Completed Event: Men's Basketball versus #7 UConn on March 29, 2026 , Loss , 72, to, 73
/
Final
Men's Basketball
72
vs #7 UConn
73
Making Contributions Behind the Scene
12/16/2009 8:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
DURHAM, N.C. – Casey Peters has seen the movie Hoosiers.
He understands that there is a superficial resemblance between his role on the Duke basketball team and the character of Ollie in the film.
Ollie was the Hickory High manager, first working as a practice player, then forced onto the court in a key game when most of the team's “real” players are sidelined by injury or foul trouble. Ollie finds himself at the foul line in the final seconds, his team down by one point. The little guard with the flattop hairdo hits the two free throws to send Hickory to the title game and he's carried off the court in triumph.
Peters was a manager at Duke for the last two years. He often worked out with the team in practice, eventually winning his promotion to the roster as a non-scholarship walk-on. But he doesn't have a flattop and he doesn't expect to find himself on the court late in a crucial game with a chance to make a game-winning play.
“I've never thought of a moment like that,” Peters said. “For me, I just honestly love Duke basketball. When I decided to come here, I decided I wanted to be part of the program and the team.”
Peters' quest to make that dream come true is still the stuff of Hollywood – but more Rudy than Hoosiers. It's the story of a young fan of a great program, one who had to work years to win a place on the team. Earning that place and wearing that uniform is the triumph, not making a game-winning play – in Rudy, the hero's one play is at the end of a game that is already decided and is meaningless as far as victory or defeat is concerned.
But Rudy Ruettiger's real contribution to the Notre Dame football program came far away from the glare of the spotlight – his everyday contribution in practice that made the Irish starters better and better prepared. That very much mirrors the contribution of Duke's walk-on basketball players.
“Of course, I would love to come into the game and make the game-winning shot against UNC,” Steve Johnson said. “Who doesn't dream of that? But my role is to come to practice every day and make everybody better ... to bust my butt and do whatever Coach asks me to do.”
Technically, Peters is the only walk-on on the 2009-10 Duke roster. But he's one of three non-recruited players, along with fifth-year senior Jordan Davidson and senior Steve Johnson, who are both on scholarship this season.
While that designation may mean a lot to their parents, who have to deal (or not deal) with the financial cost of attending Duke, it makes no real difference to the players themselves.
“I get to do everything,” Peters said.
He's living the dream that he had from his earliest moments.
“My mom went to Duke and I've been a Duke fan all my life,” he said. “One of our family dogs is named Wojo. My parents tell me that when I was younger I used to think basketball players were called Bobby Hurleys. I don't remember that, but when I was first learning to talk, my parents would watch the games and just from hearing them they told me that I thought that Bobby Hurley was another word for basketball player.”
Peters grew up as a pretty good high school basketball player at Redbank Regional High School in New Jersey.
“I got recruited by some mid-major schools when I was a junior,” he said. “But I hurt my knee during the AAU season and didn't play the rest of [that summer]. Then senior year, I went from two-guard to point-guard, so the mid-majors never got a chance to see me. In the end, I did get recruited. I visited Yale.”
Peters still dreamed of playing at Duke, even though he was realistic enough to know he was not going to be recruited by the Blue Devils. But he wondered about walking on at Duke.
“The person I was in contact with was [former director of basketball operations] Mike Schrage,” Peters explained. “He told me there would be no guarantees if I came here. I gave him the tape and he watched it and he said, 'There's a good chance you can walk on if you come, but there are no guarantees.'”
Peters arrived on campus in the fall of 2007 and began to pursue his goal.
“I played with the guys [in pickup games] in the fall of my freshman year and did really well,” he recalled. “But when I met with Coach Schrage, he told me they were trying to cut down on the number of guys they had walking on. He offered me an opportunity to be a manager and stay around the program and see what happens in the future. I was here, so there was no way I wasn't going to be around the program.”
So for two years, Peters was a team manager – although he sometimes got on the floor in practice as a scrimmage player.
“And every day, I played [after practice] with Coach [Chris] Collins and Coach [Steve Wojciechowski] Wojo. All the coaches and everybody on the staff knew I wanted to be a walk-on. And I had gotten close to the guys on the team – Kyle [Singler] is my best friend.
“It was kind of a balance for me. Officially, I was a fulltime manager, but I did do some stuff in practice.”
So when did he learn that his status was going to change?
“That's probably the best part of the story,” Peters said. “Last year was tough for me, not being on the team. When I decided to come here, my dream was to be a player.
“After the season, I talked to Coach Collins and he said, 'Come back, do your thing over the summer. There are no guarantees, but there's a shot right now.'
“So I went home for a few weeks, then I came back – I always do both summer sessions. So I was here in May and [Coach Collins] pulled me aside and said, 'You'll walk on this year.' My eyes started watering. He talked about my role – he told me just do what I had been doing – working hard, getting better and making my teammates better.”
Collins also told Peters to expect confirmation from Coach Krzyzewski.
“He also told me that Coach K was going to grab me the next day. The next day, I was in the locker room, getting ready for a workout and Coach came through and congratulated me. I was on Cloud Nine. I still feel like I'm on Cloud Nine sometimes, but I was just in shock.”
It was much easier for Steve Johnson, who became a Duke team member almost by chance. Although the 6-5 Colorado native was a second-team all-state selection as a senior forward at Cheyenne Mountain High School in Colorado Springs, he was more coveted in another sport.
“My story kind of takes a weird turn,” he said. “I was in track – a high jumper. I got recruited by a lot of D-1 schools for high jump. I was either going to go to Harvard or here – those were actually my two main track schools. I could have played basketball at a lot of Division III basketball schools. But I really wanted to pursue education over athletics, because that's going to be my future. So I ended up here for track.”
But Johnson's career as a high jumper didn't last long.
“I was playing a lot of pickup basketball over on East Campus,” he said. “A lot of those guys were talking about a tryout for the basketball team. The day of the tryout, I was in the middle of track practice and somebody said, 'There's a basketball tryout over at Card Gym right now.' I picked up everything and left track and walked over in my track warm-ups. Coach K and Coach [Johnny] Dawkins and Wojo walked in and we scrimmaged for a little bit. There were about 40 guys. I ended up impressing them I guess. I got called back the next day.”
Although Johnson ended up on the team that season, it took a few weeks to clarify his status and in that time, he almost became a Cameron Crazy.
“I actually stood in line for Blue-White tickets because I didn't know if I was on the team or not,” he said.
Johnson appeared in three games as a freshman in 2006-07, then had the unusual experience of being redshirted the next season.
“Freshman year was tough for us,” he said. “It wasn't the best season – for Duke. It would have been fine a lot of places, but Duke has a higher standard. I think we were thinking that I'd get a little more playing time coming off my freshman season, when we weren't as good. The next year, we ended up getting some good recruits – Nolan [Smith] and Kyle came in – and so they decided to redshirt me. It gives me another year.”
Neither Johnson nor Peters has been a significant on-court presence for the Blue Devils this season. They've combined to play just 14 minutes in the team's first eight games, scoring two points (both by Johnson) and grabbing one rebound (by Peters) between them.
But that doesn't define their contribution.
“I'm pretty realistic about my role on the team,” Johnson said. “Defense, rebounding ... that's what Coach talks to me about, saying 'This is where you can help us in practice.' He's set me up to have that be my identity as a player. When I come in, I'm not taking shots or anything like that. I'm not driving to the rim. But I'll come in and take a charge or get a rebound. And that's what Coach emphasizes that he wants from us.”
Peters also relishes his role in practice.
“You come to practice trying to dig deep and make the other guys better and get them ready for games,” he said. “I remember we were getting ready to play a team that was going to press a lot. The day before the game we practiced and our blue team, we played really well. We got up for it like it was a game. We made the guys on the white team treat it like a game. The next day, they broke the press. It's nice when we can go out there and see our white team benefit from what we do.”
Both players admit that they get a little excited at the end of a lopsided game, when it begins to look like they might get on the floor.
“Being here for four years, you can kind of measure when you get some playing time,” Johnson said. “I think with Coach, it depends on how the team's been playing. If we're playing well and we're up enough, I'm going to get a shot for a couple of minutes. It's just fun to play. The bottom line is that it's fun to get out there, no matter how much time is left. I love running up and down the court when Cameron is filled, listening to the crowd. There's no better feeling.”
For Peters, that feeling comes before the game, when he runs out of the floor in a Duke uniform.
“For me, it's a dream come true,” he said. “To be able to be out in Cameron every day in practice with a Duke jersey on – with Coach K and his staff out here – it's been great.”
He understands that there is a superficial resemblance between his role on the Duke basketball team and the character of Ollie in the film.
Ollie was the Hickory High manager, first working as a practice player, then forced onto the court in a key game when most of the team's “real” players are sidelined by injury or foul trouble. Ollie finds himself at the foul line in the final seconds, his team down by one point. The little guard with the flattop hairdo hits the two free throws to send Hickory to the title game and he's carried off the court in triumph.
Peters was a manager at Duke for the last two years. He often worked out with the team in practice, eventually winning his promotion to the roster as a non-scholarship walk-on. But he doesn't have a flattop and he doesn't expect to find himself on the court late in a crucial game with a chance to make a game-winning play.
“I've never thought of a moment like that,” Peters said. “For me, I just honestly love Duke basketball. When I decided to come here, I decided I wanted to be part of the program and the team.”
Peters' quest to make that dream come true is still the stuff of Hollywood – but more Rudy than Hoosiers. It's the story of a young fan of a great program, one who had to work years to win a place on the team. Earning that place and wearing that uniform is the triumph, not making a game-winning play – in Rudy, the hero's one play is at the end of a game that is already decided and is meaningless as far as victory or defeat is concerned.
But Rudy Ruettiger's real contribution to the Notre Dame football program came far away from the glare of the spotlight – his everyday contribution in practice that made the Irish starters better and better prepared. That very much mirrors the contribution of Duke's walk-on basketball players.
“Of course, I would love to come into the game and make the game-winning shot against UNC,” Steve Johnson said. “Who doesn't dream of that? But my role is to come to practice every day and make everybody better ... to bust my butt and do whatever Coach asks me to do.”
Technically, Peters is the only walk-on on the 2009-10 Duke roster. But he's one of three non-recruited players, along with fifth-year senior Jordan Davidson and senior Steve Johnson, who are both on scholarship this season.
While that designation may mean a lot to their parents, who have to deal (or not deal) with the financial cost of attending Duke, it makes no real difference to the players themselves.
“I get to do everything,” Peters said.
He's living the dream that he had from his earliest moments.
“My mom went to Duke and I've been a Duke fan all my life,” he said. “One of our family dogs is named Wojo. My parents tell me that when I was younger I used to think basketball players were called Bobby Hurleys. I don't remember that, but when I was first learning to talk, my parents would watch the games and just from hearing them they told me that I thought that Bobby Hurley was another word for basketball player.”
Peters grew up as a pretty good high school basketball player at Redbank Regional High School in New Jersey.
“I got recruited by some mid-major schools when I was a junior,” he said. “But I hurt my knee during the AAU season and didn't play the rest of [that summer]. Then senior year, I went from two-guard to point-guard, so the mid-majors never got a chance to see me. In the end, I did get recruited. I visited Yale.”
Peters still dreamed of playing at Duke, even though he was realistic enough to know he was not going to be recruited by the Blue Devils. But he wondered about walking on at Duke.
“The person I was in contact with was [former director of basketball operations] Mike Schrage,” Peters explained. “He told me there would be no guarantees if I came here. I gave him the tape and he watched it and he said, 'There's a good chance you can walk on if you come, but there are no guarantees.'”
Peters arrived on campus in the fall of 2007 and began to pursue his goal.
“I played with the guys [in pickup games] in the fall of my freshman year and did really well,” he recalled. “But when I met with Coach Schrage, he told me they were trying to cut down on the number of guys they had walking on. He offered me an opportunity to be a manager and stay around the program and see what happens in the future. I was here, so there was no way I wasn't going to be around the program.”
So for two years, Peters was a team manager – although he sometimes got on the floor in practice as a scrimmage player.
“And every day, I played [after practice] with Coach [Chris] Collins and Coach [Steve Wojciechowski] Wojo. All the coaches and everybody on the staff knew I wanted to be a walk-on. And I had gotten close to the guys on the team – Kyle [Singler] is my best friend.
“It was kind of a balance for me. Officially, I was a fulltime manager, but I did do some stuff in practice.”
So when did he learn that his status was going to change?
“That's probably the best part of the story,” Peters said. “Last year was tough for me, not being on the team. When I decided to come here, my dream was to be a player.
“After the season, I talked to Coach Collins and he said, 'Come back, do your thing over the summer. There are no guarantees, but there's a shot right now.'
“So I went home for a few weeks, then I came back – I always do both summer sessions. So I was here in May and [Coach Collins] pulled me aside and said, 'You'll walk on this year.' My eyes started watering. He talked about my role – he told me just do what I had been doing – working hard, getting better and making my teammates better.”
Collins also told Peters to expect confirmation from Coach Krzyzewski.
“He also told me that Coach K was going to grab me the next day. The next day, I was in the locker room, getting ready for a workout and Coach came through and congratulated me. I was on Cloud Nine. I still feel like I'm on Cloud Nine sometimes, but I was just in shock.”
It was much easier for Steve Johnson, who became a Duke team member almost by chance. Although the 6-5 Colorado native was a second-team all-state selection as a senior forward at Cheyenne Mountain High School in Colorado Springs, he was more coveted in another sport.
“My story kind of takes a weird turn,” he said. “I was in track – a high jumper. I got recruited by a lot of D-1 schools for high jump. I was either going to go to Harvard or here – those were actually my two main track schools. I could have played basketball at a lot of Division III basketball schools. But I really wanted to pursue education over athletics, because that's going to be my future. So I ended up here for track.”
But Johnson's career as a high jumper didn't last long.
“I was playing a lot of pickup basketball over on East Campus,” he said. “A lot of those guys were talking about a tryout for the basketball team. The day of the tryout, I was in the middle of track practice and somebody said, 'There's a basketball tryout over at Card Gym right now.' I picked up everything and left track and walked over in my track warm-ups. Coach K and Coach [Johnny] Dawkins and Wojo walked in and we scrimmaged for a little bit. There were about 40 guys. I ended up impressing them I guess. I got called back the next day.”
Although Johnson ended up on the team that season, it took a few weeks to clarify his status and in that time, he almost became a Cameron Crazy.
“I actually stood in line for Blue-White tickets because I didn't know if I was on the team or not,” he said.
Johnson appeared in three games as a freshman in 2006-07, then had the unusual experience of being redshirted the next season.
“Freshman year was tough for us,” he said. “It wasn't the best season – for Duke. It would have been fine a lot of places, but Duke has a higher standard. I think we were thinking that I'd get a little more playing time coming off my freshman season, when we weren't as good. The next year, we ended up getting some good recruits – Nolan [Smith] and Kyle came in – and so they decided to redshirt me. It gives me another year.”
Neither Johnson nor Peters has been a significant on-court presence for the Blue Devils this season. They've combined to play just 14 minutes in the team's first eight games, scoring two points (both by Johnson) and grabbing one rebound (by Peters) between them.
But that doesn't define their contribution.
“I'm pretty realistic about my role on the team,” Johnson said. “Defense, rebounding ... that's what Coach talks to me about, saying 'This is where you can help us in practice.' He's set me up to have that be my identity as a player. When I come in, I'm not taking shots or anything like that. I'm not driving to the rim. But I'll come in and take a charge or get a rebound. And that's what Coach emphasizes that he wants from us.”
Peters also relishes his role in practice.
“You come to practice trying to dig deep and make the other guys better and get them ready for games,” he said. “I remember we were getting ready to play a team that was going to press a lot. The day before the game we practiced and our blue team, we played really well. We got up for it like it was a game. We made the guys on the white team treat it like a game. The next day, they broke the press. It's nice when we can go out there and see our white team benefit from what we do.”
Both players admit that they get a little excited at the end of a lopsided game, when it begins to look like they might get on the floor.
“Being here for four years, you can kind of measure when you get some playing time,” Johnson said. “I think with Coach, it depends on how the team's been playing. If we're playing well and we're up enough, I'm going to get a shot for a couple of minutes. It's just fun to play. The bottom line is that it's fun to get out there, no matter how much time is left. I love running up and down the court when Cameron is filled, listening to the crowd. There's no better feeling.”
For Peters, that feeling comes before the game, when he runs out of the floor in a Duke uniform.
“For me, it's a dream come true,” he said. “To be able to be out in Cameron every day in practice with a Duke jersey on – with Coach K and his staff out here – it's been great.”
Players Mentioned
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