For Duke's four senior captains, tonight's season opener is the beginning of their last chance.
The group came together four years ago as the Super Six, the nation's top recruiting class, with near-impossible dreams.
Their task was to replace the core of a team that won a national title in 2001 and had then departed for the NBA after finishing 31-4 a year later. They were determined to leave their mark on the Duke program.
"Me and J.J. [Redick] talked about that freshman year-how we would go to four Final Fours, win a championship," guard Sean Dockery said. "We were dreaming. We were young, and we dreamed big. We're not as young anymore, but we still dream big."
As they begin their final season together, the group-now down to four after Shavlik Randolph's departure for the NBA this past summer and Michael Thompson's transfer to Northwestern in 2003-is aware of the limited time it has to fulfill those original aspirations.
For Dockery, Redick, Shelden Williams and Lee Melchionni, tonight's game against Boston University at 7:30 p.m. in Cameron Indoor Stadium marks the start of their final opportunity to leave Duke with more than just memories.
"As soon as last season was over with, we knew that this would be our last year," Dockery said. "And this is something that we want to accomplish, something we can tell our kids, something we can have, a ring or something."
A ring is part of the reason Williams-who along with Redick is a preseason All-American-decided to come back to school after flirting with leaving Duke for the NBA over the summer. The big man's decision to return was "the final piece of the puzzle," Melchionni said.
"I had a lot of unfinished business here at Duke University," Williams said. "I want to win a National Championship, and that is one of the things that motivated me to come back. I wanted to do that before I left and moved on to the next level."
The four remaining seniors have experienced a lot in their years as Blue Devils-from a loss in the National Championship game during their sophomore season, to Duke's lowest preseason ranking since 1995 as juniors.
But this year's preseason No. 1 ranking is a first for the group.
Redick said preseason expectations are not important to him; he expects Duke to be the top team in the nation every year, regardless of what anyone else thinks. But other players said this year's team is different from last year's, though it did not affect how they prepared for the season.
"Last year through the whole preseason, we had our backs to the wall," Melchionni said. "And this year, we know we're very talented, and everyone's picking us to do this and that this year.
"You look at us on paper, and you would say that we should probably win every game this year."
They will start with an attempt to tame the Terriers in the first round of the Preseason NIT. Boston University finished 20-9 last season and advanced to the NIT. The team was chosen to finish second in the America East Conference, despite losing its three leading scorers from last season.
The Terriers strength is their defense. In the 325 games head coach Dennis Wolff has coached at BU, his squad has held opponents to fewer than 55 points in a quarter of those-and have won 72 of 76 games when doing so.
"Monday is big," Melchionni said. "If we lose, that's the end of our tournament, so we're excited and want to get after it. We're looking forward to getting started."
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