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After midnight, after the confetti had fallen and the NCAA championship trophy had been hoisted and kissed and smudged by so many fingers, after an especially dramatic "One Shining Moment" montage, Nolan Smith finally sat alone in his Indianapolis hotel room.

There in the dim light, in the quiet morning of April 6, Duke's emergent star cradled his father's national championship ring from the Louisville team that won it all in the same city 30 years earlier. To so many who had heard Smith's story, this moment would've been the perfect ending.

Derek Smith died of a heart attack in 1996, at the age of 34, when Nolan was only 8. The boy had been chasing his father's ghost — even had the man's image tattooed on his right biceps — ever since. The quest, to go where his dad had gone, seemed to end in Indianapolis.

The symmetry was undeniable. Smith's mother had given him Derek's ring last season and he carried it everywhere — even slept with it — during Duke's run through the NCAA tournament. Then he left it in the hotel room the night the Blue Devils played Butler for the championship, saying it was time for him to go earn his own ring.

"He'd be proud," Smith said. "But knowing my dad's personality — it's the same as mine — immediately after the national championship game, he would've told me, 'All right, let's get back to work.' If he was here, he'd say, 'Your job's not done.' "

And so Smith gave his father's ring back to his mom. And when Duke's rings were delivered, he shipped that one off to his mother's house in Upper Marlboro, Md., too.

He had a senior season left to play and new goals to run down. After a lifetime of trying to go where his dad had gone, he devoted this season to the pursuit of places Derek didn't reach.

"I want a second ring," Smith said. "I didn't want anything that would remind me of last year's championship here in my apartment. I didn't want to wake up every day and look at the ring and think, 'Oh, yeah, I'm cool. I've got one.' My mom is going to get mine and my dad's framed together and one day when I have my own house, they'll sit somewhere special. But right now, I'm trying to add to the collection."

A higher profile

That endeavor begins Friday, when fifth-ranked Duke opens play in the ACC tournament. Smith is inarguably the biggest reason the Blue Devils have a shot at becoming repeat NCAA champions.

"Nolan, right now, is doing everything," coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "His role is as important as any kid in the country."

The folks at Yahoo.com and FoxSports.com have already named Smith their national player of the year. That's a level of attention his father never enjoyed. Derek Smith was better characterized as a scrapper who elbowed his way into every minute of playing time.

While it would be easy to say Nolan — a McDonald's All-America coming out of high school — was given much more than Derek, it would be unfair to dismiss his current status as an unearned gift.

As a freshman at Duke, Smith struggled to get off the bench and averaged 5.9 points per game. His playing time was again uneven as a sophomore, when he averaged 8.4 points.

Between those first two seasons, Smith nearly transferred. Johnny Dawkins, who'd been an NBA teammate of Derek's and was one of the reasons Nolan chose Duke, left as a Devils assistant in April 2008 to become Stanford's head coach.

A part of Smith wanted to follow "Uncle Johnny," who'd helped him fill in the blanks about his father's life with countless stories about Derek. With Dawkins mentoring him, he believed he could learn how to be like his father. But then Dawkins was gone — and Nolan nearly was, too.

Before any rash decision could be made, Uncle Johnny called Smith. Although he could've used him in trying to build Stanford's program, he encouraged Nolan to become his own man.

"He's where he belongs," Dawkins said. "He made a commitment and he couldn't be in better hands than playing for Coach K and his staff."

Smith now thanks Dawkins for talking him out of leaving Duke.

"You can't always have someone looking over your shoulder telling you, 'Your dad would want you to do this,' " Smith said. "When coach Dawkins left, I realized that it was going to be my hard work that was going to make my future."

Unheralded no more

Smith began this season as arguably the third-most visible player on his own team.

Kyle Singler was back and a trendy preseason pick for national player of the year. Jon Scheyer was gone, but in his place at point guard was dazzling freshman Kyrie Irving, who might've been the first pick in the NBA draft if he could've gone straight there from high school.

Smith would have to sneak up on everybody all over again.

"Nolan's ascent to being one of the top players to play in a Duke uniform has been kind of unusual and really remarkable," Krzyzewski said. "It's not like he was this instant star. From his freshman year to now, Nolan's probably progressed more than any player we've had here."

That would make Derek smile, his son scratching his way to the top.

After Irving was injured, Krzyzewski suddenly needed Smith, a shooting guard, to handle the point. The senior admits it felt unnatural at first, but he welcomed the challenge.

While Smith missed all eight of his shots in his first game at point, he had 10 assists.

"After that first game, Coach told me to just be myself, to score," Smith said. "My teammates told me that in order for us to win big, I have to score. That's what I've been doing ever since."

Smith scored at least 20 points in 16 of the next 21 games. He dropped 34 and 30 in two games against ACC regular-season champ North Carolina. But he didn't stop sharing the ball, instead striking a perfect balance that saw him narrowly miss becoming the first player in league history to lead the ACC in scoring and assists.

"Nolan has become a pro player this year," Krzyzewski said.

Indeed, while Smith was once thought to have limited NBA potential, he is now widely projected as a late first-round pick this June.

"I would say that's my ultimate goal," Smith said. "Being in those arenas, being around those NBA guys, being at that level, it reminds me of the connection I had with my dad. Those are the last memories I had with him, sitting on the court three hours before a game, watching my dad work with those players. To be there, to be where he was, that's a dream. That's where I have to be."