ATLANTA— A long, hard look at all-conference voting for the ACC this season says a lot about tonight’s N.C. State-Duke matchup.
Duke, seeded second for the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament, put two players on the All-ACC first team in Shane Battier and Jason Williams. Nate James made the third team.
In the honorable mention ranks, Mike Dunleavy tallied 34 points and Carlos Boozer 24.
Right behind Boozer — Duke’s fifth starter — is Anthony Grundy with 14 points. He’s the only member of the seventh-seeded Wolfpack to make the list, and he garnered 10 fewer points than Duke’s last starter.
The vote totals are as much a testament to Duke’s startling level of talent up and down the lineup as to how mightily N.C.State struggled this season.
In Raleigh, confidence is waning in head coach Herb Sendek. Rumors are flying about unhappy players thinking about transfers. Not even the fact that Duke will be without center Carlos Boozer for today’s 7 p.m. quarterfinal game can cheer up Sendek.
“Their big lineup presents some problems, too. Last time we played we held them to 101 points in Cameron,”Sendek said without a trace of sarcasm in his voice. “They’re a great offensive team. They exploit the 3-point line as well as anybody in recent college basketball history. There’s no real easy recipes for defending them.”
Playing Duke now actually becomes more of a mystery. While Boozer, the 6-foot-9 starting center, nurses a broken bone in his right foot, teams are faced with the dilemma of which lineup they’ll face.
Against North Carolina last Sunday, Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski started lightning-quick freshman guard Chris Duhon, and the Heels collapsed well before the end of that footrace.
On the other hand, the Blue Devils (26-4 overall, 13-3 ACC) have to contend with a tall, physical team in the Wolfpack. State (13-15, 5-11) grabbed the second-most offensive rebounds in the league (14 a game) and starts the aggressive Kenny Inge and high-flier Damien Wilkins at the forwards and big Ron Kelley at center.
In the first meeting between the squads this year, State outrebounded Duke 51-35 in an 84-78 loss. The Blue Devils strolled to a 101-75 win in the rematch, but State still held a 38-31 lead on the glass, and Boozer had 15 of Duke’s rebounds in those two games.
“We’d like to play fast,”Krzyzewski said. “Certainly, N.C. State’s ability to rebound the ball is of primary concern, and how we do in that category will determine the outcome of the game.
“We kind of held our own against North Carolina, and when we play a big team like that, if we can get even on the boards we’re going to have a shot at winning.”
Krzyzewski said he may start Duhon again or put James, the taller senior, back in the starting spot just to muscle up more defensively and on the glass.
No matter what matchups State likes inside, containing Williams and Battier from the 3-point arc will be a Herculean feat for guards Clifford Crawford and Grundy. The Duke duo bombed 11 3-pointers against Carolina, killing every Tar Heel rally.
In the two wins over the Wolfpack, Duke combined to shoot 25-for-56 (45 percent) from the arc, while State went just 6-for-18 (33 percent).
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