ST. JOHN'S 83
DUKE 82

February 26, 2000

The Red Storm have been playing exceptionally well during an internal struggle where point guard Erick Barkley was suspended because of an absurd NCAA by-law. As a result, Coach K and Shane Battier asked the Sixth Man to lay off St. John's and their NCAA woes, because they were opposed to the particular by-laws. The Red Storm got among the friendliest of welcomes any opponent has ever received in Cameron, with Barkley actually garnering applause. His actions after the game did not merit this support, but more on that in Cameron Craziness. But St. John's is a team filled with good ball- handlers, slashers and shooters. They are, however, very small and the fact that they beat Duke so handily on the boards (35-28) and also finessed Duke's pressure with few problems (only 11 turnovers) did not speak well of Duke's effort in the hustle category.
St John's showed very early on that they weren't intimidated by the extremely loud Cameron surroundings nor the Devils themselves with an impressive early start. Marvis "Bootsy" Thornton started the proceedings by nailing a three, but was answered by Carrawell on the next possession. The Red Storm took an early 7-3 lead, but Duke battled back to tie the game up at 10 when Matt Christensen took advantage of good position and a small SJU frontline. Duke put together a 17-5 run led by Battier and James. Nate hit a three and had a transition dunk on a Carrawell steal, while Shane simply took the game over, hitting a couple of very long threes and a baseline jumper. Cameron was steamy and rocking, but St John's was not through.
A 9-0 run was stopped only by a Williams three and Carrawell drive, giving the Devils a 32-24 lead with about six minutes left in the half. But St John's really seized the momentum, once again closing to within 4. Carrawell got fouled and the basket counted, but his problematic foul shooting on the day started with him missing the free throw. Battier suddenly started missing threes and completely abandoned attempting to drive to the basket. Carrawell was getting some contact going up with the ball, but wasn't getting the foul called. He did not react well to this, because he kept going to the basket too soft instead of trying to really force St John's to foul him. It is worth noting that Duke only went to the foul line once in the half, settling too often for jumpers. Still, Duke led 38-33 with two minutes left in the half. However, Duke really bungled the last couple of minutes, which may have cost them the game. The Devils took bad shots and turned the ball over, and St. John's really capitalized, grabbing a 39-38 halftime lead and giving themselves a confidence boost.
The first couple of minutes of the second half saw a number of lead changes, as Boozer was finally into the game and giving St. John's problems. Duke took a 47-45 lead when C'well blocked a shot and then got it back from Williams on the break for a slam. Some free throws extended the lead to 5, and things looked good for Duke. SJU displayed some of their resiliency and their ability to shoot from the perimeter (they were 7-14 from three on the day) by tying it up at 50 once again. A Boozer three point play gave Duke a 53-50 lead, but the Johnnies went on a 10-0 run to take command. Duke was reeling as Carrawell looked confused and no one could buy a shot. The Devils looked tired and the unthinkable looked like it was about to occur: a blowout loss in Cameron.

That was not to be, as two of the frosh came of age and the less heralded of Shane Battier's "Three Pillars" started to dominate. Jason Williams had blown three straight possessions in the second half when Duke had a chance to run when he threw bad passes in 2-on-1 situations. Rather than get down on himself, he instead worked harder and started to carve up the Red Storm. The rally began with a relocation pass from Boozer to James for a three, and Duke finally cracked the zone on a nice pass from Williams to Boozer that cut the lead to three. St John's upped the lead to 7, but Williams penetrated and canned a 12' jumper and then found James for an emphatic transition dunk. St John's was still in a solid offensive rhythm and held Duke off for awhile, but Williams kept up the pressure with a three and an alley-oop to Boozer.

Finally, the Devils were able to take back the lead with back to back threes by James and Williams with five minutes left. Williams tore the roof off the joint with an alley-oop in halfcourt for a thunderslam by Boozer over two other players. A free throw later by Boozer gave Duke a 4 point lead with about three minutes left, but miscues by Carrawell and bad shots led to a 81-79 Red Storm lead with a minute left. James answered with a huge three with thirty seconds left to give Duke a one-point lead. Lavor Postell missed for St. John's, but they got yet another offensive rebound and Barkley found the ever- troublesome Bootsy for a wide-open jumper. Duke still had ten seconds left. They zipped it upcourt and found Boozer, but Barkley slapped it out of his hands with five seconds left. Carrawell took matters into his own hands, but got doubleteamed and took a bad shot. The clock ran out, and the Red Storm escaped with a hard-earned win.

This game was obviously played in the alternate universe where Battier and Carrawell didn't significantly step up their scoring and rebounding production and instead continued to merely be solid role players. An off game by those two simply shows just how valuable they've been all year long, and how well they've played.

 **Negatives:

1. Rebounding. This has been a recording.... Battier, Carrawell and James combined for 9 rebounds. Christensen had 2 in fourteen minutes of play.

2. Perimeter defense. St. John's was 7-14, and many of those shots came on wide-open attempts where Duke did a bad job of rotating. Duke in general looked disorganized on defense, missing a number of switches.

3. Shot selection. The Devils got lulled into the zone trap. Battier, after a hot start, lost his confidence after a couple of misses. Carrawell started short-arming weak attempts.

** Positives:

1. Passing. Duke had 30 field goals and 25 assists, an astonishing figure. Jason Williams was brilliant with 13 assists

2. Post offense. Once Boozer got into the swing of things, he started to dominate. Christensen and Horvath also had their moments, but Boozer made 6 of his last 7 shots.

3. Post defense. St John's did most of their damage from outside, but found it hard to score down low. Duke had 5 blocks and Battier came up with a couple of steals in the post.

Player-By-Player Analysis:

** Boozer: Early on, Carlos was once again playing very poor defense, as he did not rotate over and Duke got burned a couple of times as a result. Coach K yanked him a couple of times for his lack of hustle. It didn't help that he missed some easy shots early on, although he was trying to finesse his way in instead of powering his way up over the smaller Johnnies. Williams did find him for a couple of baskets in the first half, but it still wasn't his best effort. He was obviously given a good talking-to by the coaches at the half, because he came out very aggressively in the second half, first getting fouled and hitting both foul shots (he was an excellent 7-8 for the game) and then picking up a loose ball and laying it in on a break. A blocked shot led to a break where C'well scored. He continued to steadily contribute, getting fouled and hitting the basket, and later finding Williams for a three that Duke desperately needed. On the next play, Williams found him for yet another three point play. His defense also picked up as Anthony Glover wasn't getting a lot of easy shots. He was the biggest target on Duke's late-game comeback, laying in an alley-oop and absolutely bringing the house down with an awesome thunderslam in traffic. When he's really into the game, Carlos is a terrifying force, especially against shorter teams. St John's had no answer for him once he got going, but it's unfortunate that Duke didn't try harder to penetrate the zone to get Carlos going, and that Carlos himself was so sluggish early on.

** Battier: Shane was absolutely on fire in the first half, and then he mysteriously turned into a glacier in the second. For about five minutes, he was the most dominant player on the floor. He had a three, a pass to James for a three, another three, a nice turnaround jumper on the baseline, and a 25' jumper taken with absolute confidence. He had 3 boards, a steal, and a block as well. That, unfortunately, turned out to be pretty much it for Shane. He did have a free throw and a couple of more steals in the second half, but his shot completely left him, and he stopped trying to drive for reasons I can't comprehend. He also only grabbed just 2 more boards, and was one of the big reasons why Duke had trouble blocking out. His energy just wasn't there, highly unusual for one of the most energetic players in basketball. Hopefully, he'll come out firing against Clemson and attack the basket more.

** Carrawell: Chris had a fine first half but his collapse in the second was just inexplicable. After the game, even he was mystified. He tried to blame fatigue, having to defend great players and heat, but then realized that he was just making excuses. Hopefully, this great warrior will rebound quickly, because Duke is dead without him at the top of his game. He started off the game with a three and later had a steal and a pass to James for a dunk. On Duke's next possession, he found Horvath open for another slam. In typical C-Well fashion, he had a couple of drives for baskets at a time when St. John's was mounting a comeback, though he did mess up towards the end of the half. In the second half, his positive contributions were limited to the first five minutes, where he had a slam on the break on two free throws--this after missing two free throws earlier in the half. After that, his only impact came on finding an open James for a three, because he was stripped on several drives and played too much one-on-one. He apparently disregarded an order from K on the last play to try and make something happen himself, and it backfired. Chris deserves the benefit of the doubt because his decision-making is usually so sound, but I think the time has come to trust his younger teammates a bit more. They're ready, and I think they proved it.

** James: Nate is still recovering from the flu, which limited some of his mobility, but he still made an amazing number of great plays. His defense was still not quite all the way there, especially on switches. He showed very quickly what he was going to do when he hit a 19' jumper. Soon afterwards, he hit a three and then zoomed downcourt for a transition dunk. He hit another jumper late in the half and was Duke's second leading scorer with 9. But he didn't have a single board, which would hurt Duke in the long run. Nate did come up huge in the second half, hitting a three that tied the game at 45 and later finding Boozer for the basket + 1. But he really took over in the last nine minutes. Williams found him for a transition dunk, and then he hit a three to pull Duke within 3. His biggest basket came with thirty seconds left, when Carrawell found him in the corner for a three, putting Duke up by 1. Alas, he couldn't grab a rebound on the other end, and his heroism was not rewarded. Nate has stepped up several times this year when the other veterans weren't playing well, and this was no exception. Hopefully, he'll be fully recovered for Clemson and ready to go all-out on both ends.

** Williams: It's possible that this game heralded a transition in leadership, with Williams truly stepping up as the team decision-maker. When he stepped up and took over the game with ten minutes left, you could see him acting instead of reacting. He knew what to do and did it well. There was a sense that he could no longer defer to C'well and Battier, and needed to do something himself to spark the team. And not just for one play, but for the rest of the game. He had a mostly unremarkable first half, as he looked a little intimidated by Barkley. He did have six assists, dishing to Carrawell and Battier for 3 threes, finding his roommate Boozer for a couple of inside buckets and C'well on a drive. He did have a few drives that ended up in questionable shots. The first nine minutes of the second half were also far from memorable, especially when he made horrible passes on the break for three straight turnovers. But when he hit a three with eleven minutes left, he got a lot of confidence. He found Boozer for the basket and the foul, stripped Barkley a couple of times, fueling a break for Nate James. He pulled up on one break for a short jumper that rattled in, and then popped a three. He really started clicking with Boozer, throwing a couple of alley-oops that Boozer converted. His last basket, however, came with five minutes left, although it did put Duke up 76-75. Jason played very solid defense on Barkley, limiting him to 12 points on 14 attempts. Barkley didn't penetrate much on him, either, and it's one of his specialties. If Jason can duplicate this performance in a game where everyone else is playing well, it will really boost Duke's chances.

** Horvath: Carrawell found Nick for a dunk early in the game, but he didn't get many looks at the basket after that. St John's covered him well on the perimeter. He did rebound fairly well and in traffic, getting 3 in just nine minutes of play.

** Christensen: Matt did a few good things. He powered over a couple of Red Stormers for an early basket, and passed to James for a bucket. He also had a steal in the second half that helped ignite a break. He didn't rebound as well as I had hoped, just getting 2.

Cameron Craziness: This was one of the finest crowds ever at a Duke game. They were challenged by both the recent flop against Maryland and the request by Battier and Coach K to go easy on Erick Barkley to root positively for the team. They had a little anti-NCAA skit before the game where the NCAA shot down a student. There were tons of signs for the players. Mike Dunleavy had a number of signs for him, including "Mike, we'll still kiss you" held up by some female fans. I also liked "Spike Lee ain't got nothing on us!", a reference to Lee being at the St. John's game last year in New York. There was a "Shane For President" sign, both a prediction and a celebration of Shane being elected to the presidency of the Student Basketball Council, a student-athlete group dedicated to giving a voice to the players. Jason had a "Big Williams Style" poster, and I've read that he even signed the tent where that slogan originated. As the St John's players were introduced, each heard "Fight the power" after their name, with Barkley getting applause--a first in Cameron. During the game, the crowd was loud and supportive, helping the team out when they got down by cheering even louder. When Duke went on their late game run, the place shook like on very few other occasions. The Crazies reminded Bootsy Thornton of his real first name by taunting "Marvis, Marvis" at the foul line. When St. John's won, Barkley ran over to the student section and taunted them, in a hand-to-his-ear pose seen in newspapers everywhere.

Reported by Rob Clough, tmc@duke.edu