Shavlik Randolph would have been better off at N.C. State. At this point in the Duke junior's frustrating college basketball career, no one could possibly argue with that assertion.

Then again, Randolph would have been better off at North Carolina. Or Wake Forest. Or Clemson, Miami or South Dakota State.

Given Randolph's seemingly endless run of bad fortune and fruitless performances in Durham, it's difficult not to picture him as being better off if he were somewhere else.

Show me someone who insists that he wouldn't change anything about his life, and I'll show you someone living in denial. We all have experiences, decisions, episodes that we regret.

Live and learn. That's as fundamental as dust to dust.

When word came down Wednesday that Randolph had been sidelined indefinitely with mononucleosis, the second-guessing about one of Raleigh's most celebrated basketball players ever resumed yet again.

For the nation's sixth-ranked team, he was averaging a modest 6.4 points and 5.1 rebounds.

Those numbers fall far short of the expectations for the former Broughton High star once envisioned as the next Christian Laettner.

When Randolph, the grandson of former N.C. State star Ronnie Shavlik, picked Duke over the Wolfpack, no one groaned longer or louder than those in red. The youngster was painted as a turn-coat who sold his soul to the entrenched Blue Devils rather than to pursue his birthright as an NCSU legacy who might rekindle the success of his bloodline.

In reality, Randolph made the logical move. He signed with the nation's best program and best coach.

Put yourself in the same situation. What would you have done? At the time, State was struggling, and Pack coach Herb Sendek wasn't popular with fans.

North Carolina's program was on the verge of upheaval.

Florida, with head coach Billy Donovan, was a recruiting factor, but no one seriously believed that Randolph would play anywhere except in the ACC.

His choice of Duke was exactly like a top football recruit picking Florida State.

After Duke's win over Oklahoma on Saturday in New York, N&O reporter Luciana Chavez asked Randolph whether he wished he had gone to another school.

"No, absolutely not. ... Like I've always said, I came to college injured and not really knowing what was going on. I'm blessed that Duke had some of the best doctors in the country," Randolph said. "If not for that, I wouldn't even be playing. ... Do you think I don't have fun beating people's butts every night by a lot of points?"

Nevertheless, the Shav we've seen in college isn't the player we saw at Broughton. That player was a graceful wingman with a deadly jump shot, as well as a devastating weak-side rebounder at both ends of the court.

It will forever be argued that Mike Krzyzewski turned a potential Larry Bird into a poor man's Larry Lakins. It'll be said that Krzyzewski brought in Randolph for no better reason than to torture Sendek on one front and Carolina on the other.

The same was said of Dean Smith when he signed Southern Durham High's Curtis Hunter -- often called "the next Michael Jordan" in those days -- to fight for playing time at North Carolina when Duke and State were clamoring for Hunter to carry their programs to a higher level.

It turned out that Hunter was no more the next Jordan than Randolph is the next Laettner. Exceptional talent, in the long run, usually surfaces. Duke hasn't been great for Randolph, but Randolph hasn't been great for Duke.

It's fair, in that regard, to say that both sides made a mistake.

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