When Kevin Cullen, Duke's new video coordinator, left to accompany Mike Krzyzewski to the Olympics last summer, the spacious video room in the basement of the team's recently unveiled practice facility had been open for months, even though there was nothing in it.
So why did a small office on the fifth floor of Schwartz-Butters still serve as the team's video headquarters last season?
Instead of taping every college basketball game from a central computer, why was Mike Schrage, the former director of basketball operations, still scrambling to pop discs into DVR machines in different coaches' offices?
How come the room next to the team's video theater was empty?
"The idea of moving midseason or over one night, or even for one hour, wasn't too appealing," said Cullen, who assumed his position in May. "As critical as the e-mail server is, the video server is 1A. Arguably, you could get by longer without e-mail as we can without the video server."
And it is up to Cullen, a 2007 Duke graduate with a computer science degree, to preside over the team's video operations and indirectly prepare the Blue Devils perhaps as much as anybody else.
Always watching
The array of monitors and recorders would make anyone wonder: Is there anything Krzyzewski doesn't want taped?
Despite Cullen's new position, Duke's obsession about video isn't new.
Every Duke game is recorded, and unlike others, the Duke coaches prefer watching the television feed instead of an overhead view because it introduces different angles closer to the floor. They don't mute the volume, mostly to introduce background noise, but also to hear the insights of some analysts the coaches respect.
After every game, the players watch a short recap either in the theater or the locker room. The coaches usually switch the location to introduce different settings. The reel may only consist of 10 plays, and Krzyzewski himself leads these feedback sessions after he receives input from his staff, which includes Cullen.
Every practice is recorded, re-watched and scouted. The assistant coaches present the scouting reports for other teams after working in pairs to break down the video. Cullen works with associate head coach Steve Wojciechowski, and Spatola with associate head coach Chris Collins.
"There's nobody who watches more film than us," Cullen said. "I would be surprised if anybody watched as much."
The coaches prefer to watch whole games-rather than spliced cutups-to get a better feel for the game, which alleviates some of Cullen's burden.
"I'm very lucky that our staff likes to watch games in their entirety," he said, adding that most NBA teams, which have three video coordinators, use cutups because of the quick turnaround between games. "Most coaches like cutups. Our coaches like to watch the flow and get the feel of the game. You get a better appreciation for offense when you can see the defense. If you were just watching the offense, you wouldn't have a specific handle for the circumstances of a shot."
Fortunately for Cullen, the coaches prefer watching DVDs rather than their antiquated VHS counterparts, which are no longer produced but have a home in coaches' offices because of the smooth transition between frames when rewinding and fast-forwarding, Cullen said.
Most have specific routines for watching film. Krzyzewski often studies video and watches games while riding his stationary bicycle.
But why must every game be recorded?
Each conference has an intra-league rule not to distribute film from conference games to out-of-conference teams, and come NCAA Tournament time, it is harder to find tape of a team like Belmont, which is only on television a few times a year.
Duke never knows who it will need to study in March, when teams from lower-profile teams often try to maintain their edge of obscurity.
"It's a big advantage for them not to trade with us," Cullen said. "Selection Sunday is a hectic night, because you can't get any film from conference teams, so you have to go back to the non-conference schedule. ESPN broadcasts every conference championship, mostly for fans-but it's great for the programs, too."
The techie's dream
Cullen's office-which might be the biggest of any athletics official other than Krzyzewski or athletic director Kevin White, if he can claim the entire room as his-is classically decorated. In the middle of the room is a dark wood island. Every team on Duke's schedule has a drawer stuffed with tapes and discs. On top of the island are six stacks of about 50 DVDs with identifying labels that date back to the middle of December.
But the office is also a techie's dream.
The room is littered with wide-screen Apple computers. Two flat-screen televisions adorn opposite walls. And right next to the operation's lifeblood, the video server, is the crown jewel: an all-in-one command center that controls everything.
From this console, Cullen can change the channels on 20 different DirecTV satellites, which adds up to between 1,500 and 2,000 games a year. He can save games on 15 DVD recorders. He can duplicate film on DVDs and VHSs. Turn slightly to the right, and he can watch practice, which is taped in the Michael W. Krzyzewski Center by six cameras or in Cameron Indoor Stadium by one.
When NBA analysts Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy toured the facility last week, even the pair, accustomed to state-of-the-art NBA facilities, were wowed.
"It's certainly as nice as they come in college," Cullen said of his room. "And it's as nice as anyone's in the country."
No one would mistake Cullen for a former basketball player. But he doesn't have to dunk to help the Blue Devils or their coaches, who rely heavily on studying tape of both Duke and its competition.
Cullen would know. After he graduated, he took a job at Sportstec, a sports technology developer, in Charlotte. Still, the former basketball manager often found himself in Durham, because all of Duke's teams except football use Sportstec's hallmark product, SportsCode. Cullen's job was to help Sportstec's customers-which includes several NBA and ACC teams-use the video analysis software.
When former associate head coach Johnny Dawkins left for Stanford and took Schrage with him, though, a new position opened. Chris Spatola became director of basketball operations, but the program soon recognized the need to form a separate position devoted to matching the Blue Devils' video needs.
The new job soon put Cullen on the other end of Sportstec's products.
Perks of the job
Hang around Cameron for a few hours after a game, and you might see Cullen emerging from his office at the same time as students close their laptops in the library.
On the road, the coaches usually watch games on the bus or flight home, thanks to a portable equipment trunk. Cullen plugs cables into the television network's on-site truck, and by the time the team has left the visiting arena, the coaches have high-definition DVDs of the game they just watched. Few, if any, teams have access to Sportstec's high-definition software, which Duke currently tests in its beta format.
After home games, though, he's up just as late. He edits film and creates highlight packages the night of the game and is sometimes cloistered in his office until 3 a.m. after arriving between 8 and 9 a.m.
Still, the job is more rewarding than staring at a computer screen or three.
It landed him a position as Team USA's video coordinator this summer, a gig that Cullen assumed when Schrage left for the West Coast. On the staff's first day in Las Vegas for training camp, Cullen found himself at a meeting with Krzyzewski, Wojciechowski, Collins, New York Knicks head coach Mike D'Antoni, Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim, Team USA managing director Jerry Colangelo and others.
"It was particularly fitting that it was in Vegas, because you know the saying: 'If you can't spot the sucker at the table, you're probably the sucker,'" Cullen said.
But it's clear that he's far from the sucker back at Duke.
Last week, the day after Duke beat Davidson and the coaches had obsessed over Stephen Curry's every pump fake on film, Cullen was giving a tour of his office when Wojciechowski called him on his iPhone asking for a specific clip.
About 30 minutes later, Cullen walked from the Krzyzewski Center back to Schwartz-Butters, where an inquisitive Wojciechowski emerged from the elevator.
Immediately, he asked: "Is everything on the server?"
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