Duke’s basketball past and basketball future collided Saturday in two brief ceremonies held three hours and 215 miles apart.
First was the celebration of Duke’s past – as the school honored Dick Groat, its first great basketball player, at halftime of the Duke-Pitt game in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
A few hours later, make way for the future – Zion Williamson, the number one, two or three prospect in the prep class of 2018 (the exact rank depends on the recruiting service), committed to Duke at a ceremony at his Spartanburg, S.C., high school – shocking all the recruiting gurus who had him going to Clemson, Kentucky or maybe North Carolina.