by Tim Burt
Irvine World News
Chris Burgess, the former Woodbridge High basketball star, survived the ups and downs of his first year at Duke University in Durham, N.C.
After competing against some of the top college players in the country, the 6-10 Burgess can't wait for his sophomore season with the Blue Devils.
Undoubtedly, Burgess would have liked to be in San Antonio this week for the NCAA finals. But he and his teammates lost to eventual champion Kentucky, 86-84 , in the South Regional semifinal (sic)last week. Duke finished with a 32-4 record.
But Duke's early elimination allowed Burgess to make a weekend trip to Woodbridge, which included an appearance at the Woodbridge basketball banquet Sunday night.
Burgess, greeted by family and friends, seemed happy to be back home.
"It makes you realize how important family and friends back home are, but I'm having a great time at Duke, I love it," said Burgess before giving a talk at Woodbridge High's boys basketball banquet Sunday night at the Senior Center.
Burgess, the CIF player of the year at Woodbridge two seasons ago, was the man at Woodbridge, leading the Warriors to the CIF championship in his senior season.
At Duke, where he was grouped with a stellar group of freshman recruits, such as 6-8- Shane Battier and 6-8 Elton Brand, his playing time dwindled as the season ended.
Burgess, who averaged about 4 points and three rebounds a game, saw little playing time in Duke's four NCAA Tournament games. Burgess admitted there were trying times. Early in the season he was starting. Then, he was out of the starting line-up and not playing that much.
But Burgess has not regrets about his decision to sign with Duke.
"I couldn't have asked for anything better to play with a team like that and to be able to get to the final eight," Burgess said.
"Although we came a game short (of reaching the final four) that can't take away our 33-4 season and holding the most wins in ACC history at 15-1 and winning it (the title) by two games outright with Carolina and all the other great teams. I think its the best conference in the country."
And the prospects at Duke, which has signed a number of other outstanding recruits for next season , appear bright next year, Burgess said.
"I've passed by freshman year and now I'm ready to move on and get better and it all starts right now," he said.
"We only lose two big time players in Roshown McLeod and Steve Wojciechowski. We're going to reload and we're going to be more of an inside team with Elton Brand and myself and Shane Battier on the inside."
"We just return so many players. I really think we're going to have another chance to get back to that final eight and hopefully move on to the final four and the national championship. But that's just something I think we have the ability to do."
Burgess, the Irvine World News athlete of the year in his senior season , admits he had a lot to get used to when the basketball season got under way at Duke.
"It was a huge transition," he said. "There was a lot of adversity. But obviously, I had a lot of games where I was able to contribute a lot. I had other games (where) I made the best of what my time was. In seven or eight minutes, I did whatever I could. I would take away nothing.
"I realized I was on a team that was loaded and I realized I was only going to get better in practice and I've improved my game so much that I think it's scary. I've improved my inside game and my outside game and now it's a just a matter of me working hard right now for that next season."
Watching from a distance, his former coach John Halagan said he was proud of how Burgess handled himself.
"I'm sure he would be the first to tell you that he didn't play as many minutes as he would have liked," said Halagan. "It's a tough thing for a young adult to adjust to, going from the fame he enjoyed here to playing a role with Duke.
"That's something that Chris handled with incredible grace and character."
Burgess wound up making 51% of his field goal attempts. He scored in double figures four times and averaged 6.9 points at Duke's home arena, Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Yet Burgess, who was an excellent free-throw shooter in high school, struggled at the free-throw line, making just 33% of his attempts in his freshman year.
"That's just mental," said Burgess. "More of the free throws I missed were at the beginning of the year. It was terrible this year, but I'm not worried. Coach K told me not to worry."
In fact a big part of Burgess' development may be attributed to his coach, Mike Krzyzewski.
"He's so unbelievable," said Burgess. "He's teaching you so much. I've learned so much from him about basketball and life. I've grown up a lot. I wish I could have taken things I learned at Duke and used them in high school."
And part of that is court demeanor. Burgess used to delight in waiving his arms and playing to the crowd after a big dunk in high school.
"Coach K is not very big on rubbing things in, like showboating." said Burgess. "That's something I learned from day one. Our players told us that's something that we have to have a lot of class."
And living on how own has helped him mature, Burgess said.
"Being away from my parents and friends and family and having to live in a whole different environment in the South and East Coast has really changed everything," said Burgess.
I've grown up making my own decision and not having parents around to tell me what to do. That was a huge transition for me.
"Going to a local school like UCLA (which also recruited him), which has a great program, I think if I had gone there, it would have take me longer to grow up.
"I love Duke and I couldn't ask for anything better. It's a tough school, but if you ask for help, and you work hard and you show them the work, it's going to pay off."
Eventually, Burgess hopes to wind up playing in the NBA, but his timetable, once set at three years, may have changed.
"I know it's (the NBA) going to be there," said Burgess.
"At Duke, we have three or four NBA scouts at every game. At the UCLA game, we had 17 NBA scouts. Playing at Duke and playing on TV all the time, you get a lot of coverage."
"Right now, I love school so much and I love playing college basketball. It's different when they actually flash the money in front of your face, but I think I have such a great family background financially, that I don't really need the money."
"I just need to get better and I need to work on my game and playing for Duke University and playing at the level they do at practice and games, that's all I'm going to do is just get better and get ready for the next level."
Shortly after his talk to the Woodbridge players and fans, Burgess received a big hand and excused himself and walked out of the room alone so he could make a late flight back to Durham, N.C.
It was time to start preparing for next year.