was the favorite to win the 100 meter dash at the 1956 Olympics but suffered a leg injury that sidelined him.

Sime later made the 1960 Olympic team as a 24-year-old Duke medical student. In a photo finish, Germany’s Armin Hary beat Sime in the 100 meter final by what was estimated as no more than an inch. Sime, instead of winning the gold medal he coveted, took home silver.

The CIA contacted Sime before the 1960 Olympic Games, held in Rome, to ask him to help a Soviet Union long jumper, Igor TerOvanesyan, to defect to the United States. Sime met with Ter-Ovanesyan and introduced him to a CIA agent in Rome, but the Soviet athlete did

Dave Sime undeniably on the short list of Duke’s all-time greats

By Lewis Bowling

batted .511, .479 and .450 in three years on the baseball team, winning all-state honors. Colleges across the nation offered Sime scholarships in both football and baseball. He was recruited by Vince Lombardi to play football at Army, but he chose to play baseball at Duke in 1954.

Duke coaches in other sports noticed the blazing speed that Sime possessed, and so he was enticed by Bill Murray to play football and by Bob Chambers to run track. By 1955 and 1956, Sime was a track sensation.

In a meet against North Carolina, Sime set a world record in the 220 yard low hurdles, won the 100 yard dash, won the 220 yard dash, and

30

not defect.

After the 1960 Olympics, Sime returned to Duke and graduated with a medical degree. He moved to Florida and became a world-renown ophthalmologist, where he was a pioneer in intraocular lens transplants. His patients included Richard Nixon, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle and Miami Dolphins quarterback Bob Griese.

Not only was Sime one of the greatest athletes in Duke sports history, but it is amazing to consider the Sime athletic family. A daughter, Sherrie, was the top-ranked tennis player at Virginia and a son, Scott, played football at Duke. Another daughter, Lisa, was a star soccer player at Stanford, where she met Ed McCaffrey, who would become a standout NFL wide receiver. One of their sons, Christian McCaffrey, is a running back for Stanford and a top candidate to win the 2016 Heisman Trophy.

Christian’s brother, Max, was a leading receiver for the Duke football team, which won the 2015 Pinstripe Bowl to cap off his senior year. Max and Christian’s uncle, Billy McCaffrey, won an NCAA championship as a member of Duke’s basketball team in 1991.

Sime, enshrined in the Duke Athletics Hall of Fame 40 years ago, not only was once the world’s fastest human being, holding several world records, but he lived his life fast. In a phone interview with him a couple of years ago, Sime talked so fast I could not write down my notes and had to ask him to repeat things he said. He once boasted about how his Mercedes “can go zero to 60 in 3.5 seconds.” His son, Scott, once called his father “a guy who has lived his life with the accelerator touching the floor.” Fueled by his love and need for speed, along with overall athletic prowess, Dave Sime now lives on in the annals of Duke sports history as one of the greatest athletes who ever suited up for Blue Devils.

PHOTOS COURTESY DUKE UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

Dave Sime with his coach Bob Chambers circa 1956

Sixty years ago this spring, the legend of Dave Sime began to take root on a cinder track in a dual meet with UNC

By John Roth The first Saturday in May has always belonged to Churchill Downs, just as it did on May 5, 1956 when a bay colt named Needles emerged from deep in the pack and stormed down the home stretch to win the 82nd running of the Kentucky Derby in astonishing fashion.

On this particular Saturday, though, astonishing speed ruled from coast to coast in America, as the greatest two minutes in sports was bracketed neatly by a pair of fleet human feats that required twice, and half, the stop-watch time posted by the thoroughbred champion.

During a track meet at the Los Angeles Coliseum, 38,543 spectators watched Australian Jim Bailey upset his countryman and world record holder John Landy in the mile run, clocking 3:58.6 for the first sub-4:00 mile ever on American soil. Meanwhile, in Durham, 19-year-old Blue Devil Dave Sime spent less than a minute sprinting across the cinder track at Duke Stadium, but in the process set one world record and barely missed two others during a dual meet with North Carolina.

Life magazine, the iconic weekly news album of the era, fortuitously was on hand to document all three spectacles for one of its customary photojournalism treatments celebrating America’s “Big Day At The Races.” In Sime’s case, a full page of pictorial coverage was devoted to his exploits and delivered across the land to nearly 8 million readers during this heyday of magazine circulation. (In comparison, the most watched episode ever of ESPN’s SportsCenter is estimated at 6.4 million viewers, from a population that has almost doubled since the mid-1950s.)

This was not Sime’s first foray into the record books and national headlines, nor would it be his last. But it was a fascinating moment in time that captured both the prodigious natural talent and the promise of future glory that Sime carried to the starting line for every race thereafter.

From the vantage point of history, on the occasion of his death at age 79, Sime is still regarded by many as Duke’s all-time greatest athlete. But 60 years ago, during his sophomore year, he was just beginning to break loose. He had run only three track meets in his life before college (one high school, two summer AAUs) and was actually at Duke on a baseball scholarship, with the stated aim of eventually reaching the major leagues so he could earn enough money to pay his way through medical school.

Sime’s life began to change, though, during the 1956 winter track season, when he swept the sprint series at a meet in Washington, D.C., and posted his first world record of 9.5 seconds for an indoor 100. He went to Madison Square Garden and sparkled at the Millrose Games, then returned south for the ACC indoor championships, where he matched the world record in the 60-yard dash.

Loyal to Duke baseball coach Ace Parker, Sime had every intention of splitting his spring between the diamond and the track. But Parker — himself a former Blue Devil multi-sport star — could see that Sime was something special. “Ace,” said former Duke track coach Al Buehler, “was a guy who was big enough to say, ‘Dave, you got a chance to make the Olympic team. I’ll excuse you from baseball.’”

By the time the Duke-UNC dual meet rolled around on May 5, Sime not only appeared to be a lock for the U.S. Olympic team but a legitimate contender for gold. He had devoured all the reading material he could find on sprinting, sought advice from other speedsters, and listened intently as Duke All-America Joel Shankle counseled him on the fine art of relaxing during the heat of competition. Sime worked fervently with his head coach Bob Chambers and assistant Red Lewis on improving his starts — a necessity to uncoil his 6-foot-3 frame from the crouch of

31

the blocks into upright acceleration mode, where he thrived — and he bolstered his strength with rigorous sessions of running the steps at Duke Stadium and lifting weights in his dorm room.

“I was working out really hard,” Sime remembered in a 2013 telephone interview. “I would do my track work, and I was taking pre-med so I was on a pretty busy schedule. After I would go home to the dorm, I would study for 45 minutes and exercise for 10, study for another 45-50 minutes and exercise for 10.

I was doing about three sets of exercises, squats and stuff like that. I had this big metal bed and I would do lifts with it. I got really strong, and that’s how I was able to do the field events.”

Sime consistently ran at 9.6 seconds or faster in the 100 during the early stages of the dual meet season, and twice startled the timers at 9.4, just a tenth of a second off world-record pace. The week before the Duke-Carolina showdown, he pulled off his most spectacular feat thus far by defeating Abilene Christian’s Bobby Morrow BY A YARD on a muddy track at the Drake Relays. Overcoming raw conditions and two false starts, Sime handed Morrow his first loss since his junior year of high school and left the national press gushing over the battles these two were sure to run on bigger stages in the coming summer.

Until about 1970, dual meets formed the backbone of the college track regular season — two schools going head-to-head on a 15-event card. Duke’s 1956 team was undefeated in duals entering the UNC contest. There had been only one close call, the

Blue Devils’ home opener with Navy, which Duke won 67-64. Sime took first place in five events that day for 25 points, clinching the team victory with a win in the discus, the first time he had ever thrown it in a meet.

A published account estimated that 3,000 fans had been in attendance — an unheard of crowd for a college track meet in the South. Sime was the major attraction.

There was plenty of hype for the final regular season meet with North Carolina, and it helped that the Tar Heels also featured a potential Olympian in middle distance runner Jim Beatty, who one day would become the first man to break four minutes for an indoor mile. Beatty was coming off his second straight two-mile championship at the Penn Relays and was in peak form for the Duke meet. He easily won both the one-mile and two-mile, and according to Durham newspaper columnist Jack Horner, he was cheered enthusiastically by a crowd that was on its feet as he crossed the line. “It’s doubtful if any Carolina athlete ever received the applause he was given by a Duke audience when he turned on the steam and headed for home,” Horner wrote.

But this was Sime’s day. His parents had come down from their home in Fair Lawn, N.J., to watch him compete for the first time as a collegian, and he put on quite a show in the six events he tackled, three on the track and three in the field. He slightly injured his hip while doing the broad jump and in fact passed on his last attempt even though he was a half-inch behind the leader, settling for second place. He took another

Pleased to meet you Connect with colleagues and enjoy special meeting rates that include free breakfast.

To learn more or to book your group contact Teresa Palmieri at 919.941.8106.

Group rates from

129

$

per person per night

©2013 Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Preferred Guest, SPG, Sheraton and their logos are the trademarks of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., or its affiliates. For full terms and conditions, visit sheraton.com/offer

32

second in the high jump and placed third in the discus.

It was his performance on the track that made this the most distinctive collegiate dual meet in Duke history. “We knew from what Dave was doing that there wasn’t anybody from Carolina who was going to stay with him,” Buehler recalled. “It was just a matter of how badly he was going to beat them and how fast he was going to run.”

Here’s how fast he ran: He won the 100-yard dash in 9.4 seconds and the 220 in 20.3, both times just one-tenth of a second off the world record. Then came his last run of the day, the 220 low hurdles. The team score was tied at 58.5 points apiece with just two events remaining as he approached the starting line. At that time, the 220-yard events were run on a straightaway that started down by the old halftime house at the end of the football practice field and ended at the finish line in the bowl of the stadium. “They looked like midgets down there,” said Buehler. “We had to tell our timers, ‘Look for the smoke, don’t wait for the sound (of the starter’s pistol),’ because it would take x-tenths of a second for the sound to get up there but you would see the smoke instantaneously.”

Sime shot out of the blocks, skimmed across the hurdles, bumped the next-to-last one with his right knee, and when the smoke cleared had posted a time of 22.2 seconds — besting the world record of 22.3 that Harrison Dillard had established nine years earlier in Salt Lake City. It was Sime’s first outdoor world record, and the first ever set on the Duke track.

According to the columnist Horner, Sime rushed over to Chambers as soon as the time was announced. “Is that right, Coach? Is that right?” he exclaimed. “Gosh, I went all out. I ran with all my might, Coach. Honest, I gave it all I had. I ran with all my might.”

Sime then confided to Horner, “I never felt better than I did in those low hurdles today. I had a feeling I was going faster than usual. I was running on my toes all the way and those hurdles just seemed to be going under me faster.”

Horner described the sense of shock and amazement that prevailed as the performance registered among the crowd and the Duke officials on hand. “I’ve been in college athletics 36 years,” noted director of athletics Eddie Cameron, “and this is the first time I’ve seen a world record broken.” Another local scribe asserted that only the legendary Jesse Owens had ever enjoyed a better college performance, referencing his marks from the 1935 Big Ten Championships of 9.4 in the 100, 20.3 in the 220, 22.6 in the low hurdles and 26-8.25 in the broad jump. At that time, a year before Sime was born, three of those marks set new world records and the other matched the world mark. Sime had equaled or topped all of Owens’ figures except the broad jump, where he posted a mark of 23 feet, 2.5 inches. The combined time of Owens’ three runs was 52.3 seconds; Sime’s was 51.9.

Sime’s win in the hurdles, coupled with teammate Bobby Sparrow’s second place finish, gave Duke all the points it needed to clinch the meet, completing an undefeated season.

From that point onward, the attention garnered by Sime shifted into another gear. A week after the UNC meet, Duke hosted the ACC Championships for the first time and over 6,000 fans watched Sime win three sprint championships. That was the day AFTER the Friday prelims when he hit the world record in the 220 with a time of 20.1 seconds. Then, the following week, he matched the world mark in the 100 with a 9.3 in the Carolinas AAU meet at Raleigh. Within 15 days he had broken or tied world records in the 100, 220 and 220 low hurdles.

The Life magazine spread hit the streets (May 14), Sports Illustrated dispatched a writer to Durham for its famous “Superman In Spikes” takeout feature on the redheaded Blue Devil (June 4), and an SI cover featuring Sime with Morrow (July 2) coincided with the much anticipated summer trifecta of NCAA nationals, AAU nationals and Olympic Trials. Everyone, it seemed, now recognized Dave Sime’s name.

“It was a great time — and a very stressful time,” Sime acknowledged in the 2013 interview, “because I was working hard trying to keep up with my studies and traveling a lot. As far as the psychology of it goes, I did a lot of yoga stuff to keep me relaxed, and I had a great coach, Bob Chambers. He had a very mild way about him that was very good

for me because I was always kind of hyper… He had a way to relax people and it was just what I needed.”

At a tuneup meet for the NCAAs in California, Sime became the first man ever to run the 220 in 20 seconds flat, another world record. Unfortunately he suffered a groin injury during a horseback riding incident on the trip west and aggravated it during his 220 qualifying heat at the NCAA meet (his first 220 on a curve). When the injury resurfaced at the Olympic Trials, Sime was unable to qualify for the U.S. contingent and Morrow went on to sweep the sprint golds in Melbourne.

Sime returned to baseball as a junior in 1957 and led the ACC in batting. He repeated as ACC track champion in the 100 and 220 dashes in ’57 and ’58, boosting his career total of ACC titles to 12, and after graduation accepted a scholarship to medical school at Duke. Still hungry for Olympic success, he qualified for the 1960 Summer Games in Rome and won a silver medal in the 100, edged in a photo finish by German Armin Hary. Gold finally appeared within his grasp as the anchor for the U.S. 4x100 relay team, when he stormed from behind to finish first in record time — only to find his unit disqualified because of an illegal baton pass in the first exchange.

Late in life, retired from a distinguished career as a Miami eye surgeon, Sime enjoyed spending part of every year in the North Carolina mountains. In his spare time he would counsel the sprinters at LeesMcRae College in Banner Elk, imparting the wisdom of a legend who had held world records in nine events and was considered the world’s fastest human in the mid-1950s.

“It was one of the greatest periods of my life,” Sime said. “I had a roll going on.”

Compliance

Quiz

The Duke Compliance Office is responsible for education and enforcement of NCAA rules. NCAA rules are vast and complex, and we hope you read the information below as an introduction to a few of the issues that could arise as you root for the Blue Devils. If you have any questions about NCAA rules, please contact the Compliance Office at 919613-6214. We truly appreciate your continued support of Duke University and Duke Athletics. Always remember to ask before you act.

Question: Benjamin Booster learns that Duke is recruiting Patty Prospect, who lives in his hometown. Although he does not know Patty or her parents, he sends them an email with a few links about Duke. After Patty signs a National Letter of Intent to attend Duke, he takes her out for an inexpensive lunch to celebrate and to wish her well. Has he violated NCAA rules?

Answer: Yes. Recruiting contact — whether face-to-face or written — between a booster and a prospect is prohibited. In addition, the lunch is an impermissible benefit. With limited exceptions, a booster may not provide a prospect (or her family) ANY material benefits, regardless of the value, and even if the prospect has signed.

Duke Compliance 919-613-6214 33

> The Final Round

100 years young and still enjoying Cameron

By Brad Amersbach Duke’s fan base is one of the most passionate and loyal of any college basketball team in the country. The Cameron Crazies are often vaunted as an ardent group of supporters that make playing in historic Cameron Indoor Stadium “the toughest road game in the nation,” according to USA Today.

Although the Crazies are the most visible and vocal of Blue Devil enthusiasts, that group is just the tip of the Duke-fandom iceberg. Thousands of fans pack the 76-year-old establishment on Duke’s campus each home game to cheer on the Blue Devils, with the throng of Duke faithful comprised of individuals ranging in ages from one to 100, literally.

One of those fans, Annie King, turned 100 years young Sept. 12, 2015, becoming one of the only fans to eclipse the century mark and still regularly attend men’s basketball games in Cameron.

King has been a lifelong fan of the Blue Devils. Her father, back in 1907, attended Trinity Park High School, which then sat on the Trinity College campus, now Duke’s East Campus. Although King would not be born for another eight years, the proximity to Duke’s “beautiful campus,” as King describes it, as well as her family’s history and connection to the college, made rooting for the Blue Devils a no-brainer.

King’s Duke Blue bias trickled down to her daughter Julia (now Julia Moore), but King wasn’t the only influence on Moore.

“My husband loved all sports,” Moore said. “He was a Duke fan and he loved to go to the games. My maternal grandma passed away at 93, but back then she loved to watch Duke on television. She never went to a game, but she watched them on television. When they had a game on, she loved watching her Duke Blue Devils, so I guess I grew up liking Duke with my mom’s side of the family. They liked Duke and we’d watch the games whenever possible.”

Today’s fans are spoiled with the multitude of different avenues by which to watch a Duke game. This season alone, every contest is broadcast nationally, streamed on a web-based application or disseminated through the local television market. To truly support the local team, Moore and her husband decided to begin attending games. Using the freshman season of Art Heyman as a landmark, Moore pinpoints the exact year she and her husband began a 50-year run of attending Duke contests. Over that span, more than just the names on the back of the jerseys would change, as Cameron itself experienced a number of upgrades.

Moore’s favorite alteration to the historic building? Air conditioning.

“The biggest improvement they made was putting the air conditioning in,” Moore said. “I used to wear short sleeve cotton shirts to keep from burning. You had all of these people in there getting excited and cheering. The heat was good though, because Duke was used to it and the opposing teams were not.”

Although the air conditioning was a major improvement for Cameron, King’s favorite aspect of the game atmosphere is the people.

“I like seeing how much the people look like they enjoy the game,” King said. “It’s wonderful.”

The seats in which Moore and King sat have also changed over the years. Moore and her husband originally started watching games from Section 13, while King sat with Moore’s youngest son Chris in Section 3. As time passed, Moore and her husband shifted over to Section 1, row E, seats 6 and 8 — tickets she would hold on to for the next 40 years.

Sadly, Moore’s husband passed away in 1999, but Moore continued to

34

JON GARDINER

Julia Moore and her mother Annie King

attend games, welcoming her mother to sit next to her and thus sustaining something of a family tradition.

The support of Moore and King has never wavered over the years, even during the stretch from 1972 through 1976, when the Blue Devils failed to surpass the .500 mark for four straight seasons. The mother-daughter combo always believed that “they’d turn it around.” Moore even recalls a time when the team was in such dire straits, tickets were being sold in four- and five-set bundles to try and fill the arena, but the duo remained faithful fixtures in Cameron’s seats.

Moore and King also continued to attend games when then-athletics director Tom Butters hired a young coach from West Point, who posted losing records in two of his first three seasons. That head coach has gone on to win five national championships, as well as earn the respect and admiration of both Moore and King. “(Mike Krzyzewski) teaches those boys so much that they can use off the court,” Moore stated. “That’s what is amazing to me. Everyone can tell that he loves his team. He puts his heart into it. He’s such a learned coach, and he knows the game so well. He’s able to get that information to his players and it’s just wonderful to watch. He doesn’t take any crap, and I really do like that.”

“I think he’s just wonderful,” King adds. “Everyone can’t always win, but when they lose, he gives the team new spirit.”

With 25 to 40 games a season, it’s understandable that one home game to the next runs together, but specific student-athletes have certainly stayed with Moore over the years. Mike Gminski, Grant Hill, Shane Battier and Trajan Langdon all come to mind as Moore recollects the Duke talent from years past. In addition, although she enjoys attending all games, Moore particularly enjoys watching Duke face in-state opponents such as N.C. State and, of course, North Carolina.

As Duke wraps up the 2016 regular season, King shows faith in the future of her beloved Blue Devils.

“I think they’re playing wonderfully,” King said. “We have a good coach, and that means everything. The team listens to him, too. Some people hear, but they don’t listen.”

Suffice it to say, the Blue Devils will both hear and listen to the cheers of Moore and King throughout the remainder of the home slate.

35

TELL YOUR

American LOVE STORY.

PROUDLY MADE ENTIRELY IN NORTH AMERICA

EXCLUSIVELY AT

REEDS.com #REEDSLoveStory