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Battle-Tested
12/7/2016 2:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball
DURHAM, N.C. -- For all the remarkable success of Duke men's basketball, the program has seen more than its share of bad breaks that handicapped or derailed superior squads. We don't mean bad breaks in terms of luck — everyone has those. We're talking about fractures suffered by key players, often during the heart of the season.
Last season was unfortunately a prime example.
Over the the years broken toes and feet were repeatedly an issue, as with Bobby Hurley in 1992, Chris Collins in 1995, Elton Brand in 1999, Carlos Boozer in 2001 and Brian Zoubek in 2008. Foot injuries hobbled potentially potent teams, from Kyrie Irving's damaged toe ligament in early December of 2010 to Seth Curry's persistent leg woes in 2013 and Ryan Kelly's foot problems in 2012 and 2013. In most cases the wounded players returned to the court before year's end, although neither Irving and Kelly — nor their squads — were quite as adept as they had been prior to being injured.
Staff at Duke sports medicine investigated the seeming rash of foot faults, and now adjust players' orthotics after careful preseason testing in a sports performance lab. Meanwhile, over the years, one of Mike Krzyzewski's most admirable coaching traits has been his unwillingness to bemoan his fate when fortune frowns on the Blue Devils. He calls such complaints excuses, and dismisses the subject.
Still, Amile Jefferson's broken right foot, suffered on December 12, 2015, was enough to test anyone's equanimity.
Predictably, the situation was trying for an athlete who had never previously suffered a major injury or had to wear a cast. “It was rough, to see a team, our team, my team, my guys playing their hearts out, winning or losing,” he says in retrospect. “It was just hard being over there” in street clothes on the sideline, “to not be able to help the team whether it was rebounding, talking.”
The absence was similarly hard on Duke, which never adequately recovered.
Until last season Jefferson, a starter in the majority of the Blue Devils' games, was regarded as a nice complementary player. The 6-foot-9, 225-pound forward (up 30 pounds since his freshman year) was surprisingly active inside. He shot well from the floor, eschewing 3-pointers entirely. He averaged 5.3 rebounds per game. And he was a revelation on the offensive boards, a skill never more manifest than in Duke's first nine games in 2015-16.
The Philadelphian quietly finished second in offensive rebounds in each of his three full Duke seasons behind the likes of Jahlil Okafor, Jabari Parker and Mason Plumlee, all eventual first-round NBA picks. Then Jefferson truly exploded last year, leading the ACC in offensive rebounds with 5.14 per game.
While healthy he paced Duke in total rebounds each time out, and stood fourth in the conference at 10.6 per contest. The Devils held their own or better on the boards in nine outings behind Jefferson and Marshall Plumlee. Once Jefferson was sidelined, 17 of 27 opponents held a rebounding edge despite the emergence of Brandon Ingram.
Jefferson's scoring average also doubled in 2016 (11.4 points vs. 5.6 for his first three seasons) and his field goal accuracy zoomed to .683. He entered this season ranked second in Duke history in career field goal percentage (.624), behind only Boozer — who in fairness took twice as many shots. Jefferson also stands sixth at Duke in career offensive rebounds and projects to finish behind only modern leaders Shelden Williams and Christian Laettner, both All-Americans.
Less measurable, but no less important, the lean history major with the large brown eyes emerged as a leader. That trait was especially valuable on a 2016 squad with four underclassmen among its top seven players. “To be a leader you have to be confident in yourself, and so it wasn't until I got the confidence to know not only am I a good player but I can help in so many ways” that he emerged as a force, Jefferson says.
That ability to deploy multiple skills didn't make Duke's first four-time Academic All-ACC selection a different player last season. Rather, “he was a more complete player,” Krzyzewski says. “He's a really good basketball player, and he doesn't have a position. If he gets a rebound he can bring it up the court and he'd be our so-called point guard. He can make really good decisions and he can defend multiple positions.
“And he's a great guy to lead our fullcourt pressure. Not a good guy — a great guy to lead that. He can shoot the ball, he can pass it, he can dribble it. He's good.”
Still, getting to this juncture was a challenge for Jefferson. Throughout last winter he endured near-constant anticipation that the soreness and swelling in his damaged foot would disappear. “Any game now, any game now,” he told himself. “I always thought that I would be ready to play.”
But he never did get to dress for a game. Following what Jefferson calls “a program decision,” it was announced in early March that Jefferson would redshirt, seeking a fifth year of eligibility. “Taking my time was the best thing I could have done,” he says, repeatedly noting he had no wish to participate “as a shell of myself.”
The NCAA did grant Jefferson an extra year. He pronounces himself completely fit and now regards his enforced rest and rehabilitation as “a blessing in disguise.“
There's some concern in NCAA circles that graduate transfers, eight of whom joined the ACC this season, are students more in name than in practice. But players such as Jefferson who remain enrolled where they earned an undergrad degree rarely fit that profile. Jefferson, 23, certainly does not. He enrolled as a grad student in religion at Duke with a focus on Christianity, and relishes the chance to explore new educational territory.
“It's a pretty cool balance to basketball to take time off in the day to understand Christianity better, to understand religion better.” he says. Eager to broaden his horizons, he's taking a class during the fall semester in the Koran.
He also continues to study what it takes to meld with fellow team captains Matt Jones and Grayson Allen to lead a Blue Devil squad that Krzyzewski unabashedly says is fixed on winning the NCAA championship. “Amile, Grayson and Matt, they're national champions,” says their coach, winner of five titles. “They were on the court when we made our comeback, when we beat Wisconsin (in 2015). They performed at the highest level and came out successful. So they've been battle-tested.”
That testing included assimilating leadership lessons from older teammates — Jefferson mentions Mason and Marshall Plumlee, Kelly, Rodney Hood and Quinn Cook in particular — as part of a continuum which defines the Duke program. “I think you learn from great leaders,” he explains, well aware his coach has written books on the subject. “That's how you become one yourself.”
Jefferson possesses a key attribute cultivated by Krzyzewski in his on-court minions, especially on defense. Like the Plumlees, he is known as “a really vocal guy,” the former McDonald's All-American readily concedes. “I do a lot of talking. I think when I project I have a really loud voice.”
His game should now command comparable attention, a fact the league's media missed in voting for preseason All-ACC honors.Players Mentioned
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