Reliving Tim Duncan’s College Days at Wake Forest

In honor of Tim Duncan’s retirement Monday morning, Upside and Motor wanted to put its own special spin on all the celebrations of Duncan’s career and relive one of his greatest games from his time at Wake Forest.

Everyone will remember Duncan for his time with the Spurs, but he had an awfully good career for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons as well. Duncan played four seasons with Wake Forest in an era when many of the best players straight from high school to the pros.

Duncan was rewarded by being selected first overall in the 1997 NBA Draft, and the rest is history. But before any of those legendary playoff moments with the Spurs, Duncan had some good ones with the Demon Deacons in March Madness.

On March 21st, 1996, Duncan and the second-seeded Deacons played host to sixth-seeded Louisville. You can find the whole game on YouTube or follow along as we walk through some quintessential Tim Duncan as he played on college basketball’s biggest stage.

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In the first two possessions of the Wake Forest Arizona game, Tim Duncan established himself immediately as the best player on the court. Start the tape at the 19 second mark and you see Duncan anchoring the Wake Forest defense.

That block and outlet pass is already premiere Duncan in the game’s opening seconds. Rare is a college player that has the sixth sense to break off his own man and disrupt a shot like that. Then, he follows that up hustling down the court, making an excellent entry pass into the post and following up that missed shot with a putback dunk. “Clean it up, big fella! You can’t let him go undeterred!” screams Bill Raftery.

After the dunk, Duncan puts his head back down and sprints back on defense. I don’t think you can get anymore classic Duncan than that, and we are just getting started.

Our first Duncan post-up of the game. He doesn’t look to score but dishes a nice pass to a streaking guard. The guard misses, but the pass is on point. I have a feeling we will be seeing a lot of Duncan on the block in this game.

A Duncan three-point attempt! What happened to this part of his game? Did Duncan miss his calling as a stretch four?

He missed, but of course he followed up his shot, got the offensive rebound and got to the line.

(Duncan attempted 53 three-pointers in his career at Wake, and made 17 of them. Not too shabby.)

Here’s Duncan’s first bucket on a post-up. Look at how he already has the patience and touch around the block that he went back to time time again over his long NBA career. The ability to use that hesitation move on the block is something you rarely see among college players these days.

You gotta love this. Excellent job to gain possession in the post and classic Duncan touch off the glass.

You can take a look at the game summary (five blocks in the first half!) and then take a peak at some maybe not so quintessential Tim Duncan — trying a big-time dunk off an inbounds play. This isn’t something you saw much of in Duncan in his final few years with the Spurs…

30-27 at the half with Wake Forest leading. Timmy still hasn’t sat for a single minute.

Here’s a good look at a Duncan block. Maybe he’s a little bit out of position here, but his arms are so long that he’s able to block the shot without any issues. This was his sixth block of the game so far.

Let the clip play a little more and you will see a great look at Duncan’s assist from a post-up. He already had the vision in his junior year at Wake.

This possession has absolutely nothing working, then Tim Duncan saves the day by hitting a three with the shot clock running down. How about that. And it’s a pretty good stroke!

A rare expression of emotion on the court for young Tim Duncan after hitting that three.

Look at Duncan fight off the double team, use his footwork, which by the way is already top-notch in his junior year of college, and score with ease. Bill Raftery noted Duncan’s patience there, another thing that’s rare to find in college players.

Duncan picks up his fourth foul here, (Sean McDonough calls it “an atrocious call”) which means that Duncan will have to play the rest of the tight game, around eight minutes of game action, deep in foul trouble. He still doesn’t sit a single minute.

A strong rebound from Duncan here in the closing minutes of the game. You can’t ask for a better box out. Duncan is struggling a bit offensively over the last few minutes, but he is still making his mark on the defensive end by grabbing rebounds.

Watch this last possession in full. McDonough sets the table well for the gravity of the possession and Duncan, after setting one of the only ball screens he will set all game, gets the ball on the wing.

How about that spin move! That ability to finish through contact! The toughness in the big moment!

Maybe it’s a travel, but this was 20 years ago, too late to complain now. It was Duncan’s first field goal in 11 minutes of game action, they say on the broadcast. The bucket and free throw put Duncan’s Deacons ahead by one in the waning moments of the game. That bucket would end up being the game winner.

Here’s the final possession. Watch Duncan in the middle, scanning everything out and helping his team hold on for the victory.

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Here’s the final box score for Duncan.

Tim Duncan: 40 minutes played, 9-13 FGs, 8-10 FTs, 27 points,13 rebounds, three assists and six blocks (by my count).

Two more impressive things about this game from Tim Duncan…

Early on in the broadcast, sideline reporter Michelle Tayofa said Duncan had the stomach flu last week, and in this game today the Wake Forest coaching staff was watching him closely to see if he had regained all his stamina.

Another stunner – Duncan was 19 years old in this game.

Thanks for a great career, Tim Duncan.