YouTube Gold: Duke Starts Walk-ons Against Wake Forest
A memorable exercise in reasserting standards
Wake Forest's Chris Paul (left) grabs a loose ball against Duke's Reggie Love (top) and Shelden Williams (right) during the Blue Devils 102-92 win Sunday, February 20, 2005 at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by K. C.
Cox/WireImage) I n 2005, Duke had a rarity: they lost back-to-back games, both on the road. The first was to Maryland, 99-92, and then to Virginia Tech, 67-65. Wake Forest came to Cameron after that, and Coach K was pissed.
He kept JJ Redick and Shelden Williams in the starting lineup, but sat Daniel Ewing, Sean Dockery and Shavlik Randolph. In their places, he put Reggie Love, Patrick Johnson, and Patrick Davidson. He did this because he felt that the three benched starters weren’t playing up to Duke standards.
The walk-ons did their best and showed full commitment to the standards, but they could not keep up with Chris Paul. Duke ended up winning, 102-92. Skip Prosser mused afterwards that the starting lineup was “curious,” something Wake fans picked up on.