Putting Duke on the fast track - Uncovering the Past - Brief Article

Basketball Digest, April, 2002

IT WAS A RARITY: A COLLEGE player featured on the cover of a November issue. But we didn't have much choice in 1998, the last time the Duke Blue Devils appeared on our cover prior to this issue. The NBA lockout made our traditional NBA preview disappear, so we called Elton Brand off the bench a month early to open up the 1998-99 basketball season.

Brand was our top player and Duke our top team entering the college campaign. Duke had fallen short of the Final Four for a "shocking" four straight seasons, and we accurately opined that behind Brand, its streak would end.

This was the Duke team that shocked the country by sending four players--three of them underclassmen--into the 1999 NBA draft: Brand (drafted No. 1 by the Chicago Bulls), Trajan Langdon (No. 11, Cleveland Cavaliers), Corey Maggette (No. 13, Seattle SuperSonics), and William Avery (No. 14, Minnesota Timberwolves).

Remarkable though it was for Duke to have four players drafted among the top 14, that class has become a cautionary tale for players contemplating an early jump to the pros. It also reinforced the adage that Dookies rarely blossom into NBA superstars (Brand is, and Maggette might still become one, but Langdon and Avery have struggled even to crack an NBA rotation).

Back in that preview, Connecticut junior Richard Hamilton told us how much he wanted to face Brand head-to-head. While Duke and UConn weren't scheduled to play, Rip got his wish in the final game of the season, when he glided his Huskies past Brand and Duke in an NCAA title game for the ages.

This season, current cover boy Jason Williams and Duke appear to have a vice-like grip on a coveted Final Four appearance. What might be most "shocking" come April would be anything short of a second straight title for the Blue Devils.