PHILADELPHIA— Yes, the Duke Blue Devils know full well what UCLA accomplished in the 1960s and 1970s.
They know all about the 10 championships in 12 years. They know that only two national title banners hang in Cameron Indoor Stadium and that they, like every other team, have a lot of catching up to do.
And that’s OK.
“I don’t think anyone will be able to match UCLA’s dominance in the ’70s,”Duke senior forward Shane Battier said. “What they did will never be accomplished again in sport.
“When we say we’re Duke, we’ve established our own identity and our own history, which we think is good in our own right. We’re very proud of our tradition.”
Those traditions, past and present, meet tonight in Philadelphia for the East Regional semifinal. Tip-off from the First Union Center is slated for approximately 10, after Southern Cal and Kentucky take care of business in the other semifinal.
Duke (31-4) didn’t have much to challenge UCLA(23-8) with during the Bruins’ long-ago run, but things have evened out quite a bit. The Blue Devils own two titles in the 1990s, UCLA one. Both teams are perennial contenders.
“It’s not so much what Duke does, it’s the fact that they do it so well,”UCLA head coach Steve Lavin said. “For the last 15 years, they’ve done what they do very well.”
Tonight, two teams that do lots of things well will find out who can do them better for 40 minutes.
Everything starts with the point guards. Both teams like to press. Both teams’ guards, Jason Williams of Duke and UCLA’s Earl Watson, count themselves among the nation’s best at that position.
How each one handles the press, on the offensive and defensive side of the ball, will be crucial.
Williams remembers watching Watson and his UCLA mates blitz Duke’s fellow ACC squad Maryland 105-70 in last year’s tournament.
“He’s an exciting point guard,”Williams said. “He’s very athletic. He’s a player that steps up to the level when it’s needed to be stepped up to.”
Lavin said his team likes to press to control the tempo of a game — speed up a slow team, halt the progress of an up-and-down attack.
His problem against Duke is that the Blue Devils are perfectly content to play a full-court game. Or set up the offense in the halfcourt.
“We full-court press for 40 minutes, regardless of the opponent,”Lavin said. “But we definitely make adjustments based on matchups, personnel, from game to game and even within the game. With Duke’s speed and quickness, I think the game will be played at a pace that we like to play at.”
The good news, Lavin said, is that his team can stay with Duke as long as the shots fall and the Bruins don’t turn the ball over. The bad news comes when those things don’t happen.
“Their pressure defense creates flurries of points by forcing opponents to shoot quick or turn the ball over,”Lavin said. “That allows them to go on those 20-4, 16-2 blitzes. If there’s two or three of those in a game, you’ll find yourself down 40, 50 points.”
The similarities between the squads are striking: Duke averages 91 points a game, UCLA80; Duke drains 40 percent of its 3-point attempts, UCLA36; Duke shoots 49 percent from the floor, UCLA47; the rebounding and turnover numbers are nearly identical.
Both teams’ goals for tonight, then, are the same: contain the transition game, limit penetration by the point guards, slow the 3-point attack and control the glass.
Whichever team wins all the little battles gets to claim a little more history for its proud tradition.
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NOTES: The winner will play USC or Kentucky on Saturday, but a start time has yet to be announced by CBS. … Injured Duke center Carlos Boozer will not start, but should see action. … Duke leads the all-time series against UCLA7-6. The last win came in Cameron, a 36-point wipeout in 1998.
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