Duke All-Star Charity Game
Cameron Indoor Stadium

Blue 145
White 124

August 24, 2001

  The first annual Duke Charity All-Star Game was held in a sweltering Cameron on Friday the 24th.  Future Blue Devils JJ Redick and Lee Melchionni were in attendance, along with recruiting targets Shavlik Randolph and Shelden Williams.  Both got their names chanted by the crowd during a couple of timeouts.  Cameron was not full but it was close; the crowd was announced at 8000.

  There were nearly 30 players there, and each one got a nice introduction.  It went alphabetically, with the 5 players present who had their numbers retired getting called on last.  In addition to the alumni playing in the game, others in attendance included Clay Buckley, Greg Koubek, Jay Bryan, Chip Engelland, Tommy Amaker, Marty Nessley, Mike Brey, Bucky Waters, Kenny Dennard, David Henderson, JD Simpson and Billy King.

  The game was tight through three quarters, but the 92 team took over down the stretch and killed the White team in transition.  They pulled away in the last 6 minutes to cruise to the win.  Rather than do a play-by-play, I'll just do quick player summaries.

 Blue Team:

** Laettner:  Christian didn't seem all that interested in scoring, though he hit a three and one of his trademark turnaround jumpers on the baseline.  Where he made his mark was on the boards, getting an amazing 19 of them.  His matchup against Brand was very interesting, and they harrassed each other into a lot of mistakes.  Christian also had two nice assists to a cutting Hill and Avery.

** Abdelnaby: To put it charitably, he did not play well at all.  I had several flashbacks to his sophomore and junior years during the game.  There was a funny moment when he was in the open court and was expecting an alley-oop pass.  Instead, it went at his feet, out of bounds.  He pointed up with a grin on his face.

** Davis: Quiet in the first half, he exploded for 16 second-half points, including several exciting dunks in transition.  Brian is in great shape and was visibly pumped before and during the game.  During his introduction, he pointed up towards the 1991 and 1992 banners--just reminding everyone what he had helped to accomplish.  He screamed to the crowd after every dunk.

 ** T.Hill: Thomas also came alive in the second half, scoring 22 of his 26 points.  He got them on tip-ins, transition dunks (he and Davis made the Duke Skywalkers live again), tough reverse layups and short jumpers.  He had 10 boards, most offensive.  

** Avery: Will had a quiet but efficient night, scoring 15 points and getting 6 assists.  His welcome back to Cameron was friendly (there were no discernible boos) but not overwhelmingly enthusiastic.  

** C-Well: Chris had kind of a ragged game in terms of his shooting and turnovers, but he scrapped his way to a 14 point, 10 rebound effort.  Chris got some of the most enthusiastic cheers of the evening, especially during his introduction.  You could tell how excited he was to be back in his basketball home.

 ** McLeod: Ro was awesome at both ends of the floor.  Lost in the Grant Hill hoopla is the fact that Ro is returning from a major injury himself, and he proved he still had has what it takes.  He hit the short jumpers, he scrapped for offensive boards, he hit free throws, and he finished jams.  Ro had the undisputed play of the night: a nasty, in-your-face jam right in Corey Maggette's face.  Ro went up and Corey went up right with him, but couldn't stop Ro from throwing it down hard.  Ro was pumped up after that and could not be stopped in the first half.  

** P.Henderson: Phil had a quiet night, scoring 9 points and dishing up 5 assists.  He mostly scored around the basket and had a nice baseline jumper.  

** Brickey: "Air" Brickey no longer has the same kind of springs that he did back in his era (think Maggette/Hill), but he scored 12 points mostly on jumpers.  He did have a couple of nice jams.

 ** Langdon: Trajan got a very warm reception indeed.  He hit one long three (the NBA three point rule was in effect) and several shorter jumpers.  

 ** Clark: Marty didn't score but he did play pretty good defense.  He did throw the ball out of bounds once, but he actually blocked a couple of shots.

 ** Alarie: Mark looked a bit creaky out there.  He did have one basket, but didn't play that many minutes.

 White Team:

 ** Brand: Elton was pretty much the immediate focus of his team's offense, and he connected on 8 of 14 shots for 19 points.  He wasn't much of a force on the boards, though.  He blocked one of Laettner's shots and also went up for a rare alley-oop slam on a pass from Maggette.  He also played intense defense in general, getting in the passing lanes and picking off steals that he then ran back all the way.  But it was amazing the way the other players got him the ball down low early and often.

 ** Ferry: Danny's shot wasn't falling, but he passed well and attacked the boards, grabbing 8.  

** Maggette: Corey received a nice welcome back as well, but it again wasn't quite as enthusiastic as the long-timers.  He demonstrated that his springs are still as amazing as ever.  He attacked the offensive glass all night (to the tune of 8 rebounds), looking at times like he was hovering in the air like a muscular hummingbird.  Corey had several wicked, backboard-slapping, alley-oop dunks, but his best was when he used a headfake to go baseline and hammer one in one-handed.  Mags had a lot less success from the three point line, as did the White team in general.  

** Dawkins: Johnny D looked a few steps slower than in his glory days, but his shot was as pure as ever and he can still run an offense.  Johnny got perhaps the loudest and longest ovation of the night during the introductions.  Johnny had 11 points, 7 assists and 3 steals.

 ** Hurley: Bobby playing in the game was the most pleasant surprise of the night, considering his recent knee problems and subsequent retirement.  He was a bit rusty and some of his passes went awry, but he also had a few nice passes that led to easy scores, like one brilliant penetrate-and-pitch move for a Capel three.  More impressive was his still-intense hustle.  He saved a bad pass from going into the backcourt, lunging after it and saving it just in time.  This eventually led to a three.

More than seeing him play was seeing the fire in his eyes, running the break in Cameron one more time.

** Collins: Chris played like he always did: completely out of control, all over the place, with wild abandon.  You never knew what was coming next, other than a 30-foot three point attempt.  He wound up with 21 points and 5 three pointers.  He also scored using his lunging floater move and had a pretty reverse basket.  

** Wojo: Steve was hilarious.  The moment he came onto the court he started hounding everyone on defense, slapping away at balls and using his little bag of tricks to trip, distract and annoy.  Everyone was a bit taken aback.  Then he slapped the floor and went into a further frenzy.  For a guy like Steve who had to quit playing the game, getting another shot at playing in Cameron obviously meant a lot to him.  Steve did a nice job running the break and had some startling no-look passes.

** Capel: Good ol' Jeff struggled early on, but he bounced back with 18 points, 16 in the second half.  A lot of the points came from 4 consecutive threes he hit.  

** Bilas: For a guy who works desk jobs these days, Jay was in great shape.  He's also been working on his shot, because he hit a college-length three.  He also muscled in for a putback.

** Meek: Erik is one of my all-time favorite players, and he looked to be in the best shape of his life.  He was very trim and has obviously improve his shooting over the years.  But he did a great job doing what he did best, which is collect offensive rebounds.  He got 6 of them, and they were all very tough.  Like many of the other players, he had a huge grin on his face the whole time.

** Price: Ricky had 15, hitting a few of those gorgeous fadeaway jumpers of his and throwing down some rim-rattlers.  He had some moments of rust early on, but everyone really got into the flow in the second half.

  Laettner vs Brand was such an interesting matchup, since their styles are so different.  Elton proved that Laettner couldn't stop him, but Christian neutralized Elton's presence on the boards.     Overall, the mood was a joyous one.  The players were having a ball, back in front of their old fans and playing with guys they hadn't seen in a long time.  But when it came right down to winning and losing, the Hill/Davis/Laettner troika led the way--just like always.

 Other Random Notes:

   ** The other highlight of the evening were famous shot recreations during timeouts.  They would first have a fan try to recreate them (to win prizes), then the player would do it when the fan couldn't.  They included:

  Wojo hitting 2 free throws to win at Virginia in '97.

  Trajan hitting a three from the wing to seal a win vs UNC in Cameron in 97.  

 The "special" play vs UConn in 90 (Coach K yelled out "special" later in the game over the microphone but was promptly ignored)

  Hurley hitting the three against UNLV in 91 that brought Duke to within 76-74.

  Chris Collins' absurd three vs NC State in Raleigh in 96.

  And of course, the Kentucky shot.  Now, Wojo hit his shots and so did Trajan, but the Duke players missed the next three (and they got two chances!)  Christian missed his first shot but made the second.  The rest of the players involved in the play (other than Davis, who subbed for Lang) and the crowd all felt the same thrill...and T.Hill reprised his putting his hands behind his head and shouting "oh my god"...which Ro ribbed him about afterwards.  Great moment.

 ** NBA ref Dee Kantner t'd up honorary coach Grant Hill!  Coach K got on the mic and said, "Wow!  You t'd up Grant Hill at his own game!  That takes some guts.  He must have said something really bad."  Kanter just nodded her head grimly.

 ** Coach K took the mic at the very end of the game and thanked everyone for being there.  He then took the last shot of the game, which he missed.  In the last few months, it's about the only failure he's had.

    Reported by Rob Clough, tmc@duke.edu 

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