Durham, N.C. — Duke finally has a "big" assistant coach who can work  with its post players, not to mention an ex-Blue Devil on the bench with a national championship ring on his finger.

The Blue Devils added both of those intangibles to the coaching staff with the hiring of Nate James, who held an introductory press conference Wednesday morning.

After associate head coach Johnny Dawkins left to take the top job at Stanford, Chris Collins and Steve Wojciechowski were promoted to associate head coaches, leaving the vacancy James will fill. The 2001 Duke graduate returned to the team in January as assistant strength and conditioning coach.

Now, it will be James' duty to instill in Duke's players the winning attitude that helped lead the Devils to their last national title in 2001. James was a two-time captain, and as a fifth-year senior, he made a sacrifice — giving up his starting role to Chris Duhon.

"I've been there, I've been through every possible scenario you can imagine (on the court)," James said. "Coming in being a McDonald's All-American, having to compete and go against other McDonald's All-Americans and fight for playing time.

"Injuries, being a role player coming off the bench, starting and to ultimately becoming one of the best players in the ACC and become a national champion.

"So I can relate to all the players in every aspect that you can possibly think of, so I think that will help me a lot."

One of the questions surrounding James' hire is whether he will be the main coach to work with Duke's big men, who have taken on a diminished role for the Devils since Shelden Williams left after the 2005-06 season.

James said the process has been so fast, he doesn't yet know which players he will work with, but at 6 feet 6 inches, he — undoubtedly — can relate better to players such as 6-8 Lance Thomas and 7-1 Brian Zoubek than can the 5-11 former point guard Wojciechowski, who drilled the big men last season.

Wojciechowski has been a Duke assistant since 1999, and former shooting guard Collins was added a year later. With Dawkins on the bench from 1996 until just a few weeks ago, head coach Mike Krzyzewski went several years without a former forward as an assistant.

"'Wojo' — he's been working with the big guys and he does a tremendous job with them," James said. "So (my job) could be assisting him in drills. It could be working with Coach Collins with the perimeter.

"So wherever I end up working, it will just be an additional asset to the guys who are already there."

More than teaching Xs and Os, James will bring the intensity and winning attitude he exhibited as a player in helping Duke win five consecutive regular-season ACC championships and 117 games, tied for the fourth most in school history with Danny Ferry.

"My philosophy just is to bring it every day," James said. "That's what I tried to do during my playing days here, is to go out and each day try to maximize all the potential God blessed you to have.

"If you do that, you'll have a lot of success individually, and collectively we'll win a lot of games (if) everyone takes that approach."

Being on the bench for the majority of last season, James observed a lot and picked up on many of Collins' and Wojciechowski's tendencies. In assessing the season, he said the 28-6 Devils overachieved. But as a former Devil, James knows that every Duke team is judged by how it fares in the NCAA Tournament.

And that is an area in which the Devils have been uncharacteristically down the past few years. They haven't made the Final Four since 2004 and haven't survived the first weekend of the tournament the last two seasons.

In addition to winning the 2001 title as a senior, James played in the 1999 championship game that Duke lost to Connecticut. It's safe to say, he knows what it takes to help the Devils get back to that level.

"Just the experience and toughness that I bring to the table and a different set of eyes, a different voice to help them," James said of his championship experience helping the Devils.

"Or since I'm here, I might say some things to the guys that come across to the guys that maybe Wojo or Chris didn't get a chance to kind of relate to (them), or say something to one of the guys for them to kind of get it to learn and move on, to improve."

And perhaps just as importantly, James has strong evidence to convince underclassmen who are on the fence to stay in school — especially players who aren't locks for the NBA.

After graduating from Duke and playing in the Carolinas Basketball League, James spent parts of five seasons playing in Bosnia, Brazil, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Japan, the Philippines, Poland and Russia.

While some might consider the career a world history tour, James didn't exactly praise the vagabond experience. Instead, he talked about eating nothing but rice and noodles — with chopsticks only — in Japan for several months; playing in a freezing gym in Bosnia; and having to eat cow tongue in Russia.

So with a national title, international playing experience, and plenty of stories, James, 30, doesn't come to the Duke bench with an empty resume — even if this is his first coaching job of any kind.

"Well, it's almost like a dream," James said. "I'm still pinching myself from time to time in saying out loud, 'I'm a coach here now; you know, I'm an assistant coach for Duke basketball.'

"It still really hasn't hit me yet."