Collvge Basketball:

By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor

Whether Duke falls short in the final four, the NCAA Division 1 title game, or win their sixth national championship since 1991, I wanted to pay tribute to a man I have looked up to for almost 40 years.

And before anyone starts, no, I am not a bandwagon Duke fan.

I have been rooting for the Blue Devils since I was 13, which dates all the way back to 1983.

In fact, my fellow Duke fans and I waited for eight years until Bobby Hurley, Grant Hill, Christian Laettner and the boys in blue upset undefeated UNLV in the final four, and two days later, Duke edged Kansas for the first title in program history.

While I was growing up, I had a rocky relationship with my own father, and watching the way in which Coach K loved his players and staff unconditionally, it made me wish I was six inches taller and about one-point better on my GPA, so I could be a part of the extended Blue Devils family.

I can still remember that Saturday in March of 1992 at my Grandma Baiotto’s house in Glendora, when a Kentucky guard banked in a shot from beyond the free-throw line to give the Wildcats a 103-102 lead in overtime.

I probably dropped 10 f-bombs in a span of one minute, which made my 85-year-old grandma give me a dirty look.

With every intention of leaving before I offended her more, and to avoid watching Kentucky ruin a near perfect season, I was all set to leave her house, but stayed anyway.

After 90 seconds or so of commercials, they returned to the Spectrum in Philadelphia.

And with just over two seconds to play, and me peering into her living room from the hallway, Grant Hill threw a near perfect pass three-quarters of the way down court.

As anyone over the age of 25 or so knows, Christian Laettner caught the ball, took a dribble, and hit the game winner as the buzzer went off.

I was 21 at the time, and I hadn’t felt excitement like that before or since ‘the shot.’

A lot of college basketball ‘experts’ have said that was the best game in tournament history, and the win allowed Duke to face and defeat Indiana and the Fab 5 (Michigan) to win a second title in two years.

What many don’t know or remember is that Laettner finished that game 10-for-10 from the field and 10-for-10 from the free-throw line.

It took his and his teammate’s absolute best to escape the elite eight and a very talented Kentucky program.

A couple of other memories from that season that stick out so vividly involved my friend, neighbor and classmate, Tracy Murray.

Murray, the most consistent and best shooter I have ever seen in my life, played for UCLA.

The Bruins hosted the Blue Devils at Pauley Pavillion on Sunday, March 1st.

It wasn’t just seeing a buddy play against my favorite team, it was also a showdown between No. 1 Duke vs No. 2 UCLA.

And after a low-scoring, cold-shooting first half, the Blue Devils pulled away for a 10-point victory.

Later that year, Murray and Laettner played in the Pan American Games.

And to my shock, Murray surprised me with an autographed message from Laettner on hotel stationary.

Back then, my baseball nickname (at Glendora High & Mt. SAC) was the hammer.

Laettner wrote, “to California’s biggest Duke fan, the hammer, best wishes with baseball. Christian Laettner, #32 Duke.”

Needless to say, I was overwhelmed and have always been thankful to Tracy for that.

Duke would go nine years in between their second and third national championships.

Two years after defeating Arizona in the 2001 title game, a correspondence with Coach K took my fanboy level to the moon.

On his 31st birthday (March 20, 2003), my middle brother, Brad Baiotto, was one of the first 10 Americans across the Kuwaiti border into Iraq.

It was the first of six combat tours (four in Afghanistan, two in Iraq) and for whatever reason, I sent Brad Coach K’s book called “Leading with the Heart.”

After returning home from combat tour No. 1, Brad said, “I didn’t know why you sent me a book, but I read it, took notes, and brought all my guys home alive.”

Having heard that, I took a photo of Brad hugging his six-year old daughter, Maddison, after getting off the bus, and sent that photo and a letter to Coach K, saying that I had rooted for Duke for 20 years, but something he did actually affected the life of my brother.

I had the temerity to ask Coach K if he’d send a letter to my brother, but I had no reason to believe it would actually happen.

Less than a week after sending it to Duke University’s Cameron Indoor Stadium, I came home from work and saw a package from Duke.

I opened it, and not only was there a Duke polo shirt inside, there was a letter to me from Mike Krzyzewski.

And it wasn’t “Dear Mr. Baiotto,” it was “Dear Brian, thank you for that great letter. The amazing love you have for your brother Brad is the same way I feel about my brother Bill, who is the captain of the Chicago Fire Department.”

Not too long after picking my jaw off the ground, Brad let me know that he also received a nice note and polo shirt from Coach K.

I couldn’t believe the man who would go on to win more games than anyone in college basketball history would give a flying (bleep) about some nobody like me.

Duke basketball is also something that many of my friends and I bonded over, and soon thereafter, my mom became a loyal Blue Devil fan.

When Brad came home from his sixth and final combat tour, we flew out to North Carolina to greet him, and it also happened to be his first return to the U.S. since our father passed away in September of 2012.

My one condition in making that trip with my mom was flying to Raleigh-Durham, so we could check out the campus before the long drive to Swansboro.

We actually took a red-eye flight from LAX, so when we landed, it was still dark, but that didn’t stop us from getting in the rental car and walking around that beautiful campus.

The most surreal moment for me was having my picture taken next to the “Krzyzewskiville” sign, which is located just outside of Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Although I’ve been a fan for almost 40 years, I only got to see Duke play in person twice.

The first was at the Pond in Anaheim when they took part in the Wooden Classic.

In between the first game and the second, I saw former Duke star/current assistant coach at the time, Johnny Dawkins, watching the game from close to where the players enter and depart the court.

I got to sit there and talk to him for 45 minutes until the Duke game was close to starting.

And a few years back, my mom and I drove to Las Vegas to see Duke play UNLV at the new T-Mobile Arena.

It was billed as the rematch from the 1990-91 & 1991-92 seasons.

We bought tickets off a Duke season ticket holder and got there early.

I walked down close to the family section and saw David Robinson, who had a son on the team, taking pictures and signing autographs with fans.

As cool as that moment was, seeing Coach K make his way to the bench, while every Duke fan in the arena stood up and cheered, still gives me goosebumps.

The Dukies beat UNLV by 50 points that afternoon, so with approximately four minutes to play, I asked my mom if we should beat the traffic and get started on our three-hour trip home.

And I was a little surprised at her answer.

“No, I don’t want to miss anything.”

At one point in the 1990’s, I wrote a handwritten letter to Coach K’s wife, Mickey Krzyzewski, and told her how much I respected all she did for her husband and the program itself.

Mr. and Mrs. K host players for dinners each year and it serves as a way of bonding even more with the boys in blue.

In Krzyzewski form, I got a nice and long letter in which she said I was the first to ever write her and that she was touched I took the time to pay tribute to her dedication to her husband and his players over the years.

Last but not least, I wrote to Coach K a few years ago, and since he went to West Point, and is such a huge supporter of our military, I asked  if there was any way they could get Brad and his wife Amy to a game since they now resided in North Carolina.

Coach K’s secretary, Gerry Brown, wrote me back, and did her best to accommodate Brad and his wife Amy, but unfortunately, none of the dates they offered tickets to were convenient or possible for them to make the three-hour drive each way.

But my brother and I were and remain so thankful that they tried multiple times to get him to see a game with the ‘Cameron Crazies.’

I met a young woman who works or at least worked for CIF back in 2018, who came up to me at the Pasadena-Chino Hills title game at APU, and she complimented me on my Duke gear.

She went on to tell me that 15 years prior or so, she was battling cancer and her make-a-wish dream was to meet Coach K.

This story has a happy ending.

Not only did she get to meet Coach K, she survived and still corresponds from time to time with Coach K and Gerry Brown.

A basketball-related story that sticks out is something Adam Jacobsen told me.

Adam played at Glendora and Crescenta Valley and then went on to compete at Pacific.

Jacobsen, who spent time as an assistant at his alma mater, and then Hawaii, and now at Cal Baptist, talked about coaches clinics.

He said a lot of speeches are given and the lesser known coaches get tuned out from time to time, but when Coach K spoke, every eye was on Krzyzewski, and that you could hear a pin drop.

I don’t need to go into all kind of stats, because his records, many of which will never be broken, speak for themselves.

It was his impact on me and hundreds and hundreds of players that I wanted to focus on.

And while I know many despise the Blue Devils, I’ll always root for a program and school that demand its athletes are even better students than they are basketball players.

For 40 years of bleeding blue blood, thank you for providing so many memories that I cherish to this day.

Sincerely,

The No. 1 California Duke Fan,

Brian Reed-Baiotto