I can remember the day that I discovered my passion for Duke Blue Devil basketball very well. I was three years old and my father would lie on the floor to watch the game while keeping the score in a composition book. I knew then that I would never miss a Duke game unless it was absolutely necessary.
As customary from that point on I would lie down next to him and watch and cheer with him until I became old enough to write and keep score myself. Those days of just lying on the living room floor with my dad keeping score of the games while mom cooked dinner are some of the best memories and times of my life.
The year is 1991, I am eight years old and its March Madness Time. Duke has a loaded squad that lost in the national championship game just one year before to the powerhouse that was UNLV. Bobby Hurley, Christian Laettner, Grant Hill, Thomas Hill, Antonio Lang, and Brian Davis were all leaders for the Devils. Duke had been beaten by 30 points by the Rebels in 1990.
Duke rolled through their part of the bracket into the Final Four. I can remember my Dad picking me up from school..."You think we will tonight bud?, they are mighty good." "Yes dad, we will win," I responded. We ate dinner around 6 P.M. as customary in the Honeycutt household and then it was to the floor.
Duke hung tough with the Larry Johnson, Stacy Augmon, Greg Anthony, and Anderson Hunt led Rebels and were able to outlast them this time 79-77. Duke then went on to win Coach K's first national championship with a victory over Roy Williams' Kansas Jayhawk team 72-65. I still remember the next morning when Dad awoke at 6 A.M. and woke me up and said "C'mon son get up and get dressed, we gotta go!" I can remember thinking where in the world are we going?
The drive was up I-85 to Durham to get national champs t-shirts. That didn't surprise me after all because that's exactly the kind of dad he was. Whatever made me happy, he usually did it.
So 1992 rolls around. Duke is favored to repeat but there are some tough squads to contend with like Bob Knight's Hoosiers led by Calbert Cheaney, Williams' Jayhawks, Rick Pitino's Jamal Mashburn led Kentucky team and the "Fab Five" from Michigan.
Once again Duke rolls into the regional final at Philadelphia's Spectrum. That's where "the game" happened. It was Duke versus Kentucky. The game was hotly contested the entire way with the score being knotted at the end of regulation. Overtime was coming up and boy were dad and I nervous. Kentucky's star Jamal Mashburn had fouled out and a no name Sean Woods darted into the lane and lofted a floater that banked in to give Kentucky a 103-102 lead with 2.1 seconds remaining.
The Honeycutt heads hung low. Then, the miraculous happened. Coach K called a timeout. Star forward Grant Hill took the ball out to inbounds it with no one guarding him. "That's a mistake by Kentucky son," said Dad. Then Hill hurled a perfect pass to Laettner who caught it cleanly, made one dribble, turned and shot. He swished it and Duke won 104-103 in OT. Dad and I went nuts. Mom couldn't believe the chaos in her living room.
Duke went on to defeat Knight's Hoosiers in the semifinal game 81-78 and blew out the fab five 71-51 for back-to-back titles. The next morning was a recurrence of the morning 365 days prior... a trip to Durham.
Two years later there Duke was again, highly ranked in what was Grant Hill's senior season and surely a championship one. Duke was the No.1 seed but had a tough bracket with Purdue's Glenn the "big dog" Robinson led team in there with them. It came down to Duke-Purdue for a trip to the Final Four. Duke outlasted the Boilermakers 69-60 to head to the Final Four in Charlotte.
There, the Devils met Florida. Florida was big with Andrew Declerq and Dmitri Hill leading them. Duke defeated the Gators 70-65 setting up a matchup with Nolan Richardson's Arkansas Razorbacks.
Arkansas had two stars in point guard Corey Beck and the "big nasty" Corliss Williamson. Neither caused the tears or stomach aches that came later. Duke led most of the way with Arkansas cutting the lead and coming back late in the game. Scotty "bleeping" Thurman as he became known to my father hoisted a high-arching three pointer over the outstretched arm of Antonio Lang that went in and gave Arkansas the game.
Duke struggled over the next several years but one moment in a key game with arch rival UNC still sticks in my head. It was 1995 and February 6th which means that I had just turned 12. My friend Rodger and I were in my mom and dad's room sitting on the bed watching the game because I didn't have a TV yet and my parents were talking with company in the living room. In what was a back-and forth game that ended in a tie, forcing overtime and a game where Carolina was clearly more talented but Duke showed heart, the Devils trailed the Tarheels 95-92 in overtime when Jeff Capel took the inbounds pass, raced up court and heaved a half-court shot that went in.
I leaped up in the air hitting my head on the ceiling and thought that I had broken my neck. Carolina went on in the second OT to win 102-100 but that moment was huge in Duke lore.
1999 was defintely the most heartbreaking year in my life as a Duke fan. We were awesome, in my mind we had the best Duke team of all-time. Elton Brand, Corey Maggette, William Avery, Shane Battier and Trajan Langdon led the way. Duke went into the tournament heavy favorites with only one loss and steamrolled into the Final Four.
In the semifinal, they faced off with Jason Richardson and Zach Randolph's Michigan State Spartans. The Devils staved off MSU 68-62 to face UCONN in the final game. Never had I ever been more confident about a game in my life. We couldn't lose.
The game was too close early as a no name guard Ricky Moore was hitting everything he threw up for the Huskies. Thanks to rotund point guard Khalid El-Amin, UCONN led 77-74 with just seconds left. Langdon launched a half-court shot that just missed and Duke had lost. I cried harder after that game than ever before and still feel pain from that loss.
In 2001, Dad, Rodger and I traveled up to Duke for a football game versus Florida State to see Nick Maddox play, who starred at A.L. Brown high school in nearby Kannapolis, N.C. Our seats were near the top of the endzone at Wallace Wade Stadium and we sat next to this elderly black gentleman who was very nice and talked to us the entire game.
He said "are you guys Duke fans?""Huge," I replied. "You guys ever seen a game in Cameron?," he asked. "Unfortunately, no," I said. "Well my name is D.C. and I am a janitor there. Let me give you guys my number and get yours and maybe I can get ya'll some tickets to a few games," he said. So dad got his number and gave him ours and we both went on our way.
Sporting my East Rowan High School letter jacket, I went down on the field and talked with Nick after the game and got Coach Bobby Bowden's autograph on a football which I still have.
Basketball season rolls around and Duke is good, I mean really good. Dad and I expected to watch every game from the floor as in years past until one day, the phone rings. It's D.C. "Ive got two for Army, if you guys want them," he said. "Yes," was our reply. We went up the game which was an obvious Duke blowout victory and we went down on the court to see D.C. after the game to thank him.
We talked for a while and up walks this guy in Duke sweats. It's Chris Duhon. He talked to me and dad for a while and said "wanna shoot around?" I could say nothing, just took the ball from his hands and shot threes with him. "You're pretty good man," Chris said.
Weeks later, the phone rang again. Again it was D.C. "I got three for Virginia," he said. Once again "Yes," we said. We took Rodger with us, his first ever game at Cameron. Virginia was good with Donald Hand and Travis Watson being their best players. Duke just came to play and blew them out of the building though 103-61. Seeing a conference game was awesome.
Weeks later it happened again. D.C. called. It was eerily close to the two biggest home games of the year which were Maryland and UNC. Dad smiled as he hung up and looked at me and said "we are going to the Maryland game." I was so excited and we went and sat with the Crazies but unforunately Duke dropped this one to the Twerps.
Duke and Maryland are favored to meet in the NCAA title game. In this March Madness, Duke and Maryland end up both 1 seeds but on the same side of the bracket. Both roll into the Final Four and set up their 4th showdown of the year. They had played each other three times already and Duke was 2-1 against them.
Maryland was scary good and was the only team in the country that match Duke at every position. Terence Morris rivaled Mike Dunleavy. Juan Dixon and Jay Williams. Lonny Baxter and Carlos Boozer. Danny Miller and Nate James. It was going to be a battle.
A close game came down to the final minutes when James got a tip-in that sparked Duke to the victory and sent them to the national title game against Arizona. Duke was too much for Lute Olson's Wildcats and won their third title 82-72.
It was back to Cameron the next morning, which was my senior year of high school, for dad, Rodger and I. Championship shirts and newspapers once again for everybody.
More tough years followed after that as Duke had loads of talent but just could never get over the hump, including losing in the Final Four once again to UCONN in 2004. Then, came the greatest shooter of the basketball that my eyes have ever seen. Now, because I am a basketball historian, I know that "Pistol" Pete Maravich was the greatest shooter of all-time, but Jonathan Clay or "J.J." Redick was my generations Pistol.
Redick was awesome and still holds the all-time NCAA three-point record and all-time Duke scoring record. Redick's Duke teams were extremely good but not too athletic as they always ran into more athletic teams in the tournament that got the best of them.
After J.J. was gone, Duke had a few up and down years until the arrival of three players... Jon Scheyer, Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler. These three guys had hype and lived up to it.
However, Duke was never favored to win it all in Scheyer's career, but he didn't care. In 2010, as I had made my way to the University of Tennessee for college, Duke had a mediocre team and wasn't even thought about, not even by me to make a run for a title. I would have been happy that year with a sweet 16 birth.
Duke received a fairly easy draw in their bracket with a 1 seed and a tough Purdue team at the 4 seed and an athletic and scrappy Baylor team at the 3 seed. Duke rolled up the game with Baylor as other powerhouses like Kentucky, Kansas, and Syracuse fell. Duke outtoughed Baylor to reach the Final Four and Dad and I were extatic.
Duke now faced a great challenge in Bob Huggins' Mountaineers of WVU. West Virginia was fresh off of beating Kentucky, in my mind the best team in the country. Duke, however, didn't care. They took it to WVU and ended up winning easily 78-57. On the other side of the bracket chaotic and shocking occurences were taking place.
Both No. 1 seed Kansas and Syracuse had fallen and the Butler Bulldogs, yes Butler University had beaten Michigan State to earn a shot at Duke in the title game. I was confident, too confident. "No way Duke loses to a team like Butler," I told everyone.
After the game, lets just say that I had a newfound respect for Butler as they pushed Duke harder than anyone in the tournament. Back and forth, back and forth, they went up until the final seconds. With Duke up one, Butler fouled Brian Zoubek, sending the Duke big man to the line.
Zoubek calmly knocked down the first attempt and intentionally missed the second. With Duke now leading by two, Butler's Gordon Hayward rebounded the miss, turned and raced up the floor. Hayward got to half court and leaped off one foot, hoisting a three over the arm of Singler.
The shot looked good, too good to me as I was on the floor of my college apartment as my roommates heckled me about Duke, and then the ball hit off the backboard and just missed. I was elated, called Dad and Rodger and yelled into the phone. Duke had title number four.
These are just some of the great memories I have of my love and passion for Blue Devil hoops. The list will no doubt grow, I just hope that Dad is here when I pass the love on to my son, so all three of us can lie on the floor and keep score.
