Star power gone for Blue Devils

Star power gone for Blue Devils|
|By DAVID DROSCHAK|
|AP Sports Writer|
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — Mike Krzyzewski isn’t big on labels, but Friday he dubbed his 2002-2003 squad ‘‘a team of discovery.’’
The coach of the nation’s most successful program the past five years must this year incorporate six freshmen into a mix that will not include All-Americans Jay Williams, Mike Dunleavy or Carlos Boozer. All three juniors recently left school for the NBA.
‘‘We’ll have a fairly deep team, but we won’t have the so-called star power,’’ Krzyzewski said during a summer news conference to discuss his team. ‘‘It’s new, and that’s where the discovery comes in. I hate using the words, ’There are questions about each kid,’ like there is something bad about each kid.’’
Krzyzewski, healthy following hip replacement surgery in the offseason, is facing a situation similar to 1999 when he lost stars Elton Brand, Corey Maggette and William Avery early to the draft. Another first-round draft pick, Trajan Langdon, was a senior on that team.
However, in 2000, the Blue Devils went 29-5, winning the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season with a 15-1 league mark and the ACC tournament with freshmen named Williams, Dunleavy and Boozer.
There is a difference this time around, though.
‘‘We had more leadership coming back,’’ Krzyzewski said. ‘‘We had Nate (James), Chris Carrawell and Shane (Battier), and all three of them proved to be outstanding leaders. Shane was one of the great leaders ever in college sports. Even though we have some veterans coming back, none of them have really been in that leadership role.’’
Krzyzewski called point guard Chris Duhon a natural leader, but he’s not sure how players such as Dahntay Jones and Casey Sanders will adapt to leadership positions.
‘‘That’s a little bit of a concern in how we bring our team along,’’ Krzyzewski said.
The coach also will pay close attention to the way his new players — Sean Dockery, Shavlik Randolph, Lee Melchionni, J.J. Redick, Michael Thompson and Shelden Williams — mix with the returners.
All six come to the Blue Devils with tremendous prep reputations.
‘‘The jockeying for things is good,’’ Krzyzewski said of competition for starting spots. ‘‘All these kids see opportunity. There is nobody to defer to, to where if you had a bunch of upperclassmen who were stars, there may be a tendency of not throwing everything into it because you anticipate that there are certain positions (taken).
‘‘It’s not a team within a team and it won’t be. We don’t want it to be that way, and we won’t allow it to happen.’’
Duke has won the last four ACC tournament titles and gone 132-15 over that span. But as outstanding as the Blue Devils have been, Krzyzewski still is uncertain about this team’s immediate future.
‘‘We’re trying to be an emerging team in a program that is not emerging,’’ Krzyzewski said. ‘‘To me, that’s an interesting dynamic.
‘‘You guys will never write a story this coming season saying we’re young — none of you,’’ he added, referring to the media. ‘‘I already know that, so I’ll never talk about being young because of (the stature) our program. That’s just a fact of life.’’
And Krzyzewski’s realistic view of his youthful team in July doesn’t mean he’ll accept losing very well in six months.
‘‘By Christmas we’ll make an evaluation of the things we’ve been doing,’’ he said. ‘‘This will be different, but to me it’s exciting.
‘‘I don’t have to go undefeated to be happy, but I do want to have teams that compete for championships each year. So, I would like to figure out how this group, in a very youthful stage, can compete for something like that. If we don’t, it’s not because we put a limit on what we could do. Someone else put a limit on us. Someone else stopped us.’’

 

Yeah....we wouldn't want dook to use an excuse that UNC isn't allowed to use as well. But dang...he used it in this article.

 

The thing is...he can say it and still win.

 

You can't say that yet......this is the first time he has been in this situation.

 

Let's see, Avery, Brand. Maggette, Langdon gone and Burrgess transfers. Yeah, he's done this before. He'll get the most out of his players...unlike Ice Ice baby.

 

yeah....but you seem to forget that year he had battier, james and a few others. I am sorry...but I don't think any of the returning players dook has this year can equal a battier, or if you combine them all even

 

UNC may not be better than dook this year.....but you can bet your bottom dollar the gap is a helluva lot closer.

 

Yes, he had Battier and James, but very few people thought Battier would turn into the player he did when that season started. James and Battier went into that season coming off of being role players. Battier the defensive player and James coming of the bench. Last season it was Jones the defensive player and Ewing coming off the bench. I think Ewing is the forgotten player in all of this. If Duhon can get him the ball to him, Ewing could develop into an all ACC 2 guard.

 

Battier wasn't what he was at the end of his career, but he was still a lot better at that point of his career than the currect crop of players for dook. He was still a player that could do anything in a game and he was 6'9".

 

Seems like it wasn't too long ago that the Heels were regularly stocking the NBA with early entrys. The Heels fans have had to deal with the 2 year plan for at least a decade (Stackhouse, Rasheed, Forte) if not longer (Jordan, Worthy). Now all of a sudden the Dukies are holding their breath after finally learning what most of the NCAA mens programs have had to deal with. I am just glad to see Duke finally getting players who's college level talent meshed with the NBA game. I mean how many over rated players can you churn out only to see fade into mediocrity (Hurley, Ferry, Laetner) or stay injuried (Hill) Don't get me wrong I have all the respect in the world for Coach K and all he has done, hard not to be envious of their success. But he is only now coming to grips with college basketball in the 21st century. Give coach eyebrows :naughty: a chance, he has to weed out the also rans coach Gut signed (Morrison, and Boone) and put his mark completely on. I see a .500 record for the Heels this year. True it isn't a BIG thing but when your football program had more wins than your baskeball team there is only one way to go.