It took Cole Field House 47 years to get a team like this, 47 years to get a team that can spin Duke on its finger. Cole closed down on Sunday, and although they trotted out Tom McMillen, Len Elmore, Albert King and Buck Williams -- and thanked John Lucas and eulogized Len Bias -- the player I had the most gratitude for was the waif in the No. 3 jersey. The waif in tears.

This is Cole Field House’s 47th team, and the 46 others broke a lot of hearts. The McMillen-Elmore-Lucas team put Maryland basketball on the map in the 1970s -- but were ruined by N.C. State. The King-Williams team got the most hype -- but were ruined by Georgetown and Indiana in the '80s. Bias was a one-man team. They were all marvelous, but they never had what Juan Dixon has: soul.

He has gained 20 pounds in five years -- which gets him all the way up to 160 -- but Juan Dixon is worth his weight in gold around College Park. This was a program that could never get a call (Dennard fouled Buck!), and this was a program that believed in conspiracy theories (CBS is run by a Dookie, so all the Duke games are fixed!). But it’s all ancient history, thanks to a skin-and-bones shooting guard who visits a grave every other month.

Juan Dixon’s last official business at Cole Field House came Sunday, in a game he doubted he’d be able to start. "It’ll be so emotional, they may have to wait for the first TV timeout to put me in," he had said beforehand. It was hard because it was Senior Night. Hard because senior Lonny Baxter had his parents on hand and senior Byron Mouton had his parents on hand. Hard because Dixon’s parents are both dead of AIDS.

So he showed up with his two brothers and his sister, and his sister’s young child, and his aunts and his uncles and his girlfriend, and his girlfriend’s parents. "Coach had said last year I could have as many people as possible," Dixon had said beforehand. "So I’m sure he won’t have a problem with 15 people walking out with me."

No, coach Gary Williams had no problem with that. And two hours later, Gary Williams had no problem with Dixon accidentally cutting down the last strand of the net -- even though it was supposed to be the coach’s job.

He had no problem with it because if Maryland goes where I think it’s going -- to the Final Two instead of just the Final Four -- it will be because everyone has followed Juan Dixon’s lead. The McMillens and Elmores and Kings and Williamses were intelligent, talented people, but Dixon has a certain winner’s mentality, a certain freakish work ethic that few possess.

***

His Maryland teammates have noticed it. On almost every road trip, Dixon asks the team managers to let him take a VCR to his room. So he can go to sleep the night before watching game film. So he can memorize the other team’s motion offense. So he can get more steals. "He knows where everybody on the other team will be dribbling the ball," forward Tahj Holden says. "It’s crazy."

***

His coach has noticed it. Last season, when Maryland was in a tailspin and on the verge of the NIT, Williams knew Dixon could take the pulse of the team. So he went to Dixon and asked what was wrong, how to get the fellas back on track. He told the coach the guys were dragging. So, together, they decided to play games of H-O-R-S-E in practice and also a game called "Knockout." After that, being a Maryland Terp was fun again, and they rolled all the way to the Final Four.

The point is, Williams has probably never been as close with a player as he is with Dixon. He was close with Keith Booth, too, but this is different. They’ve had five years together, going back to Dixon’s redshirt year straight out of high school. "I remember one time my redshirt year, we were playing Illinois in the NCAA Tournament, and I did something at the end of the bench," says Dixon. "I was into the game, and the referee said, ‘Tell that kid to sit down!’ And I think it was a tight situation, and G-Dub -- that’s what I call coach -- came down the bench and gave me a lip-full. He was, ‘You calm down, I don’t know what your problem is, you’re a freshman, blah, blah, blah.’ I mean, we had our share of run-ins, and that’s why I think we get along so well. Because I understand what he’s doing, and he understands where I’m coming from."

The next season, Maryland was shooting around the morning of a game at Chapel Hill when Dixon shouted over to Williams, "Hey, coach! Throw me a ball!" Williams not only threw Dixon a basketball, but he decided to guard him. Dixon posted him up, ball-faked, and accidentally floored G-Dub with an elbow. "He tried to hop up real fast like nothing happened," Dixon says. "It was funny."

And this is why, after the last game at Cole on Sunday, Dixon felt comfortable enough to go up to Williams and muss up his hair. The other 10 guys on the team would be petrified to do that.

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His brother has noticed it. Phil Dixon, older by four years, has seen Juan go from an average defensive player to one of the all-time steal leaders in conference history. He has seen Juan go from being a scorer-only to the ultimate team guy.

"Juan is so coachable," Phil says. "If you ever look at Maryland, Maryland doesn’t get Juan the ball that much. They run an offense that’s designed to go inside first. And everybody knows what Juan’s gonna do, where he’s gonna get the ball, how he’s gonna get it. And he’s not a guy that goes after offense, and he still averages 19 points. He’s been doing that for three years.

"I mean, if you look at Jason Williams’ situation, Jason Williams’ offense is around him. Jason Williams touches the ball every time. Casey Jacobsen, he touches the ball every possession. At Maryland, and I’m not knocking Maryland’s system -- ‘cause they’re winning so how can you knock it -- but imagine Juan at Duke where the offense would be around him. Or imagine him at Boston College. He’d have 39-point games like Troy Bell has. Even though Juan’s an All-American, he’s still not really the first option. I mean, imagine Juan running off the top screen at Duke.

"Don’t get me wrong -- he’s had a lovely career at Maryland, and I am so glad he chose Maryland. Because that’s where he wanted to go. And look at what he’s done there. Proud of him."

***

His girlfriend’s parents have noticed it. Their daughter, Robyn, brought him home during high school for the first time, and Guy and Gladys Bragg fell in love with him. "He was unique in that he answered ‘yes’ to everything," Gladys says. "If we said, ‘Are you going to the store?’ The answer was ‘yes.’ It wasn’t ‘uh huh’ or ‘yeah.’ It was always ‘yes.’ It was a trait he had that was very positive."

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The teammate who’s buried a family member has noticed it. Byron Mouton’s brother was tragically shot and killed earlier this season, and Dixon -- obviously familiar with funerals -- helped Mouton through it. "He told me he’d lost both his parents," Mouton says, "and he said, ‘You’ve got to be strong.’ He said, ‘Use it as a positive thing. I know your brother is looking down on you, and he knows you love playing basketball, so use it as a positive thing and dedicate everything you do to him, and let him know you’re working hard and make sure he knows you’re doing your best in school and on the court.’ He told me that, and I’ve thought about that ever since. It’s hard to say something tragic like that makes you play better, but I’ve used it as a positive to elevate my game to another level."

***

His enemies have noticed it. N.C. State freshman Julius Hodge has turned into something of a loudmouth around the league, and Dixon calmly approached him before a game at Cole Field House, and lent some advice.

"I told Julius, ‘If you stopped talking so much trash, you could be a better player,' " Dixon says. "He’s a showboater, and hopefully, he can learn talking so much is not going to help his game. He didn’t listen to me that day. But I told him, ‘You can be great, but let your game do the talking. Not you.’ We’ll see."

***

Even his younger brother has noticed it. It’s just that Jermaine Dixon-- age 13 -- doesn’t want to give his big brother Juan the satisfaction. Even when they talked on the telephone a few weeks back.

"When I go to college I’m going to Duke," Jermaine said.

"You go to Duke and I’ll disown you," Juan said.

"Going to Duke," Jermaine said.

"I’m telling you: I’ll disown you. Do yourself a favor and just come to Maryland," Juan said.

"Duke."

"Maryland."

"Duke."

"Maryland."

To be continued ...

Tom Friend is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at tom.friend@espnmag.com.