By Pete Williams
Special to The Washington Post
Monday, March 29, 1999; Page D9

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., March 28 – Trajan Langdon and Duke will play Connecticut for the NCAA men's basketball championship Monday evening in a domed facility just five miles from some of the nation's finest beaches. For the past three nights, the Blue Devils have stayed at the five-star Don Cesar resort on St. Pete Beach, where daytime temperatures have averaged 75 degrees.

In other words, it's about as far removed from Langdon's native Alaska as possible.

Growing up in an area that has produced few college, let alone professional, basketball players, Langdon often practiced the game wearing boots and gloves and dribbling on snow. "But it was good practice," Langdon said today, "because it gave you a better feel for the ball."

He's one victory from becoming the first Alaska native to play on a national championship team, the latest in a long list of honors that includes consensus second-team all-American status and all-Atlantic Coast Conference recognition. A four-year starter at shooting guard for Coach Mike Krzyzewski, he is projected as a first-round pick in the NBA draft in June.

He also has become the playing symbol of Duke's revival from a 13-18 record in 1994-95, when Langdon was a freshman and Krzyzewski missed much of the season because of fatigue and back surgery. In fact, the Blue Devils are now back exactly where they were at the end of the 1993-94 season – the NCAA tournament final.

But that isn't nearly all of what makes Langdon unusual. The product of a mixed-race marriage, Langdon spent time growing up visiting remote Alaskan fishing villages with his father, Steve, who is Caucasian and a college professor with expertise in Alaska native culture. His mother, Gladys, a social worker, is African American. Trajan received his name from that of a Roman emperor who ended the persecution of Christians.

"I'm very fortunate to have been surrounded by such a loving, supportive family," said Trajan, who also has a sister, Trista, who plays basketball at Nevada. "I've been afforded a lot of incredible experiences."

Indeed, his life has featured more unlikely subplots than Forrest Gump's. In the eighth grade, his lab partner in biology class was Jewel Kilcher, known now simply as the pop music star Jewel. Langdon was discovered by a major league baseball scout when Langdon and his father were playing catch in a hotel parking lot while visiting Duke and the University of North Carolina during his senior year of high school, and he was drafted by the San Diego Padres. He's become good friends with Alex Rodriguez after the Seattle Mariners shortstop spotted him on television and could not believe the uncanny resemblance to his brother.

But just four years ago, Langdon wondered how prominent a role basketball would play in his future. Just 12 games into his freshman year, Krzyzewski was sidelined for the season, which spiraled from a 9-2 start to the worst single-season loss total in school history. Then Langdon missed the following season after suffering a knee injury. "Going through all of that has made all this that much more special," he said.

Just six weeks shy of his 23rd birthday, Langdon is the consensus leader of this team, also setting the standard off the court, where he has a double major in math and history.

"I've never met someone so dedicated and determined to be the best in all areas of his life," sophomore forward Shane Battier said.

Says Krzyzewski: "There hasn't been a kid in my program that I've enjoyed knowing and following his progress more than Trajan."

Remarkably, Langdon has not cost Duke a penny in scholarship money. A sixth-round draft pick out of high school by the Padres in 1994, Langdon received $60,000 and the promise that the club would pay his tuition. Langdon spent parts of three summers playing in the minors as a third baseman-outfielder. He never hit above .200, but showed promise.

"If he was ever able to devote himself to baseball consistently, he could be a heck of a player," Padres General Manager Kevin Towers, the former scout who first discovered him, said by telephone today.

Langdon says he's tabled his baseball career and probably will never attempt to become the first two-sport pro star from Alaska, where residents will cheer their hero in the national final from four time zones away.