Duke 104
Georgia Tech 79

January 10, 2002.  

Cameron Indoor Stadium.     

Sometimes, extreme measures are simply called for.  Losing to Florida State meant that not only did Duke have to regroup and honestly examine its problems (especially on defense), but it also meant that the Devils had to reestablish their reputation as one of the country's best teams. A loss by a national power to a lowly team isn't necessarily the kiss of death if the loss is treated as a value lesson.  For exhibit A of this concept, please see the 2000 National Champions, Michigan State.  They lost a tight game on the road to a mediocre Wright State squad and came back to dominate the Big Ten and physically intimidate future opponents.  Their toughness had been questioned, and they answered the call.  Now it was Duke's turn to see if they could do the same.

   In many respects, Georgia Tech was the perfect opponent for Duke to play at this time.  First of all, while a decent team that had upset top ten Syracuse, they were far from a power.  Second of all, they were quite young. Most importantly, coach Paul Hewitt has adhered to an extremely physical style of play to make up for a lack of size and quickness on his team. Last year's dustup in Atlanta should remind fans of Michael Isenhour and his attempts to behead Mike Dunleavy and bulldog JD Simpson.  (Isenhour is currently under treatment for leukemia, and I hope to one day see him again in a college uniform.)  So Coach K had absolutely perfect motivational material for his team.  One can imagine K whipping his team into a paranoid frenzy about a lack of respect and how other teams think Duke is soft.  And when Tech committed one of their 31 fouls, one can almost hear Coach K yelling to his team in a timeout: "See?  SEE?  They don't respect you! They think you're soft!  They think you can be pushed around!  Are you going to let them do that to you?"  And his team, by now eating nails and spitting fire, responds as one "HELL NO!"   

  The real key to motivation here was to transform Duke from hunted to hunter by looking for or even trying to manufacture some kind of emotional edge.  The Devils noted that they were offended by State hogging the whole court in warm-ups, running through their layup line, giving them some not-so-subtle pushes while doing it and jumping on mid-court before the game.  The last team that did that was Michigan last year, and I think we all know what happened to them.  Regardless of whether these slights were real or imagined, it got the team, the coach and the crowd fired up.

   Jason Williams came off a pick on Duke's first possession and missed, but Duke showed that its real fire would come at the defensive end as Dunleavy blocked Ed Nelson's first shot.  Chris Duhon converted that into a Carlos Boozer dunk.  Boozer then picked up a loose ball and fired it down to Dahntay Jones, who made the basket and was fouled.  Jones missed the shot as Duke was still a little bit too amped.  A Duke turnover had Tech star point guard Tony Akins streaking down the court, but Jones got their first and swatted away the shot.  Mike Dunleavy then came flying in to rebound a Boozer miss.  Duhon then stole the inbounds as it bounced off a Tech player's foot and slammed it home.  Duke led 8-0 with a couple of minutes gone by and the crowd was in a frenzy.

   After Tech finally scored, Boozer hit Williams with a relocation pass for a three, and then Jason scored on a great cut off a Duhon feed.  Jason then missed a shot, got his own board and zipped it to Duhon, who found Dunleavy for a three.  Duke was all over Tech on the boards at this point, with a 9-2 lead.  After a Tech basket, Duke turned up the pressure once again to go on a 12-2 run that left them with a commanding 28-8 lead eight minutes into the game.  It started with Duhon pulling up for a long three.  Jones then picked up a loose ball and heaved a bomb downcourt to Dan Ewing, who caught it and converted.  A missed dunk and turnover by Tech led to a Jones basket on a cut and Dahntay feeding it back to Dunleavy for a three.  A Tech basket was met with Duhon finding Jones on the baseline, where he calmly drained a 15' jumper.

   At this point, all hell broke loose.  Boozer was called after the jumper for swinging his elbow and assessed an intentional foul.  The crowd was confused for a moment and got quiet, only to hear ref John Clougherty yell "Sit down, Mike, I'll take care of it!"  This incensed Coach K to levels not seen since the late 80's, and he went berserk on the sideline. Clougherty T'd him up as Williams, Duhon and Coach himself were inciting the crowd to yell and boo.  Any or all of them could have been given additional technicals, but the point had been made.  Tech missed the first two foul shots as all involved asked the fans to get extra loud, but made the next two and scored on the inbounds play to cut the lead to 28-12.

   The next five minutes would see Duke go on a 20-6 run earned mostly at the foul line.  Tech would commmit 7 fouls, 7 turnovers and miss 5 shots in this span as Boozer scored 7 points.  Jason started it off with a three and Jones had a steal and layup near the end.  Tech started to scratch their way back into it, scoring 3 points after a nice Dunleavy post-up move to cut the lead to 50-23 with four minutes to go in the half. But a sensational Ewing reverse in transition, bolstered by more free throws, gave Duke a 55-23 lead.  Up to this point, Akins had not yet scored, which is remarkable when you consider that he's one of the best offensive threats in the league.  But he finally got on the board with 7 quick points, and Tech had a 9-0 run going in their favor.  Tech even had a chance for the last shot of the half, but Akins turned it over.  Jason instead masterfully ran the clock down, got some separation, and buried a three to give Duke momentum going into the locker rooms.

   The scoring had been remarkably even for Duke.  Dunleavy led with 13 points and Williams had 11, with Boozer and Duhon both checking in with 9 and Jones and Ewing each notching 8.  Duke outrebounded the Jackets and forced 17 turnovers.  The only negative was Duke's 10 turnovers.  Tech had committed 14 team fouls in the half.   

   Duke started the second half strong, something it didn't do against FSU. They ran off a 10-2 run in the first four minutes of the half.  Williams and Boozer were the catalysts, with Jason finding Jones and Boozer for baskets and hitting a couple of free throws of his own (after he missed the first attempt of a three-shot foul, a Tech fan started doing the Tomahawk Chop Chant.  Jason promptly made his next two.)  Boozer scored 5 points, including hitting a pretty baby hook, and then hit 2 more free throws to counter a Tech three.   

  Over the next five minutes, the teams played even.  Tech was now scoring a bit, but couldn't put together a run.  Duke had changed its offense and was now running a variety of halfcourt set plays--they had stopped running and were abandoning motion for a while.  Jones was the star of this period, pulling up and hitting 15' jumpers while being bodied up.  Over the next seven minutes, Duke put together another big push with a 22-12 run.  It was sparked by some nice play off the bench by Nick Horvath, who hit a couple of free throws and then found Boozer inside with a nifty pass.   Dunleavy then found Ewing in the corner for three.  Tech actually had a 7-0 run in there to close within 89-60 with eight minutes left.  Still a big lead, but Duke wanted to leave no doubts.

   As Duke started to work the clock even more, Dunleavy found Ewing inside on a cut and Jones pulled up for yet another short jumper.  Duhon then found Dunleavy on a cut and threaded the needle to Boozer for another easy basket.  Williams dishing to Duhon for three brought the score up to 101-63. Dunleavy got a steal and zipped in for the basket, and Williams capped off Duke's scoring with a free throw.  Duke put in the subs and watched Tech reel off a 16-0 run to end the game, including 5 straight threes (which brought their long-range shooting to 8-15 for the night after starting at 30%).  The players were a little annoyed at the way it ended, but the truth is that everyone was a little exhausted by the end, especially emotionally.

   After the dust-up earlier in the game, the refs called this one very tight.  Halston Lane was T'd up for Tech after arguing a call and an intentional foul was called on Tech as well.  Coach K was clearly not happy with Hewitt's physical style, whapping his hand hard for the postgame handshake.  But this game was about circling the wagons and concentrating on the here and now.  The way the players have been talking and acting has been not unlike a Rocky film, where after a big title loss he gets back to the basics, stripping away all things extraneous to the fight.  And Coach K is a hell of a trainer!  

  ** Negatives:

  1. Handling the press.  Tech was running a 1-2-2 press for much of the game, and Duke didn't always do a good enough job of attacking it.  In fact, the ballhandler too often wound up picking up his dribble and getting trapped along the sideline.   

 2. Finishing the game.  Duke's subs usually play with a lot of energy, but they did a poor job taking care of the ball and had trouble hitting anything.  

 3. Fouling.  Tech could afford to hack away at Duke since Hewitt plays nine men.  Duke couldn't and so had to sit down Boozer, Williams and Jones for long stretches of time.  This is one reason why Duke's offense was erratic at times.  

  ** Positives:

  1. Defensive intensity.  Let's see: Duhon forced a 5-second call, Williams and Dunleavy both took charges, and Williams & Jones both forced held-ball situations.  Duke had 11 steals and 5 blocks, and used them to fuel its fast break.  The Devils did a great job of getting back in transition against a very quick team and shut them down in halfcourt settings. 

 2. Offensive variety.  With six player in double figures and 19 of 33 team field goals coming on assists, Duke did a nice job of getting help for Jason Williams.  In turn, this let him think about defense more often for a change.  Duke went heavily to Boozer inside and Jones from midrange and actually laid off the three pointer a little (still shooting 22 of them).  3. Toughness.  Duke didn't back down an inch from any challenge or physical confrontation.   

  Player-by-Player:  

  ** Boozer:  A get-the-job-done kind of performance, one where Duke took advantage of a matchup and exploited it repeatedly.  Tech had no one big or quick enough to stop Carlos, and he responded by getting fouled again and again.  And he did this not by simply sitting on the block and waiting for a pass, but by putting the ball on the floor and driving to the basket. He had easy attempts when Tech's players left him, and used a hook shot to score on another attempt.  Carlos' big problem was picking up silly fouls, but he knew how to back off when he got his fourth.  It hurt the defense a little, but he did manage to get 3 of his boards when he had multiple fouls.    

 ** Dunleavy:  Mike is over either his slump or his injury: take your pick. All I know is that the Mike D of the early season came back to lead the team on defense, doing a great job of cutting off Tech's penetrators. I loved the versatility of his game: hitting a couple of threes, a rebound slam, a postup, a couple of cuts, a runout and a short jumper.  Throw in 8 strong rebounds, a block and a couple of steals, and you have a pretty fair Shane Battier impersonation.  About the only thing he didn't do well was hit free throws: he was only 5-11.   

  ** Jones:  After a horrible game against FSU, 'tay showed what he was made of by producing a no-nonsense game against Tech.  He led the team in rebounds at the half with 5 and wound up with 8.  He stuffed the stat sheet defensively: 3 steals and 2 blocks.  He did a great job starting the break.  Best of all were his array of short jumpers that came from him spotting up or posting up.  His only problems were turning the ball over a bit against pressure and fouling.    

  ** Williams:  An interesting and somewhat subdued showing for Jason, who actually had the luxury to go out and play some defense.  He did a fantastic job on Akins, who was shut out for 18 minutes.  Without having to worry about carrying his team on the offensive end, he focused on his job and did it well.  His 4 steals came as a result of heavy ball pressure, not just gambling on which way a player will go.  Of course, this is still Jason Williams, which means that he still scored a few points.  His three at the end of the half was a dagger that hurt Tech's confidence.  It was also nice to see him moving well without the ball, scoring on a cut. Jason was going after rebounds as well, grabbing his own miss to start a scoring play.  His only real negative was getting in foul trouble and having to leave the court for much of the second half.  Jason will always be there when the team really needs a score, but it's nice to see him get a respite and a chance to hone some other aspects of his game.  

  ** Duhon: Chris was as angry and fired-up as I've ever seen him, throughout the entire game.  There's no question that he was Coach K's voice on the floor, imploring and instructing his teammates at all times.  Chris was also penetrating much more than he had in recent games, a development I applaud.  His first foray in the lane brought about a Boozer dunk.  An alert steal had him dunk the ball with two hands.  A pull-up three from long range sparked a big run.  All the while, he was looking very intense, constantly talking to his teammates and correcting mistakes.  He did have one bad possession in the first half when the 1-2-2 press got the better of him, and he could have attacked it harder throughout, but he kept his cool for the most part.  In the second half, he did a nice job of running 2-3 motion, picking up a couple of assists after running down the shot clock.  This was the first game where he truly asserted himself as Duke's leader on the floor, and his 7 assist, 1 turnover game certainly backs that up.  The other great thing that he and Jason did was fight hard for rebounds, going into traffic to jump for loose balls.  Chris snagged 4 rebounds the hard way.   

  ** Love: Reggie got some very quick minutes early on when Boozer picked up his second half, but didn't return.  He did snag an offensive rebound.  

  ** Ewing: Another extremely solid game for Dan.  He's proven to be an excellent finisher, grabbing a tough pass for a layup and making a spectacular circus finish on another drive.  He knocked down his free throws, grabbed some boards and even hit a three from his favorite spot--the corner (Nate James style!).  Dan also played decent defense. 

  ** Sanders: Not surprisingly, he didn't do much in limited action.  Casey seems to have a hard time warming up when he comes off the bench.  

  ** Christensen: Matt wasn't used much, more down to matchups than anything else.  Tech is a quick, small team and his bulk simply wouldn't have anywhere to go on the court.  

  ** Horvath: Nick hit a couple of foul shots and had a great pass to Boozer. He missed an open three and bobbled a pass that led to a turnover.  

  ** Buckner: Other than fouling, Andre didn't do much.  

  ** Causey: See Buckner.   

  ** Cameron Craziness: For most of the first half, this was as loud a crowd as I've heard in a while.  Certainly at least since the DePaul game in late '99.  There wasn't much in the way of creative chanting, just pure raw emotion.  The fans gave the players a great reception after the FSU loss, and the stands were packed.  But the real craziness came from Coach K--I have not seen him try to pump up the fans after a bad call like this since...well, ever.  K was micromanaging to the very end, when he instructed Duhon to tell the crowd to stop chanting "We Want Maryland" and inform them that NC State was Duke's next opponent--and the fans obliged with a slightly less enthusiastic "We Want State" cheer.

 Reported by Rob Clough, tmc@duke.edu

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