For most, the 1999 season will be remembered for two things. First, that year’s team was the best Duke team to not win a title. It also was the year when Duke basketball fell back to earth, joining the rest of college basketball, to watch its best players go bye-bye early to the NBA.
For me though, while 1999 was significant, it was actually 1996 when Duke first lost a player early to the NBA…a smart, athletic 17-year-old from Lower Merion High School, that reminded many of a young Jordan, passed on Duke. You might have heard of him, Kobe Bryant?
While never officially offered a scholarship, Kobe made it quite clear, if he decided to go to college, he would attend Duke University. In the end though, he picked the NBA and the rest is history.
Since then, the Blue Devils (like every other school) has had to adjust to this simple fact, kids aren’t going to stay four years. However, since I have nothing better to do with my time, I wondered what the Duke roster would have looked like over the years if kids did stay all four years.
Note: Yes, I know if players stayed all four years, the amount of scholarships available would be different, the coaching staff might have gone a different direction, and a player might have gone elsewhere if they knew a current player would be there four years. Obviously any school can play this fantasy game; Ohio State, Texas, Florida and Carolina. Having said ALL THAT, this is just for fun.
1998-1999 ROSTER
Starters
G – William Avery (SO)
G – Trajan Langdon (SR)
F – Kobe Bryant (JR)
F – Shane Battier (SO)
F – Elton Brand (SO)
Bench
F – Corey Maggette (FR)
F – Nate James (SO)
G – Chris Carrawell (JR)
F – Chris Burgess (SO)
- What do you think? Maybe Kobe would have been the difference in Duke’s three-point defeat to Connecticut. Hell, this team could have won a championship the previous year.
1999-2000 ROSTER
Starters
G – William Avery (JR)
G – Corey Maggette (SO)
F – Kobe Bryant (SR)
F – Shane Battier (JR)
F – Elton Brand (JR)
Bench
F – Nate James (JR)
G – Chris Carrawell (SR)
G – Jason Williams (FR)
F – Carlos Boozer (FR)
F – Mike Dunleavy (FR)
*** Let’s assume Burgess still transfers after the 1998-1999 season
- How sick of a team do you have to be, to have freshmen like Jay Williams, Boozer and Dunleavy coming off the bench? The scariest part….Bryant would be the only starting senior.
2000-2001 ROSTER
Starters
G – William Avery (SR)
G – Jason Williams (SO)
F – Corey Maggette (JR)
F – Shane Battier (SR)
F – Elton Brand (SR)
Bench
F – Carlos Boozer (SO)
F – Mike Dunleavy (SO)
F – Nate James (SR)
F – Dahntay Jones (JR)
G – Chris Duhon (FR)
*** Jones transfered in for his junior year
- For the record, THIS team would have been the greatest Duke team ever. This team won a title without Avery, Brand and Maggette. I’d be willing to bet, Duke would be talking about a three-peat heading into this tournament.
2001-2002 ROSTER
Starters
G – Jason Williams (JR)
G – Chris Duhon (SO)
F – Corey Maggette (SR)
F – Mike Dunleavy (JR)
F – Carlos Boozer (JR)
Bench
F – Dahntay Jones (JR)
G – Daniel Ewing (FR)
F – Casey Sanders (JR)
- With Brand, Avery and Battier all gone, there would be an adjustment, but Williams, Boozer and Dunleavy would have gotten plenty of minutes the past two years. Although the bench would still be thin, Maggette would be the star of a the best starting five in basketball.
2002-2003 ROSTER
Starters
G – Jason Williams (SR)
G – Chris Duhon (JR)
F – Mike Dunleavy (SR)
F – Sheldon Williams (FR)
F – Carlos Boozer (SR)
Bench
F – Dahntay Jones (SR)
G – Daniel Ewing (SO)
G – J.J. Redick (FR)
F – Shavlik Randolph (FR)
F – Casey Sanders (SR)
G – Sean Dockery (FR)
G – Lee Melchionni (FR)
- Losing Maggette would hurt, but thanks to a solid freshman class, Duke would go big, with two 6-10 forwards taking up space on the front line, while just for fun, they put in off the bench a tubby little white guy named Redick, who’s not afraid to launch a shot from anywhere on the court.
2003-2004 ROSTER
Starters
G – Chris Duhon (SR)
G – J.J. Redick (SO)
F – Daniel Ewing (JR)
F – Luol Deng (FR)
F – Sheldon Williams (SO)
Bench
F – Shavlik Randolph (SO)
G – Sean Dockery (SO)
G – Lee Melchionni (SO)
- This is the actual team from 2003-2004 and they would be the less impressive since the 1996-97 squad. Having said that, this lineup did lead Connecticut by ten with five to play in the final four, before falling apart in the end.
2004-2005 ROSTER
Starters
G – Shaun Livingston (FR)
G – J.J. Redick (JR)
F – Daniel Ewing (SR)
F – Luol Deng (SO)
F – Sheldon Williams (JR)
Bench
F – Shavlik Randolph (SR)
G – Sean Dockery (SR)
G – Lee Melchionni (SR)
G – Demarcus Nelson (SO)
F – David McClure (SO)
- In real life, Deng was gone and this became a two-man team with no bench. However, Deng is back with Redick, Williams and incoming freshman stud, 6-6 PG Shaun Livingston. Just like that, Duke is back.
2005-2006 ROSTER
Starters
G – Shaun Livingston (SO)
G – J.J. Redick (SR)
F – Luol Deng (JR)
F – Josh McRoberts (FR)
F – Sheldon Williams (SR)
Bench
F – Shavlik Randolph (SR)
G – Lee Melchionni (SR)
G – Demarcus Nelson (SO)
F – David McClure (SO)
G – Greg Paulus (FR)
F – Martynas Pocius (FR)
- Duke gets a little bigger by moving Deng to the SF spot, while freshman McRoberts takes over at PF. Instead of freshman Paulus running the offense though, this team still belongs to Deng and Livingston.
2006-2007 ROSTER
Starters
G – Shaun Livingston (JR)
G – DeMarcus Nelson (JR)
F – Luol Deng (SR)
F – Lance Thomas (FR)
F – Josh McRoberts (SO)
Bench
F – David McClure (SO-R)
G – Greg Paulus (SO)
F – Martynas Pocius (SO)
F – Gerald Henderson (FR)
G – Jon Scheyer (FR)
C – Brian Zoubek (FR)
- This team loses two solid players in Williams and Redick, leaving a couple of holes that need to be filled, but Deng and Livingston would still be Blue Devils. Add in three solid freshman on the bench, and you have something good developing. Sure they may not win a championship, but they certainly wouldn’t have lost to VCU.
2006-2007 ROSTER
Starters
G – Shaun Livingston (SR)
G – DeMarcus Nelson (SR)
F – Gerald Henderson (SO)
F – Kyle Singler (FR)
F – Josh McRoberts (JR)
Bench
G – Jon Scheyer (SO)
C – Brian Zoubek (SO)
G – Nolan Smith (FR)
F – Taylor King (FR)
F – Lance Thomas (SO)
F – David McClure (JR)
G – Greg Paulus (JR)
F – Martynas Pocius (JR)
- This team still lacks size, so winning it all would still be tough, but you couldn’t do any worse with senior Livingston playing the point instead of Paulus, and a McRoberts/Singler combo is a huge important from Thomas/Singler.
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Early entry into the NBA Draft has forever changed the landscape of NCAA men’s basketball … and by no means for the btter.
If the rules were the same back-in-the-day as they are today … Would Misters Iba, Rupp, Wooden, Smith and Knight have come to light at all?
Sadly … I don’t think so.
Until the NBA restores, at least, a two year post-high school graduation moritorium on drafting age-eligible players into their league the college game will continue to suffer permanent damage.
Oh, what could have been … is exactly right!
Comment by khandor March 26, 2008 @ 3:43 pmThe same can be said for many of the great programs. Tracy McGrady would have gone to Kentucky if he went to college, as would have Jermaine O’Neal. Imagine this roster for a moment…
1998 Kentucky:
PG Wayne Turner (Jr.)
SG Ron Mercer (Jr.)
SF Tracy McGrady (Fr.)
PF Antoine Walker (Sr.)
C Jermaine O’Neal (So.)
A bench of Magloire, Mohammed, Sheppard, Evans, Edwards, Bradley, and Padgett? The bench alone has four NBA first round picks and five NBA guys total. That team could hang with the Kobe Duke team any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
UNC might also make a case had Stack and Wallace stayed. They left after 1995, forgoing their sophomore years. Had they stayed, they would have been senior when Carter and Jamison started getting their freak on as sophomores in 1997.
It’s fun to play these games, but many schools would be right there with Duke, even during the Kobe years, if not for the NBA draft (UConn comes to mind as they lost Allen, Butler, Gay, and Hamilton early to the NBA over the course of about 10 years). It’s important to note that many of these stud types wouldn’t have gone to these programs because guys were already there playing lots of minutes.
Comment by Joel February 13, 2009 @ 8:18 pmDuke was the front runner for Dwight Howard. Just saying…
Comment by Prince May 12, 2010 @ 1:59 pm