Of this year's student body, only the class of 1997 was around for the last truly successful Blue Devil basketball season-the days when the Blue Devils were at times ranked No. 1 in the country, the team made it to the Final Four and the championship game against Arkansas, and benches were still being burned.
Three seniors who remember that season especially well are the senior tri-captains of this year's squad-Jeff Capel, Carmen Wallace and Greg Newton. These three are the only link to that season, and they hope to use their experience to get back to the Final Four once again this year.
Outside of the seniors, the rest of the team, excluding the freshmen, only has one game of NCAA post-season experience-last year's 75-60 loss to Eastern Michigan in the first round of the tournament. Last year's team went 18-13, an improvement from the year before when the Blue Devils only managed to compile a 13-18 record in the absence of head coach Mike Krzyzewski. These seasons are a far cry from Duke's 1993-94 campaign when the team finished 28-6 and first in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
"I think in my three years here thus far I've experienced just about everything there is to experience with the exception of winning the National Championship," Capel said. "I've played in the Final Four, played in the championship game, was a part of a team that wasn't very good, and played without our head coach. We've also been through adversity with injuries.
"It's been tough but it's made me a better person and a better basketball player because of that experience. Hopefully I'll be able to use some of the things I've learned and help the younger guys out."
This year's team includes three talented freshmen who will often be counted on to make immediate contributions. Capel knows about this type of experience since he earned a starting position early in his freshman season and averaged over 26 minutes a game that year.
"All three of our freshmen can really play and they're going to be in the position where they're going to be very important," Capel said. "I know how that feels because I played a lot my freshman year."
Not only did Capel play a lot, he played an important role in the Blue Devils' post-season campaign, starting in all six games in the NCAA Tournament. Capel averaged 10.2 points, 3.8 assists, and 3.8 rebounds a game in the tournament and was named to the Southeast Regional All-Tournament Team after scoring 19 points and seven assists in the regional final against Purdue. In the championship game, Capel totaled 14 points, five rebounds, four assists and a steal in Duke's narrow 76-72 loss to Arkansas.
Wallace and Newton both played in four games of the NCAA Tournament, but Newton was the only one of the pair to play in the Final Four, and he did not contribute significantly in his one minute of play. The time both played in the rest of the tournament was minimal as well, but the experience they gained just from being at the tournament was beneficial.
"We know what it takes to get through the types of games where every game could be your last," Wallace said. "I think with our experience in it, we know how to go out and play. Hopefully we can give a little bit of confidence to the younger guys in knowing what it takes to get there."
And even though the Blue Devils will take this season one game at a time, the seniors still convey the excitement of playing in the Final Four to the younger players.
"We tell them that there's nothing like it-it's the best experience that I've ever had in my life," Wallace said.
Capel also makes a point of sharing his Final Four experiences with the younger players.
"[Myself, Carmen and Greg] talk to them about it a lot because we were the last three players to be a part of that team that is still remaining," Capel said. "We tell them about the whole atmosphere of the game, the fanfare around the Final Four, and knowing that in the championship game, everybody in the country is watching you since there are only two teams remaining."
But the fanfare and the excitement of being at the Final Four does not come without a price, and the seniors have also told the underclassmen about what it takes to get to the level that the 1993-94 team did.
"We also talk about all the hard work it took to get there-the hard work we put in, the lessons we learned from the upperclassmen back then-Grant, Tony and Marty-and the sacrifices we had to make to get to the level of the championship game," Capel said.
And hopefully, under the leadership of the seniors, this year's team will be able to tell Blue Devil teams to come about the Final Four experience.
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