ATLANTA — In the spring of 1996, Duke and Maryland engaged in a recruiting war for a Maryland high school kid named Nate James, who scored 15 points in the McDonald’s All-American game.
Duke won that battle, but in recent weeks, James had played so poorly that Blue Devils fans had started to wish that James had opted for College Park.
In Saturday’s ACC Tournament semifinal, however, James redeemed himself forever, soaring skyward in the final seconds to tip home Jason Williams’ miss and give Duke an 84-82 victory in one of the great games in ACC history.
Williams missed in the lane after a desperate drive, but even as the ball came off the rim, both Duke youngster Casey Sanders and James took flight. James was the one who got the job done, gently nudging the Devils into Sunday’s championship game against North Carolina with 1.8 seconds left.
“James made a great play,” said Maryland coach Gary Williams, who had once tried so hard to recruit him. “Just a great play.”
“It was funny,” James began, attempting to describe his heroics to the media.
“No, there was nothing funny about it,” interrupted Blue Devil coach Mike Krzyzewski. “It wasn’t funny, it was exciting.”
James could only nod and laugh in agreement.
That was nice, because James has had little to laugh about lately.
For all the parity in the league this year and all the great games that this year’s tournament has produced, James made sure that once again it will be Duke-Carolina for the title and the right to open the NCAA Tournament on the familiar floor at Greensboro this week as a No. 1 seed.
James’ tip-in was the crowning touch on a fairly amazing journey.
The 6-foot-6 James was an injury waiting to happen his first two years in Durham. He played just 17 games as a freshman, slowly learning the ropes of playing on the perimeter instead of the post.
His second college season was a washout, reduced to six games and 21 points by ruptured tendons in his thumb. He was granted a red-shirt year for that lost season, which helped make him the answer to a trivia question. Few players have ever been part of five conference championship teams. James is the only one ever to do it in the ACC.
His sophomore year he was a sub, averaging 5.0 ppg. Only as a junior, after Duke suffered wholesale underclassman defections to the NBA, did James emerge as a semi-star, scoring 11.0 ppg. He made the All-ACC third team, although he was still considered the fifth most important Devil.
That was fine with James, who never claimed to be Corey Maggette or Elton Brand.
“I’ve got to run my own race,” James always said.
But James’ role grew as a senior, to the point where at midseason, Krzyzewski declared that James had been praised so much as the team’s unsung hero that he “was now sung.”
James had some great games, including three straight 20-plus scoring efforts at one point. He was named third-team All-ACC again.
But out of nowhere, James collapsed in February.
He went 1-for-14 from the 3-point line in a late-season stretch, badly missing even his patented 3-balls from the corner. He scored four points in a game Duke was lucky to win at Wake Forest, four on a trip to St. John’s and four more in a humiliating home loss to Maryland.
It was a full-scale slump. It started in James’ right wrist, then drifted to his head, finally settling in the pit of his stomach.
When Duke closed the season at Chapel Hill, James wasn’t even in the starting lineup. Duke won in spite of him as much as because of him.
Shortly before the ACC tourney, James, 12-for-35 in his previous five games, declared that the “monkey was off his back” and promised that “the ACC Tournament would be a brand new season.”
He still didn’t start in the first round against N.C. State, but did make a 3-pointer and played respectably.
“It was the best Nate’s played in weeks,” said Krzyzewski. “He earned all the honors he got this year, but lately he hasn’t played at that high level. We need Nate to play well to be a good basketball team.”
Then came Saturday. And James, the forgotten man who again came off the bench, became a hero.
Duke was down 10-0, the crowd howling and Krzyzewski refusing to call a timeout when James calmly nailed one of those corner 3s to stop the Terps’ early onslaught.
He made a second 3 before he was through — he hadn’t made two in a game since Valentine’s Day at Virginia — and while he shot only 4-for-12 from the field, he put together 14 points, four rebounds and two steals when Duke needed them most.
“Coach always says, ‘Forget the last play and move on to the next one,’ ” said James. “That’s what I did today, moved on to the next one. I wasn’t going to hang my head. I was going to give it my all and enjoy myself. And it worked out. We beat a great, great team today.”
And in doing so, made Duke fans happy once again that Krzyzewski won the recruiting battle over Williams all those years ago.
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Assistant sports editor Mike London is covering the ACC Tournament for the Post.
Mike London