Senior Day ain’t what it used to be.
Well, nothing is.
But let’s stick with Senior Day, shall we?
If we’re talking about Duke, we all know the culprit; one-and-done. As much as we all loved watching Jabari Parker or Jayson Tatum or Zion or Paulo Banchero play at Duke we all knew going in that we were never going to see them play as Duke seniors. Or juniors. Or sophomores.
But programs that never had a chance with Marvin Bagley or Vernon Carey have faced a comparable situation with the transfer portal and NIL. Duke ruined NC State’s senior day earlier this week. I’m sure State fans hated to say goodbye to D.J. Burns and D.J. Horne and Casey Morsell. But none of them started in Raleigh and that’s increasingly common throughout the college-basketball universe.
In fact, State was Horne’s third collegiate stop.
How invested can fans get in a journey when you can’t tell the players without a scorecard?
There was a time when stars said goodbye on senior day, All-Americans, national players of the year.
Don’t get me wrong. Duke fans can and should support the contributions of Dan Meagher and Marty Clark and Matt Jones and yes Ryan Young and all the complementary players great programs and great teams need.
But those great teams used to have great seniors and an awful lot of them had great final games.
Dick Groat had 48 points and 12 assists in a 94-64 win over North Carolina in 1952. Art Heyman had 40 points and 24 rebounds in a 106-93 win over North Carolina in 1963. Bob Verga had 30 against Wake in 1967, Randy Denton 24 (10 rebounds) against North Carolina in 1971, Danny Ferry 26 against NC State in 1989, Christian Laettner 26 against North Carolina in 1992, Bobby Hurley 19 points and 12 assists against Maryland in 1993, Chris Carrawell 21 against North Carolina in 2000, Nolan Smith 21 points and eight assists against Clemson in 2011, all in wins.
That great class of 1986 said goodbye with David Henderson (27 points), Johnny Dawkins (21) and Mark Alarie (16) clinching the regular-season title with a 92-84 win over the Heels.
My favorite Senior Day was my first in attendance at Duke Indoor Stadium, March 1, 1969, my freshman season.
Fred Lind, Steve Vandenberg, Dave Golden, C.B. Claiborne and Warren Chapman were the seniors. None of them ever made an All-ACC team, none ever played a second in a regular-season NBA or ABA game.
Vic Bubas had announced that he was moving into administration after the season, so it was his Senior Day in a way. Duke was 12-12 and hosting Charlie Scott and the second-ranked Tar Heels.
Yikes.
Vandenberg was a 6-7, 220-pound former Parade All-American. He averaged 12 points and eight rebounds per game as a junior and went into his senior season projected as most likely to succeed departed star Mike Lewis and become Duke’s next star.
Instead he lost his starting spot to sophomore sharp shooter Rick Katherman and came into his last hurrah averaging around seven points per game.
But he had put together some good practices, Bubas played a hunch and it paid off big time. Vandenberg hit 10 of 14 from the field, 13 of 13 from the line, 33 points, 12 rebounds, as Duke stunned Carolina 87-81.
Given the sheer improbability of this outing, I have long considered this the best Senior
Day performance in Duke history.
Lind added 18 points and 10 rebounds.
As an aside, Janis Joplin and her Kozmic Blues Band finished up the evening in Duke Indoor Stadium.
A day to remember.
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