Duke's Assistant Coach Nate James on 1999 Championship

[tcf15]

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."

 

[phillionaire]

Good thing we only had to play them once then

 

[7774]

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."

If by winning 9 out of 10, he meant 3 or 4 out of 10, then I agree.

 

[8893]

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."

Unfortunately also not true. But nice to know he still buys the hype. Makes the story retain its allure.

 

[Inyatkin]

Nate James was their seventh man, and had 0 points in 6 minutes. They were not deep at all.

 

[partial]

Yea not sure it's unfortunate that it doesn't work that way... but who knows it's probably just as fun to hire a bunch of statisticians that write a report on who should win the championship each year and stop playing this crazy game called basketball altogether.

 

[Kitaman]

Unfortunately also not true. But nice to know he still buys the hype. Makes the story retain its allure.

Actually it means it still bothers him and there ain't nothing he can do about it but be eternally misarable when thinking about it.

 

[superjohn]

We were the better team not just on that night.

 

[RoderickSpode]

We could have played that Duke team 100 times and they still wouldn't have figured out how to stop Rip. He abused them.

 

[dogpause]

The loser always says dumb stuff like that. If we ever lost a Championship game, we'd do it too.

 

[sdhusky]

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."

Does somebody on those other 9 nights suddenly figure out how to stop Rip Hamilton??? 'Cause JC figured out how to slow down Elton Brand and K tried about everything he had at Rip without success.

Anytime a basketball game is won by the team with the best on the court, you can't be too surprised.

 

[99NCAA]

 

[RayRay19]

Haha love it means they still remember losing

 

[Hugo]

We were the better team not just on that night.

Absolutely !!! We played 5 if not 6 the same opponent and in each case won by a larger margin. We had an answer for Brand and as everyone has pointed out, they had no answer for Rip. We were the better team and not just for that game.

 

[8893]

There is no better position to be in than to be underestimated. And there is no greater mistake to make than to underestimate your opponent. Let's hope they continue the tradition.

 

[Danzz]

We were quicker and more athletic at just about every position.

 

[Waquoit]

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

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

If we played George Mason 10 times.......

 

[CL82]

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."

Ah the chorus of the loser:

"The sun was in my eyes"
"The refs decided the game"
"If only [insert name here] wasn't injured"
"We play that game 10 times, we win 9 of them"​

The fact that he is still butthurt is music to my ears.

 

[CL82]

Really, can this ever posted enough? I say no.

 

[businesslawyer]

The loser always says dumb stuff like that. If we ever lost a Championship game, we'd do it too.

If we ever what? Were invited to have Thai with Martians? What is this lose a championship of which you speak?

 

[CallMeBruce]

We were quicker and more athletic at just about every position.

Huh? Hamilton and Moore were quicker and more athletic than Carrawell and Langdon, but if we're talking about athleticism and quickness, I'd probably take Battier over Freeman, and I'd definitely take Brand and Avery over Voskuhl and El-Amin.

We didn't win that game because we had better players; we had the better coach.

 

[7774]

Absolutely !!! We played 5 if not 6 the same opponent and in each case won by a larger margin. We had an answer for Brand and as everyone has pointed out, they had no answer for Rip. We were the better team and not just for that game.

You are correct about the same opponents, I believe we did have a larger margin of victory against all of them. They also had the benefit of playing in a terrible ACC, which drove their amazing record and huge margin of victory. Only 2 other ACC teams made the tournament that year. A Maryland team that looked like a JV squad against the St. Johns team we blew off the court a week earlier, and a North Carolina team that lost in the first round to Weber St.

 

[Husky25]

David Borges‏@DaveBorges 12m12 minutes ago
Kevin Freeman's response: “All we had to do is win the one. So, I don’t know about the next 10 times ... I’ll take my one.” #uconn

 

[Palatine]

Moore treated Avery like his kid brother.

 

[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.