In 1983, people weren’t really taking Mike Krzyzewski and Duke very seriously. They also weren’t geeked up over Bobby Cremins at Georgia Tech.
Duke was coming off a 10-17 season, which only improved to an 11-17 season in 1982-83. Meanwhile, in Atlanta, Cremins was 10-16 in his first season, and would finish 13-15 in 1982-83.
It took a lot longer to build a program then, and both Duke and Tech were struggling to do so.
However, a core of greatness was already in both teams.
When the Yellow Jackets came
to Cameron in 1983, Cremins started Danny Pearson, Tim Harvey, George Thomas, John Salley, and Mark Price. The latter two would go on to have long NBA careers, and Price in particular was a superb guard.
Coach K meanwhile started four freshmen: David Henderson, Jay Bilas, Mark Alarie, and Johnny Dawkins, along with senior Chip Engelland.
Dawkins and Price would go on to have a great personal rivalry over the four years they were in the ACC together, and at this point in his freshman season, Price was the leading scorer in the ACC.
Duke would win this one with relative ease, 106-81.
It was a good win, but not enough for the Concerned Iron Dukes, who were pushing A.D. Tom Butters to fire Krzyzewski. Fortunately he didn’t, and the rest is history.
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