2001-02

Season Overview

Expectations had never been higher. Duke returned three future NBA lottery picks — junior Jason Williams, junior Carlos Boozer, and junior Mike Dunleavy Jr. — from the 2001 championship team, along with sophomore point guard Chris Duhon and a roster loaded with talent including Dahntay Jones, Daniel Ewing, and Casey Sanders. The only significant losses were Shane Battier and Nate James to graduation. With 66.4% of minutes and 63.0% of scoring returning, Duke was the consensus preseason #1 team in America.

The Blue Devils lived up to the billing for most of the season. Williams was transcendent, becoming just the seventh repeat winner of National Player of the Year honors in college basketball history when he won the Naismith Award for the second consecutive year. He averaged 21.3 points, 5.3 assists, and 3.5 rebounds per game, breaking his own Duke single-season scoring record. Boozer averaged 18.2 points and 8.4 rebounds while shooting 60.7% from the field. Dunleavy contributed 17.3 points and 7.2 rebounds. All three earned All-America honors — the first time three teammates from the same school had been named All-Americans since 1957.

The season began with Duke winning the Preseason NIT, followed by a narrow 78-77 victory over Illinois in Greensboro and a 93-68 demolition of Temple in Philadelphia where Williams went 8-of-10 from three-point range. The Blue Devils looked invincible. But cracks appeared in December when Casey Jacobsen banked in a go-ahead shot with 3.6 seconds remaining to give Stanford an 84-83 win — Duke’s first loss after leading by 13 at halftime and 11 with four minutes to play.

The ACC season was another tour of dominance: Duke went 13-3, winning its sixth consecutive outright regular season championship. But the three losses all came on the road — at Florida State, at Maryland, and at Virginia — suggesting that without Battier’s defensive anchor, this team could be vulnerable in hostile environments.

The Doherty-era collapse at North Carolina provided the starkest contrast in the rivalry’s history. Matt Doherty’s Tar Heels were plummeting toward an 8-20 season — the worst in program history and the first losing record since Dean Smith took over in 1962. Duke swept UNC with ease. On January 31, the Blue Devils destroyed the Tar Heels 87-58 at the Dean Smith Center, the worst loss in the building’s history. Williams scored 30 and Duke led by 20 in the first half against a team that shot 28% from the field. On March 3, the regular season finale at Cameron, Duke won 93-68 with Williams scoring 32 — one shy of his career high. It was Carolina’s 11th ACC loss by double digits in a nightmare season.

Duke’s ACC Tournament in Charlotte was a coronation. The Blue Devils won all three games by double digits, including a 93-64 annihilation of NC State in the championship game — a 30-point rout that concluded a record fourth consecutive ACC Tournament title. No team in conference history had ever won four straight. Duke entered the NCAA Tournament as the #1 seed in the South and was considered the overwhelming favorite to repeat as national champions.

The first two rounds were routine: 84-37 over Winthrop and 84-77 over Notre Dame. Then came Lexington, Kentucky, and the fifth-seeded Indiana Hoosiers.

The game went according to script for 20 minutes. Duke led 42-29 at halftime, and the 13-point spread was exactly what Vegas had predicted. There was no reason to believe anything would change. Everything changed.

Indiana, led by sophomore Jared Jeffries and seniors Dane Fife and Tom Coverdale, came out of the locker room possessed. The Hoosiers chipped away, and then A.J. Moye blocked a Carlos Boozer shot that sent the Rupp Arena crowd — heavily tilted toward the underdog, since Bloomington was only three hours away — into a frenzy. Duke fought back and led by six with 2:45 remaining after a Dunleavy three-pointer. But Indiana wouldn’t die. Coverdale tied the game at 70 with two free throws, then gave Indiana its first lead of the game on a baseline jumper that rattled around the rim three times before falling.

With 11 seconds left, Moye hit two free throws to put Indiana up 74-70. Williams launched a desperate three and was fouled by Dane Fife. The three went in. The crowd held its breath. Williams stepped to the line needing one free throw to tie. He missed. Boozer tipped at the rebound but couldn’t convert. Indiana 74, Duke 73. The largest upset (by point spread) in NCAA Tournament history for a game in the Sweet Sixteen or later.

It was the last college game for Williams, Boozer, and Dunleavy. All three declared for the 2002 NBA Draft. Williams was taken second overall by the Chicago Bulls, Dunleavy third by the Golden State Warriors — making them just the second set of teammates drafted in the top three picks (after UCLA’s Lew Alcindor and Lucius Allen went one and three in 1969). Boozer was selected 35th overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers and went on to have the longest and most productive NBA career of the three.

The season’s final numbers were staggering: 31-4, #1 in the final AP poll for the fourth consecutive year (an NCAA first), #1 seed for a record fifth straight NCAA Tournament, a record fourth consecutive ACC Tournament title. Duke had finished with both a top-3 offense and defense per KenPom for the second straight year — a feat accomplished by just six teams in the metric’s history, four of them K’s Duke squads.

But the Indiana loss haunted Durham. One missed free throw. One blocked shot. One baseline jumper that rattled three times before deciding to fall in. The defending champions, who had been #1 from wire to wire for the fourth straight season, went home in the Sweet Sixteen. Indiana, improbably, would ride that win all the way to the national championship game before falling to Maryland — the same Maryland team that Duke had beaten four times the previous season.

Williams would suffer a devastating motorcycle accident six days after being drafted, ending what should have been a Hall of Fame NBA career. Boozer would become a two-time All-Star. Dunleavy would play 14 solid NBA seasons. Duhon would stay two more years and carry Duke through a difficult transitional period. But the Big Three’s last ride ended on a missed free throw in Lexington, and the what-ifs of the 2002 season remain among the most painful in the Brotherhood’s history.

It was supposed to be a coronation. Duke was 31-3, ranked #1 for the fourth straight year, riding a record five consecutive #1 seeds. Williams, Boozer, and Dunleavy were the best trio in college basketball. The Vegas line was 13 points. Indiana was a 5-seed with a 19-12 record. This wasn’t a game. It was a formality.

The first half confirmed it. Duke led 42-29, controlling the tempo and the glass. Boozer was dominant inside. Williams was orchestrating. Indiana looked overmatched.

Then the second half began, and the Hoosiers — led by Bloomington-native sophomore Jared Jeffries, senior Dane Fife, and senior Tom Coverdale — came out of the locker room transformed. The Rupp Arena crowd, only three hours from Bloomington, was overwhelmingly pro-Indiana, and the Hoosiers fed off the energy. They chipped away possession by possession. A.J. Moye blocked a Boozer shot and the building shook. Indiana cut it to six with 2:45 left when Dunleavy hit a three to seemingly restore order.

It didn’t. Coverdale tied it at 70 with two free throws. Then he gave Indiana its first lead of the game on a baseline jumper that hit the rim three times — three agonizing bounces — before falling through. Moye hit two free throws. Indiana 74, Duke 70 with 11 seconds left.

Williams drove and launched a three-pointer. It went in. He was fouled by Fife. The arena froze. Williams stepped to the free throw line with a chance to tie the game, one shot, the season on the line.

He missed.

Boozer tipped at the rebound. It didn’t fall. The horn sounded. Indiana 74, Duke 73. The largest point-spread upset in NCAA Tournament history for a Sweet Sixteen game or later.

Williams, the two-time National Player of the Year, walked off the court in tears. It was the last college game for all three juniors — Williams, Boozer, and Dunleavy all declared for the NBA Draft within weeks. The dynasty that had produced 133 wins in four years, three #1 AP finishes, two title game appearances, and one championship was over.

Indiana rode the magic all the way to the national championship game, where they lost to Maryland — the same Maryland team Duke had beaten four times the season before. The irony was almost too perfect: the team Duke couldn’t beat in Lexington lost to the team Duke had beaten everywhere else.

Six days after being drafted second overall by the Chicago Bulls, Jay Williams crashed his motorcycle in Chicago and nearly lost his leg. The NBA career that should have been historic was reduced to one injury-marred season. The missed free throw in Lexington wasn’t just the end of a season. It was the last moment when everything was still possible.