Filed under: Duke
Behind the Blue Devil bench, Mason Plumlee was searching for a metaphor.In the final minutes of Duke's Countdown to Craziness, the school's pep rally on Red Bull to start the year, Plumlee found what he was looking for, grabbing the 55 jersey of Brian Zoubek and pulling it over his shoulders.
It was a sartorial metaphor, a statement in wardrobe made before he lept through the air for a dunk contest slam that the real Zoubek, a 7-foot-1, 260-pound collection of facial hair and heart, but not vertical leaping ability, might've completed only with the aid of a trampoline and the ability to violate basic laws of physics in ways it might take a Duke professor to explain.
It was a gesture to the departed center, the lone senior from the 2010 national championship team who couldn't return to Durham that night.
And it was a sign that of all the three starters gone from a year ago, someone had to find a way to take Brian Zoubek's place most of all.
"He was a tough player, a hard-nosed player, he made us play strong," Plumlee said afterward. "Now, somebody's got to step up."
What he said was step up. What he meant was get tough.
Of all things a Duke team that could go baseline to baseline with clippings on how it has improved despite losing three senior starters needs, it needs a Brian Zoubek most of all.
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Source: http://ncaabasketball.fanhouse.com/2010/11/16/fanhouse-top-30-no-1-duke-has-a-tough-act-to-follow/
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