After competing for Team USA this summer, Duke players Chris Duhon, Carlos Boozer and Dahntay Jones are not only national champions, they are world champions. Paced by Boozer, who led his team in scoring and rebounding, and Duhon, whose asserted himself as captain of the squad of college all-stars, the USA basketball team went 8-0 and took home the gold medal in the FIBA World Championship for Young Men in Saitama, Japan earlier this month.
Team USA defeated Croatia 89-80 Aug. 12 to culminate their undefeated tournament run, which was highlighted by a 19-point, 14-assist effort by Duhon, who closed out Croatia with a three-pointer with less than a minute remaining to put his team up by four points.
"I felt, as captain of the team, we were going to win or lose through me," Duhon said after the contest. "I was willing to make whatever plays necessary for us to win. Thank God I made the right plays and it just gave that little cushion that we needed for us to be victorious."
If recent history is any indication, the experience of playing the world's best young talent should be a valuable one for the Blue Devil trio, as many Duke players, including Jason Williams last summer, showed visible improvement after a summer of international competition. Boozer, who was cut from last year's squad, proved that he will be difficult to handle in the upcoming season after leading Team USA with 15.9 points per game and 8.0 rebounds per game. And Duhon, who is often lost in the shadow of his fellow backcourt mate Williams, demonstrated confident leadership as the captain of the team, not to mention, deadly shooting from the perimeter throughout the tournament.
"It's kind of good for me to go out and show what I can do," Duhon said. "I might have surprised some people with how well I did, just because of my play last season. But being in Jason's shadow is no problem; it's given me the opportunity to learn from one of the best point guards to ever play this game. I like being in his shadow a little bit, but I'm also a pretty good player myself."
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Both Duhon and Boozer were quick to commend USA coach Jim Boeheim for his efforts throughout the competition. However, they disagreed with the Syracuse coach's decision not to utilize Jones, who garnered significant attention after his solid performance at the tryouts.
"It wasn't like he was doing anything wrong," Boozer said of Jones' lackluster World Championship run." I think he played really well in the practices. I think he brought a lot of energy.
"I was disappointed in him not playing, because he should have played more, in my opinion. I might be a little biased, but I thought he proved himself in practice."
Although reluctant to criticize Boeheim, Duhon expressed similar sentiments to his Duke teammate.
"He was behind some really great players, but Dahntay is just as good or better than any of those players," Duhon said. "I don't know, I guess it was just Coach's decision, so I really don't want to comment on it."
Nonetheless, all three players agree that the trip was educational on many levels, as they played against players from all over the world of different skills and sizes, an experience that is only seen in international competitions. For instance, teams like Croatia featured strong, physical guards that liked to post up Team USA's smaller guards, while teams such as Japan and South Korea had few players who were taller than the United States' guards. In fact, both Duhon and Boozer said that the only aspect that all of the teams seemed to have in common was that both their guards and big men were proficient in three-point shooting.
In addition to seeing some of the best players from across the globe, the three Blue Devils got a glimpse of the best domestic college players by playing alongside potential All-American like Kansas center Nick Collison, Connecticut forward Caron Butler, UCLA swingman Jason Kapono, and St. Joseph's point guard Jameer Nelson. Boozer enjoyed going up against the physical Collison in practice, while Duhon always had his hands full with Nelson. Likewise, Jones was often challenged by Butler and Kapono in practice, which may have been a factor in his reduced playing time.
But most importantly, the players believe that their experience playing as a unit of Blue Devils will be quite beneficial for the upcoming season.
"I think a lot of my assists were to Carlos," Duhon said. "It was kind of funny actually, because Coach [Boeheim] joked that I don't just have to look for Carlos. We have a better feel for each other and I think that's going to help us out even more during the season."
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