[autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] and the Duke Blue Devils will need to manage national championship expectations in Durham this season, and a former Duke basketball star recently spoke to the team about how to handle those goals.
Jay Bilas, the ESPN analyst who played for the Blue Devils from 1982-86, posted a video of his speech to social media on Monday as he compared a title quest to the summer jobs he worked with his father.
Bilas said he would climb ladders all the way to the roof while carrying what his dad needed for work. Let’s just say he needed to alter his approach over time.
“I decided, in my infinite wisdom at age 19 or 20, that the more stuff I carried up the ladder, the fewer trips I had to take,” Bilas said. “So I loaded myself down with materials and I was climbing the ladder, but midway up, I took a spill and fell off the ladder.”
Bilas told the Blue Devils that his father advised him to concentrate more on the task at hand, boiling his point down to the idea of taking things one step at a time, before connecting it to the upcoming basketball season.
“You’re not going to win the national championship today,” Bilas said. “It’s not being played today. But you’re going to put yourself in position to win it by what you do today.”
https://twitter.com/JayBilas/status/1843303828722270429
Fans can watch Bilas’s full speech on the Duke basketball YouTube channel here.