K Academy: 2023

What's the best vacation you can think of? Relaxing at the beach? Touring famous cities? This year my family had probably our best family trip to Utah / Arizona over Spring Break, but for my money the best possible vacation is 5 days in Durham, North Carolina at K Academy. Thanks to my lovely wife, I went back to K Academy for the 2nd time. (I did this in 2019 and wrote about in this blog.) K Academy is a 5 day fantasy camp where you play basketball at Cameron Indoor Stadium and are coached by current & former Duke players. If you like basketball (check) and especially Duke basketball (check), it really is the absolute ideal experience.

This year I was drafted by Team Dallas. Team Dallas was coached by Duke assistant coach Jai Lucas, Duke legend Gene Banks, 4 year Duke player Sean Dockery and current Duke star Tyrese Proctor. I had a few concerns looking at our team at draft night just because it was obvious we were a short team. Slight concerns became bigger concerns as we went 0-2 the games the first days. We were short, turned the ball over too much, couldn't shoot well and struggled playing defense. 

M and the kids came to see K Academy and even with them being the stands our team lost the next two games on Thursday to bring our record to 0-4. Every night they show highlights from the games during the day and Team Dallas was NOT featured prominently. The one place we did show up was Duke's social media tweeted out our coach Jai Lucas who was mic'ed up for one of our losses. There were some less than flattering quotes, but it wasn't like Coach Lucas was wrong with his assessment of our team. 

We were losing and I couldn't shoot. The ball felt good leaving my hands and I could make shots in practice, but in the game situation it just didn't work out. I still LOVED being at Duke, but was definitely missing my 6-1 team from 2019. K Academy is extremely competitive (2 different games I played in had blood on the court) and it's not a shocking statement to say winning feels much better than losing. Our coaches were telling us were weren't play well (true) and we had quit (debatable) in a previous game. 

The good news is that despite the number of losses, I still enjoyed hanging out with the team. We had some really great people that helped make the losing better. 

We came into the playoffs on Sunday as the 10th seed (out of 10) thanks to our 0-5 record and were placed up against the 7th seed Team Denver. Team Denver had already beaten us once. Clearly Vegas doesn't produce lines for K Academy, but if they had we would have been big underdogs. We played inspired basketball and kept the close to till the very end. With one minute to go and down 2 we had the following three straight offensive possessions:

1. A loose ball scramble led to our point guard (who had played an excellent game) to pass me the ball on the wing. I let the ball fly, did a little skip and for the first time in a long time actually saw the ball go through the net. A 2 point deficit became a 1 point lead and I could finally feel some relief on hitting a 3 pointer.
2. One of the greatest lacrosse players of all time drove the ball for an acrobatic layup to stretch our lead to 3 points.
3. Up 2 points (Team Denver had hit 1 free throw before this) our best player (Brian) calmly hit both free throws to put us up 4 with about 5 seconds left.

Those free throws officially sealed the game for us and we celebrated as if we won the national title. I'm still kind of shaking from that win. We stayed together and easily played our best game of the week. Everyone was (is) so incredibly hyped from this win.

We moved on to face the 2nd seeded San Antonio at Cameron Indoor Stadium for a start time an hour after our game ended. Our legs were gone and almost an instant we found ourself down 16 points. We didn't win this game and it wasn't particularly close. The highlight for me came in the layup line before the game. Coach K tapped me on the shoulder and said to me "that was a very big shot. That is making our one shining moment!" I don't know what I looked like, but I was so shocked and happy that it is hard to properly describe. Coach K! Talking to me! About a shot I made! Talk about putting the fantasy in fantasy camp.

Some other observations from camp:

• Tyrese Proctor was a great coach. Very calming and positive person. Also, he showed up for way more games / practices than Alex O'Connell did when he was my coach in 2019. I already rooted for him before but I will be doing so even more next year.

• Gene Banks is quite the character and is filled with energy
• I can see why Jai Lucas is such a great recruiter. He told so many riveting stories over lunch.
• Jayden Schutt's one handed tomahawk dunk over Theo John was the highlight of the player's scrimmage
• The most impressive (not necessarily the best) was Jared McCain. He gets himself ready for the shot so well and then shoots it was so much confidence.
• Talking to Coach Scheyer on Saturday night was easily one of the top 5 highlights. He took time to actually talk to M and I about the 2010 national title. He also pulled Coach Lucas aside and told him at the draft that "you need to draft this guy because he can really shoot the ball." Compliments like that are just incredibly to hear....even if it wold have been better had we not been an 0-5 team at the time of the compliment. 
• Our victory on Sunday was without Coach Lucas. He needed to fly to Mexico to see the Boozer boys. The open question is that Coach Lucas was 0-6 last K Academy and started this year 0-5. Does he get the win from Sunday? It was his team, but he didn't coach it.
• One shooting highlight was I beat from coach (and former Duke great) Chris Duhon 7-6 (out of 10) in a 3 point contest during practice one day.
• It was so incredibly nice to have M, L & J there cheering Team Dallas on for every game. I wish we would have played better but it doesn't change the fact that it was so nice having them there.

Overall it was just an amazing experience. I am sore writing this right now, but with a smile on my face and thinking about trying to find a way to go back.