Mission accomplished: Christensen returns

As the men's basketball team readies to hit the floor for its first practice of the year, expectations are higher than ever.

Talk of preseason polls, ACC titles and even national championships is heard in conversations throughout campus, even though Duke's first game remains weeks away.

It's easy to forget that just three years ago, Duke was coming off its worst season in 12 years. Coach Mike Krzyzewski was recovering from back surgery and questions hovered around the team. The Blue Devils struggled through the year, but still managed to compile an 18-13 record and make a brief appearance in the NCAA Tournament.

That "rebuilding year" was Matt Christensen's freshman season.

Since his return to the team this fall, Christensen has obviously noticed quite a great difference between the team he played on three seasons ago and the squad he rejoins this year.

"What's great about the team [this year]...is that they're just better," Christensen said with an understated grin.

While many Duke students would probably agree with Christensen's assessment, most would fail to recognize him as a player on this year's squad. Only the senior class, with whom Christensen started his freshman year, has seen him suit up and play. That leaves the rest of the student body wondering just where this 6-foot-10 addition to the Blue Devil frontcourt came from.

After his freshman year, you see Christensen took a two-year leave of absence not only from the basketball team, but also from family and friends, to serve a religious mission in Frankfurt, Germany, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints-or as it is more commonly known, the Mormon Church.

Since Christensen was assigned to labor in a foreign country, he was also expected to pick up German in a very short amount of time by studying in a language training center for two months.

"Then they just tell you to go out and swim," Christensen quipped.

Christensen's objective as a missionary was very straightforward: to inform people about the Book of Mormon. This book is another volume of scripture, much like the Bible, that church members use to learn more about Jesus Christ.

Serving a mission of this type is not a simple undertaking-not only does it require a high level of commitment to one's beliefs, but it also is very hard work.

A missionary's day generally begins at 6:30 a.m. with scripture study and planning time. The purpose of the rest of the day is simple-spread the gospel and share the message with anyone willing to listen.

Christensen would generally wake up at 4 a.m. to stretch and work out in an effort to stay in shape for his eventual return to the basketball team.

The difficulty of such missionary work coupled with the sacrifice of leaving and putting everything on hold for two years lead many to question why Christensen decided to go.

"My desire to go on a mission was really based originally on two things," Christensen said. "[I have] a desire to help other people have joy in life and also just because of the experiences that my father had as a missionary in Korea. Even as a very young child it was clear to me that my father's mission had had an incredible impact on his life-for good, and helped him to keep a better perspective on life."

Part of the joy that Christensen mentioned stemmed from helping others. Like many Christian missionaries throughout the world, Mormon missionaries spend a great deal of time serving others. In Germany, missionaries work closely with the Red Cross, and Christensen often had the opportunity to spend time with young children to help them learn to read.

Christensen seems genuinely grateful for the two-year experience and the added perspective it has given him on life.

"I was really grateful to be able to share that with people because it had helped me so much and because I'd seen how it had helped other people so much," Christensen said. "A lot of it had to do with finding peace in life. It's interesting to me to see how much time and money people spend looking for joy.

"Through the gospel of Jesus Christ, people can find something that is always good, that doesn't have any sort of negative side effects."

He is quick to point out the tremendous support he received from both family and friends while serving in Germany. The Duke coaching staff also did an tremendous job of keeping in touch with Christensen, often writing him as many as three letters a week.

"There was a time when I got a letter from Coach [Quin] Snyder that said 'Don't worry about when you come back, [everything] will be just fine, just concentrate on your mission,'" Christensen said. "I was really surprised to hear that, from the people I was coming back to.

"If anybody's going to be concerned and pressuring me to take time out of my day to practice basketball, it would have been the coaches, and they weren't doing that. They wanted me to just dedicate everything I had to [the mission]."

Having completed his mission, Christensen now faces the daunting task of getting himself back in shape to play with, and against, some of the nation's best. Physically, he has a long way to go.

The only real time he had to dedicate to basketball in Germany he spent working out with a dumbbell, or playing pickup at the U.S. Army base-which is just not the same as the Duke weight room or pickup games in Cameron during the offseason.

Besides the challenge of playing catchup with the likes of Elton Brand and Shane Battier, Christensen is still going through quite a transition.

Upon returning home to Belmont, Mass., on Aug. 15, he has had to adjust to seeing what a difference a two-year absence can have on family and friends. He barely recognized his seven-year-old sister Katie because she had grown so much.

Since returning to school, Christensen has had to deal with a completely different team-only Trajan Langdon, Taymon Domzalski and Jay Heaps remain from his freshman year-two new assistant coaches and a full courseload of schoolwork.

While many athletes pick a major that won't require too demanding a schedule, Christensen has decided to do a double major in mechanical engineering and economics.

Such classes are generally quite challenging by themselves and even more so when you haven't studied in a purely academic sense or taken a test for two years. In the classroom, Christensen has his work cut out for him.

Christensen is also strongly considering the possibility of redshirting this season to give himself plenty of time to adjust during this somewhat overwhelming transition.

Regardless of what decision is made, though, Christensen enthusiastically points out that everything seems right for him to become a much better basketball player.

"I feel like I've got terrific potential," Christensen said. "I'm excited to be with a coaching staff that has a high regard for me. But not only that... a coaching staff that is so capable at making people better players."