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Others Receiving Votes
In an emotional and often sloppy contest, Duke defeated UNC
90-76 on March 4th in Cameron.
This was of course Senior Day for likely ACC
player of the year Chris Carrawell and the culmination
of the K-ville campout.
C-well had never lost at home to the Heels and
wanted a strong Senior Day performance.
While the game had no particular relevance to
ACC standings (though UNC was trying to clinch the
third seed), the Devils know that every game is
relevant to their NCAA seeding.
Both Stanford and Arizona lost today, with the
latter result bringing Duke closer and closer to
getting their prized #1 seed in the East.
Despite this being an afternoon game in March, Cameron was
unusually cool today, which I think helped Duke this
time around. Players
seemed a lot less fatigued than against St. John's.
The crowd was extremely raucous, closing out
the home slate with four excellent performances in a
row. Look
for much more on the very creative Sixth Man below in
Cameron Craziness. But the first and last order of business was honoring perhaps
the toughest player in Duke history, Chris Carrawell. This versatile swingman has shouldered the weight of
leadership the entire year, helping to toughen up the
younger players and taking the biggest shots in the
most crucial moments.
Dozens of signs were seen in his honor around
Cameron, and his name as well as "Player of the
Year" were frequently heard chants.
The pre-game scene is one I'll long remember:
the lights being turned off, a single spotlight
shining on center court, Chris running out to receive
cheers for a moment, him running off for a second and
bringing out his mother to share in the cheers, and
the two of them bowing to every corner of the
venerable stadium. The entire team then ran out to huddle with him and his
mother at center court.
The sight of thousands of cameras going off as
he stood in near-darkness, clapping for the fans as
well as himself, was a great scene.
Not surprisingly, Duke played more than a little tightly after
such an emotional moment.
Every possession seemed to be charged with a
strange, surreal energy, where shots weren't falling
but good things would happen anyway because of the
team's effort. The
teams combined four 4 missed shots and 2 turnovers in
the first couple of minutes, but the first noticeable
thing was that Duke was going hard to the boards,
especially on the offensive end.
Considering that UNC is one of the best
rebounding teams in the league, this was a heartening
prospect. In
fact, Duke outrebounded the Heels in the decisive
first half and only came up -2 for the game.
(Of course, one reason why the Heels were able
to catch up is because they only missed 1 shot in the
last nine minutes.) So the fact that Duke's first
points of the game came from a rebound basket by Nate
James definitely set a tone for the game.
That first basket loosened up the Devils a bit as they
continued to hound the Heels defensively.
Williams got an aggressive steal from Ed Cota
and hit a free throw.
The Devils also continued to attack the boards,
with Battier outworking Lang and Haywood for a putback.
Shane then hit a 3 to give Duke an 8-0 point
lead and keep the crowd in a frenzy.
While the Heels have often been known to lose
their concentration at times this year, they've also
been known for their ability to come back, thanks to
deadly one-on-one play by Cota and Joseph Forte.
The Heels scored 5 in a row thanks to a rare
Duke turnover (only 8 in the game).
The game was nip-and-tuck for a few minutes,
with C-well finally hitting his first shot eight
minutes into the game, a nice drive.
James hit a three and Battier had a beautiful
drive, but this was countered by Julius Peppers, whose
energy gave the Heels a lift after Kris Lang picked up
his second foul.
The score stood at 16-12 for Duke, but then
something very important happened: Ed Cota bumped
heads with a teammate, opening up a big gash on his
own forehead. He
had to be taken out of the game for about six minutes,
during which time Duke went on a 22-6 run.
This run essentially decided the game, as Duke
simply managed to keep the Heels at arm's length in
the second half.
The run started rather dramatically. Deep reserve Terrence Newby threw up a week shot that Boozer
rejected out to a streaking Jason Williams, who got
the layup. Williams
then stole the inbound pass and laid that in as well.
Battier then deflected the next pass in from
Newby off to C-well, who had an easy dunk.
34 seconds, 6 points, a 22-12 lead.
Ouch. Duke
then went for the throat.
After a Haywood dunk, Battier hit a three from
the corner. On
the next possession, Carrawell banked in a long three
that seemed to energize everyone.
Duke won this game because they simply
outworked UNC when it counted, as was evidenced by the
next few minutes of play.
Battier, Carrawell and Christensen scored 6 in
a row from offensive rebounds--with Carrawell cleaning
up his own miss. With Boozer out of the game with 2 fouls, Christensen put in
an inspired performance by outhustling the Heels for 4
offensive rebounds.
On 2 different possessions, he got an offensive
board and dished to Nate James for easy baseline
jumpers. Duke
had run out to a 20 point lead with just a minute left
in the half, but some poor time management and a
bumbled possession allowed the Heels to cut it to a
manageable 15 point lead.
Duke struck quickly in the second half, with Carrawell driving
for a deuce. The
Devils started shooting a bit too quickly and had some
trouble scoring in the post with the presence of
Haywood (6 blocks) looming, and the Heels scored 4
straight. But
Boozer found himself alone at the top of the key and
buried a 15' jumper.
The Heels and Devils started trading baskets,
with Williams finding James in transition and
Christensen finding Nate spotting up for a three.
The Heels came back to score 5 in a row, with
some open shots finally becoming available. Duke had done a great job of limiting open looks by using a
suffocating help defense but it was starting to loosen
up a bit. The
Devils responded with an 8-0 run.
Using skip passes, the Devils patiently worked
the ball around until Carrawell found a sizzling
Battier open for three.
On the next possession, Williams passed the
ball to an open Battier, who nailed another three.
The main reason why he was open was that he was
shooting from 25 feet away! Somewhere, Chris Collins
was smiling. A
block from C'well led to a break, where Chris managed
2 free throws. Duke
led 62-43 with about twelve minutes left.
This is where UNC went into the zone to end all zones--they
only missed 4 field goals on 17 attempts the rest of
the game. While
some spectacular passing from Cota led to some easy
baskets, a number of these were covered threes and
tough pull up baskets, with the remarkable Joseph
Forte scoring 13 in the last twelve minutes.
It started with a 6-0 spurt that brought the
Heels to within shouting distance, but Boozer finally
broke through after a frustrating afternoon, getting
the basket and the foul.
The Devils and Heels once again traded baskets
for a couple of minutes, with Battier scoring on a
spectacular drive and hitting a 17' jumper.
UNC, down by 16, came up with a 7-0 to bring
them within 71-62 with five minutes left.
The Heels were starting to look automatic from
the field and people were starting to get nervous.
Williams had taken a quick three, Battier
missed the front end of a one-and-one, and even C'well
missed a jumper.
But Duke came back with two plays that
essentially put the game out of reach.
The first came with Carrawell driving one-on-one against the
monstrous Haywood.
C'well shot a one-hander that used the
backboard and a very tough angle to shoot it out of
Haywood's blocking range, and it went in.
The second play saw Battier swipe the ball from
Cota (one of his 7 turnovers) and Duke started to work
on the clock. The ball was passed over to James in the corner, his favorite
spot, but he bobbled the ball.
He heaved it up with one second left on the
shot clock, and it swished cleanly through the net,
sending everyone into yet another frenzy.
(I have never seen the upper deck get on their
feet more times than they did today.) Cota then canned
a three on the next possession, but there was a sense
that it no longer mattered.
Duke started to run the clock down and this
time, the offense was flawless, as Williams penetrated
with under ten seconds on the shot clock and dished it
backwards to Battier, who nailed his 6th three of the
game. That
began a parade to the foul line, with Duke making 7 of
8 down the stretch. After Carrawell hit 2 foul shots, there was an ACC senior
moment. With
the Heels down 13 with 1:39 left, Cota dribbled at the
top of the key. Carrawell poked the ball away and ran downcourt for an
uncontested dunk, giving Duke an unassailable 15 point
lead. Duke
continued to run out the clock, with C'well finding
Boozer at the last second with a minute left in the
game. After
Jason Williams hit a free throw with 36 seconds left,
UNC coach Bill Guthridge essentially conceded the
outcome of the game by putting in his subs, which
allowed Coach K to give Carrawell a well-deserved
curtain call. Hugs
all around, including a big one from Coach K.
After the game, Chris came out for his senior speech.
It was short but sweet, thanking his family,
his god, Tom Butters and Joe Alleva, his coaches, and
the fans. He
said that he was proud of his team and the support the
fans had given in a year when no one expected Duke to
perform at this high a level.
And lastly, he asked that the fans serenade the
players one more time with that same cheer that Trajan
Langdon asked for last year...and they did, as
"Go to hell Carolina, go to hell!" rang out
for one last time in Cameron this year.
I liked Duke's game plan.
They were determined to drive to the basket no
matter what, feeling that UNC would eventually start
fouling them. This
kind of penetration opened up the outside game and
made Duke's offense much more fluid.
The Devils in general did a fine job in
managing each possession and not rushing shots.
Duke knew where the seams in UNC's zone would
be and picked their shots very carefully. And when Cota went out, they ratcheted up the pressure a few
notches. The
problem for the Heels was not just that Cota went out,
it was that the other players looked like lost souls
without him. No
one stepped up to replace his energy or presence.
With Duke also down a player, the fact that the
Devils learned to play without him made all the
difference in this game.
**
Negatives:
1. Shooting. While
Duke managed to vary their offense fairly well, they
rushed too many shots.
Jason Williams pulled the trigger a bit too
quickly several times, and while I'm glad he's
aggressive enough to take the shots, he should
recognize that he's better when someone else sets him
up. James
missed a couple of easy ones but also hit some
ridiculous shots.
2. Interior offense. Duke
was eaten alive by Haywood on the defensive end, as
layup after layup was blocked.
Part of this was because a lot of plays were
too slow in developing.
**
Positives:
1.
Rebounding.
Not a typo! Duke scored on 5 offensive
rebounds and outrebounded the Heels in the first half.
The Heels missed so few in the second half that
Duke only wound up with 7 boards in the period, but
still came within just a couple of total boards by the
end. Combined
with a solid rebounding effort against another team
proficient in that area (Clemson), it seems like Duke
is making some progress in the carom department.
2. Valuing the ball. Carolina
is not known for their pressure defense, but
nonetheless Duke still did a great job of taking care
of the ball. They avoided turning the ball over against the traps UNC was
setting up in the last ten minutes, avoided lazy
passes, and didn't get cute with overly fancy passes.
One thing I've noticed this year is that it's
hard to beat Duke if you don't turn them over.
3. Defensive aggressiveness.
This was the key to the win.
UNC is so efficient and deadly on offense that
the best way to stop them is to disrupt the passing
lanes and force players not proficient in handling the
ball (ie, everyone but Cota) to make decisions.
But Duke's biggest victory may have been Cota's
7 turnovers, many of them outright Duke steals,
including one that sealed the game with a couple of
minutes left.
Player-by-Player
Analysis:
**
Boozer: Carlos had a very rough first half, going
0-5 and picking up a couple of fouls.
To his great credit, he fought through it in
the second half and ended up being a difference-maker.
He did have 4 boards and had one savvy
defensive play: UNC brought the ball out in transition
and Kris Lang had it and decided he was going to
thunder down the court. Boozer read him immediately and just stood there, awaiting
the impact. Lang
tried to drive right over him, missed the dunk and got
called for the charge. Lang proved to be a very minor factor in the game, and it was
his slow feet that helped Duke get as many rebounds as
they did. Boozer
played with a lot of fire in the second half after
being banished to the bench with 2 fouls for much of
the first. He
hit that outside jumper and that seemed to loosen him
up a bit. Battier
found him for the basket and one, and later sank some
free throws. C'well
also found him loose under the basket for a slam.
'los didn't have a huge night, but he did
enough to help out and helped seal off Haywood down
low. Haywood
only managed 7 attempts on the night and hardly any
down the stretch as the Heels had to rely on their
perimeter game to get back in it.
**
Battier: Simply brilliant.
Following up a torrid night of shooting at
Clemson, Battier repeated his marksmanship exhibition
at the expense of the Heels.
And he scored in so many different ways.
He had 2 baskets on offensive rebounds.
He had 6 three pointers, one from way beyond
NBA range. He
hit 2 free throws.
He had a couple of nice drives, and a long 17'
jumper. He
scored 5 in a row at one point, had back-to-back
threes in the second half, answered UNC baskets with a
score of his own on 7 different occasions, and hit a
three with three minutes left that essentially removed
any remaining mystery from the game.
He was also superb on defense, blocking a shot
that led directly to a transition score as well as
picking up 3 steals.
Battier has really stepped up his game since
that disappointing second-half performance against St.
John's.
**
Carrawell: He looked a bit overwhelmed by emotion
at first, really forcing up his first shot, but then
calmed down and got back into the groove of things. C'well really made his presence felt about ten minutes into
the game, when he got that dunk off a Battier steal. He then passed off to Battier for a three and pulled up and
made a banked-in three of his own, which really seemed
to get him going.
He kept attacking the basket and rebounded a
shot missed by him.
He also had a very nice drive in the first half
that he got past the Heel defense.
Chris was very tough on the boards, getting 6
in the first half as well as a couple of steals. He played a complete game, dominating on defense and stepping
up on offense. He
reestablished Duke's presence by getting a hoop on a
drive to open the second half.
He found Battier on a three to put Duke up 14.
He had perhaps the biggest play of the game
when he drove over Haywood to stop a 9-0 UNC run.
And he capped off his home career with a steal
from his old pal Ed Cota and a transition dunk. A solid, workmanlike game from one of Duke's finest warriors.
**
James: The Regulator (Nate is the man of a
thousand nicknames) proved to be the unsung hero
tonight, scoring in the most opportunistic of ways.
He got the all-important first basket for Duke
on a short baseline shot after an offensive rebound
and later hit a three to put Duke up 6.
He scrapped for a steal and was truly
Nathaniel-on-the-spot when Christensen saw him open a
couple of times after some frenetic offensive
rebounds. Nate
sank both of the baseline jumpers he was given. In the second half, Williams found him in transition and his
assist-machine teammate Christensen found him open on
the baseline yet again, this time for a three.
Duke attacked UNC's zone in some very
particular ways, avoiding the wing and top of the key
and hurting them on the corners, where the slower post
men had to cover them.
It was a strategy not unlike the one UVa and
Keith Friel used in Chapel Hill.
Nate's biggest play was the aforementioned
prayer of a three that was actually shot rather well,
the odd thing is that he was falling down as he was
doing it. Nate
played with heart, chasing Capel and Forte around for
much of the game, and won for his long-time friend
Carrawell.
**
Williams: A game that was solid in every respect
but shooting. His
threes simply wouldn't fall, but he did take the ball
to the rim very effectively otherwise.
The Heels fouled rather than allowing him to
get layups, and Jay went 4-6 in that department.
Jason was there in Duke's biggest blitzkrieg,
going on a full court pressing frenzy and picking up a
couple of turnovers and easy layups.
Jason played a big part in the plays that keyed
Duke's win. His
best assist was to Battier towards the end of the
game, as he dodged traps, penetrated right up the
middle with just a few seconds on the shot clock, and
pitched it back to a waiting Battier, who nailed a
three. His
worst sequence was at the end of the first half.
Duke had the ball with the shot clock turned
off, but he drove too early and put up a clunker.
The Heels had perhaps their easiest transition
basket of the game as the half ran out.
Jason may have been just a little too pumped
up, and there was of course his bronchitis.
Still, he's been carrying the team for the past
couple of games, so it was good to others step up a
bit. Cota
hurt him at the end of the game with his penetration,
but he did a good job of containing him otherwise;
several of Jason's 5 steals came at Cota's expense.
**
Christensen: Came up with some giant-size, manly
rebounds when the team really needed them with
Boozer's absence, and also began the legend of the
dynamic Christensen to James passing combo.
Magic and Kareem, watch out! Matt had four
offensive rebounds in the first half, scoring on one
of them, and also had a couple of relocation passes to
James on the baseline.
He played with a tremendous amount of energy
all over the court, going after loose balls and
playing superb defense on Haywood.
There was one point where Christensen was
playing him so tough that Haywood was forced to use a
fadeaway jumper that clanked harmlessly off the rim.
**
Horvath: Nick played a few crucial minutes in the
first half. He
missed his only shot, but got a tough rebound and also
picked up a steal.
**
Sanders, Buckner,
Simpson: Just popped in to help run out the clock.
**
Cameron Craziness: I arrived rather early to feed
on the energy of the Sixth Man, and they were in fine
form. First
and foremost on the Crazies' minds was Ed Cota's
much-publicized arrest for assault last Halloween, a
case still pending trial.
The 6th Man knew every last detail and Cota
seemed a little stunned at the level of intensity and
detail the Duke fans were able whip up. Photocopies of Cota's photo made to look like a mug shot were
made, down to including the date of the arrest and a
made-up ID #. When
he went to the line for the first time, thousands of
these were waved at him, and he missed. Other pre-game jeers included "Go to jail, Ed Cota, go
to jail!" The best touch was one graduate student
who borrowed a judge's robes and gavel and was waving
it at Cota. There
was one student wearing makeup like the wrestler
Sting, which apparently Cota was when he was arrested,
and a number of students wearing orange shirts--like
the color of jail togs.
Lastly, whenever Cota committed a foul, the
fans sang out with "Guilty, guilty", which
also seemed to get to him--he was shaking his head at
the foul line.
The Duke fans also warmly recalled UNC's stunning first round
loss to Weber State last year, with fans wearing
T-Shirts, getting official school signs, and one fan
brandishing a nice "I'm in a Weber State of
mind", all in purple.
Chants of "Weber State" were heard,
as well as "NIT", perhaps predicting UNC's
ultimate postseason fate.
Along those lines, a chant of "two sports,
no postseason" was aimed at Ron Curry, the UNC
quarterback who was injured in the Heels' disastrous
football season.
A somewhat obscure chant of "Jon
Holmes...right hand" was aimed at the frosh PG,
poking at his homonymously similar moniker to that of
a deceased porn star.
And of course, there was the game-long chant of
"Joey" at Joseph Forte, who hates to be
called anything other than "Joseph." Didn't
seem to bother him, though.
The other chants included "Jeff was
better" aimed at Jason Capel (with Jeff, in
attendance, pumping the crowd up to continue the
chant!), and the classic "whiny bitch" aimed
at Haywood after he was weeping over a foul not being
called when he fell out of bounds with the ball.
There were so many signs, I hardly got a chance to catch them
all. There
was "Ed Cota's Fight Club", "Weren't
You Guys Ranked?", "Kris Lang Had Six
Fingers", "Roy Williams Is Waiting By The
Phone", and "Haywood #00--is that your
number or your IQ?" I also saw the succinct and
clever "Cota Hell."
There were also many signs for Chris Carrwell, many in the ABC
theme: "All 'bout C-well", "All Because
of Carrawell", "Give 'em hell, C'well",
etc. Chris
got many, many cheers throughout the game, including
the standard "Player of the Year" and a loud
and lingering plain ol' "C-Well" after his
senior moment and various good plays.
As the game wound down, "Thank you,
C-well" rang out, as he was the only senior on
the squad. The
usual "Who's your daddy? Battier" and "Nate's
a badass" were also heard, as well as "Stormin'
Mormon" for Matt Christensen.
Post-game, a bonfire started up quickly on the quad, with
three or four benches (and a computer monitor!)
meeting a firey end.
It was a pretty relaxed scene due to the easy
nature of Duke's win, but a good time was had by all,
especially those folks who stripped down to their
skivvies and danced around (sensibly, not IN) the
fire. Of
course, the fact that it was still daytime didn't help
either.
**
Next Game: Thursday, March 9th in the ACC
tournament in Charlotte.
Duke will face Clemson, a team that gave Duke a
decent scare just a few days ago.
Will Solomon was terrific in the second half
against Duke, but the big revelation was a
much-improved Ed Scott at point guard.
Adam Allenspach has turned in a number of solid
performances, and Ray Henderson gave Duke some trouble
with his size and quickness.
The big keys are to shut down Solomon early,
don't allow the Tigers too many extra chances on the
boards, and rotate quickly on their shooters--the
Tigers don't make too many threes and make even fewer
with a hand in their face.
Like last year's Virginia team, one gets the
sense that this Tiger club just needs a couple of more
players to be competitive.
After an awful first three months of the
season, the Tigers finally got healthy and actually
jelled as a team.
While they did come in last, this will be a
decent challenge for Duke who must take them
seriously. Four
days rest should do wonders for Carrawell and Battier,
and they must come out and attack the Tigers inside,
with Boozer getting some special emphasis.
Reported by Rob Clough,
tmc@duke.edu
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