NCAA Tournament
East Regionals
First Union Center

Duke 76, UCLA 63
March 22, 2001

Duke 79, Southern Cal 69
March 24, 2001

    Due to a schedule conflict and a VCR screw-up, I still haven't been able to see the Missouri game.  And my summary of the Duke-Monmouth game is as follows: everyone on Duke played really well against a team with stars in its eyes.  So I'll just present my summary of the last two games, along with general comments.  Each of Duke's last two opponents were  extremely athletic, uptempo teams that still had a good big man or two-- but very little depth.  Thus Duke's opponents would not be able to wear them down the way that Florida did, but both PAC-10 foes possessed a great deal of experience and toughness.  Still, neither one relied on brute force or rebounding skill to win games--two more factors that favored Duke.   They liked to run as much as possible and slash their way to the basket-- Duke traits.  I thought that by avoiding a tough halfcourt team like Ohio State, and a deep, bruising team like Kentucky, Duke got an excellent draw and each game was essentially theirs to lose.  And they did not lose.

     One of the myths about this Duke team is that "all they do is shoot threes", that they "play Loyola-Marymount Basketball".  While the three is a big part of the offense, I consider it to be only the second-most important part of the offense.  The most important part is attacking the basket with dribble penetration.  Jason, Chris, and to a lesser extent Shane, Mike & Nate, all look to take it to the rim as often as they can. It's really Jason's first option and one he'll take right away if he sees a defensive breakdown or if he's being played tightly.  For those  pundits who wonder how Duke could possibly have made more free throws than their opponents attempt (again!), it's because Duke makes people defend them going to the hole, often resulting in fouls.  A big part of Duke's losses was the fact that they simply weren't converting once they got there.  In the NCAA tournament, this hasn't been a problem, and instead has become a big strength--Duke's foul shooting has been excellent and really carried the team when shots weren't falling otherwise.

     With Carlos Boozer gone for a couple of weeks, Duke's offense also made a couple of other changes.  Boozer's presence meant that Duke looked to him in the low post on sharp entry passes.  If an opponent was playing the perimeter closely, Duke would either throw it over the the top or drive to draw away defenders and then dish to Boozer for the finish.  Without him, Duke's offensive structure became looser, with players shooting more frequently from the perimeter and everyone looking to drive more.  Battier adjusted his game in a subtle fashion, changing from an opportunistic  three point shooter to a deliberate scorer who relies on quick drives and short jumpers, as well as getting fouled, to score.  Boozer's absence has hurt team field goal percentage, with Saturday's 44% one of Duke's better showings in quite some time.

     The reason why Duke has won with so little trouble has been defense.   Battier continues to play like his usual self, while Sanders has been extremely solid in the center slot.  Boozer has come off the bench and reinvented himself as a rebounding and defensive specialist, using his size and power to slow down Duke's opponents.  Duke collapses and smothers the ball whenever it gets in the lane, harrasses opposing ballhandlers into mistakes (27 steals over the weekend!), plays solid post defense and generally gets the other team out of synch for large portions of the game.  This group has turned into an excellent defensive team, and that won them the ACC tourney and got them to the final four.  We'll see if that defensive ability can carry them against teams with excellent size, strength, depth, quickness and scoring talent.

   ** UCLA

    This game concerned many because of what the Bruins did to Maryland in the round of 16 last year.  They routed a good Terp squad thanks to Earl Watson's precision passing and excellent team defense.  UCLA had a great leader in Watson, a strong and skilled big man in Dan Gadzuric, lethal shooters in Jason Kapono and Billy Knight and a slasher in Matt Barnes. But with very little depth, they fell right into Duke's hands when they were a step slow and kept fouling the Devils.  With half the team in foul trouble, they couldn't defend Duke's perimeter players, and Jason's drives in the second half spelled the difference.  Duke did the job on the perimeter in the second half, and despite several UCLA runs in the second half, was never in any serious danger.

     The beginning of the game certainly wasn't pretty.  It took Duke six minutes to reach double-digits, but it took UCLA twice as long to do so. The Devils missed 7 of their first 8 shots, many of them contested, and lost Mike Dunleavy thanks to a thuggish series by the Bruins.  Dunleavy was fouled hard, but cleanly, by Watson and was in great pain due to a  pinched nerve.  As he sat writhing in pain on the floor, another Bruin walked up behind him and slammed his knee into the back of Mike's head-- a punk move if I've ever seen one.  Nate James came in right away and had a shot blocked, but also blocked a shot of his own and played his usual excellent defense.  Nate also sparked Duke's first 2 baskets-- a pass to Jason for a three and a nice dish on the run to Carlos for an easy drop-in.  As Duke's defense and rebounding proved to be unyielding, Jason slowly got in a groove, dishing to Shane for a three and to Nate in transition.  2 Battier free throws gave Duke an early 12-2 lead, with the Bruins looking completely disorganized.

    It was then Duke's turn to look ragged, missing 3 shots in a row and turning the ball over twice, and UCLA was able to crawl within 4 with about twelve minutes left in the half.  Jason and Chris hit some free throws  to push it back to 7, but Kapono finally hit a 3 and the Bruins capitalized on a Reggie Love turnover to sneak within 15-12 with seven minutes left. but as they've done so many times, Jason and Shane stepped up to squelch a run with back-to-back three pointers: Shane-to-Jason first, and Jason-to- Shane second.  Of course, this offense was spawned by defense, as Dunleavy's steal triggered the first basket and Duhon taking a charge from Watson got the ball back for Duke on the second.  The Devils couldn't quite shake their foes, as Gadzuric's solid inside play and their ability to get to the foul line kept them in range.  While Duke was missing a lot of shots, they did go after offensive rebounds rather well, like when Dunleavy got his only basket of the half, and then when Battier dunked home a Williams miss off the break.

     Battier dominated the end of the first half, and got some big assists from Casey Sanders and Chris Duhon.  While neither of the latter made any spectacular plays, both drew some big fouls.  Duhon drew Kapono's third foul, which resulted in UCLA scoring 3 points in three minutes.  Casey drew talented frosh TJ Cummings' second foul, and more importantly, drew his fourth a minute later.  That came when Casey blew a wide-open alley-oop dunk attempt that Dunleavy rebounded.  Mike immediately fed it to Casey again and Kapono stupidly try to block him, drawing the foul.  To his credit, Casey hit 3-4 free throws to put Duke up 10.  Prior to that, Shane drove on the UCLA defense for a score and hit a couple of more free throws.  Duke was an impressive 11-15 from the line in the half, a far sight better than the team's 9-31 shooting from the floor.  The team's one mistake was overplaying on Watson towards the end of the half, allowing Knight to hit a couple of late threes.  That allowed the Bruins to cut a once double-digit deficit to just 7 points at the half.

   UCLA cut that deficit to 5 points seconds after the second half began, but Duke peeled off a 7-0 run to boost the lead to 12.  That started with a Williams 3, a Dunleavy tip-in of a Williams miss on the break, and a Dunleavy drive.  Three Bruin turnovers didn't help their cause any.  Once again, Duke looked like they were about to break the game wide open.

   Once again, it didn't happen.  UCLA went on a 9-0 run fueled by 5 Watson points and 4 Kapono points.  Kapono had been sitting on the bench while Duke made their run, and got a key steal (on a rare Duhon turnover) to boost his team's confidence.  Duke turned it over a couple of more times to help Watson get his points.  But Williams tends to fix his mistakes, atoning for a turnover by, well, by scoring 19 straight points for Duke, single-handedly holding off a spirited Bruin team.  Along the way, he drew Watson's third and fourth fouls (which let Jason **really** go to work), got a couple of steals and generally terrorized UCLA.  It started with a  three that halted the 9-0 run on a Dunleavy feed.  Then Mike threw him a terrific alley-oop pass that Jason converted as a lay-in.  Jason took the ball after a Duhon steal and drove in for another basket.  After that, Duhon fed him for another three.

   Kapono answered with a three of his own and Matt Barnes drove in for another basket to keep the score at a manageable 50-43 with twelve minutes left.  Jason answered with a three using a high screen, and then a Boozer block started a break where Williams (who had snagged the rebound) was fouled hard by Watson.  Amazingly, after struggling from the line for several weeks, Jason coolly went 6-6 on free throws.  The next few minutes was the Watson vs Williams show.  After Duke went up 12, UCLA used an aggressive press to force turnovers from Williams and Duhon.  Jason got one of the turnovers back, and answered 2 straight Watson baskets with a drive of his own.  Four more straight Bruin points found Jason again splitting the defense with an ankle-break move, laying the ball in for a 59-51 Duke lead with about seven minutes left.

   UCLA's defense kept forcing Williams turnovers (5 in the second half), but Duke would get the ball right back on steals of their own.  Then came a sequence where Duke missed 2 shots but Dunleavy got the offensive rebound both times.  Finally, Jason found Shane inside for an easy bucket.  That seemed to really hurt the Bruins, and Duke slowly started to extend their lead.  Dunleavy got a steal right after that and was fouled, hitting 1 one of 2.  The Bruins had long before landed in the bonus, thanks to Jason and Shane's tireless efforts and driving to the basket.  UCLA had a 4-1 mini-run to cut the lead to 8 with five minutes left, although it felt like it was too little, too late.

   The Devils finally removed all doubt with two brutal plays.  First came a steal and one-man fast break by Jason, who pulled up and nailed a long 19' jumper.  Battier stole an interior pass and set up the offense. Dunleavy drove and scooped an elegant pass to Battier for the basket and the foul.  Shane hit the foul shot and Duke led 69-55 with three minutes left.  There was no comeback left in the Bruins.  Williams, Battier & Duhon  combined to go 8-8 from the foul line down the stretch, aided by a couple of steals and a rebound.

       Ten second half steals, aggressive penetration and 13-15 foul shoooting won the game down the stretch for Duke.  UCLA proved its mettle by coming up with steals and using its pressure to rattle Duke a bit, but they really had no answer for Williams once he was in the groove.  To Duke's credit, they knew to get Jason the ball when he was hot.  Dunleavy passed up an open three to get what he described as an even better shot for Jason in the corner.  Mike was very active on the boards, played solid defense and dished 3 assists in the half to rescue what had been a dreary game for  himself.  Duke had decisively beaten a team that many experts had picked to beat them, and was just a step away from the final four.  Most amazing stat: Jason Williams scored 26 points--in the second half alone!

    ** Southern Cal

     USC romped over Oklahoma State in the first round, and then got out to big leads over #3 seed Boston College and #2 seed Kentucky.  In both games, point guard and leader Brandon Granville got into foul trouble, which helped BC and UK make big comebacks.  But USC's experience and balance bailed them out time and again.  Brian Scalabrine's size, toughness and shooting made him difficult to guard.  Jeff Trapagnier's mind-boggling leaping ability and slashing gave USC a completely different kind of threat.  Combine that with Granville's passing & leadership, Sam Clancy's strength & toughness and David Bluthenthal's shooting, and you had a squad that could do some damage.  Against UK, they came out with all guns blazing, with Scalabrine and Bluthenthal hitting jumper after jumper early on.  Unfortunately for the Trojans, basketball is all about matchups, and they did not match up well with Duke.  About the only thing that prevented the first half from being a blowout was 12 Duke turnovers, because Battier & Williams were shredding their defense.  When the Trojans double-teamed Battier AND Williams in the second half, it was time for some other players to step up, and they did-- most especially, Chris Duhon.  Duke also knocked down 14-15 free throws, making the last few (very sloppy) minutes of the game relatively stress-free.

   Henry Bibby told his players that there was no way that Jason Williams could play as well as he did against UCLA.  What he didn't tell them is that he had done exactly the same thing against Missouri.  Battier and Williams combined for 25 of Duke's first 29 points as they made a mockery of USC's matchup zone.  Both were extremely judicious but aggressive in their shot selection, not hesitating to take good, open shots.  After Trepagnier opened with a three, Duke quickly responded when Battier scored on a Dunleavy feed.  After Clancy gave the Trojans a 5-2 lead, Williams split the seam of the zone and guided home a floater.  Bluthenthal stuck a three and it looked like USC was going to stick to their habit of jumping on higher-ranked opponents in the early going with an 8-4 lead.  But Dunleavy drove in for a basket and Williams took a rebound on the run and stuck a pull-up three to give Duke its first lead.  USC scored 4 in a row after some Duke misses to reclaim a 12-9 lead.  The Devils then embarked on one of their famous scoring runs, this one a 9-0 blitz that saw Shane put the ball on the floor and bull his way to the basket, Jason pick off a pass and run it in, and Jason stick another three after some ferocious interior defense yielded a rebound.  Both Battier and Boozer were swatting away potential baskets, and Boozer eventually out-toughed everyone by getting the rebound.  Battier then came up with a steal and pushed the ball ahead to Williams for an easy dunk.  A Battier turnover led to an easy Bluthenthal basket, but Shane made up for it with a solid post-up on the next possession for a score.

     USC stayed close, scoring to make it 20-16 with twelve minutes left in the half.  But a 7-0 run suddenly gave Duke the working margin they needed. Jason dribbled and hit a pull-up jumper, Nate James grabbed a loose ball in a scramble and drove directly to the basket, and Jason grabbed another rebound and dished it to Shane for a three.  Duke went cold for a couple of minutes, and USC was able to tighten the score to 27-20 with eight minutes left.  Shane once again put the ball on the floor and drove, banking one in over Scalabrine.  After a USC turnover, Jason dished to Dunleavy, who finally managed to hit a long range three.  Duke had a 32-20 lead, their biggest of the game.

     The Trojans then inserted little-used sub Jarvis Turner, who proceeded to go wild for a couple of minutes.  He scored right away, and then after Clancy blocked a Williams dunk attempt in transition (!) and scored on the other end, he stole the ball from Battier and then got a rebound basket after a Clancy miss.  He stole the ball from Boozer as he was going up and hit another basket after a couple of Williams foul shots to cut the lead to  34-28.  Duke countered by going hard to the basket, with Battier drawing a couple of fouls on Turner and hitting 4-4 free throws.  Turner was not heard from the rest of the game.  Duke took a comfortable 10 point lead at 40-30 when Duhon stole a pass and laid it in, but Battier lost Scalabrine twice for threes.  The Trojans had cut the lead to 40-36 with just a minute left in the half.  Battier stepped up like the all-american he is and  sank a tough 15' jumper, while Boozer hit a foul shot after Clancy went over his back for a rebound.  USC scored with twenty seconds left in the half, and Duke turned it over right before the half ended to take a slim 43-38 lead.  The Devils were in complete control and just let down on defense, giving the Trojans new life.

     Duke struck quickly in the second half, with Dunleavy pulling up on the wing for a jumper.  The two teams traded misses for a bit, until Trepagnier stuck in a miss to make it 45-40.  But Williams found Battier for a three and an 8 point lead.  Battier lost Scalabrine again and paid for it in the form of another USC three, and then Battier missed his next attempt.  Clancy rebounded a miss and the Trojans were suddenly within 3.  They were making life very difficult for Battier and Williams, as they were blocking every layup attempt and getting right in their faces when they attempted threes. Finally, Jason solved that defensive Gordian knot by simply taking a three from about 25' feet away, which he naturally swished.  Right after that, he picked up his third foul and went to the bench, which meant that USC had a constant double-team on Battier.  Shane snagged a Blumenthal miss and Duhon walked it up.  Boozer reversed the ball to him and Duhon was wide-open, all alone, as the Trojans dared him to shoot.  After being encouraged by the coaches and his teammates all day to take his shots when they were there, he relaxed, pulled the trigger, and hit the shot.  Duke was up 54-45 and their lead would never dip below 7 the rest of the game.

   Jason came back in and continued to attack the USC defense, scoring on a drive and then a drive and dish to Sanders for a dunk.  The Trojans would keep scoring just enough to stay in the game, mostly thanks to Clancy's hard work and Bluthenthal's shooting.  But a Dunleavy baseline shot, a couple of Duhon threes, and an absurd drive by Jason where he switched hands at the last second to avoid a block held the Trojans at bay.  Every time the Trojans would score, a Duke player would come back with a great play to counter them.  After pulling within 64-57, Jason drove and got an acrobatic three point play.  When USC pulled within 8, Dunleavy drove and found Duhon for another three.  When Duke went a couple of minutes  without scoring and USC had cut it to 9, James once again picked up a loose ball and laid it in.  Finally, after had turned the ball over a couple of times in the last three minutes and the Trojans had cut the lead to 72-64, Jason drove and dished to Chris once again, who sank another three.  After that, it was all over but for the free throws, and Duke was 4-4 down the stretch.

     Duke had made it to its 13th final four with four straight double-digit  victories.  Each win was convincing, but none were blowouts.  The team didn't shoot all that well and turned the ball over too much, but played great defense, fought like maniacs for rebounds, and hit their free throws.  They didn't come close to putting on the sort of shooting clinic they had unleashed on teams like Temple early in the year.  But they became a much tougher team, one that knew it could win under any circumstance and against a variety of opponents.

     The All-Regional team had Clancy, Bluthenthal, Scalabrine, Battier and Williams on it, with Jason as a deserving Most Outstanding Player.  It was especially delightful to see how happy the players were for each other-- Battier for the young Duhon, telling him to savor the moment; Williams for Battier, so glad that he could help his leader get to the final four once again.  The bigger the game, the better Jason seems to play, and he's really learned the lessons of last year's loss to Florida.  Interesting tidbit about this game: Duke's bench logged a total of 41 minutes, going 7 deep. USC's bench logged 13 minutes, going 8 deep.  Against UCLA, it was 40 minutes for Duke (10 players) vs 31 for UCLA (9 players).  While Battier stayed in for virtually the entirety of both games, Williams was able to get a few key minutes of rest to come in and take over.  Sanders' improved ability to stay out of foul trouble earned him big minutes, while Boozer wasn't afraid to pick up a few fouls, which allowed him to play very physically.  Both knew that Reggie Love was around to help if necessary.  Duke may have enough depth to pull off a championship.  

    Player-by-Player:

  ** Sanders: Quiet but solid duty for Casey.  He played 17 minutes a game and played good defense without fouling too much (5 **combined** fouls for the 2 games).  I must admit, his foul seconds into the UCLA game did not fill me with hope, but got smarter after that.  His play towards the end of the first half of the UCLA game was a huge lift and showed how high his confidence is now.  He not only drew Kapono's fourth foul, he nailed both free throws and didn't beat himself up over missing a dunk.  More subtly, Casey set some excellent high screens that helped set up Williams on the drive.  His dunk against USC made Jason's penetration all the more dangerous, because the Trojans knew that Casey was a viable target.  Playing in the starting lineup has clearly been good for his confidence, because he no longer gets down on himself when he makes a mistake.  Casey is obviously far from a finished product but he's making strides.  Hopefully he'll be able to play on some ACC travelling teams and perhaps hit Pete Newell's big man camp.  

  ** Battier:  Shane had one of his usual Admirable Young Man performances in both games.  He's just a couple of shots away from 50% from the floor and an impressive 14-15 from the foul line.  His three point shooting continues to fizzle, as he went just 4-13 on the weekend.  But reinventing himself as a post-up forward who scores after drawing a lot of contact has really helped the team a lot.  With Carlos serving more as a screener right now, Shane's taken it upon himself to post up and provide a bit more balance to Duke's offense.  And he could get hot any time now from the three point line--it's hard to predict, although domes are often hard to shoot in. Battier had 7 steals and 4 blocks on the weekend, and he single-handedly blunted a lot of the comeback attempts by the two LA teams by pouncing on weak passes to the post.  Then there's Shane's remarkable rebounding renaissance, posting several double-figure games in a row.  Without Carlos, he's really spent a lot of energy blocking out and preventing Duke's  opponents from getting the ball.  Other than a couple of careless passes, Shane has been playing mistake-free ball for several weeks now.  He can be shut down on offense, but it takes a great deal of commitment from an opponent.  (Jason can only be slowed, because he's always willing to take another shot and erase whatever happened on the last play--good or  bad).      

  ** Dunleavy: Mike's pinched nerve greatly reduced his effectiveness in the first game.  He played a lot better in the second game but still didn't have the sort of impact he had in the ACC tournament or even against Missouri.  He averaged 4 rebounds a game and 2 assists, while scoring 9 ppg. He got 4 points on offensive rebounds against UCLA but in general looked a bit stiff out there.  His biggest contributions were his 3 steals and 3 offensive rebounds.  He was a lot more active and accurate against USC, scoring on drives, short jumpers and a three.  But he was also a little less active on defense and didn't do much on the boards.  Duke needs a more active Dunleavy against Maryland, because they'll throw everything they have at Battier and Williams.  The shots and the lanes will be there-- Dunleavy just has to take them.    

  ** Duhon: Not much of a factor against UCLA on ofense, though he did help chase around Earl Watson.  But against USC, he really came out of his shell and buried some important jumpers.  He was a sort of Trojan Horse-- as Battier and Williams hurled themselves against the walls of Troy, here came the seemingly innocuous Duhon inside their defenses.  Without warning, he struck again and again, collapsing their defenses and making them vulnerable.  Despite getting into double figures against USC, in some ways, he played better against UCLA.  He couldn't get anything to fall, but he ran the team well, got 5 rebounds and 4 steals as he constantly disrupted the Bruins.  But those 11 second-half points against USC will long register in the memories of Duke fans, a coming-out not unlike Christian Laettner's 24 points and 10 boards against Georgetown in the '89 East Regional finals.

  ** Williams: I'm running out of words, people.  His offensive arsenal is the most varied I've ever seen in a Duke player.  His instincts and feel for the game are both very sharp, and he's smart enough to analyze and read a situation while making a decision in a heartbeat.  I don't know which move against UCLA was prettiest--perhaps his one-step bounce and release for a three, or maybe pulling up on the break and sinking a shot. Or it might have been his crossover juking moves that froze every defender while he zipped to the basket.  But the best move of the weekend was clearly one drive he had against USC, where, after having his shot blocked twice by Sam Clancy, he drove, switched hands and used the rim to block out Clancy for the looping layup.  This is Sport as Art, my friends.  Of course, even art can be flawed as Jason also totalled 13 turnovers on the weekend.  In two games, Jason was 21-47 from the field (45%) and 11-11 from the foul line.  Still, these weren't perfect games.  The turnovers are a concern, especially a lazy pass that bounced off Dunleavy late in the USC game that earned a scathing rebuke from Coach K during a timeout.  Still and all, he torched two high quality point guards, getting Watson into foul trouble and making Granville a virtual non-entity.  Now he faces his nemesis: Steve Blake, the one guard who can slow Jason down.  We'll see how Jason reacts, but I hope he drives on him whenever possible to draw fouls.

  ** James: Nate's numbers and minutes weren't that impressive, but he  seemed to make some key plays in both games.  Against UCLA, he came in early and made a number of hustle plays in lieu of Dunleavy.  He had a couple of early assists to get a sluggish offense going, and then scored in  transition.  He also had a steal and a couple of key rebounds.  Nate didn't play much in the second half of that game.  Against USC, he had two key garbage baskets, emphasizing his hustle.  He played some nice defense, and was in general just solid.  It's still a far cry from the James who was good for 15 points and 5 rebounds every game, though.  Nate played well against Maryland in the ACC tourney, and Duke will need him to do it again.

  ** Boozer: Many have criticized Boozer's supposed lack of heart and desire. What I saw this weekend was a player who willingly embraced the role of a defender and rebounder, someone whose toughness was the backbone of the defense.  He had 10 rebounds, 4 steals and 2 blocks, bodying up against Clancy and Gadzuric the whole time.  He scored an early basket against UCLA when Duke really needed any kind of score, and had a nice relocation pass to Duhon in the USC game for a three.  He's still a bit rusty and doesn't have his wind back all the way yet, but getting 22 minutes a game out of him was more than we could have asked for.  Especially 22 minutes of the best defense he's ever played.  About the only thing he did wrong was picking up 4 fouls against USC, including giving up a three point play.  But I admire this kid so much for willingly taking on a role-player's job, and excelling in it.  He deserves a lot of respect for leaving his ego at the door and working hard. 

  ** Love: Reggie got limited minutes against UCLA, getting a block.  With Carlos back, Reggie's minutes will shrink, but don't count him out of the rotation altogether.  Poor play or foul trouble by Casey or Carlos will get Reggie in the game very quickly.  I have a feeling he'll be needed against the trees of Maryland.

   ** Next Game: Saturday, March 31 vs Maryland.  The War To End All Wars. Duke must pay special attention to Baxter, who is on a rampage and will probably overwhelm Casey Sanders.  Dixon will once again draw Duhon on  defense, while Jason will try to shuttle Blake into a false sense of security.  A key could be how Morris plays and how fired-up their bench is.     

   Reported by Rob Clough, tmc@duke.edu 

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