Duke Blue Planet
The List: @DukeMBB Videos
The List is a new series where I’ll cover my favorite items from various Duke Basketball topics. I prefer tiers over rankings and each list will cover only the Coach K era. Since he took Duke to 13 Final Fours, I’ll narrow each list down to 13 items and include a few that just missed.
While doing research for some upcoming articles, I’ve been spending a lot of time looking at old Duke clips. So, I thought a fun topic for The List series would be my favorite videos from the Duke Basketball YouTube page. While I’m not a big social media guy, I have always enjoyed the content from the best creative team in all of sports, dating back to the days of Duke Blue Planet. As a reminder, The List only covers the Coach K era - sorry Coach Lucas, your mic’d up was awesome too. While I didn’t use much other criteria, I did exclude episodes of Duke Blue Planet the series, top plays, top tens, and cinematic recaps. Thanks to the Duke Basketball creative team for all the great content - keep it coming!
Just Missed
The Gold Standard
This video is filled with future (and a few current) Hall of Famers talking about what it was like to play for Coach K with USA Basketball. The Gold Standard is the title of Coach K’s book written after the Beijing Olympics - I highly recommend it. With gold medals in 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016, and an overall record of 88-1, I’d say the standard Coach K set was definitely golden.
Big Dance Bloopers 2010
The People’s Champ Nolan Smith is so fun both on and behind the camera, Zoubs shows off a new tattoo, and I had forgotten about the “Plumlee Brothers Dunking Company”. The 2015 bloopers are great too.
2015 National Champions
Speaking of 2015, I may have watched this National Championship video at least three times a day from April through July that year, and it still gives me the chills.
Kyle Gets Buckets
Kyle Singler hitting trick shots in the K Center and Cameron is for sure worth a couple minutes of your time. Also, without spoiling something I may have coming in the future, don’t forget how good Kyle Singler was - his career ranks at Duke include fourth in points (2,392), seventh in rebounds (1,015), and first in minutes played (4,887).
The List
Tier 3 - Classics
Always Becoming
Given his career post-retirement from the NBA, it’s no surprise Redick’s talk to the team was so well done. I love his message - J.J.'s work ethic and routine have been well documented, demonstrating that his phrase “always becoming” is something he lived out during his career. Never feel like you’ve arrived, “no matter what you’ve accomplished, there’s always something else.”
A Single Shade of Blue…
I had to include a video on the rivalry, also the subject of my first article for The List. Shout-out to 9th Wonder on the narration. “You want to know the secret to our rivalry? You gotta love it, you gotta embrace it, you gotta respect it, and you gotta feel it….Here. Comes. Duke.” If you need more rivalry content, here are the ultimate highlights.
GOAT Dunks
One of my friends still jokes that I like to watch someone set a screen more than dunk. He’s not even wrong necessarily, but I do love a good dunk montage and this one is awesome. Some thoughts: I was in Cameron for Zion’s 360-windmill against Clemson - yes, it was more awesome in person. You probably shouldn’t do push-ups after dunking on UVA or a pull-up (plus smack the board) after dunking on Florida, but I’m so glad Dahntay Jones and Corey Maggette did. Grant Hill’s dunk against Kansas will always be the one for me. I especially love this lesser known photo from the reverse angle - look how far behind the backboard he is!
Tier 2 - Coaches Clinic
Mic’d Up - Coach K
I got to see Coach K up close at Duke coaching clinics in 2003, 2004, and 2009. It really is eye opening to see a college team practice live, you can learn a lot about basketball in one day. When I coached, I always loved practice as much as the games, so getting a look behind the curtain is very cool. This practice kicked off Coach’s final season, which saw him and the team hang two more banners in Cameron.
Mic’d Up - Coach Scheyer
I love seeing Coach Scheyer interact with the guys. His competitiveness has always stood out to me, and he obviously likes to have fun (see 2010 Bloopers above). Hopefully we’ll get some more of these mic’d ups in the future, I could watch them all day.
The Film Room
All the videos in The Film Room series are excellent, but I had to go with Tre and Coach Scheyer talking about how to miss a free throw on purpose. The attention to detail they discuss is fascinating, and to actually be in that situation a month later demonstrates you can never work too much on end-of-game situations. Most people would look at that play and call it luck, and there was some luck involved. But, regarding the Laettner pass and shot, I always remember Grant Hill saying, “luck favors the prepared man.” That was certainly the case here.
Thank You, Coach
As Shane Battier narrates, he says “Coach K has given Duke his best, every damn day.” Although I’m just a fan, I truly believe that. I started pulling for Duke in the late-80’s and my overwhelming thought during his final season (and to this day) is thank you - thank you to both Coach K and his family, for giving Duke their best for all those years.
Tier 1 - That’s Duke Basketball
Light Up the House
This sequence is incredible - it goes like this: Battier block, Jason Williams layup, Jason Williams steal, Jason Williams layup, Battier steal, Carrawell dunk (assist Battier). Six points in 25 seconds. That’s Duke Basketball.
X’s & O’s
I love the concept for this one, with a long list of intangibles being the X’s and O’s for Duke over the years - passion, pride, compete, respect. The music at the beginning gives me goosebumps. In fact, I would actually watch this video right before games during the 2015-2016 season to get some good vibes prior to each tip.
All-Time Buzzer-Beaters
Almost all of these are true 0.0 on the clock situations too - I’m already thinking of the list of game winners that weren’t buzzer-beaters. Some other thoughts: Laettner was cold-blooded. I once met Ricky Price (I think it was 2016), and he was super generous with his time. I thanked him and told him I still remember his game winner in Cole Field House. Smiling, he responded by saying “corner pocket” and shooting an imaginary jumper - we both laughed. I love the Duhon layup (and those uniforms) so much. Tre Stones.
The Brotherhood
Man, the caliber of players featured throughout this one really is incredible. One of the phrases repeated in the video is “our faces change, our standards don’t change.” I can’t speak to it personally but, from my outside perspective, that really is what The Brotherhood is all about - certain standards, like the fist, that have been in place since Coach K arrived in Durham. The college game has changed immensely over time - rule changes, style of play, roster turnover - but all the Duke players through the years played under those same standards and same coach, uniting them in The Brotherhood. The classic highlights throughout are awesome as well.
Road to 1,000 Wins
Mike Krzyzewski notched his 1,000th career win in Madison Square Garden, with a comeback victory against St. John’s on January 25, 2015. Coach 1K would lead Duke to its fifth National Championship a couple of months later - it goes without saying, but what a special season. The narration at the beginning is elite. “...What does a thousand wins look like? Let me show you.”
Five Shining Moments
There is nothing like the NCAA Tournament and One Shining Moment - that song will randomly pop in my head throughout the year, and I’m all for it. Some of the older plays I’d maybe never seen until this video, and the live look-in to Cameron with the old CBS graphics makes me feel like I’m eight years old again. And, of course, I never get tired of watching clips from those five titles.
Thanks for reading, Go Duke!
Updated 1/10/24: As I mentioned in Quotes & Notes, Kyle Gets Buckets was originally included in Tier 3. I moved that video into Just Missed (sorry, Kyle) to make room for Road to 1,000 Wins, which was mistakenly omitted in my initial article.
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