If any coach had reason to take things for granted, it would have been Dan Brooks.
In 24 years as Duke's head coach, Brooks' teams have won five national championships, 15 ACC titles and 107 tournament victories, an NCAA record. But if Brooks has learned anything this season, it's that assumptions that things will never change can be dangerous.
It was his time away from the golf course, though, that forced Brooks to such an epiphany.
In late September, Brooks began to suffer hearing loss, and at the same time, started to sense a roaring sound that filled his head. The issue was difficult for doctors to diagnose.
It didn't help that Brooks has been 90 percent deaf in his left ear since his childhood. His recent problems with sound knocked out the rest of that ear's hearing. Brooks has also suffered from aural fullness, which he described as the feeling you get in your inner ear after coming out of a swimming pool.
But temporary discomfort wasn't Brooks' main concern.
He was afraid that he might go completely deaf, forever.
"I wasn't able to sleep," Brooks said. "I was afraid of losing my hearing. I went to the emergency room a few times thinking that it was going to be permanent, because it was fluctuating in my only good ear."
First-year assistant Jan Dowling was forced to take over some of Brooks' coaching responsibilities, and Brooks told the team he would be there only when he knew he could contribute to its success. Suddenly, a program that had won three of the last four national titles stared into the face of uncertainty and, for once, instability at the top of the team.
Working with his doctors, Brooks tried a bit of everything. He lowered his sodium intake to 1,000 milligrams a day and eventually had success with Prednisone, an indicator that his condition may have been Autoimmune Inner Ear Disease.
Gradually, his hearing improved, and Brooks returned to the golf course, a bottle of his medication always with him, just in case.
"I just sort of lived with that bottle of Prednisone in my hand, ready to take it whenever I thought that this was going to be some type of a permanent thing," Brooks said. "And I was [fortunately] able to stay off of it, because it is really nasty stuff."
The roaring sound from September faded into ringing in late November and early December. Now, Brooks hopes that his team's struggles disappear, too.
Brooks is back now, fully able to work with his talented squad that includes three-time National Player of the Year Amanda Blumenherst and All-American Jennie Lee.
"I think we are doing all the right things," Brooks said. "You know, I think we've been having trouble with our short games and we've really been picking that up. I see everybody focusing on it more, and we're asking more of them."
When Brooks talks about the team improving, it is easy to see where the line blurs. Just as Brooks needed time to regain his hearing, so, too, does his team need time to get back to its spot among the NCAA's elite programs.
And just as Brooks makes a conscious effort not to take his hearing for granted, so, too, does Duke try not to rest on its past success.
"I'm back. I'm living the life again, I'm having a great time," Brooks said. "And I love my team. It's a great group. We're having a great time despite the fact that we're not right where we were. We're still a great team-a very good team that has a lot of possibilities."
In order to attain those possibilities, though, Brooks understands the areas in which his team must improve. But he also knows from first-hand experience that things aren't always what they seem-and in this case, that could be a positive for the Blue Devils.
"It's painstaking, but you just have to spend the time doing it," Brooks said of the team working on its short game.
He may as well have been talking about his own struggles.
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