Brian Zoubek has one warning for the Duke basketball team before its game against Temple Saturday afternoon: Save his cream puffs for after the game.
“I don’t want them to be weighed down,” Zoubek said. “I don’t need Coach [Mike Krzyzewski] to have any reason to blame me for poor performance. I had enough of that in college.”
Zoubek, who played for the Blue Devils from 2006-10, opened his own cream puff shop “Dream Puffz” over the summer in his hometown of Haddonfield, N.J. Prior to Saturday’s contest against the Owls in East Rutherford, N.J., Zoubek plans to drop off some of his delicacies at the team’s hotel.
“Hopefully they’ll get a little taste of some Dream Puffz, and it will be nice little reward if they win,” Zoubek said. “But if they lose, I’m taking them away.”
Should Duke prove victorious, Zoubek said they should look forward to a variety package of his cream puffs featuring his cannoli and eclair flavors. The cannoli flavor in particular, he said, has been popular among the locals.
But Dream Puffz is not only in the dessert business—since its opening in July, the product line has expanded to include three savory flavors: chicken salad, buffalo chicken and apples and brie. He said those have been so popular that customers have requested he sell the fillings separately by the ounce.
Now that the operation in Haddonfield is running smoothly, his tentative plan is to open another Dream Puffz in Philadelphia before setting his sights on New York.
“I don’t want to jinx it,” he said.
After dropping off the tasty treats, Zoubek will attend Saturday’s game with his girlfriend, getting to watch a team that has been compared to the Blue Devils’ 2010 national championship squad that was also led by three seniors—Zoubek, Jon Scheyer and Lance Thomas.
The current team features three seniors in Mason Plumlee, Ryan Kelly and Seth Curry, all of whom were on that title-winning team, though Curry was redshirting that season.
“I definitely see some of that, traces of my team in there. I think the leadership Mason and the seniors are providing right now is huge,” Zoubek said. “Really being those consistent performers is such a huge key to success.”
Zoubek said he remains close to the three seniors and has been impressed with the team’s early-season success, which includes three victories against top-five opponents.
Although the team has yet to face an ACC opponent, which he said is the “real test,” he likes where the Blue Devils are headed.
“They definitely have the potential to go all the way,” Zoubek said.
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