1996-97

Season Overview

If 1994-95 was the nadir and 1995-96 was survival, then 1996-97 was the year Duke got back in the business of winning championships. The record said 24-9. The ACC regular season title said even more.

The key addition was a return: Trajan Langdon, the sharpshooting guard from Anchorage who had averaged 11.3 points as a freshman in 1995 before missing the entire 1995-96 season with a knee injury. Langdon came back and was immediately the best shooter in the ACC, earning First Team All-ACC honors. He averaged 14.3 points per game — the lowest average for a team’s leading scorer among ACC champions since 1958 — which spoke to how balanced and deep this team was becoming.

Senior Jeff Capel ran the point one final time. After the highs of the half-court miracle and the lows of the 13-18 season, Capel had one more chapter to write. He averaged 16.7 points per game and was spectacular down the stretch. Junior Steve Wojciechowski earned Second Team All-ACC with his relentless defense and floor leadership — the embodiment of K’s competitive DNA. Senior Greg Newton manned the center. Junior Ricky Price was the fourth scoring option.

The freshman class changed everything. Chris Carrawell, Mike Chappell, and Nate James arrived as the kind of versatile, mid-sized forwards K loved. And transfer Roshown McLeod, who had sat out the previous season per NCAA rules, became eligible and provided 14 points and 11 rebounds in the post.

Duke won the NIT Season Tip-Off with wins over Tulsa and Villanova in New York. They opened 10-2 with signature wins over #23 Indiana, #10 Iowa, and #4 Villanova. Then ACC play began — and the real statement came.

At Cameron on February 1, Duke did something it hadn’t done since February 3, 1993: beat North Carolina. The eight-game losing streak — the longest in the rivalry in the K era — ended with an 80-73 victory. Langdon scored 20 of his game-high 28 points in the second half, hitting three after three after three as the Alaskan Assassin was born. Capel added 19 and five assists. McLeod had 14 and 11 rebounds. Wojciechowski had five steals. The Cameron Crazies hadn’t celebrated a UNC victory in nearly four years.

Two weeks later, Duke went to Winston-Salem and beat Tim Duncan and Wake Forest 73-68 — ending a nine-game losing streak to the Demon Deacons. Duncan, the National Player of the Year, scored 26, but Wojo hit a mid-range jumper to tie the game at 62 (‘We didn’t expect him to take that shot and we didn’t expect him to make it,’ Duncan said), and Duke pulled away.

Duke won the ACC regular season title at 12-4 — their first conference championship since 1994. The losing streaks to UNC and Wake were both broken. The program was undeniably back.

The regular season finale at Chapel Hill was a humbling reminder of what Duke still lacked: UNC outrebounded Duke 49-18. Antawn Jamison had 33 points and 11 rebounds. No Duke player had more than three rebounds. Going small had worked brilliantly for most of the season, but Carolina’s size advantage was overwhelming when exploited.

In the NCAA Tournament, Duke was a #2 seed — a massive leap from the #8 seed of a year ago. They survived Murray State 71-68 in the first round, then fell to #10 Providence 98-87 in the second round. It was a disappointing exit, but the overall trajectory was unmistakable.

This was also Dean Smith’s final season coaching North Carolina, though nobody knew it at the time. When Smith retired before the following season, it marked the end of the rivalry’s defining era. K had outlasted his great rival.

The players who formed the bridge — Langdon, Wojciechowski, Carrawell, McLeod, Nate James — would return in 1997-98 and be joined by a freshman class that included Elton Brand and Shane Battier. The Second Dynasty was about to begin. And 1996-97 was the season that proved Duke was ready for it.

Four years. Eight consecutive losses. The longest losing streak to North Carolina in the Krzyzewski era. Through the back surgery, the 13-18 season, the Eastern Michigan embarrassment, the blown 22-point lead in Chapel Hill — through all of it, Duke had not beaten Carolina. Not once.

On February 1, 1997, it ended.

Carolina scored the first seven points of the second half to take a 38-33 lead. Duke fans had seen this before. The program was better, the results were better, but against UNC? The pattern was always the same: compete, then fold.

Not this time. Trajan Langdon — the kid from Anchorage, Alaska, who had missed the entire 1995-96 season with a knee injury — decided that four years was enough. He hit a three to spark an 8-2 Duke run. Then another three. Then another. Then free throws. Then the dagger — a jumper off a screen with under a minute left that put Duke up by six.

Langdon scored 20 of his game-high 28 points in the second half. He went from ‘isn’t he the guy from Alaska?’ to the Alaskan Assassin in one unforgettable night.

Capel added 19 points and five assists, McLeod had 14 points and 11 rebounds, and Wojciechowski contributed five steals. Down the stretch, Capel and Wojo got steals on Carolina’s final two possessions. Duke made three of four free throws. And McLeod punctuated the victory with a rim-rattling dunk at the buzzer.

Duke 80, North Carolina 73.

‘We just said enough is enough,’ Langdon said afterward. ‘We needed to come out and get a win tonight.’

‘We wanted to outfight them,’ Capel added. ‘We wanted to make plays at the end.’

Six Tar Heels scored in double figures, but no one more than Serge Zwikker’s 14. Duke held Antawn Jamison to five field-goal attempts. The defense — K’s defense, the floor-slapping, denial-based system that had powered the dynasty — was back.

The win didn’t just end a losing streak. It announced the end of the Transition era. Duke was no longer climbing out of a hole. Duke was back on top. ACC champions. Beating Carolina. Conquering Tim Duncan. The pieces — Langdon, Wojciechowski, Carrawell, McLeod, Nate James — were in place. Elton Brand and Shane Battier were one recruiting class away.

The Second Dynasty was coming. And the night it started was the night Trajan Langdon wouldn’t miss.