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Here’s a fun little clip from the K Academy as current Blue Devil Dame Sarr coaches his team with enthusiasm. He’s very supportive of his guys and seems to genuinely take pleasure in their accomplishments. Playing for a guy like that would be easy. If you’ll look to the left, you’ll see Danny Ferry and […]
Wednesday at 11:59 was the deadline to withdraw from the NBA Draft, and there have been some interesting decisions. Among the players who have pulled out: ACC-wise, Stanford’s Ebuka Okorie is staying in, as is UNC’s Henri Veesaar, but Matt Able will follow through and be in Chapel Hill now. Flory Bidunga took a look-see, […]
Over the years, Mike Krzyzewski has done commercials for many companies. This State Farm ad may not be his finest, but it’s fun, and it may have some historical relevance. In the ad, Coach K is essentially running a fantasy camp. The ad dates from around 2003–2005, which aligns with when the Coach K Fantasy […]
Well, the Thunder-Spurs series is suddenly a lot more interesting. We saw the hard fouls late in Game 5 against Jared McCain, one by former Duke star Mason Plumlee, and one by Bismarck Biyombo. What we didn’t see was the video of Victor Wembanyama whispering to each of them as he left the game. Shortly […]
We’ve long thought that Quinn Cook could be a great coach if he ever decided to go that route. He’s very personable, communicates well, and has an immense history in the game. He’s one of a small number of people who played for legendary DeMatha High coach Morgan Wootten and also Mike Krzyzewski, and is […]
Looking for more offense against the San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault decided to insert Jared McCain into the starting lineup, and it paid off, as McCain scored 20 points. He scored 18 after halftime, and hit a pair of backbreaker threes in the fourth for a very impressive showing. Overall, OKC’s performance […]
Possibly the best Coach K ad, and certainly the funniest, was one that he did for Bud Light that ran during the 1994 NCAA tournament. The basic gag was that this character saw three limo drivers at the airport with a sign that read Krzyzewski, which he naturally mispronounced. He asks if any of the […]
One of the great things about the NBA Draft process is the gamesmanship and skullduggery. If somebody wanted, say, BYU star AJ Dybantsa, that team might plant doubts about his workouts or attitude, hoping to push him down the draft order. Unless you get a crack at Shaquille O’Neal or Hakeem Olajuwon, where there’s no […]
Tyrese Proctor’s rookie season came to an end Monday night as the New York Knicks beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 130-93, sweeping the series, 4-0. Proctor, who rarely got off the bench in the playoffs, got 9 minutes here. He didn’t score, but he got 1 rebound and 2 assists. The Knicks move on and will […]
When you talk about the NCAA tournament and you say The Shot, everyone knows what you mean: you mean the dramatic overtime-buzzer beater that Christian Laettner hit to beat Kentucky in 1992. Even now, it’s a standard part of March Madness. Duke fans obviously see it with pride and warm fuzzies, but can you imagine […]
You might think that after getting traded in a somewhat humiliating fashion, that former Duke star Jared McCain might enjoy his success, and that he might want to rub Philadelphia’s nose in it a bit. That’s not his style, though. Check out what he says here about Philadelphia and the trade. Previously, he has said […]
The San Antonio Spurs weren’t fooling around on Sunday, and really took it to Jared McCain and the Oklahoma City Thunder, 103-82. After his tremendous performance Friday, where he lit San Antonio up with 24 points, McCain got just 4 Sunday night, and shot just 1-10 overall. Despite the big win, Mason Plumlee again got […]
Mike Krzyzewski has many gifts, but one that’s key to the rest is time management. During his time at Duke, Coach K has successfully managed careers in speaking, radio, the U.S. Olympic team, advising the NBA, and memorable commercials. You could never do that much if you didn’t have brilliant time management abilities. We thought […]
Jon Scheyer has had such a remarkable turn as a still-young head coach – remember, he’s just 38 – that his playing career tends to get overlooked, and that’s a shame, because Scheyer had a heck of a career at Duke. Scheyer finished just two points behind Gene Banks and Jason Williams as the 10th […]
Oklahoma City guard Jared McCain had a great game against San Antonio Friday night, finishing with 24 points and 4 rebounds (he has always been an underrated rebounder). He also had a big individual moment, taking the ball in on 7-4 Victor Wembanyama, then muscling through him to score an unlikely layup. It’s gone viral […]
The other day, we linked to a story about the worst basketball coaching hires of the 21st century, and saw that about 1/3 of the list had been ACC coaches. While NIL is more important than ever, our argument has been that everything starts with the coach you hire. It’s the single most important factor […]
We had a slew of news about Duke as the weekend started so the DBR Podcast crew had to hop on and talk about it. There’s John Blackwell making it official — no to the NBA Draft, yes to the Blue Devils. There’s word of a really fun preseason exhibition against a blue blood program in […]
Duke had a tremendous first half against #1 Princeton, down just 6-4 at the break. But there were signs that the Tigers were about to take it to another level, which they did in the third quarter. For a time in the third, Princeton seemed to score at will. The Tigers hit some truly dazzling […]
Although we should stress that we haven’t seen anything official about this, there have been a lot of posts over the last 24 hours or so suggesting that Duke and Kansas will have an exhibition game in Allen Fieldhouse this fall. And the following year, that favor will reportedly be returned with a trip to […]
It’s hard to know exactly what to make of this because it’s still quite early, but the NCAA is working on new guidelines about international players and eligibility. These have apparently not been released yet, but if this is what it is, it’ll be significant. This is from a statement given to SI.com by the […]
When Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje announced for Duke recently, it developed very quickly, but obviously, it was great news for Duke. Still just 16, Boumtje Boumtje is a bit of an unknown quality, but performances like this are helping to bring his game into focus. It’s not just that he can take the ball to the […]
Duke fans knew that Philadelphia made a mistake letting Jared McCain go, but Oklahoma City was glad to snatch him up, and on Friday, that decision paid off big time for the Thunder. McCain scored 24 off the bench, outscoring San Antonio’s bench by himself, 24-18, pacing OKC to a 123-108 win. It was much […]
As you probably have heard, Duke will be visiting Kansas this fall for an exhibition game. This program has been playing basketball for 120 years, and has been to Lawrence exactly once, in 1988. To give that some perspective, in 1988, Mike Krzyzewski had taken Duke to one Final Four. There was no obvious indication […]
At a certain point during Duke’s rise to iconic status during the Mike Krzyzewski era, the university began to consider a new arena. They even had a location picked out: up the hill on what is now Coach K Highway, near the 15/501-147 ramp, if memory serves. They had to consider it, but in the […]
If you haven’t been following Quinn Cook on X, he’s been teasing something for the last several days, and now we know what it is. Check this out: My big brother @NdotSmitty and I are doing “THE BROTHERS CHAT” in Durham, NC with all the Duke fans that are able to attend on Thursday May […]