2009-10

Season Overview

Mike Krzyzewski looked at his roster before the 2009-10 season and said what he believed: “They’re good, not great.” He wasn’t being modest. He was being honest. This team had no lottery picks, no future All-Stars, no singular talent that would make opponents change their game plan out of fear. What it had was something rarer and, in the end, more valuable: five players who had been through everything together.

Senior Jon Scheyer had arrived as a pudgy freshman in 2006, watched Redick and Williams play their Senior Night game, and spent four years transforming himself from a sixth man into a consensus second-team All-American and the ACC’s leader in assist-to-turnover ratio, free throw percentage, and three-pointers per game. He set the ACC all-time single-season record for minutes played at 1,470 — a number that reflected both his durability and his indispensability. He led the team in scoring (18.2), assists (4.9), free throw percentage (.878), and steals (1.6).

Junior Kyle Singler was the team’s most complete player, averaging 17.7 points and 7.0 rebounds with a .399 three-point percentage. He played with the quiet ferocity that had defined him since arriving from Medford, Oregon — never flashy, always essential, willing to guard any position and take any shot when the moment demanded it.

Junior Nolan Smith had grown from a raw freshman into a dynamic scorer and capable floor general, averaging 17.4 points and learning to play alongside Scheyer in a two-guard system that gave Duke unprecedented backcourt versatility.

Senior Lance Thomas brought defensive toughness and a willingness to do whatever the team needed, from guarding the opponent’s best player to setting screens to diving on the floor for loose balls. His hard foul on Butler’s Gordon Hayward in the championship game — reviewed and ruled non-flagrant — was the embodiment of the team’s identity: we will compete on every possession, and we will not apologize for it.

And then there was senior Brian Zoubek. The 7-1 center from New Jersey had spent four injury-plagued years on the margins of the program, never healthy enough to establish himself. In 2009-10, K inserted him into the starting lineup, and he blossomed. Zoubek averaged 7.6 rebounds and provided the interior presence that Duke had lacked since Shelden Williams’ departure — not as a scorer, but as a rebounder, shot-alterer, and physical enforcer. The Plumlee brothers (Miles as a sophomore, Mason as a freshman) added frontcourt depth that no Duke team since 2006 had possessed.

Between them, the five core players had played 638 games together. They knew each other’s movements, tendencies, and breaking points. They had survived VCU (first-round loss, 2007), West Virginia (physical beatdown, 2008), and Villanova (blowout, 2009). Three consecutive years of March failure had hardened them in ways that no practice could replicate.

The season started with a statement: Duke won the NIT Season Tip-Off and rolled through a non-conference schedule that included wins over Connecticut and Gonzaga. ACC play was dominant — 13-3, tied for the regular season championship. The Blue Devils went undefeated at Cameron Indoor Stadium for the entire season, setting a school record with 17 home wins. They won the ACC Tournament for a record 18th time, tying and then surpassing UNC for the most in conference history.

Duke entered the NCAA Tournament as the #1 seed in the South Region. The draw was kind but never easy.

The tournament run was methodical and relentless. Arkansas-Pine Bluff fell 73-44 in the first round. California went down 68-53 in the second round. Fourth-seeded Purdue was dispatched 70-57 in the Sweet Sixteen, with Zoubek grabbing 10 rebounds. Third-seeded Baylor fell 78-71 in the Elite Eight, with Lance Thomas pulling down 8 offensive rebounds in a physical, grinding affair.

The Final Four in Indianapolis brought a familiar opponent: second-seeded West Virginia. The same program that had physically manhandled Duke out of the tournament two years earlier. But this was a different Duke team. Zoubek was healthy and starting. The Plumlees provided interior reinforcement. Thomas and Singler were two years older and two years tougher. Duke demolished the Mountaineers 78-57 — the most emphatic victory of the tournament run and the sweetest revenge on the program’s four-year journey. Singler had 21 points. Scheyer added 23. The team committed just 6 turnovers against 20 assists. It was total domination.

The championship game against fifth-seeded Butler was unlike anything else. Butler, coached by 33-year-old Brad Stevens, was the real-life “Hoosiers” — a tiny school from Indianapolis playing for the national title in a stadium just miles from its campus. The crowd of 70,390 at Lucas Oil Stadium was overwhelmingly pro-Butler. Duke was the villain in someone else’s fairy tale.

Nobody led by more than six points. Butler shot 34.5% (20-of-58) but competed on every possession with the defensive intensity and team cohesion that had carried them through the tournament. Duke won with defense — holding Butler to its worst shooting night in months — and with clutch shot-making from Singler (19 points, 3-of-6 from three, 6-of-6 from the line in the second half). Zoubek finished with 10 rebounds and 2 blocks, altering shots at the rim all night.

The final sequence will live forever in college basketball history. With Duke leading 61-59 and 3.6 seconds remaining, Butler’s Gordon Hayward missed a shot and Zoubek grabbed the rebound. He was fouled immediately. Zoubek made the first free throw. He intentionally missed the second, knowing that a Butler three-pointer would only tie the game if Duke led by three rather than two. But the miss was long, and Butler got the ball at half-court.

Hayward took the inbound, dribbled twice, and launched a half-court heave as time expired. The ball flew toward the basket, hit the backboard, hit the rim — and bounced out.

70,390 people gasped. Then the Duke bench erupted.

“Both teams and all the kids on both teams played their hearts out,” Krzyzewski said. “There was never more than a couple, a few points separating, so a lot of kids made big plays for both teams.”

Singler was named Final Four Most Outstanding Player (averaging 20.0 points and 9.0 rebounds in the two games). Scheyer and Smith were named to the All-Final Four team. Scheyer, Singler, and Smith had each scored over 600 points during the season — only the second trio in Duke history to do so, after Jason Williams, Carlos Boozer, and Mike Dunleavy Jr. in 2001-02.

After the game, before the team said a prayer, K told them: “I’ve said throughout the year they were good, then they were really good, then they were really good with great character. But I told them before we said a prayer, that: ‘You are a great team.’”

It was K’s fourth national championship, tying Adolph Rupp for second on the all-time list behind John Wooden. It was Duke’s first title since 2001 — a nine-year drought that had included the Lakers drama, the Redick era’s unfulfilled promise, the VCU humiliation, and three years of rebuilding with a core that refused to break.

The 2009-10 national championship was not won by the most talented Duke team. It was won by the most together one — a team forged by failure, hardened by loss, and led by players who had been told they were good, not great, and decided to prove that sometimes good and together is enough to be great.

They had been through everything. VCU in 2007 — a first-round loss that ended a nine-year Sweet Sixteen streak. West Virginia in 2008 — a physical beating that exposed a team without toughness. Villanova in 2009 — a 23-point blowout that said: you’re still not ready. Three years of March pain, each one leaving a different scar.

Now they were in Indianapolis, in Lucas Oil Stadium, 70,390 people in the building and most of them rooting against Duke. Butler, coached by 33-year-old Brad Stevens, was the Cinderella story America wanted — a tiny school from the other side of Indianapolis, playing for a national championship in its own backyard, the real-life “Hoosiers” that Hollywood could never have scripted.

Duke was the villain. The Blue Devils embraced it.

The game was a masterpiece of tension. Nobody led by more than six. Butler shot 34.5% but competed with a ferocity that matched Duke’s own. Every possession was contested. Every rebound was fought for. Every timeout felt like a plot twist in a story that couldn’t possibly end cleanly.

Singler was Duke’s anchor: 19 points, 3-of-6 from three, 6-of-6 from the free throw line in the second half. He played all 40 minutes. Scheyer added 15 and ran the offense with the composure of a player who had waited four years for this moment. Zoubek was immense inside — 10 rebounds, 2 blocks, and countless altered shots that forced Butler into the low-percentage contested jumpers that defined their night.

Lance Thomas made the play that defined Duke’s identity. With 5:07 remaining, Hayward drove for what looked like an easy layup. Thomas took him down hard. The officials reviewed the play and ruled it non-flagrant. It was the physical, unyielding, we-will-not-let-you-score-easy toughness that this team had spent four years building. The team that had been pushed around by West Virginia in 2008 was pushing back.

With 3.6 seconds remaining, Duke led 60-59. Hayward missed a shot. Zoubek — the 7-1 senior who had spent four years fighting through injuries to arrive at this moment — grabbed the rebound. He was fouled immediately.

Zoubek made the first free throw. Duke led 61-59. He intentionally missed the second — a strategic decision to prevent Butler from getting the ball at half-court with a chance to tie with a three-pointer.

The miss was long. Butler corralled it at half-court. Hayward took the inbound and dribbled twice toward the Duke basket. With time expiring, he launched a half-court heave.

The ball sailed through the air. It hit the backboard. It hit the rim.

And it bounced out.

70,390 people gasped. The Duke bench erupted. Scheyer fell to the floor. Thomas threw his arms around Singler. K embraced his players. Zoubek, who had spent four years wondering if his body would ever let him play a full season, stood at center court with tears streaming down his face.

Butler’s Brad Stevens said it best: “We just came up a bounce short. There’s certainly nothing to hang your head about.”

K, in the locker room before the team said a prayer, delivered the line he had been building toward all season: “I’ve said throughout the year they were good, then they were really good, then they were really good with great character. But I told them that: ‘You are a great team.’”

Singler was named Final Four Most Outstanding Player (20.0 points, 9.0 rebounds per game in the two Final Four games). Scheyer and Smith were named to the All-Final Four team. It was K’s fourth national championship, tying Adolph Rupp for second all-time behind John Wooden.

The 2009-10 Duke Blue Devils were not the most talented championship team in program history. They had no future NBA All-Stars. They had no consensus National Player of the Year. They had no player selected in the first round of the NBA Draft that June. What they had was 638 games of shared experience, four years of accumulated scar tissue, and an identity that had been forged in the fires of three consecutive early tournament exits.

They were good, not great. Then they were great.

The four-year climb that began in the wreckage of VCU ended with confetti falling in Indianapolis. Every scar had been worth it.