Duke's Assistant Coach Nate James on 1999 Championship

[Scoe]

I just rewatched the 99 title game, there were stretches in where each of our starters was on the bench and we were still kicking dukes , we had 3 bench guys playing against 5 of dukes starters for a stretch. I will take Rip and Khalid in the clutch every time. Our role players were far better, we had Wane, Saunders, Rashamel, and Mouring off the bench. Duke only had Magette.

 

[CallMeBruce]

Wane stealing the ball from Brand and then making that hook over him is one of my favorite plays in the history of sport.

 

[8893]

Wane stealing the ball from Brand and then making that hook over him is one of my favorite plays in the history of sport.

I'm getting goosebumps again just thinking about that moment. That was the moment when I knew we would do it. It felt like the Husky raised his leg and peed on the mighty Blue Devil. And Brand knew it, too. The look on his face was priceless.

 

[superjohn]

Wane stealing the ball from Brand and then making that hook over him is one of my favorite plays in the history of sport.

Everyone always says Wane stealing the ball from Brand and making the hook, if I rememeber correctly it was Saunders who slapped the ball out of Brand's hands and Wane making the hook.

 

[August_West]

I'm getting goosebumps again just thinking about that moment. That was the moment when I knew we would do it. It felt like the Husky raised his leg and peed on the mighty Blue Devil. And Brand knew it, too. The look on his face was priceless.

Because they had not been aggressively challenged like that all year. In ACC league play they'd call a flagrant on wane for looking at Brand cross eyed.

We brought the ruckus to them. If Langdon could miss a shot we win by double digits.

 

[dsturdy5]

Moore treated Avery like his kid brother.

Wait, did you know they grew up like in the same neighborhood?! And have known each other since they were babies. And...





(I also believe I heard somewhere that Kevin Freeman played high school ball with Tim Thomas)

 

[August_West]

Everyone always says Wane stealing the ball from Brand and making the hook, if I rememeber correctly it was Saunders who slapped the ball out of Brand's hands and Wane making the hook.

iirc correctly it was a Wane/Saunders double team with Saunders making the slap, you're right, and Wane picking it up an going right up with it.

That was the other thing. We had players with attitude. For all of Edmund Saunders issues, he was no one's Biotch. Also, after 10 minutes of Ricky Moore intesity Avery looked like he wanted to crawl in a hole an hide. El-Amin had swagger for days. Freeman would not be manhandled by anyone. That was a great Duke team who seemed a little shocked our guys didn't bow at their feet like gentlemen.

 

[CallMeBruce]

I'm getting goosebumps again just thinking about that moment. That was the moment when I knew we would do it. It felt like the Husky raised his leg and peed on the mighty Blue Devil. And Brand knew it, too. The look on his face was priceless.

Also, Freeman getting that rebound and putback one-handed because he was being held by Battier. That was a pretty amazing play.

I occasionally forget that I didn't watch this game live. My parents had gotten Rolling Stones tickets for the family for Christmas, and it wasn't until much later that we'd realized that the show was the same night. We spent a fair amount of time discussing scalping the tickets, but my dad didn't think we'd do that well in Hartford, considering everyone else was going to be watching the game, so we decided to tape the game, and then jump right in the car after the show and drive home with the radio off, go home, and stay up as late as we needed to see it.

Silly us.

Right after the Rolling Stones played their last song (this was at the HCC, mind you), the jumbotron lights up and there's the game. It's 77-74, UConn, and the play where Langdon tries to go the length of the court is just starting (we initially thought this was just lucky timing, but I'm going to assume it was deliberate). It takes everyone a second to realize what's happening, but we all start screaming, and the place goes ape when Langdon falls over and the game ends.

Even if they hadn't done that, driving back out of Hartford would have tipped us off, since everyone was going ballistic in the streets. When we got home, we sat down and watched the game, but it was a very weird experience. It was like watching a movie where you know, in your heart, that the good guys are going to win, but you just don't know how.

 

[CallMeBruce]

Everyone always says Wane stealing the ball from Brand and making the hook, if I rememeber correctly it was Saunders who slapped the ball out of Brand's hands and Wane making the hook.

Technically yes, but I think Wane gets credit for the steal since he's the first one to get possession.

 

[OkaForPrez]

Also, Freeman getting that rebound and putback one-handed because he was being held by Battier. That was a pretty amazing play.

I occasionally forget that I didn't watch this game live. My parents had gotten Rolling Stones tickets for the family for Christmas, and it wasn't until much later that we'd realized that the show was the same night. We spent a fair amount of time discussing scalping the tickets, but my dad didn't think we'd do that well in Hartford, considering everyone else was going to be watching the game, so we decided to tape the game, and then jump right in the car after the show and drive home with the radio off, go home, and stay up as late as we needed to see it.

Silly us.

Right after the Rolling Stones played their last song (this was at the HCC, mind you), the jumbotron lights up and there's the game. It's 77-74, UConn, and the play where Langdon tries to go the length of the court is just starting (we initially thought this was just lucky timing, but I'm going to assume it was deliberate). It takes everyone a second to realize what's happening, but we all start screaming, and the place goes ape when Langdon falls over and the game ends.

Even if they hadn't done that, driving back out of Hartford would have tipped us off, since everyone was going ballistic in the streets. When we got home, we sat down and watched the game, but it was a very weird experience. It was like watching a movie where you know, in your heart, that the good guys are going to win, but you just don't know how.

Great story, cool to experience the feeling in an Arena full of people.

 

[sdhusky]

Rip shot below 50% that game. The Alaskan Assassin was the guy who shot out of his mind just to keep it close.

Rip went for 28 or 29 points.

 

[Palatine]

Rip went for 28 or 29 points.

27 points

 

[Husky1964]

See Ed S at Wtby Y frequently. Remind him of his great BOX out of Brand during 1 and 1 time. Foul on Brand. Ed makes 2 foul shots!! Believe it or not he doesn't remember.!!!!!!!@!!! I do, ive seen it enough times on replay.

 

[Citrusdog]

David Borges ‏@DaveBorges
Duke asst. coach Nate James was on 99 team. "We play that game 10 times, we win 9 of them. Unfortunately, doesn't work that way."

Nate, Ya' think?! I think Nate's momma smoked during pregnancy

I'm so tired of stupid.......

 

[HooperScooper]

"If you play that game 10 times, I truly believe we’ll win nine out of 10 times. Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen that way. You get one time to show up, and they did. I think for the rest of our lives -- Elton Brand, my good friend, Trajon Langdon -- we’ll forever regret not bring our best to the table that night.”

http://borgesblognhr.blogspot.com/2014/12/some-uconn-duke-nostalgia.html

So what makes him think they didn't bring their best and they didn't just get beat by a better team? That's a little disrespectful to that UConn team.

 

[CallMeBruce]

If Khalid hadn't had such a mediocre game, we'd have won by double digits. I'm sure Khalid will regret not blowing Duke out for the rest of his life.

 

[RoderickSpode]

I'll never forget Billy Packer saying something to the effect of:

"Hamilton is realizing, 'Duke has no one on the court who can stop me' "

The old crank was right.

 

[Waquoit]

I'll never forget Billy Packer saying something to the effect of:

"Hamilton is realizing, 'Duke has no one on the court who can stop me' "

The old crank was right.

He also said, "You're not taking the ball away from Brand" about a second before that Wane steal.

 

[Waquoit]

I occasionally forget that I didn't watch this game live.

So you're not a real fan?

 

[CallMeBruce]

So you're not a real fan?

Sometimes I'm not sure I'm real at all.

 

[Waquoit]

Our role players were far better, we had Wane, Saunders, Rashamel, and Mouring off the bench. Duke only had Magette.

That game made me think Albie could be a star. Turns out the only guy he could beat off the dribble was Corey Maggette.

 

[8893]

That game made me think Albie could be a star. Turns out the only guy he could beat off the dribble was Corey Maggette.

Hell, the warm ups before that game made me think Ajou Ajou Deng would be the best player we ever had. Turns out the only guys he could beat off the dribble were chairs.

 

[Chuck]

James is probably right. It was a pretty flukey win. Khalid was too fat, Rip too skinny, and Ricky couldn't shoot. So were our other 3 championships. Did anyone really expect Kemba to progress like he did and we got totally lucky to play Butler. We all knew Shabazz was a one man show last year and we got to play in MSG. At least Okafor was good, but the refs clearly helped him stay in the game when he got in foul trouble against Duke. All in all, it's been four cheap championships.

On the other hand, UConn has had some solid teams that had teams out-fluke them. We were clearly the better team against Miss State, George Mason, Florida (one free throw Donyell!) and Duke '90 (did that kid Laetner ever make another clutch shot?). So I still have us with at least four championships, maybe more. Let's hang some extra banners and make t-shirts!

 

[Chief00]

Let's not forget Tim Higgins, who let UConn play aggressively. Especially, Jake who had a great defensive game as did many of our role players (Jones, Wane, ES).

 

[cordeodato]

1) ACC was not very good that year, we played a much better schedule and won
2) Magette a pro but he was only a freshman I would take Albert and Rosh combine over him anytime for that year.
3) I always thought that was Calhoun's best defensive team up to that point. They didn't press, they
didn't have too.
4) Just my take we win 80% vs that team