With the Final Four just days away, it finally hit me that for Duke’s seniors, this was it. , by this time next week, we would never see John Scheyer, Lance Thomas and Brian Zoubek in a Duke uniform again.

After 28 years of watching Duke basketball, you’d think I’d be use to it. I’ve seen hundreds of kids come and go, but for this group of seniors, its been a long four years…that’s felt more like eight. It’s almost hard to remember what a Duke team looks like without Scheyer, Thomas and Zoubek.

In the end, I obviously want these guys cutting down the nets Monday night, but you know what? Whether they bring home the title or not, I just want to take this moment to say thanks to them personally. 

Why? First, because I’m a nice guy. Just ask my mother. But second, when you think about it, so much has been asked from these guys and they’ve always done it. As freshman, they were thrown into the fire, asked to keep our dynasty afloat. We’ve asked them all to check their egos and take seats on the bench at some point or another. We’ve asked Zoubek to play through pain and we’ve asked Thomas and Scheyer to play out of position. We’ve asked a lot and they’ve always come through.

BRIAN ZOUBEK
The big fella. What a crazy four years it has been. I remember that freshman year clearly. For moments, it looked like you  had never touched a basketball in your life. I always joked, Brian Zoubek got called for traveling checking into the game. You had zero offensive moves, you looked stiff on defense and in the time I wrote this sentence, you got called for traveling three more times.

It was a rough freshman season. Yet you didn’t run. You didn’t hide away and transfer like previous Duke big men who were unhappy with playing time.

You stuck around and over the next two years, you spent more time struggling with injuries than grabbing rebounds. Any Duke fan could see the mind was there. You were learning the game, you knew what needed to be done, but the body wasn’t capable of playing along.

With a nagging foot injury, you had the hop of a paraplegic frog, struggling to get off the floor. Your offensive moves looked to be in slow motion. Frustrated, you would often find yourself in foul trouble and back on the pine. I’ll be honest, I began to lose hope. I never thought you’d be completely healthy and I assumed you would never be more than a couple of rebounds and a couple of fouls off the bench.

Yet in your final season, you finally walked onto the court healthy. Despite not starting, you came off the bench and grabbed more boards per minute than anyone else. Eventually, when things look bad for Duke, Coach K made his signature late season change. That change was inserting you into the starting lineup for good.

Everyone knows the stats, there is no reason to go through them again here (actually I’m just too lazy to look then up). After three and a half seasons of struggles, you finally looked like the biggest guy on the court. The travel calls were long gone. Sure you weren’t Kareem, but a hook shot from time to time brought me to my feet.

Most importantly though, it was the rebounding. With your height and size, there was no reason why you couldn’t dominate the glass. Of course there was a reason, that nagging foot injury. But when that foot healed, you become the ‘X’ factor in this Duke team. The Big Three became the Bigger Four and suddenly opposing coaches were asking, “how the hell am I going to stop Zoubek?”

No matter what happens tomorrow, you’ll leave Duke knowing that you were on a Final Four team. You’ll also know that without you, this team doesn’t make it to the Final Four. (more…)