THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 31, 1997 TAG: 9701310755
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ED MILLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DURHAM, N.C. LENGTH: 86 lines
Before each game, North Carolina coach Dean Smith writes the names of the opposing players on a locker room blackboard. He puts a ``plus'' sign next to players who are 3-point shooting threats.
Before the Tar Heels played Duke on Wednesday night, Smith went one better for Blue Devil guard Trajon Langdon. The UNC coach scrapped the plus sign and put a big asterisk next to Langdon's name.
Meaning: ``Don't leave him for anything,'' Smith said.
But the Tar Heels did leave Langdon, far too often. As a result, the redshirt sophomore ripped them for 28 points, including seven 3-pointers, in Duke's 80-73 win.
Next time they play, Smith may want to put one of those little dagger signs next to Langdon's name. When left open, he's deadly.
``He's the best shooter in the nation,'' Wake Forest coach Dave Odom said.
You would get no argument from the Tar Heels, nor from the statistics. Langdon is shooting 51.7 percent from 3-point range, 90.6 percent from the free throw line.
``He's the best shooter I've ever seen,'' Duke guard Steve Wojciechowski said. ``He never breaks form. It's the same shot every time.''
At a time when the talk is that players don't shoot as well as they once did, Langdon's a throwback.
Maybe that's because he's from the outback, the state known as the last American frontier.
Langdon hails from Anchorage, Alaska, where the winters are long and the playground action is not exactly thriving. Instead of playing pickup games as a kid, Langdon watched instructional tapes, then practiced what he saw.
``I just did my own individual workouts,'' Langdon said. ``And that consisted of a lot of shooting. I got in a lot of reps every day.''
Langdon's stroke is as soft as butter. The ball leaves his hand with plenty of arch, and backspin, things essential to good shooting.
``Fundamentally, he's as sound as anyone who's ever come into our program,'' Duke assistant coach Tommy Amaker said.
For Duke fans, no Langdon shot ever looked sweeter than the 3-pointer he drained with 41 seconds left Wednesday. It put Duke up 75-70 and sent the already-frenzied crowd at Cameron Indoor Stadium into a state that coach Mike Krzyzewski said he'd never seen before.
``That's as loud, for as long, as you can get,'' Krzyzewski said.
It was a shot that Duke fans had waited for since Feb. 3, 1993, the last Duke victory over UNC.
``Seven in a row,'' Langdon said. ``That was enough. We just said, `Enough is enough.' ''
Langdon himself had to wait 14 months for a chance to make such a shot. He was out that long with an unusual leg injury, diagnosed as a ``stress reaction'' in his left knee.
The injury was right above the knee, and didn't involve broken bones. But Langdon had surgery last February and again in March.
The problem caused Langdon to miss last season. He had averaged 11.3 points as a freshman, joining Johnny Dawkins, Mark Alarie and Grant Hill as the only Duke freshmen to average double figures.
Langdon also was unable to play minor league baseball for the San Diego Padres last summer. A sixth-round draft choice in 1994, Langdon, an infielder, appeared in 28 rookie-league games over the '94 and '95 seasons. He hit .160.
Langdon injured himself during the summer of 1995, playing for the U.S. Junior National team. He didn't play 5-on-5 again until Duke began practice last Oct. 15.
``In the 14 months I was out I couldn't run or really work on getting in shape,'' he said. ``But one thing I could do was shoot the ball.''
North Carolina found out just how well Langdon can shoot it.
``They were concentrating on me at times, then they seemed to lapse on me,'' he said. ``I just kept moving and using screens. That's what it's going to be like for me the rest of the ACC season. There's going to be teams trying to lock me up.''
Langdon's hard to lock up. At 6-foot-3, he can shoot over zones. He's also quick enough to create his own shot, and smart enough to run to his spot when teammates penetrate, as Jeff Capel did before Langdon hit Wednesday's big 3-pointer.
``If you didn't believe it before, I think he proved it tonight,'' Capel said. ``He's the best shooter in college basketball.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by ASSOCIATED PRESS
The arch, the backspin and the fundamental form he uses on each shot
are the trademarks of Duke sophomore guard Trajon Langdon, who is
shooting 51.7 percent from 3-point range and 90.6 percent from the
free throw line this season.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE