Brian Zoubek

Fifth-seeded NJSIAA Tournament of Champions teams aren't supposed to do this. When you are seeded next-to-last in a six-team tourney, just having a competitive showing is a bonus. And when two of your key players are injured and another two are battling the flu, winning is unthinkable. That's because you are a fifth seed. But Haddonfield last night proved that it isn't your typical fifth seed. Haddonfield defeated Shabazz, 61-46, in a T of C quarterfinal game in front of 3,190 at the Ritacco Center.

Haddonfield High yesterday became the first South Jersey school in more than 60 years to win three consecutive state boys' basketball championships, romping past Newark Central, 82-57, in the NJSIAA Group 2 final at the Rutgers Athletic Center. Brian Zoubek, Haddonfield's 7-foot-2 center, collected 21 points, 20 rebounds, 8 blocked shots and 6 assists as he was named his team's MVP for the game. "To have our three years culminate like this is just amazing," said the Duke-bound Zoubek, who increased his career total to 2,020 points.

Gerald Henderson and Brian Zoubek insist they made the right decision to leave the area and rest their basketball fortunes with Duke University. Now juniors, both departed the area as high school hotshots with high hopes for college success. But neither has reached his expected level, mostly because of injuries. Fortunately for the pair, they are regaining their health and confidence and are looking to step up their game to the level they displayed when they were dominant figures on the Philadelphia area scholastic scene.

Paul Wiedeman knows all about getting to the state finals, having accomplished that feat as a player and a coach. "You have to work for it," the Haddonfield boys' basketball coach said. "You have to seize the moment, and they did that tonight. " But the moment nearly seized the Bulldogs last night when center Brian Zoubek had to take a seat on the bench with foul trouble in a state Group 2 semifinal game against New Brunswick. But junior guard Derek Heckendorn carried the gritty Bulldogs down the stretch as they earned a 62-53 victory.

Blake Wilson, a swingman whose three-point shooting helped Haddonfield win state boys' basketball titles during each of the last three seasons, has left the Princeton University basketball team. Wilson, a freshman, was with Princeton for three games but did not play. He left the team last week for personal reasons, according to his father, Gary Wilson, who is the Triton athletic director. "Things just didn't work out with the basketball program," the elder Wilson said yesterday.

It's almost unfair. The Haddonfield boys' basketball team may have too much talent to play in the Colonial Conference. The proof could be last night's first-place showdown between the Bulldogs and the Sterling Silver Knights in Haddonfield. Haddonfield's 61-42 victory marked its 50th consecutive conference victory. The Bulldogs' last conference setback came on Feb. 22, 2003, against Paulsboro. Led by Russell Carter, now a junior guard at Notre Dame, the Red Raiders prevailed, 71-57.

Brian Zoubek, a sophomore center at Duke, says it's good to be back on the basketball court after a summer of rehabilitation. Zoubek, The Inquirer's South Jersey player of the year in 2006 while at Haddonfield, broke his left foot in a pickup game on July 9. After surgery, he had to undergo rehabilitation. Now he is looking forward to a new start. "I just got back into it and started playing, and it feels good," Zoubek said yesterday at Cameron Indoor Stadium. "I'm so happy to be able to play again.

If the preseason is any indication, freshman center Brian Zoubek - who led Haddonfield High to an NJSIAA state title in each of the last three seasons - is going to make a major impact on Duke's nationally ranked men's basketball team. Duke, No. 12 in the Associated Press' preseason ratings, will open its season tonight by playing host to Columbia in the first round of the College Basketball Experience Classic. Tip-off is at 8:30, and it is being televised on ESPNU. In two preseason games, in which Duke scored easy wins over Shaw and North Carolina Central, Zoubek was the Blue Devils' fifth-leading scorer (11.5 points per game)

Blake Wilson, the sharp-shooting swingman who helped Haddonfield High School win three straight NJSIAA state basketball titles, announced yesterday that he would transfer from Princeton to St. Joseph's. The 6-foot-4 freshman dressed for - but did not play in - three Princeton games this season before he left the team. He is finishing his first semester at Princeton, and said he would enroll at St. Joseph's on Jan. 16. Wilson said he and his father, Gary, plan to meet with St. Joseph's coach Phil Martelli in February and talk to him about playing at the school and the possibility of a scholarship.

South Jersey basketball fans are not the only people zeroing in Haddonfield center Brian Zoubek this season. The 7-foot-1 junior, who averaged 18 points per game last season, has such an upside that he has already drawn the interest of the NBA's Toronto Raptors. "They've got Andre the Giant. I've never seen anyone that size," Woodbury coach Tom Bowe said. There's also reason to believe Zoubek has improved from last season. "He's gained strength," Haddonfield coach Paul Wiedeman said of his center.

What is the most unlikely career choice of a onetime high school and college basketball star whose NBA career was dashed by back injuries? How about cream-puff salesman? And not the used-car kind of cream puff - which might make sense - but the cream-filled pastry ball. Which is the new vocation of Brian Zoubek, the 7-foot-1 center for Haddonfield Memorial High and the 2010 national championship Duke Blue Devils. He's seeking profit in profiteroles. This week in his hometown, Zoubek, 24, opened Dream Puffz - "the Z is for me" - a spare, modern corner storefront next to Bread Board Plus.

In recent months, while wrapping up a brilliant basketball career at Friends' Central and playing in several showcase events, Amile Jefferson struggled mightily to cement his college destination. Now, finally, all the tossing and turning is over. On Tuesday in his school's gymnasium, Jefferson, a 6-foot-8, 200-pound forward and one of the nation's top recruits, committed to play at Duke. "In the end, I wanted to choose the school that I thought fit me best on and off the court," said Jefferson, flanked by his parents.

The winningest men's coach in Division I history - the coach of the current best basketball team on the planet - is in town Wednesday facing Temple at the Wells Fargo Center. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski isn't bringing that best team to town. That's his side job, coaching the U.S. Olympic team, trying to win gold this summer in London after accomplishing the feat four years ago in Beijing. Those two facets of his life are intertwined. It's fair to ask whether coaching Kobe and LeBron and the rest of the Olympians satisfied an itch to coach at another level, keeping Krzyzewski at Duke as the NBA came calling.

It appears to be easy to find a consensus when selecting the No. 1 team in college basketball before a single game has tipped off. What can be difficult is for that consensus eventually to be correct. In 2008-09, North Carolina was the overwhelming selection as No. 1 and finished up as the national champion. Kansas ruled the roost the following season, holding the No. 1 ranking for all but four weeks. But the Jayhawks were shocked by Northern Iowa in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Sitting courtside in a folding chair at the NBA predraft workout camp at the New Jersey Nets' practice facility on Friday, Brian Zoubek pondered how far he had come in a year's time. In April, the seven-footer from Haddonfield High was a key reason why Duke took the NCAA national title. But at this time last year, Zoubek was only hoping to finally experience a healthy season for the Blue Devils. He had undergone foot surgeries before his sophomore and junior seasons, and wasn't able to right himself either year.

Butler proved to Duke that it was no David going against Goliath, as many tried to make the pregame angle to Monday night's scintillating national championship contest. The Bulldogs relentlessly battled the Blue Devils on every possession, fought them on the boards despite a height disadvantage, and mustered extra energy from the decidedly partisan crowd of 70,930 at Lucas Oil Stadium. But Duke, showing some grit of its own despite scoring only one point in the final 3 minutes, 16 seconds, dug in and survived, winning its fourth national championship in the Mike Krzyzewski era with a 61-59 victory over the gritty Bulldogs.

Brian Zoubek sat in the Duke locker room yesterday and pondered his journey from being a McDonald's all-American at Haddonfield High to his senior year with the Blue Devils (29-5), who will face Arkansas-Pine Bluff (18-15) today in a first-round NCAA tournament South Regional game at Veteran's Memorial Arena. "It's a crazy feeling to know that any game could be my last game," the seven-footer said. "It seems like just yesterday that I got here. Once you get near the end, you get a lot of perspective on how quickly it's gone by, and you don't want it to end. " Zoubek, who averaged 24.7 points, 12.3 rebounds and 4.2 blocks as a senior at Haddonfield, led his high school team to a 110-10 record and three straight state Group 2 championships while he was there.

Even as Brian Zoubek grew steadily to his present height of 7-foot-1 and more college coaches found their way to Haddonfield Memorial High School to recruit him, he remained committed to a choice of two universities where he would continue his career. Unfortunately for Jay Wright, neither of them was Villanova. "It wasn't even really in my mind," Zoubek said yesterday. "I wasn't interested in it and I think the coaches recognized that. They pretty much knew I was going to choose either Duke or Stanford.

Gerald Henderson and Brian Zoubek insist they made the right decision to leave the area and rest their basketball fortunes with Duke University. Now juniors, both departed the area as high school hotshots with high hopes for college success. But neither has reached his expected level, mostly because of injuries. Fortunately for the pair, they are regaining their health and confidence and are looking to step up their game to the level they displayed when they were dominant figures on the Philadelphia area scholastic scene.

Brian Zoubek, a sophomore center at Duke, says it's good to be back on the basketball court after a summer of rehabilitation. Zoubek, The Inquirer's South Jersey player of the year in 2006 while at Haddonfield, broke his left foot in a pickup game on July 9. After surgery, he had to undergo rehabilitation. Now he is looking forward to a new start. "I just got back into it and started playing, and it feels good," Zoubek said yesterday at Cameron Indoor Stadium. "I'm so happy to be able to play again.