The Duke basketball team went to New York City this weekend with the University on fall break on a program called Duke Elevate. The team said in a statement, "Aimed at enhancing character, accountability, perspective and pride, the Duke Elevate program serves to strengthen connections with some the best educators and humanitarians associated with Duke."
Thanks to the team's Twitter accounts and individual ones from the players and coaches, here are some of the best-documented moments from their trip.
The team arrived in Newark on Friday evening, before having a dinner at The Modern, the restaurant connected with The Museum of Modern Art. There, recently retired Duke alumnus Grant Hill spoke to the team, while fellow former Blue Devils Brian Zoubek and Kyle Singler were on hand as well.
On the trip, the team also met with a number of other former alumni including Ashok Varadhan (partner at Goldman Sachs and former basketball team manager), Alan Schwartz (Duke alum and former Bear Stearns CEO) and Steve Duncker (Duke alum, retired Goldman Sachs partner, former chair of NYRA).
Saturday, the team spent the day doing military simulations and practicing at West Point, the alma mater of head coach Mike Krzyzewski. Coach K's first head coaching gig was also at Army. Last year, the team visited Fort Bragg.
(Note: Their trip to West Point also caught some uninformed flak from Deadspin)
For more great pics from West Point, head over to Blue Planet Shots.
The team finished off its Saturday with a night looking fresh at Motown: The Musical. There's a lot of hype for Andre Dawkins, Rodney Hood, Matt Jones and Quinn Cook on the perimeter this season but there's one guarantee: they're going to look good no matter how they play.
Sunday began with tour of the September 11, 2001 Memorial and the newly built World Trade Center.
Here's a picture of Rodney Hood placing an American flag next to the name of a Duke alum at the Memorial:
Daps to the first reader who can tweet us their own picture of Coach K's signature on the spire atop the World Trade Center:
And as you may or may not know, Duke Blue Planet is run by the brilliantly creative Dave Bradley, who is also the team's recruiting coordinator. Top recruit Jabari Parker gave Bradley a break from his photo duties (though you have to wonder, was it Bradley taking a picture of Parker!?):
Monday, the team took a trip through Harlem, which included a trip to the legendary Rucker Park. Here's Amile Jefferson talking about it:
And a team pic:
The team then took a trip to the famed Apollo Theater. If Matt Jones and the rest of the team don't perform this at Countdown to Craziness, there should be riots on campus:
And a nice picture from Jeff Capel of him and the rest of the coaches:
Oh, and remember when the Brooklyn Nets crashed in Durham and practiced at Duke's facilities? They returned the favor:
And today, back to Duke...
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