Feature flashback: Todd Zafirovski scores his first career points

Throughout this week on The Blue Zone, we’ll be bringing back some of our best Duke basketball features of the season.

Today's feature flashback: Duke basketball's Zafirovski never says never

Six-foot-9 forward Todd Zafirovski joined the Blue Devils midway through the 2009-10 season but did not play a game.

He finally got into a couple games the next two seasons, but he did not score his first points until this year against Delaware.

The entire article profiles Zafirovski's entire journey, but this snippet is on that game against Delaware:

Todd Zafirovski was never going to score a point for Duke. Last Saturday Josh Hairston fouled out of a contest against Delaware with more than five minutes on the clock.

Mason Plumlee rose from the bench, ready to replace Hairston in the game. But Krzyzewski had other plans. He called for Zafirovski.

Zafirovski appeared in his first Duke game in November 2010, saw his first ACC action against North Carolina State February of that season, and appeared in 10 games through his sophomore and junior seasons. In 21 minutes of court time during that span, he racked up an 0-for-3 shooting performance, two rebounds, a block and an assist.

He played in his first Countdown to Craziness at the start of his senior year—another career landmark that he experienced with his name misspelled on his jersey. Then, he got his chance to set a career high in minutes—with six left to play—against Delaware.

“Every single time I get in a game, everyone’s like ‘You’d better score, you’d better take a shot,’” Zafirovski said.

His teammates did their best to facilitate, but he missed his first attempt from the floor.

“Pretty badly, too,” he recalled. “I don’t really know what happened. I just got the ball, and I tried to flick it up there really quickly, and I lost it.”

But he was undeterred.

“If you give it to me again,” he told his team, “I promise I’ll make it.”

And sure enough, his next opportunity came—under the rim, with 1:24 on the clock. Off an entry pass from Tyler Thornton, Zafirovski converted a layup for the first points of his Duke career.

“It’s finally good to get that off my back,” he said, “and I couldn’t be any happier about it.”