Red, White and Blue Devils

After parading through Washington, D.C. "like royalty," Mike Krzyzewski and his national championship men's basketball team returned home last night to a crowd of several hundred fans gathered outside the Durham Civic Center Plaza.

The Blue Devils, who arrived with the pomp of sirens and flashing lights from their high-speed Sheriff's escort, were greeted enthusiastically only hours after spending the afternoon with President George W. Bush and Durham's elected officials in Washington. Bush spent the day with the women's basketball champions from the University of Notre Dame and Krzyzewski's Blue Devils, who last hung out at the White House when Bush's father welcomed the team to the White House in spring 1992.

During its visit to the nation's capitol, the basketball team had lunch with the younger Bush, North Carolina Senators Jesse Helms and John Edwards and Congressman David Price. Helms recessed a session of the Senate to give the team a chance to spend some time on the chamber floor, and Bush encouraged the players to take turns sitting in his chair in the Oval Office.

"I understand you were up in Washington to visit [Shane Battier's] future home," Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Tom White said as Battier, who Krzyzewski describes as a future president, and the team made its way up the steps in front of a crowd of well-wishers.