ESPN’s Look Back At Duke’s 2010 National Championship Is Terrific

If you haven’t seen it you really should

Of all of Duke’s championships, the 2010 title was by far the most dramatic. You could argue that the 1991 win over UNLV was more dramatic, but that was in the semifinals.

Titles are different.

And when it came down to Coach K calling for Brian Zoubek to miss his final shot to deny Butler an inbounds for a set play, and Gordon Hayward to miss a half-court desperation attempt by a fraction of a inch, well, what could be more intense than that? Everyone held their breath when that shot was in the air. It was a crazy moment.

ESPN’s piece on the 10-year anniversary of that game is worth anyone’s time to read. It has comments from both teams and coaches and several reminders - like Butler being #11 preseason and probably being more talented than Duke was.

Brad Stevens had built a tremendous program at the small Indianapolis school but in the end, really, Zoubek wrapped that game up for Duke. Go back and watch the last half-minute of it: Zoubek’s influence is everywhere. He forced Butler to take their last timeout. He forced Hayward into an awkward shot (with the help of Kyle Singler). He got the rebound. He hit the first free throw and missed the second, as instructed by Coach K.

His career was altered by injuries but at the end, he came through in a huge way for Duke. We were kind of gearing up to see if Justin Robinson could do something similar this year. Sadly, we’ll never know.