The 2009-10 Duke Blue Devils: The Butler Almost Did It

But every week we spotlight one team in sports history and take a look back at what made them so special part of our march to the national championship in

college basketball. We're gonna celebrate today the two thousand nine, two thousand ten Duke Blue Devil's team that won the fourth national championship in program history as they beat Butler in a thrilling championship game where the heye The Butler Bulldogs were a team that took everybody by surprise their march to the national championship and maybe, as we get to it later on, one of coach Mike Schefski's biggest coaching mistakes that he got lucky didn't come back to

bite him. Sometimes you you luck into it. And this is a Duke team. When you take outside looking in the hateable Duke Blue Devils for as long as you and I have been watching college basketball, it has been the al right, here's Duke again. There was nobody on this team that you said, all right, he's the hate herble one because other than coach k And that's one of the themes of college basketball is the you love

or hate coaches. There they're they're like the forest. They stay right there there, evergreen and and the guys cycle through. But this team not a lot of big names, not a lot of guys that you necessarily remember and and had that target on them like so many Duke teams had before. And and that's the big thing is that the big player on this team was John Shire. I mean, he was All American point guard. But it's not like John Shire was Zion Williamson or one of the other

big stars do Academy. This is a team that wasn't a classically great Duke team. Look, it was John Shire was really good. He led the team in scoring. Kyle Singler played really well, he led the team in in in three point shooting, Brian zoo Beck, Mason plum Lee, you know this team was Hey, they were good. They

were talented. Nolan Smith as well, eventual player solid, They were very solid, but at this point it was, well, here's a pretty decent, pretty typical Mike Szewski Duke Blue Devil's team, and whether you expect them to win the national championship. Look, they hadn't been to the final four in five years. This is back when in two thousand ten, you know, the early odds, you were expecting Duke to

go to the championship every couple of years. It would have been a five year drought for them trying to get back to the final four. Yeah, I mean you look at that period before you didn't get past the round of six team in straight years, which nowadays you're like, all right, does the guy get to keep his job? I mean, obviously Schefski with his long track record, even at that point you're not looking to fire him, but certainly you're raising eyebrows of what happened in the program?

Is he losing it? Are the players coming in just not as good? What about scholarship reductions? You have all those ancillary conversations that then flow out of it. But for college basketball, it's kind of like the Patriots not making it past you know, their first playoff game following the regular season is We're done with them for a minute. There could be another champion, There could be another team to become a villain and become hated, and no, here

they were. They were Duke again. Yeah, this was a team that was pretty deep. You add Shire singler Nolan Smith each scored over six points during the season. All Right, the last time Duke had done that. You gotta go back almost a decade. And those are names like Jason Williams and Mike Dunlevy and Carlos Boozer, you know, guys who went on to play in the NBA for a long time. Like I said, this wasn't a classically great Duke team, but they started out, Hey, all right, maybe

Duke is gonna be pretty good. And then what happened was they began their eventual rise in their rise to excellence, and they turned into a Duke team that when they got to March, it's okay, I'm ready to hate Duke again. It's a phenomenon that that is just you know, great in college basketball. That Duke can start and and the best college basketball season can start, and it's all I want Duke to lose. And then Duke loses, and you kind of forget about them for a while, then they

get back up to them. One you saying I want Duke to lose again. Then they losing it. Then you get to the n c A Tournament and you go, oh, I really want Duke to lose. But then Duke loses and you go, oh, wait the tournament we just lost Duke. Duke was a lot of fun. It's a lot of the personality and look what people like to hate watched right, No,

but it's it's the it's the same thing. Look, I think a perfect year for every college basketball fan would be for Duke to make it to the National Championship Game and lose. It's the same thing for Major League baseball every year. The perfect season would be for the Yankees to get to the World Series and lose. We can hate them and they can keep the attention of everybody all the way, but then at the end, the

majority of the country is not rooting for them. They're rooting against the quote evil empire, and you want them to lose, and that's that would be the perfect season for college basketball baseball. You have an evil empire, get all the way because you want them to lose. That's great. You have r night of partying. Hey, Duke loses, they lost to Belmont or whatever, and then it's oh man, but we just lost too. Can now the tournament is

less interesting? Well, it is the curiosity of college basketball as it relates to the sports calendar anymore anyway, where a lot of times it gets lost for the season. Much of it has been all right, here's a bunch of top ten teams getting upset. But it became so routine that it was no longer a top headline for you and I on the show each United Fox Sports Training. It's like, all right, that's now an update. This was

Mike Sachowski's thirtieth year as head coach at two. Can you think about where we are now and you go this This was his thirtieth season. He has started in nineteen eighty two thousand ten was his thirtieth year. And it's the longevity that he has had. He never wanted to go someplace else, you know. The closest came was a few years ago when Kobe Bryant called when Phil Jackson left the Lakers, and it was hey, come coach

the Lakers, and coach k talked to Kobe. He got off the phone and went to his assistance and said, you never to believe he just called, he wants me to go coach him Kobe Bryant. You know, But the fact that he always stayed, he never left it was it was a something that we took for granted. Coach K and do Coach K and do where everywhere else people want to leave, no matter what they accomplished. They oh, there's always someplace else. I gotta it's to scratch. I

want to go, And Coach K never did well. It's like ed Orangeron and his ham sandwich. No matter how great the heights, you still want what you know. And for Coach K, he's never tried to leave it. How how interesting would he have been not only coaching Kobe Bryant, but Coach K and his personality in l A a guy who gets mad if you go anywhere near the baseline, if you're a fan after a game. You know, honestly, again, ah, these celebrities coming up, get out of here. I got

basketball in the coach. Every time the Lakers lose, other fans would rush the court. He would get on principle you'd have to when you he would get so chapped about it. Uh so the two thousand ten do Blue Devils getting set for what would end up being a phenomenal year. At the beginning of the year, coach case listen, I have a good team. And you know he would know, being thirty years and having won three national championships. He said,

we have a good team. So that's where it stood for Duke as they began the campaign, and since they ended with a championship in how about for what happened we look back at the magical year of two thousand and ten being discovered on YouTube. It was Justin Bieber. I can't believe it's only been ten years we've been talking about Justin Bieber. No. I I feel like Bieber is like early two thousand's, like when everybody started listening

to eminem and all that. That's when Bieber came right now, No, No No, two thousand and ten for Justin bie not quite that that long ago. Hurt Locker wins Best Director for Catherine Bigelow over James Cameron and Avatar, which was maybe one of the biggest upsets in the history of the Oscars. I'll be honest with you, Um I didn't like either film. Well, I like parts of hurt Locker, but overall, just I don't know, I want to be Unerst and Avatar. I just so speaking of Obtineum was

pretty cool. Uh That's when I first thought, oh, you know, uh, what's his name? Who was a star? Uh? Sam, what's his name? Sam Worthington. I said he could he could play Philip Rivers in the Philip Rivers story. I kind of thought that about still an opportunity. But even you talk about evil Empire James Cameron, nobody liked the guy Catherine Bigelow wins his X And honestly, hurt Locker was just okay. The first seventy minutes was great, but then

the last hour was everything you just saw. It's like, okay, I have no other story to tell us now, I'm gonna just do the same movie for the next hour. And they had the characters were such were so cookie cutter. You had the one kind of crazy army guy and then the one guy who was scanned and the one guy who was in the middle. And I'm like, really, this was this Win's best direct I mean, come on, really,

you just ate James Cameron. Just say it. There is something to be said for that texting while driving bands go into effect in some states in two thousand and ten, you could not text and drive. There in effect, in in theory oftentimes and making their debut something that many people wish never debuted. The vous Ella's at the two thousand ten World Cup sounded like cicadas. No, you sounded like Chewbacca right there. No, not quite a little bit. Yeah,

I mean you're gonna get the tongue roll there. I debated bringing something to my daughter's soccer tournament. I was told I really shouldn't. Oh, I think you would get thrown out. I'll tell you what, though there was there was a refer I would make sure the reference one couch that I thought needed to be tossed out. He was warming up like there's a game being played on the field and they're doing warmups. He brought two giant

speakers and was blasting music while his team stretched. I think you should have been punched in the next Well, what movie? What music? Was he blasting some kind of dance thing, and then it drifted into something like you would be in a yoga studio. Now get down, up, dog, down dog, And now he's say, don't forget to breathe not mistake. That's horrible warm up music, and it was. It was awful. It's horrible, Like it went from like a pulsating disco kind of thing to this, like this

was his mix. Bad girl, I'll talk. You got a game where they're trying to communicate with their teams and they can't because this guy, this dope dope has his music plan. I just walked by it. I just shook my head. One of the dad's goes, I know, I know, like it's one of his kids is on the team, and he understood exactly why he got the head shake as I walked by. So that's what was going on in two thousand ten, the magical year for the Duke

Blue Devils as they win their fourth national championship. Coming up, we get into the regular season and we get into the big heroes of the n c A Tournament and the big coaching mistake that coach came made in the championship game that he got lucky didn't come back to

bite him and costing the championship. But special teams with Jason Smith and Mike carp We continue on special teams with Jason Smith and Mike Harmon as we look back at the championship year in college basketball for the Duke Blue Devils in two thousand nine, two thousand and ten, the regular season began for Duke, and it was a typical Duke year. They ended up with a thirty five and five record. And it was just like you see Duke play. They'd win seven or eight row, they would lose.

They win seven or eight row, they would lose. They'd win seven or eight row, they would lose. Their losses in two thousand nine, two thousand and ten at Wisconsin during the a c C Big Ten Challenge, they lost at number twenty Georgia Tech, they lost at North Carolina State, they lost at number seven Georgetown, and they lost at number two a number twenty two Maryland. Those were their losses. They did not lose at home. All their losses were

away from Cameron Indoor. And suddenly at the end of the year you look up in thirty five and five and this was Duke. You know, they didn't have a lot of close calls during the season. It was typical Duke, looks like they're better than everybody else. At the beginning of the year, they win their couple of early games, they don't go out of state too much with Coastal Carolina, North Carolina, Charlotte. They beat Arizona State by double digits.

They beat number thirteen Yukon by near double digits. They beat St. John's. They beat Gonzaga, who was ranked number that was in the country, right because you're you're talking about Gonzaga neutral site, big spotlight game at the Garden, and they just pummel them and limit them into forty one. That was your big statement win. Okay, wait a minute, Duke is for real because you look, Duke starts eight

and one, nine in one. But you get to nine and one, your number seven in the country at this point, and you beat Gonzaga, whose program really started to rise whereas they started out. Hey, Gonzaga is a fun team. They win their conference and they can maybe pull an upset or two in the tournament. But this is when Gonzaga started to get really good in every year. Suddenly

Gonzaga was a big time top twenty five team. Seventy forty one is your final score of this game, and this game in late December, this was Okay, we gotta deal with Duke this year. Yeah, and now it becomes the narrative. All right, let's start learning about the plumb leaves. Let's learn about the different guys on this roster that are making an impact, because this is gonna be a

team with some legs. Because you beat a couple of top twenty programs, they're heading into the Christmas week, as it were, and now you're rolling into conference play on a high. You know, the thing about this Duke team is that this team was led by a couple of upperclassmen. And Duke was one of the last teams to see players show up for the one and done. And even when players were doing that and coming or going right to the end, but whatever it was, we're not staying

very long. Duke still was a school that would have players come and stay until their senior year. Look, John Shire was a senior and he was the best player on the team. Kyle Singler was a junior, Nolan Smith was a junior. These are all upper classman. Brian zoo Back,

their center, was a senior. These were all players who stayed all the way for coach k through the last couple of years they have and this is when you would end with a championship, and you know, you don't get that anymore because the general consensus is if you're staying until you're a senior, then you suck. And why

aren't you in the NBA? And why do I want a twenty two year old guy in the NBA when I could have an eighteen year old kid and he can spend four years getting used to play, and suddenly a twenty two he's a great player, whereas a guy could come out at twenty two and not be good until he's twenty five or twenty six. But this is this is how Duke always did. I always admired that about coach k was he got people to stay. Doesn't mean he still does. Look where there are now your

guys coming for a year and staying and leaving. That's just the way college basketball was. But Duke was like the last bastion of Hey, I'll come and i'll stay, and I'll go junior, senior year, stay as many, win as much as I can, then I'll move on. Yeah. The change in philosophy as we've seen it role, Look, it's gonna flip back again here pretty soon, where guys won't even have to go for the cup of coffee into the collegiate ranks, but it was always one of

the curiosities of Duke. And let's face it, you start talking about the quality of education, not that you can't find quality education at each of these institutions, but Dukes and nationally ranked academic institution. The crazy part of the season is that Duke was never number one until the end of the season. As good a year as they had look twenty nine and five going into the n c A Tournament, the highest they would get at the end is number four. It was enough for a number

one seed in the South Regional. But this was not a Duke team that got to number one lost a game. They they started in the top ten and they never really left the top ten. You know, after they had a couple of losses, they dropped to tenth overall, but then they started winning a few more games and they finished at number four. They go into the a c C Tournament after absolutely pasting North Carolina eight two to fifty.

And that's the thing about this Duke team, even though they were just okay, all their big wins this year were by big numbers. You know, they beat North Carolina both their games by double digits. They beat Georgetown when Georgetown was number seven, they beat them by twelve. You know, these were games that it was whoa. Not only are they beating these teams, but it's not an escape, it's not a lass second shot by Shire. This is they are just whooping up on teams when they play a

big team. Yeah, and I mean that was the story of the year. I mean there weren't. You had the five losses, but other than that, not a lot of close calls. I mean we're talking double digits number of

times they were hanging a hundred points on teams. And again you go back and you you run off the names, and if you're not really huge college basketball fans, you're kind of looking at each other going these this was a team running up a hundred guys, right, I mean, no disrespect great college athletes, and a lot of these guys played and had some time in in the NBA

and rolled on. But it's it's one of those teams that you don't have that face, right, you don't have that guy that stands out that went on to the next level or became the embodiment of this team. You can pick one of any of these guys really and trying to put it to the forefront, putting statistics aside for a minute. You know, it was about coach k Yeah. The highest of an individual honor everybody got was John Shire was a second team All American. Alright, dude, Duke

didn't have anybody in the first All American team. This that's why this was a deep team that got a lot from different players. And this was a Duke team championship. And not well, we were led by Grant Hill, we were led by Bobby Hurley, were led by one of those players. This didn't happen that way. Uh. They go through the a CC tournament pretty easy, to beat Virginia, they beat Miami, they beat Georgia Tech. They enter the n c A Tournament as the number one seed in

the South Regional, number three overall. And this n c A Tournament, before we get into Duke's run, told you about Butler, which we'll get into in a couple of minutes. But really the moment of this tournament, if you can remember, was Ali Ferrickmanesh for Northern Iowa. They pulled a couple

of huge upsets in the tournament. They beat u n l V on his three, They beat number one Kansas, the big the big three he had when Northern Iowa in the final minute of a frantic comeback by Kansas, instead of killing the clock, he gets the ball in the corner and hits the three. By by the number of times people mention is who's this year's tournament, I mean, I could still see that three in which Northern Iowa gets the rebound, throws it down court with a few seconds,

with like twenty seconds left in the game. Whatever it was. You're thinking, Okay, now, Northern i was going to just kill the clock and and try to take much time off and shoot free throws and and Farrukmanesh gets the ball in the corner. It was a pretty awkward play. He got it turned with nobody on him because the floor spread, because you're thinking, okay, he's not gonna and he turned and shot at three and it was one of those no no, no, no, no, no, Oh my god,

he made it. Oh my god, he made I mean, he was it. Most guys in an n c A tournament, if you're a Cinderella team, if you have one shot that is legendary, that's more than you can ask for. And he had too. In the n C a tournament, you know, back to back. Hey, I'm announcing I'm a

superstar here in this tournament. By beating U N l V. And then we have it by beating Kansas, who was a number one seed in the tourney, becomes a college coaching or a college legend taking down you know, Bill Self, who was year to year one of those guys like, all right, when I fill out my bracket, is this a year that he chokes away in early game? Where do I have Bill Self in Kansas losing? Where do

I Bunny? You did that with Duke, and you always did that with Kansas A right, is this the year that he's gonna make a deep run or are they bowing out early? With those two coaches, That's really what it became for a lot of your bracketology. So Duke goes into the tournament that is run by Ali Farokmanesh and and look, it was a very The tournament for Duke was very uneventful. Right, They win their first game against Arkansas Pine Bluff seventy four, right on, they killed him.

They beat cal number eight seed in the second round fifty three, all right, Then they beat per Due by thirteen. Right, they beat Baylor in the Elite eight by seven. That's their closest game up until this point. Then they get to the Final four and they beat West Virginia, who was the sixth seed, seventy fifty seven, and suddenly it's Duke in the National Championship against Butler. It is everything you could want in an n c A tournament title.

We talk about Duke getting to the tournament and winning and are getting and losing being the big story. You had the team, the evil empire that everybody hates in Duke, and you have arguably the biggest Cinderella to make it to the National Championship in Butler. Not because of the seeding because they were a five seed, but it's because they were amid Major. You're coming out of the horizon.

Here they are in the horizon and they're in the National Look, this is Butler had back to back appearances in the National Championship game. But this is do k who is Oh my god. Everybody hates them or loves to hate them, and here's Butler. It's the David versus Goliath story that this was. Everybody glued to their television for this game because even though Butler now navigated to that point. It's still the all right, this doesn't make any sense, right eighteen and oh they run the run

the conference, I mean flat out four overall. But look, not often do you get to, you know, run the table. And you know you mentioned Butler in the Horizon League. They hadn't lost a game since December. They lost at U A. B. They go all the way through the rest of the season to the National Championship not having lost a game, and one of their wins on the way was it pains me watching Butler beat Syracuse. We were a one seed, and I said, okay, well, this

is our year. We had a great team center, We're going we had West Johnson and Andy Routens, and we are gonna win. And we were beating Butler, and we were up by five with like four or five minutes left to go, and I remember Butler getting a possession and they come up the court and Shelvin Mack and now this is the play I remember from this game. Shelvin matt comes up all kinds of time left on the shot clock, five ft behind the three point line, and he throws up a three. And I'm saying to myself,

this is where we win this game. We're up by five. He just put up a three. We're getting the rebound. We're gonna go down and score, and suddenly it's gonna be really tough. Except Nope, swishes a three. They're down too. And I remember saying to myself, oh man, they are not gonna go away. We are gonna struggle. And sure enough we struggled. Butler beat Syracuse, then they beat Kansas State. Then they beat Michigan State by two at Lucas Oil to move to the National Championship. And this is a

game that's very close to Butler. They'll look Butler Indiana, the games in in Indianapolis. This is a it's a lot of hometown UH fans want to come to this game. Hey, come onto the game. Well, one are the big things here. I mean, obviously Syracuse a team we're scoring challenged is sometimes what you've called it in our years together ATOX was a great year. We were a great team that year.

But your final the next round, they get a Kansas State team that had put up a hundred one the round before against Xavior, eighty four against b y U and and go back to eight D two in the first round, so a high scoring machine final. So taking the air out of the ball, playing forty minutes of defense and grinding you out became the hallmark of this squad. So Butler heads the National Championship against Duke and a championship game that was worth the way. Coming up next,

we break it all down for you. We got to that big coach game mistake. Will tell you where everybody is now as we continue on special Teams with Jason Smith and Mike Carmond Blue Devils. So, just how did the Duke Blue Devils hold off the Butler Bulldogs and win their fourth National championship in front of over seventy thousand people in Indianapolis. This game television, it broke a lot of records for viewership because, as we told you, it's clear David versus Goliath. Everybody tuned in to see

this game. Everybody wanted to see Duke lose. This is Brad Stevens becoming a legend. And oh my goodness, Butler, how do they get so good so fast? How is a mid major team in the National Championship? This had everything on a team playing on its home court basically, right, I mean, when you really look at geographically according to the notes. I mean, you're you're looking at U. C. L A all the way back at the late sixties,

really the last for that opportunity. So not only do you have this underdog story, but it's a all right, and we're gonna add a little more to the table. It's like adding, you know, the points that are part of the spread, saying, hey, you get to play in front of folks that are gonna be predominantly cheering for you.

Not that you wouldn't see that most of your year years at Duke anyway, Right, you're probably used to getting the the jeers and the the booge of the crowd, but certainly here at the Scott size and scope that we talked about the national title game, it's a whole other, whole other measure. Now. I mentioned Shelvion mac but obviously the star of Butler was Gordon Hayward, who has gone on to a great career in the National Basketball Association.

I mean, I remember when he was a senior, was Gordon Hayward, Come on, he's not gonna be a great player in the end b A. And you watched him play in this tournament, and I remember going people are sleeping on Gordon Hayward. This is a guy that's gonna score at the next level. He's big, he's got skills, and I thought, this is a guy that people are going to regret not drafting. And certainly Gordon Hayward plays into this game in a large way. The first half

was a classic back and forth battle. Shelvin Mack got hot early, hit a couple of threes. John Shire would hit a couple of shots. He he would get hot at times, and it's a thirty three thirty two Duke lead at halftime, and it's pretty much everything you expect at this point. You know, it's not you know, when the game started, I think everybody had the fear of point. Now the clocks is gonna strike midnight for Butler and

Duke is gonna boat race him. But every time it looked like Duke would get out to a lead, Oh they gotta they gotta lead by six. They got to a six point lead with a few sets, with a couple of minutes left before halftime, and then Butler reeled him in, hit a couple of shots like they do. They would hit threes. That's how they did it. And it's a one point game at halftime, and it's anybody's game in the second team that grounds you down. We

talked about the low scores earlier in the tournament. There, you're not gonna run away and hide on this team, right shooting from the outside. Hayward a guy the the veteran savvy as it were, to put a nice euphemistic term on it. But a team that Brad Stevens got to buy in to the philosophy, so they weren't about to to back down no matter what the name was across the chest. And you saw that in the second half because it was snug all the way through. The

second half was a lot like the first. A team would go on a mini run, get up by four or five, the opponent would answer it gets to the point with three minutes left to go, a little bit over three minutes left, Duke has a five point lead. And this is where again I'm thinking, right now it's gonna end for Butler. This is gonna be at the

pressure is gonna beat too much. But Matt Howard, who anchored both butler final four teams, scored four points, cuts the lead to six to fifty nine three seconds left in the game and Duke is going to the free throw line for foul shots. Brian Zubek goes in to make however many he can make. If he makes one, it's a two point lead. He makes him both, it's

a three point lead. This is where Mike Chaschowski made a mistake that he's lucky did not come back to Hauna and Zubik was a free throw shooter on the year. This is icy proposition three point six remaining. You could see I may you could actually see him do it

on the broadcast. He says, make it and then miss it and now in you and that's always just just hey, your average and just do what he What what Schofsky wanted to happen was make the first for a two point lead, missed the second and forced Butler to get a really bad shot with only three seconds to get up to hope for a goofy bounce off the rim

one or two taps, whatever it means. So zoo Bec makes the first, and you know, I was on the air this night on All Night on ESPN Radio, and we talked about this final play for a long long time because zoo Beck then misses the second, but Butler gets the re bound and Gordon Hayward just misses a buzzer beater from half court that would have won the game. I mean it, this goes and and your hardest in your throat for a second, going, this is how it's

gonna happen. It's gonna be Bobby Plump, it's gonna be Hoosiers, it's gonna be this big half court shot. Gordon Heyward's gonna be the hero, and it just misses. Duke wins. And this is why I looked at this and I said this was a mistake by coach k because what he did was he put losing the game back on the table. If Zoo Beeck makes them both, all right, the best thing you can do. You're inbounding the ball with three seconds left, you have to shoot at three.

It's gonna be off balance from somewhere. And the worst thing that can happen is you tie the game. What's gonna happen if you miss and get the rebound, You're gonna get an off balance from three from somewhere. But instead of tying the game, the worst thing can happen is you lose the game. He put losing back on the table, and when he was asked about it in the post game US conference, I remember him answerally going, I wanted Brian to do this was they didn't have

a you know what? He you know what, they didn't make it. Like that was at the end of trying to explain it. He was trying to cut himself off and coach Kay said, I wanted Brian to make it. I wanted I thought it was the tougher shot for that. Then he was asked to get it. You know what, they missed it. They didn't make it. We won, end of the conversation, it's over. We won. But that was a big mistake. I can't see a team doing that now. Three seconds. Three seconds is a long time to get

a shot. You get it, comes off, you get it right up to half court, you get three or four dribbles and get a shot. That was really, really dangerous. And I guarantee you, even though it worked out for him, if he was doing that again, he would have done something else well. One of the fun pieces as we we go through these classic teams is finding the super cuts. The highlights are going through a game or two, in

this case talking about a national title game. Uh, and then you watch it and then you see the slow mo and in one of the notes, it was that ESPNS analysis says it was less than one degree about three inches off from Hayward drilling that shot. I mean, visually you see it, but when you actually put the analytics and the computer modeling to it, that you're talking

about a three inch difference between Butler doing the absolutely unthinkable. Again, five seed a strong team, but we all know how after the first six team it starts getting a little dicey in terms based based on all, right, what why did why are there five and not an eight over here?

But yeah, for Gordon Hayward made just a game of inches literally, And this final play wasn't really run well by Butler because Duke kept their players up for the rebound, which normally you get a player shooting and you're up and coming, you have all your guys back on defense, right,

they didn't have that. You know, this is this was a play where you know, the the Blue Devils have four guys right around the free throw line, and so this is where you can get that rebound and you have a guy releasing, you can throw that pass up and get a pretty good shot. In three seconds. But Hayward comes down with the rebound and dribbles all the way past you know, just past half court when he puts up the shot. And this was if you have a better play called Hey, this is how Duke is

playing this. We're gonna have a guy, We're gonna have Mac up at half court. You get it, throw it out to him. He takes two or three dribbles and he shoots the three, and you win that game. And you know what doesn't get a lot of attention because of this last play is the shot before it, the shot that Butler missed to put zoo Beck on the line because it's a one point game. Butler's got the basketball. Gordon Hayward gets it, you know, on the wing with

about eight seconds left. He dribbles all the way down to the right side and he puts up one of those Kobe Bryant stop fade away shots. That look shows his athleticism and how good a player he is. And it's a pretty decent look. You know, it's a big fade away that this one just missing the floater out of his over the outstretched arms, right. So you've gotta you know, the degree of difficulty definitely goes up a bit with Zoo beck fully extended to try to block

that shot. You know, And and this is the case too obviously you're playing You're playing Monday Morning quarterback. But I wonder if Gordon Hayward had pushed it to the rack instead of trying the fade away, if he could have drawn a foul call because he goes you can tell him he's coming down the lane. But Zoo bec is there and he decides to pull back because he wants the good look because he's a shooter, right and that and that's the whole thing, is that when when

you're a shooter, shooter shoot. So he gets the ball. Look, I'm gonna fade away. I have a good look, a look that I really like, so I'm gonna take it. But if instead he had tried to get to the free throw line, which he could have done, I mean he could have, he could have taken a step forward. You know, Zoo bec is a little bit off balance on the play and he could really get there. But instead, Okay, I'm gonna go back because I like the jumper. I

like the look. Boy, he gone in for a layup either he gets foul or maybe he actually makes the shot, because it was maybe, and now we got chaos with the three percent freak turt shooter uh going in instead of what Zoo Beec eventually had to do. But just classic stuff and for Coach K, decision time and the miss shots and what could have been for the Butler Bulldogs. Duke wins the national title. The final score is sixty

one to fifty nine. As we said, it is the fourth n c A title for the Duke Blue Devils. Later on they get both Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler drafted into the NBA. But again, this was not one of your classically great Duke teams. This was hey, not so much a war of attrition, but they survived everything

during the tournament. They didn't fall victim to the big upset and in the end it was well, here's just the Duke factory putting out a team and once in a while, that's the type of team that's gonna win the tournament, grind it out, and this is a team that Coach K. I'm sure there's been some recruiting classes where this is becomes the hallmark of look, here's what we teach, here's the discipline, stick with us. Here's how the program works. Yeah, you're gonna have someone and Dunns

pop through. But this is a testament to a guy grinding away for forty years at one institution. So this was Duke winning their national title. We talked about some of the players on the team have a little bit Awhere are they now, Mike Harmon, how about we start with well, now I want to leave zoo Beeck for last because he's got a good one. Okay, very good. Alright. First off, you got Nolan Smith, right, he's at the team director of basketball operations. Stayed home. He's with the

Duke Blue Devils. Uh. He played a number of years overseas Croatia, Turkey a little bit and it was a player of the year and that the conferences. Uh. Ryan Kelly playing basketball in Japan at last looked the Sun Rockers. Saboya, the former second round pick of the Los Angeles Lakers, was like the Sun Rockers. That's a pretty good name. I'm rocking the Sun. That's called people who like to get a tan plan. So done. Uh. Shire Uh, you know, played overseas a bit. He's the social assistant head coach

for Duke. Right now. And then we got two good ones for you. You got Jordan Davidson, Goldman Sacks in their securities division rank and cash. And then I go back to zoo. Back alright, an ahead, the Pride of hadden Field Memorial. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa the hospital. He made it at the end Waight, Michael Myers killed everybody in the end of the second movie. He the only one that made it was Jamie Lee Curtis Well. I mean, maybe there's an unwritten tale out of hadden Field Memorial

in New Jersey. That's that's that's a very scary but it's a very scary place. So here here's the deal. After finishing this, he had some maspirations, right. I love basketball, but he also loved baking, so he took a shot at opening a place called dream Puffs, which were his version, his spin on a cream puff bakery, All cream Puffs. He was gonna look to sell the name at last, and he'd gone into real estate. I just thought you'd like, Hadn't Field and dream Puffs Hadn't Fields a big deal?

I mean, look, hadn't Field Memorial. I think that we talked about that Halloween too, you know, we talked about the worst the worst lit hospital in the world. I mean you had a night where where where you at? A homicidal maniac killing people, the only survivors brought to the hospital, no police protection, no nothing, just like nine people working in an entire hospital. Nine people. Short steps

and the lights are not budget cuts. They had some some electrical issues and they were doing whatever they could, just try to scrimp and save normally a safe place. And sorry doctor, but the lights on the second floor will be out for the next fort It's do an hour. Thank you, you charged your phone. Hey, you're gonna have to bring the brightness up a little bit if you want to finish this part of the operation. Now, this is this is I think Halloween two as there was

no phone thing a remake. Oh gotcha? Gotcha? All right, So there we go. There is our look back at the two thousand and two and ten do Blue Devil's your national champions fourth overall. I'm Jason, he is Mike. You want to hit us up on Twitter at how about a frescop Mike at Swollen Dome. You got an idea for any teams you'd like to see featured on special teams let us know. We'll talk to you next week.

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