HOUSTON -- Cameron Indoor Stadium is a special venue, a historic place, the type of building players dream of playing inside. And there are lots of banners hanging above the court. But only banners that celebrate greatness. And Quinn Cook entered his senior season with zero connected to his career, which is why he told me, back in October, when we sat together under those banners, that, honestly, he felt a little like a failure.
"I don't feel like I've accomplished anything," Cook said.
So there was Quinn Cook on Sunday night, hugging Mike Krzyzewski, bawling his eyes out, crying big tears as the final seconds of a 66-52 Elite Eight victory over Gonzaga ticked away here at NRG Stadium, and it all made so much sense. Suddenly, the possibility of having to spend the rest of his life returning to Cameron and staring at a ceiling devoid of banners earned during his four-year career was removed. Suddenly, he was a man who had undeniably accomplished something from the list of things that matter at Duke.
NCAA
Final Four
2015
Those exact letters and numbers will be placed on a banner sometime soon.
Then they'll eventually raise that banner inside Cameron.
Quinn Cook accomplished that.
"A blessing," Cook said. "I'm just blessed to be a part of Duke."
Mike Krzyzewski is going to the Final Four for the 12th time, and literally nobody in history, not even UCLA's John Wooden, has been more often. It's a remarkable achievement by a 68-year-old Hall of Famer still operating at the highest level. And though that story is a great story to tell on a day like today, truthfully, this felt more like Quinn Cook's day.
He only had 10 points.
He missed five times as many shots as he made.
He wasn't great.
But he was still the happiest player on the court postgame, the one showing the most emotion, because when the final buzzer sounded he knew the sacrifice had paid off.
He was finally accomplished.
He felt accomplished.
A lot has been written about the sacrifices Kentucky's players have made this season, how they've been willing to share the spotlight for the greater good, and every word of those stories is true. But, in his own way, Quinn Cook has done the exact same thing at Duke and for Duke by willingly relinquishing his point guard duties to Tyus Jones.
Would Cook prefer to be Duke's starting point guard?
Of course.
It's humbling for anybody to be replaced in any walk of life. But rather than fight the inevitable or sulk about what amounted to a demotion, Cook long ago decided to embrace Jones -- and all that it entailed -- because he knew Duke would be better for it.
"Quinn has definitely sacrificed," Duke freshman Grayson Allen said. "You've never heard a word from him about who should be playing the point, or about Tyus, or about anything. He's been great. And it started on Day 1. When we'd play pickup in the summer, Quinn would say, 'Tyus, you play point.' And then he'd get on Tyus' team. He wanted Tyus to be the point guard and he wanted to play with Tyus, and that just speaks to his character because, you know, when you're recruited to Duke as a point guard, and when you are Duke's point guard, to then get moved over in your senior year by a freshman, that's big. But you never heard a word from him. He did whatever he had to do for us to win."
And so Duke won.
Thirty-three times so far this season -- and counting, of course.
Whether Duke will hang another banner, a national championship banner, from this season obviously remains undetermined, and doing so is clearly the goal. Still, no matter what happens next weekend inside that dome in Indianapolis, Quinn Cook won't graduate college feeling like he hasn't accomplished anything.
That much has been determined.
That much was determined here Sunday night.
And that's why nobody cried bigger tears than Quinn Cook.
Because the burden of leaving Duke banner-less was finally lifted for good.
"At our place you are judged by championships and banners, and, at our place, you don't get a banner just for making the NCAA Tournament," Duke associate head coach Jeff Capel said. "I think sometimes, being at Duke, you just kind of assume it'll happen for you. But the reality is that it's really hard to get a banner, and Quinn learned that. But he is the reason we're here. And the reason he's the reason we're here is because he was willing to change. He understood he had to change. So he changed. He became a man. He willed us here because he grew up, he changed and he just became all about the team."
