Sports Focus: Junior Slump
Player-of-year talk is over for Duhon Duke guard suffering through shooting woes
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Feb 14, 2003
DUKE AT VIRGINIA
TOMORROW: 9 p.m. ON THE AIR: TV - ESPN (ATT 30, CC 4), 9; RADIO - WRVA (1140), 8:30. TICKETS: Sold out.
At ACC Operation Basketball, media members gathered in Greensboro, N.C., in early November and, between interviews with players and coaches, cast preseason ballots for various honors.
The media's choice for ACC player of the year was Duke's Chris Duhon, who received 26 votes. Next came Virginia's Travis Watson, with 23 votes, followed by Wake Forest's Josh Howard with 20.
Some three months later, Howard leads the ACC in scoring. Watson is first in rebounding and almost certainly will join Howard on the all-conference first team.
And Duhon?
The player-of-the-year talk died down long ago. When a Charlotte Observer columnist issued a midseason report card Wednesday, in fact, Duhon was conspicuously absent from the all-ACC first, second and third teams.
"It's been kind of tough," Duhon said of his junior season. "I don't think I've been playing the way I'm capable of playing."
The 6-1 point guard from Slidell, La., leads the ACC in assists, but he entered eighth-ranked Duke's game at No. 15 Wake Forest last night averaging a modest 8.5 points and shooting 34.7 percent from the floor. He'd made only 24.1 percent of his 3-point attempts.
Duke plays at Virginia tomorrow night.
"I've never experienced anything like this before," Duhon said Wednesday. "This is adversity I have to get over . . . Right now I'm just trying to be the fun kid I was as a freshman."
There was little pressure on Duhon in 2000-01, when the former McDonald's All-American was named ACC rookie of the year and played 39 minutes in the NCAA title game, contributing nine points and six assists in Duke's win over Arizona.
As a sophomore, Duhon made honorable-mention all-ACC and averaged 8.9 points, 5.9 assists, 3.1 rebounds and 2.3 steals. Those weren't stop-you-in-your-tracks numbers. But his teammates included Jason Williams, Mike Dunleavy and Carlos Boozer, all now drawing NBA paychecks.
What was supposed to be Duhon's breakthrough season instead has been a struggle. Coach Mike Krzyzewski held him out of the starting lineup last week against North Carolina, though Duhon got his job back four days later against Clemson. In retrospect, Duhon said, the preseason accolades probably didn't help.
"I kind of wanted to please the whole world," he said. "It added pressure."
Duhon, 20, began the season as the Blue Devils' sole captain. Nick Horvath and Dahntay Jones were added as captains Monday.
"That's something they deserve," Duhon said. "It's not that I'd done anything bad."
Krzyzewski said: "We've done this in the years past for guys who've earned that and who have helped with the leadership, to formally recognize them, and both of those guys have done a good job . . . I think Chris is fine with that. He knows he's still the key guy."
Coach K's assistants, John Dawkins, Chris Collins and Steve Wojciechowski, are former Duke guards, and they've "been very supportive," Duhon said. "They've all been saying that everyone in this program has gone through some adversity."
He didn't see this adversity coming, but Duhon, ever optimistic, believes relief is in sight.
"I think the worst is behind me," he said. "I don't think I've completely turned the corner yet, but I'm making the turn."
Contact Jeff White at (804) 649-6838 or jwhite@timesdispatch.com
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