For Duke guard Chris Duhon, the key to personal salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ has been obedience to Romans 1:16.

Unashamed of his present-day association with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Duhon had to come to a point in his life where he was unashamed in church. That was long before his freshman year in college, when he helped the Blue Devils win their third national championship, but just when his mother, Valerie Harper, took note of it.

"I can’t remember the exact age, but it was the first time when I didn’t worry about what people thought of me in church," Chris says. "There were times when I’d look around and see if people were looking at me. Like, I wouldn’t want to raise my hands all the way up, or I didn’t want to pray in front of a lot of people. But there was this one time in church where I didn’t care. I lifted up my hands real high and was praying out loud. From then on, that’s when I knew that I really found God, that I’d really have to trust God."

Vivian is a single mom who moved to Durham, N.C., after Chris simply told her, "Mama, I can’t do this without you." With her by his side, he already has been a part of one NCAA championship and is able to dream of so much more. "I want to be a part of something special to where this team might go undefeated or repeat, which hasn’t been done since we did it back in ’91 and ’92," he says.

He took a huge step down that road in August, when he led the American team, which was really his team, to the gold medal at the World Championship For Young Men in Saitama, Japan. Duhon had 12 assists in the semifinals against Argentina and 14 in the finals against Croatia, which resulted in him being named tournament MVP.

"I was playing with a lot of great players from around the country, and at first I was a little tentative," he says. "I was coming in there admiring these guys, like they are the best in the country and I’m just this little freshman surrounded by this great group of players. But I went out there and competed; I performed well. It was nothing but God’s work. He just instilled a lot of confidence in me, and I’m just going to carry that on through this season."

As a result of that sustained performance over eight games, in November Duhon was selected USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year.

"Unbelievable," Vivian says. "God just continues to show me in so many ways how He’s going to elevate him so high that people are going to take notice of who he is."

We’re talking about a 6-foot-1 guard from Louisiana, the counterpart to junior Jason Williams, whom Duhon calls "probably the best player in the country right now. A lot of people don’t have that opportunity to go face-to-face with the best player in the country every day. That’s just going to make me better, and that’s just going to make him even better, so I thank God for the situation that I’m in because I can only go up from here."

Up would mean an improvement from the 7.2 points per game and 4.5 assists per game that he averaged last season, when he was honored to be named Rookie of the Year in the Atlantic Coast Conference. With only 1.6 turnovers per game, his assist-to-turnover ratio is most pleasing to Coach Mike Krzyzewski. But the person whom Chris most wants to please is the heroine of this story, the single parent who always has been there for him—his mom.

When Chris takes the court, he keeps a close eye on her. He wants to play well for her. "One of my friends came to a game with me, and she sat with me behind the bench," Vivian says. "She said, ‘On TV, it always looks like Chris is looking at you and looking for you, but I never realized how much during a basketball game he looks up at you.’ And I think it’s for approval.

"We have these little gestures that we do. I’m telling him if he needs to buckle down on defense, or if he needs to get more aggressive, or if I see in his face that he’s disappointed or discouraged. We have these little things that we do to each other."

Chris cannot recall a time when he was apart from the local church. His mother was a church lady in the sense that "she basically was one of the first persons there and one of the last to leave. My whole life I was involved in the church. She liked to work with children, so she joined the youth ministry and always was involved in extracurricular activities with church. When I got older I started getting involved. I would be like an usher and help her out with the youth ministry. Some days I would teach the class."

As a result of this sincere commitment to the local church in both New Orleans and Slidell, La., Duhon has been given much responsibility. When FCA Representative Steven Wright met with him this past fall, he was most impressed by how Chris "has a genuine desire to use the gifts and talents the Lord has given him to glorify Jesus Christ." At Duke, where the system is so refined, Chris has the potential to be another Grant Hill or Shane Battier in that he will be presented to the public as a comprehensive, classy leader.

"What I’ve learned here is that if your big men don’t get a lot of touches, then they slack off in other areas, like rebounding and defense," he says. "If you have a really good post man, or you have a really good shooter, a guard’s mentality should be to create open opportunities for those two guys. You always want to keep your big men happy, and you always want to keep your shooters happy, because they bring more to the table each game knowing that you’re going to do your job and get them the ball.

"But, I mean, it’s alright to score. If you can score, score. In high school, I averaged 20-something points a game and like six or seven assists, but I was always being a leader out there, encouraging my players to play hard, get them the ball when they’re open, not force shots. But at the same time, they all knew that when it was crunch time, they could all look up to me to make that play. Young guards just have to know the situation and keep learning the game. You have to understand your personnel, how each person works, how you can talk to them, how to motivate them."

Well, then, might Duke be looking to repeat as national champions?

"Our chances of repeating are real good," Duhon says. "We have to find leaders on the team, and we have to defend. Everybody knows that we can score, but we have to get out of the mentality of outscoring people to where we have a defensive mentality of stopping people."

Vivian plans to be with him every step of the way, and she would not be surprised to see Chris win at least two more national championships on the collegiate level. He already has the mentality of both Hill and Battier in that he is determined to graduate. And he likes to bring his teammates by Vivian’s place so that she can cook them a meal or two. Even so, theirs is not an entirely cozy relationship. Mom has her life and her rules.

"I do not allow him to come home and do his laundry," she says. "I don’t cook for him. I don’t go to his place unannounced. We probably talk at least once a week, by phone, but I just really try to leave him alone."

"She’s far enough away to where I can grow up and learn on my own," Chris says, "but close enough so that if I need someone, she’s there for me." And that, along with Duhon’s unashamed commitment to Christ, is a big reason why Duke keeps getting outstanding play from what very well may be the best backcourt in college basketball.

Allen Palmeri is the former editor of Sharing the VICTORY who lives in Raytown, Mo.