The Sons Also Rise

Several current ACC players have fathers who had great basketball careers

Plenty of ACC players over the years had fathers who excelled in college or pro basketball. Lately the preponderance of those athletes attended Duke under Mike Krzyzewski, no doubt motivated in part by Coach K’s reputation as a successful molder of teams and men.

In this century alone, Duke nurtured All-ACC players and chips-off-the-old-block such as Mike Dunleavy (2002), Gerald Henderson, Jr. (2009), Nolan Smith, Jr. (2010, 2011), Austin Rivers (2012), Seth Curry (2013) and Justin Robinson (2020). Smith was the league’s 2011 Player of the Year.

Robinson, a walk-on and the son of Hall of Famer David Robinson, started once at Duke and surprisingly helped lead the Devils to a 89-76 win over UNC in 2020 with 13 points, six rebounds, four blocks and three assists. “It’s better than Rudy, you know?” Krzyzewski said. “It’s almost like a movie, for crying out loud.”

Justin Robinson is currently Duke’s director of player development.

This season ACC rosters are peppered from coast to coast with the offspring of former prominent ACC performers. League teams brought in four freshmen whose names ring a bell. None chose to play at the school for which their father excelled. One dad coached a team that nearly stole the NCAA title from under Duke’s nose in 2010.

For Duke fans, the most familiar newcomer’s name may be 6-8 forward Xander Alarie, whose father played on Blue Devil squads from 1983 through 1986 that established Krzyzewski’s program. The three-time All-ACC player was a stalwart performer, but is overshadowed in Duke lore by classmate Johnny Dawkins. The 37-3 squad ended the ‘86 season with a loss in the NCAA final. Where the Devils, with Dawkins, Jay Bilas and David Henderson, lost to Louisville and Nolan Smith’s father.

California and coach Mark Madsen added 6-1 Stephon Marbury II, son of Georgia Tech’s guard by the same name (minus the Roman numeral). The older Marbury, the supremely confident 1996 ACC Rookie of the Year, played a single season of college ball, 24 years of pro ball, and helped resurrect a flagging Yellow Jacket program. His son, a walk-on, is said to be a notable ballhandler.

Georgia Tech brought in 6-5 guard Jaeden Mustaf. His father played in 1989 and 1990 at Maryland and then went pro. Like Alarie and Marbury, the 6-10 forward was a first-round NBA draft choice. He was also suspected in the murder of Althea Hayes, his pregnant girlfriend. The elder Mustaf’s friend was convicted of the crime; Mustaf, who had advocated in vain for Hayes to undergo an abortion, was never charged. He paid an undisclosed amount to settle a wrongful death lawsuit in the case.

Finally there’s Brady Stevens, a 6-3 freshman guard at Notre Dame. His father, Brad Stevens, once employed Irish head coach Micah Shrewsbury as an assistant first at Butler, then with the Celtics. Stevens is now President of Basketball Operations for Boston, the 2024 NBA champion. The elder Stevens piloted Butler to the Final Four in ’10, where they lost 61-59 as Duke survived a long, late jumper by Bulldog forward Gordon Hayward.