In 26 years of coaching, Mike Krzyzewski has seen a lot of special players come and go. Few, if any, he says, have had the impact on his fellow Blue Devils that Sean Dockery has.
"Sean has been as good a teammate as any kid I've ever coached," Krzyzewski said. "He just wants to win and he's everybody's friend-just a really good kid."
So what is it about Duke's senior captain that would elicit such praise from a head coach who has mentored 18 first-round NBA draft picks and seven National Players of the Year?
Loren Jackson, who coached Dockery for the duration of his four-year career at Chicago's Julian High School, knows exactly what Krzyzewski sees in the former Julian star.
"[He's] just very supportive of his teammates-always putting the team before himself," Jackson said. "It was something that was looked at and talked about every day in our program because he was such a high profile kid. He's just got a very caring and loving spirit about him."
Dockery attributed his selfless attitude to the way that he was raised by his parents, Steve and Sherry Dockery, who stressed the importance of putting others before himself.
"I like seeing people do well," Sean Dockery said. "It's just something about that feeling when somebody's doing good on your team. It's a great feeling."
Don't be fooled by Dockery's nice guy persona, though-he is no pushover. The senior plays with a tenacity and toughness that has transformed him into one of Duke's best defenders, with 133 career steals. Dockery added that he also uses his strong work ethic to help motivate his teammates.
"[I'm] just a hungry guy-every day come hard," Dockery said. "Come to practice hard and try to get everyone better."
After graduating from Julian as the all-time steals and assists leader in Illinois high school basketball history, Dockery admitted that his college career has not been exactly what he expected.
Though always a great leader, Dockery has had trouble adjusting to a new role at Duke that has been vastly different than the one he played at Julian. In high school, Dockery played both guard spots and running the team was not his main responsibility, Jackson said. Playing as more of a pure point guard at Duke was a challenge.
"In high school he was the man, he was the man everybody wanted to see score, he could score over everybody," Steve Dockery said. "But he comes to Duke and there are four high school McDonald's All-Americans and everybody's got to share the time. And he just figured that the team is a lot better team than it was in high school.
"All the people that were ranked in front of him or ranked with him, some of them are in the NBA now... but it didn't work out for him and he's just going to make it work better for him. Now in his senior year, he can get back on that same pace with other people."
Dockery's transition from high school to college was not helped by the differences between Chicago's South Side, where he grew up, and Duke's academic prestige. Dockery said only about 250 of 800 students in his class at Julian graduated high school.
Coming to Duke, Dockery had to adjust to a new lifestyle, not just a new style of basketball. Still, Dockery said he would not have changed his decision to attend Duke.
"I learned so much from my college experience, on and off the court," Dockery said. "I matured as an individual and as a person, academics-just everything in general, I learned so much from being here.... There's been some hills that I've had to climb, but I'm going to climb them."
After three years of sporadic starts and a career average of 4.0 points and 1.4 assists per game, Dockery feels that he has finally become completely comfortable with Krzyzewski's offense.
"My freshman year I was learning, my sophomore year I was learning a little bit, my junior year I was getting it, now I got it," Dockery said. "I'm more confident and kind of cocky like J.J. [Redick], like people say, and I just feel good right now."
Redick, who also has noticed the progression, commented that Dockery has been playing with greater confidence than ever before and believes that he will have a breakout year.
"I think that maybe I've rubbed off on him a little bit," Redick said with a laugh. "I see him playing with a little bit more of a swagger, and it's something that's good to see."
Despite Dockery's bolstered confidence and improved play, the senior will likely battle freshman Greg Paulus throughout the season for the starting point guard position.
Steve Dockery said he knows his son would rather be starting and that sitting on the bench would "disappoint" his son. But Steve also said that Sean is a team player, and that he would adapt gracefully to any role the team needs him to fill.
"I really don't care about starting, I just care about that W and care about the name on my jersey, and that's Duke," Sean Dockery said.
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