For Duke's Zoubek, a storybook ending

INDIANAPOLIS - Brian Zoubek stood on a makeshift stage in the middle of Lucas Oil Stadium with his Duke teammates, clutching the national championship trophy so hard that not even the world's strongest man could have pried it away.

The story for the 7-foot-1 Zoubek began a year after his graduation from Haddonfield High School and finished Monday night, when he made big plays in the final 13.6 seconds to secure the Blue Devils' title game victory over scrappy Butler.

In between, there were two surgeries on his left foot, his struggles both times to return, his doubts about whether he would ever become a contributor, and, finally, his final 16 games as a starter his senior year that helped make Duke's championship run possible.

"It's really hard to imagine being in this position when you spend two summers on crutches," Zoubek said after the 61-59 win. "People around me kept telling me, 'Keep going at it, just keep fighting.' It's hard to believe them sometimes that good things are actually going to happen.

"It's an unbelievable feeling that you can see the product of the hard work I put in and the hard work this team put in. It's just a good story."

During the summer before his sophomore year, Zoubek landed awkwardly on his left foot in a pickup game and underwent surgery the next day. After three to four months on crutches, he resumed playing with a carbon cast on his foot that he wore with a steel shank in his shoe.

"It was kind of like lugging a club foot around," he said.

Zoubek rebroke the foot in the middle of his sophomore season, right before Duke's trip to Temple for a game that, he said, hundreds of friends and family planned to attend. He sat out a month and played the last 13 games, but doctors felt the injury hadn't healed and another surgery followed.

"I was just starting to play well and that was a big disappointment for me," he said during a media session Sunday. "I thought I was fine after the season, then I had an X-ray and I had to have the surgery again. I didn't want to do it, but ultimately it was the right decision because I was able to get it completely healed after that."

Zoubek started 17 games as a junior but averaged just over 12 minutes a game. He did not start any of the first 24 games of his senior year, leaving him a bit frustrated, but he finally got the call for a Feb. 13 game against Maryland.

That was his springboard. He scored 17 points and pulled down 16 rebounds. Who knew, as he started every game from that point on, that this performance would be the initial step toward his becoming a major contributor to a national championship?

"I did elevate my game and it was probably noticeable compared to how I played before," Zoubek said early Tuesday, as he also began celebrating his 22d birthday. "But all the guys on this team had to elevate their game to another level to win this thing. Somebody new stepped up every single night."

On Monday, before a decidedly pro-Butler crowd of 70,930, it was Zoubek who stepped up in the second half, particularly in the final 13.6 seconds. That's when he forced Bulldogs star Gordon Hayward into a tough baseline jumper, grabbed the rebound and made one of two free throws that accounted for the final margin.

No one was more delighted at the way Zoubek closed the game than his coach, Mike Krzyzewski, who won his fourth national title.

"I'm glad Zoubek was a part of that," Krzyzewski said. "I just think that's such a great story. I've tried to downplay it throughout because I didn't want him to get satisfied. But his story is unbelievable. From that Maryland game on Feb. 13 to now, he just elevated our team to give us a chance to win this thing."

Those who love the underdog wanted Butler to have a storybook ending to its run to the title game. The Bulldogs played the Blue Devils virtually even from the opening tip to Hayward's desperation heave from half-court that almost banked in at the buzzer.

But Zoubek forged a storybook ending of his own.

"It's unbelievable to win - my senior year, last game, my birthday," he said. "What more can you ask for?"