Steve Nordlund and I got a chance to go to a Duke home basketball game. Steve was my right-hand person (Sales & Marketing VP) at Insitu. His replacement when he transferred to Boeing was Al Jackson. I had met both Steve and Al at Embry-Riddle. Steve was an Asst. Director of Alumni Relations at the time (soon to become CIO) and Al was an Asst. Basketball Coach (and former two time team MVP). Steve went to IBM and got his MBA at Florida before he was one of the first people I recruited to Insitu. Al went to Washington DC and become a successful lobbyist, earning an MBA at Johns Hopkins, before I recruited him to Insitu.
We used to enjoy playing pick-up basketball together in the White Salmon High School gym on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Steve Nordlund (“Webbie”) and I played many years together and we have a few trick plays that come from all those games. Al was in a different class than the rest of us, but he always made it fun for us to play together.
Another fun thing was that Al invited his older son to come an play with us a couple of dozen times. He was in 4th and 5th grade for these games. At that time, he was a head shorter, but he still played well. I teasingly say he wasn’t that much better than us when he was in 5th grade.
Since then Frank has gone on to become a high-school star, won the co-MVP and slam dunk competition of the McDonald’s All-American game, and now is a freshman at Duke. He is one of 4 freshman they brought in that was ranked in the top 15 in the US for recruiting class. He is probably on the path to the NBA.
It’s been fun watching Frank play on TV and he had some good games early in his career including ACC freshman of the week. But Duke has been struggling lately. They had injuries that slowed all of the freshman and other issues with the players and the coach (back surgery for Coach K). Plus it turns out that Frank has a hairline fracture on his foot and has been struggling with orthotics so he could postpone surgery until after the season.
Al had invited Webbie and I to come to a game and we took him up on it. Cameron Indoor Stadium is legendary because it is tight, noisy, and Duke defends it well.
Webbie and I arrived early afternoon so we could catch-up on life. He’s considering a new job inside Boeing and the kids are doing great. We rendezvoused with Al and Juleen at the hotel. We then went to the Duke store while Al & Juleen went to a parents meeting. Then we had dinner at the West Union (food court types of options) and then walked to Cameron.
The game was totally owned in the first half by Miami, the visiting team. Frank hadn’t started but did play a few minutes. Duke was down 12 points at the break and there hadn’t been much to cheer about.
Then in the 2nd half Duke did something strange. It changed the starting line up which included both Frank and Matt Jones. Frank and Matt are close (Matt is a senior) and normally they spell each other and aren’t usually in the game at the same time. So unusual factor #1: starting line-up for 2nd half was different than 1st half; #2: both Frank and Matt were in the line-up the same time.
Ka-Bang! It was magic. Duke started the 2nd half on a 20-4 run with the new starting line up as they fed off of each other. Frank had 4 assists and some awesome baskets. He is very gifted and smooth.
One thing that helped beat Miami was the atmosphere when Duke started to win. They had constant bee buzz sound whenever the other team had the ball. It seemed really unnerving. The volume was particularly loud whenever Duke built momentum (2nd half). I can see why it lead to Miami crumbling under the pressure. This video clip might hint of it incredible atmosphere:
We stayed afterwards, met more of the players and parents, and posed for some pictures with Frank.
It was a great weekend trip. Now I am rushing back to puppy-duty and some Seeq back-office tasks.
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