Duke drops Virginia
Cavaliers fall to 0-2 in ACC with loss to Blue Devils
By Andrew Joyner / Daily Progress staff writer
January 11, 2004

A sold-out and capacity crowd of 8,392 filled University Hall for Sunday’s game against Duke. The fans no doubt yearned for a surprising, thrilling, down-to-the wire contest won by the home team.

Instead, they got the expected result.

The No. 2 Blue Devils, placing six players in double figures, raced past Virginia 93-71 for their ninth straight victory.

Shelden Williams led the Duke (12-1, 2-0 ACC) barrage with 21 points - 17 in the second half - and 12 rebounds. Chris Duhon had 15 and eight assists while J.J. Redick had 14, Shavlik Randolph and Luol Deng each amassed 12 and Daniel Ewing tallied 11.

Devin Smith, who connected on five of six 3-point attempts, led Virginia (10-3, 0-2 ACC) with 19 points and Elton Brown had 13 with Donte Minter adding 12.

“Duke is a great team, maybe the best in the nation, but I thought we had a great chance tonight,” UVa coach Pete Gillen said.

Gillen was referring to a tight first half that saw his team hold a 30-28 lead with 7:07 remaining before halftime. The Blue Devils, however, finished the half on an 18-8 run that clearly deflated the Cavaliers.

“They came right at us. They’ve got a deep team. We started playing better defensively around the eight-minute mark of the first half and limited their penetration,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said.

Whether it was Duke’s improved defense or their own miscues, the Cavaliers struggled with their offensive possessions in the waning moments of the opening half.

With the game knotted at 30, Virginia could not convert three straight times down the court. First, there was a missed 3-pointer by freshman T.J. Bannister, then two missed free throws by Gary Forbes and finally an errant pass by Forbes.

Duke broke the tie on a jumper by Duhon with 5:09 left before intermission and essentially that was the ballgame as the Blue Devils gained a 44-38 halftime advantage. Virginia would never get closer than two points the rest of the way.

“The score was 30-30 for what seemed like two or three minutes. We couldn’t get over the hump. … I think the end of the first half was the key to the game. If we had gone into halftime down by two or three or four instead of eight, it might have been different,” Gillen said.

Added Brown: “That was the game. The next thing we knew. it was an eight-point game. We made some mental mistakes there and that hurt us.”

The Cavaliers showed little resistance in the second half as Duke and Williams surgically executed their offense and the Cavaliers were not able to mount any consistent offensive stretches. The Blue Devils scored on their first seven possessions of the second half and by the first TV timeout any energy and noise from the crowd became silent and subdued.

“The second half, they came out and executed and took advantage of our mistakes and won the game,” Brown said.

Added Gillen: “In the second half, we took some bad shots and made some turnovers and that was essentially it.”

Virginia received little production from two starters - Derrick Byars and Todd Billet. Byars, plagued by three fouls in the game’s first seven minutes, finished with zero points while Billet had just four points and failed to make a 3-pointer for the first time in 24 contests.

“We need some of our veterans to give us a boost tonight. We needed a Todd Billet or Derrick Byars to step up. Devin Smith played great tonight but we something more, some more juice from our experienced guys,” Gillen said.

Virginia returns to action Thursday when it travels to Georgia Tech.

Notes. With two successful free throws with 9:36 remaining in the first half, Redick broke former Virginia star Jeff Lamp’s ACC record of 48 straight made attempts from the stripe. Redick, a Roanoke native, has now made 50 straight from the line. … UVa junior forward Jason Clark, who last week rejoined the team after an academic-related suspension kept him out of the first semester, entered the contest with 9:58 to play. Clark finished with zero points and two rebounds in five minutes of action.

 

Duke has no problems with UVa's depth
By Jerry Ratcliffe / Daily Progress sports editor
January 11, 2004

Pete Gillen’s strategy against the nation’s second-best team was to throw waves and waves of bodies at Duke in an attempt to wear the Blue Devils down.
In the end, less was more as Duke clobbered Virginia, 93-71 as the Cavaliers sunk to 0-2 in ACC play.
“We had some moments, but you’ve got to have more than moments,” Gillen said after watching the Devils break away down the stretch in the first half and never look back.

Stong start, weak finish
For the first 15 minutes, this one teased the Cavs’ first sellout crowd of the season into believing it could be another magical moment. Duke had lost two of the last three times it visited University Hall and Gillen was hopeful his team could pull off another upset.
For the first 15 minutes, the Wahoos did everything right.
Senior Devin Smith matched Duke’s 3-point shooting, the intensity was there, the defense was good enough and the crowd was into it as the Cavs fought to a 30-30 tie.
“Virginia came right at us,” said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who tied former Louisville coach Denny Crum for 17th on the all-time Division I victories list with his 675th. “They’ve got a deep team and it looked like they wanted to play more people and wear us down, which is a good strategy if you have the people and they do.”
The Cavaliers were penetrating and scoring for the first 12 or so minutes but Duke toughened and after the 30-all tie, the Devils doubled UVa in the final five minutes, 16-8.
Duke began to play defense and it showed. The Blue Devils believe they have their best defense in years, although fans may not notice. It’s a different kind of defense, not the full or three-quarter court suffocating defense of the past, but rather a halfcourt style that pushes offenses a few feet beyond their normal positions, which throws opponents out of sync.
Virginia ended up shooting 40 percent (25 of 62) and had 12 rebounds that usually ended up in easy Duke baskets as the Blue Devils outscored the Cavs 17-6 on points off turnovers.
That’s ball game in most circles.

No veteran production
Throw in the aspect that other than Smith’s great 3-point shooting (he was 5 of 6 from bonusphere) for 19 points, Gillen got practically nothing else from his other veteran players.
“We needed our other experienced guys to give us some real good juice,” said the coach. “Our freshmen did a very nice job.”
You ain’t gonna beat Duke with freshmen, no matter how well they play.
What killed Virginia was that senior Todd Billet, junior Elton Brown and sophomore Derrick Byars were taken out of their games. Together the three were 4 of 15 from the field, had five rebounds and scored 17 points (nine of those from the free throw line).
Gillen tried moving Billet to the off guard, but he was smothered by bigger athletes, who rarely gave the deadeye shooter any room. In fact, Billet took only five shots, made only one and that one came with nine minutes left in the game when the Cavs were down by 13.
Duke collapsed around Brown and hammered him most every time he went to the hoop. Byars, plagued by early foul trouble, remained mired in his funk that Gillen claims is more mental than physical.
Bundle that together and it spells 0-2 in the ACC where the Cavaliers have now lost by 17 and 22 points with a trip to fast-starting Georgia Tech on Thursday.
This one could have been closer had Virginia finished the first half. Just as in the Providence loss here, the Cavs lost focus and it cost them.
“We could have lost this in the first half,” Krzyzewski said.
Duke started playing defense the final eight minutes of that half. Virginia seemed to stop.
“We were down four and had the ball and the next thing you know it’s an eight-point game,” said Brown. “We had little mental mistakes and you can’t do that against Duke because they’re so well-coached, they’re like robots.”
Virginia fans have gotten a flicker of hope in recent weeks with the play of its five freshmen. Donte Minter (inside muscle), Jason Cain (quickness and nice post moves) and T.J. Bannister (solid ballhandling) have added some dimensions to the team.
Now, it’s a matter of whether Gillen can get his teams to focus, to play defense and rebound when it matters most. Anything less could spell disaster.

 

Too talented and too deep, Duke wears down U.Va.
By ED MILLER, The Virginian-Pilot
© January 12, 2004

CHARLOTTESVILLE — Virginia had five freshmen on the floor at the close of its 93-71 loss to No. 2 Duke Sunday night.

At the end, that nod to a possibly brighter future was about all the Cavaliers could offer a University Hall crowd that began the evening in full roar but settled in to watch the type of Duke-Virginia contest it had seen many times before.

Duke (12-1, 2-0 ACC) cracked open a tight game with a couple of quick baskets at the end of the first half, then opened the second half with a ball movement and shooting clinic, to coast to its fourth straight win over Virginia and 17th in the last 19 meetings.

“We had some moments,” Virginia coach Pete Gillen said. “But you’ve got to have more than moments.”

Most of those moments came early, when Virginia (10-3, 0-2) sought to wear down Duke with sheer numbers and make coach Mike Krzyzewski reach deeper into his bench than he’d prefer to go.

“We wanted to use our 11 guys against their seven,” Gillen said.

It worked for a while. Virginia attacked the basket and landed Duke in some early foul trouble.

“Serious problems,” Krzyzewski called them. Nothing Duke couldn’t ultimately handle. When starters Shelden Williams and J.J. Redick left the game, reserves Luol Deng and Sean Dockery filled in capably.

Deng, a 6-foot-8 freshman who is a reserve in name only — he’s started 10 games and is third on the team in minutes played — scored six of his eight first-half points late, after Williams and Redick had taken a seat.

Deng’s most damaging buckets came in the last 42 seconds, when he stretched the Duke lead from four to eight just before halftime.

Gillen called it the turning point, and Duke built on it after halftime, opening with a 17-7 burst to go up 18. Redick (14 points) hit two of his four 3-pointers in the stretch.

After that, the Blue Devils were content to punch the ball inside to the 6-9 Williams, who scored 17 of his game-high 21 points in the game’s final 14 minutes.

Williams also grabbed 12 rebounds. “The big guy, he kicked us inside,” Gillen said.

Redick did it from the perimeter, making four of five 3-point attempts. Duke shot 52 percent overall.

Virginia shot at a 40 percent clip, and went cold after cutting the lead to 11 midway through the second half, scoring just four points over the next eight minutes.

Devin Smith led Virginia with a lonely 19 points. The Cavaliers’ other four starters combined for just 25.

“We needed somebody else, one of our veterans, to give us a big boost,” Gillen said.

Derrick Byars, scoreless in 10 minutes, couldn’t provide it. Neither could Todd Billet, who finished with just four points.

With his veterans struggling, Gillen turned to his freshmen. Point guard T.J. Bannister played a career-high 27 minutes and handed out five assists. Forward Donte Minter scored 12 points in 16 minutes. Even little-used forward Jason Cain had some moments.

“It’s a great learning experience playing in a big game like that,” Bannister said. One Virginia hopes Bannister and his classmates can build on. Virginia travels to No. 8 Georgia Tech Thursday night.
 

Young Duke players bloom in another ACC hothouse
By TOM ROBINSON, The Virginian-Pilot
© January 12, 2004
CHARLOTTESVILLE

Duke-haters know it’s their inalienable right to blow an aorta over the boys from Durham. But they shouldn’t egg Mike Krzyzewski for speaking the truth.

“I don’t know if we’re one of the top teams this year … but our program is one of the tops,’’ Krzyzewski, coach of the nation’s second-ranked team, was saying inside Virginia’s University Hall on Sunday evening. “We’re going to get everybody’s best shot. Our young guys have to learn early what it takes.

“I think we play a pretty good schedule, but this is just different than nonconference. It takes a little bit for kids to realize the level of intensity of both teams, the crowd … it just means more.’’

Duke, as Duke will do, had just absorbed Virginia’s determined effort, and brushed it like flakes from its royal shoulders, 93-71.

Not that the Blue Devils (12-1) left town without perspiring.

The Hall, where Duke had actually lost two of its last three, sounded like a rocket launch at the start. The noise fed the Cavs, who offered their people hope, which lived until the first few minutes of the second half.

That was when Duke’s double-digit lead settled in for the night, slowly sending the faithful out to catch the end of the Packers and Eagles.

So yes, in the end, Duke’s J.J. Redick got his ACC free-throw record — his two in the first half put him at 50 in a row. Krzyzewski got his 675th victory — tied for 17th all-time with Denny Crum.

And more importantly for the Blue Devils two games into their league slate, star freshman Luol Deng got his first taste of the ACC’s hard road.

Duke handily beat Clemson away from home a week ago. But as Redick said diplomatically, “This is a different atmosphere than Clemson.’’

Deng, regarded among the top two or three rookies in the nation, leads ACC first-years in scoring, rebounding and field goal percentage.

For most of the first half, however, when Deng turned it over three times and rushed a handful of poor shots, he just looked like a rattled teenager.

That’s what had Krzyzewski ruminating afterwards.

“It’s what makes our conference so great,’’ he said. “When you step on the court in a conference game, it’s a higher-level game. Luol has to understand it’s not just conference. It’s conference against us.’’

Deng, a Sudanese native who’s already lived in such exotic locales as Egypt, London and, uh, New Jersey, came to understand that more by the final horn.

Long and lean at 6-foot-8, Deng finished with 12 points, eight rebounds, one blocked shot — and no turnovers after halftime.

“It’s all about learning,’’ said Deng, seemingly as comfortable shooting the 3-pointer — he’s third on the team in attempts, though he was 0 for 3 against U.Va. — as slashing for a finger roll or elbowing for position down low.

“A couple of things didn’t go my way; I kind of rushed it a little bit. But as the game went on I started to pick it up.’’

Maybe it’ll be a touch easier next time at Maryland in nine days, or at the end of the month at Georgia Tech. If Deng’s around next year and not in the NBA, he may even echo what Redick, a sophomore, came to discover.

“As soon as I stepped on the court, even for warmups, I was nervous as heck,’’ Redick remembered of his first few ACC outings.

“To be honest, I like road games now. Toward the end of last season, I realized how fun road games can be, when you start winning and you start silencing the crowd.’’

To a sound track of hushed Wahoos, Duke, as usual, had all the fun.
 

Cavs' moments lacking
J.J. Redick sets an ACC record and Duke pulls away after halftime to beat Virginia for the 17th time in 19 meetings.
By Doug Doughty

CHARLOTTESVILLE - Past victories over highly-rated Duke have prompted Virginia fans to storm the floor at University Hall.

On Sunday, they stormed the exits.

The exodus began with seven minutes remaining, after Virginia had wasted a decent first half in falling to the Blue Devils for the 17th time in 19 meetings, 93-71.

"We had some moments," UVa coach Pete Gillen said, "but you've got to play more than moments."

Second-ranked Duke (12-1, 2-0 ACC) got a career-high 21 points and 12 rebounds from sophomore Shelden Williams on a night when the Blue Devils had six scorers in double figures, including sophomore J.J. Redick with 14.

Redick, from Roanoke, battled foul problems for much of the game but hit a milestone with 9:36 remaining in the first half, when he converted his 49th consecutive free throw, an ACC record.

Ex-Virginia star Jeff Lamp had held the previous record of 48 since 1980.

"I wasn't born till 1984," said Redick, apologizing that he wasn't more familiar with Lamp's career. "He was a good shooter, right?"

Redick made his last nine free throws of the 2002-2003 season and is 40-for-40 this year after making both of his shots Sunday. He was fouled by UVa freshman J.R. Reynolds, previously a rival when Redick was at Cave Spring High School and Reynolds played for Roanoke Catholic.

Redick was fully aware of the significance of his first free-throw attempt Sunday.

"Of course I was," said Redick, whose 91.9 percentage led the ACC in 2002-2003. "I've had a lot of interview requests about it. It's been on my mind all week. I was hoping I would get the chance to do it at UVa."

Would he rather set it at University Hall than at Cameron Indoor Stadium, Duke's home?

"I don't know about that," said Redick, cheered on by his Cave Spring coach, Billy Hicks, amid a contingent of Roanokers. "I guess, if I had to do it anywhere on the road, it would have to be here."

Redick frequently found himself matched up against Reynolds as Gillen made extensive use of his five freshmen. Each played between 13 and 27 minutes, accounting for 107 of a possible 200 minutes.

Gillen said he wasn't trying to send a message to his upperclassmen when he played his freshmen together for the final 2:11, but he was not pleased by what he got from his veterans, aside from junior Devin Smith.

Smith, struggling on 3-point shots for most of the season, hit his first five shots from behind the arc Sunday and finished with a team-high 19 points.

"We were concerned about Smith before the game and we're still concerned about him," Krzyzewski said.

Junior center Elton Brown was the only other UVa player to score in double figures, with 13, but Brown was 0-for-4 from the field in the first half.

Brown repeatedly missed from close range, but the Cavaliers had the lead briefly at 30-28 and trailed only 42-38 as they brought the ball upcourt in the final minute of the first half.

As UVa's last two first-half possessions ended on turnovers by Reynolds and fellow freshman T.J. Bannister, Duke increased its lead to 46-38 at the break and then scored on its first seven possessions of the second half.

"The end of the first half is a very important part of the game and it was key tonight," said Gillen, who had seen a previous game against Providence get away during the same time frame. "If we could have gone into the half down two or four, it could have made a difference."

Virginia (10-3, 0-2) whittled an 18-point Duke lead to 69-58 on a Bannister jumper with 12:50 left, but the Cavaliers scored on one of their next 12 possessions, a short bank shot by senior Todd Billet for his only basket of the game.

"We needed some veterans to give us a boost," said Gillen, who has made that observation before.

Most perplexing is the recent play of sophomore Derrick Byars, instrumental in a Cavalier comeback victory Dec.31 against previously unbeaten Iowa State. In three games since scoring 20 points against the Cyclones, Byars if 3-for-19 from the field, including 0-for-3 Sunday, when he collected four fouls and played only 10 minutes.

Byars had a similar downturn at the start of the ACC schedule last year, and Gillen said Friday that he would attempt to meet with him.

"I did talk to him," Gillen said. "It didn't do much good. He's a perfectionist and fights himself a little bit, but he's a terrific player. We've just got to get him playing the way he's capable."

 

No. 2 Duke wears out Virginia
Cavs' depth gives Devils trouble ... for a half
By Dave Johnson
Daily Press
Published January 12, 2004

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Duke has better athletes and a Hall of Fame coach, which means finding the right formula to beat the Blue Devils is tricky. So Virginia coach Pete Gillen went with the one advantage his team had: Depth.

Hoping an 11-man rotation would eventually leave the Blue Devils rubber-legged, Gillen all but installed a revolving door at the scorer's table. And the strategy was working - 21/2 minutes prior to halftime, it was a three-point game.

But ultimately, Duke was just too good. Fueled by a five-minute stretch during which they scored on nine straight possessions, the Blue Devils shook off early foul trouble and cruised to a 93-71 victory Sunday in University Hall.

"It looked like they wanted to play more people and wear us down," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "Which, if you have the people like they do, is a good strategy. Virginia had a great effort against us. They're a deep team."

Deep, yes - 11 players saw at least five minutes. But not nearly talented enough to match Duke (12-1, 2-0), which has seven high school All-Americans on its roster. Led by Shelden Williams' dominance inside and Chris Duhon's near-perfect floor game (15 points, eight assists, seven rebounds and one turnover in 34 minutes), the Blue Devils had six scorers in double figures for the third time this season.

"They've got a great team," Gillen said. "No doubt about it."

Yet for a while, Virginia (10-3, 0-2) was in it. With Gillen subbing 12 times in the first 17 minutes, the Cavs cut Duke's lead to 39-36 on Gary Forbes' dunk with 2:34 left in the half. But after Krzyzewski called a 30-second timeout, Daniel Ewing lost defender J.R. Reynolds off a Shavlik Randolph pick and buried a 3-pointer to double the margin.

Donte Minter's follow made it a four-point game, and after a Luol Deng turnover, the Cavs had a chance to get closer. But Deng swiped the ball from T.J. Bannister and went in for a dunk. And after Reynolds was called for a charge, Deng hit a 16-footer at the buzzer to give Duke a 46-38 lead at the break.

"We just didn't maintain it," Cavaliers forward Devin Smith said. "We played hard the first 10, 15 minutes. Then we just made some mental mistakes and they got some easy buckets."

Only Smith, who had 19 points and hit his first five shots from the 3-point arc, provided steady offense. Todd Billet went 1-for-5 from the field and, for the first time in 24 games, didn't hit a 3-pointer. Elton Brown had 13 points but missed three shots from point-blank range in the first half.

Derrick Byars was 0-for-3 and got into early foul trouble. Forbes was 3-for-8 from the floor and 2-for-8 from the free-throw line.

"I thought Devin Smith was tremendous," Gillen said. "But we needed somebody else, one of the veterans, to give us a boost."

There were some positive signs for Gillen. Bannister, a freshman point guard, had five assists and two turnovers - one was an offensive foul - in a career-high 27 minutes.

"We had our moments," Gillen said. "But we've got to have more than moments."
 

Fit of road rage fuels Blue Devils
By BRYAN STRICKLAND : The Herald-Sun
bstrickland@heraldsun.com
Jan 11, 2004 : 11:47 pm ET

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- When Duke freshman Luol Deng let up for just one second during Sunday's game at Virginia, Duke senior Chris Duhon let him have it.

Duhon's fit of anger was directed at Deng, but Deng's teammates got the message as well.

"Just because we've been on a little roll, we can't think it's just going to continue -- we have to make it happen,'' said Duhon, whose Blue Devils took control shortly after his outburst and came away with a 93-71 victory. "We can't be loose; we can't have any slippage.

"I didn't want him to get in a mindset there where he thought this game was going to be easy. I've been in this arena before, and I know this team is amazing in this gym."

Duhon was 1-2 at University Hall before Sunday, and the Cavaliers looked like they planned to bid for another upset, standing even at 28-28 after 12 minutes.

That's when Deng watched a ball go out of bounds that he could have saved -- a ball that Deng thought had last been touched by a Virginia player. But the referee awarded the ball to the Cavaliers, and Duhon screamed at Deng for his lack of effort.

Deng and the rest of the Blue Devils responded. Deng scored half of his 12 points during the remainder of the half, including Duke's final four points to push the Blue Devils' halftime lead to 46-38. The lead kept growing after halftime.

"The way that we've been making it happen is by making plays and being aggressive on the defensive end, getting loose balls and just playing with a swagger," said Duhon, whose Blue Devils won their ninth straight game -- their second consecutive ACC road game to open the conference slate.

"We had a tough time early on, those first 12 minutes, of communicating and stopping them on the defensive end, but I think we did a better job the last eight minutes and in the second half."

The Blue Devils played as a team, putting six players in double digits, but two sophomores enjoyed moments in the spotlight. J.J. Redick broke the ACC record for consecutive free throws made, and Shelden Williams scored a career high 21 points.

Redick entered the game tied with former Virginia guard Jeff Lamp, who hit 48 straight in the 1979-80 season. At the 9:36 mark of the first half, on the same end of the court where a banner hangs showing Lamp's retired jersey No. 3, Redick made the first of two free throws to break the record and then added No. 50.

"I'm just glad I didn't psyche myself out,'' said Redick, who scored 14 points. "I didn't think about it too much. I just said to myself, 'All right, this is for the record. Just knock it down.' "

While everyone was aware of Redick's record, Williams' record came out of the blue. He scored four points in the first half, when he committed three fouls, but he came back with 17 second-half points to top the 20 he put up at University Hall and at the Smith Center last season.

Williams started the second half on the bench, and after all five starters scored as Duke scored on its first seven possessions to increase the lead to 63-45, Williams took his turn. After the Cavaliers closed within 63-51, Williams accounted for 13 of Duke's next 15 points to help stretch the lead to 78-60.

"I wanted to come out there in the second half and make a big contribution because I didn't play that much in the first half,'' Williams said. "I wanted to go out there and play hard, and I got my game going.

"I had a man on my back every time, and when it's like that, I can usually score."

The game started with both teams scoring at will. Duke drilled 12 of 17 shots to take a 24-17 lead after just eight minutes. Shavlik Randolph (12 points) took advantage of a size mismatch against 6-5 Devin Smith to hit 4 of 5 shots during Duke's hot start, and Duhon (15 points, eight assists, seven rebounds) slashed his way to a 3-for-4 start.

The Cavaliers countered with the long-range shooting of Smith (19 points), who drained three of his five 3-pointers in the first seven minutes to keep Virginia close.

But both offenses soon bogged down, and the Blue Devils piled up fouls that sent Virginia on a free-throw fest and sent Duke deep into its bench.

Every Duke starter had at least two fouls by halftime, with Redick and Williams picking up three. The Cavaliers took advantage, hitting 13 of 17 from the line in the first half.

But Duke reserves Lee Melchionni and Nick Horvath provided some solid second-half minutes, and the Blue Devils soon stopped fouling and started flying around.

"We started playing defense a lot better around the eight-minute mark when we limited penetration," said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who won his 675th game to tie Denny Crum for 17th on the all-time victory list. "Because of their penetration, we were fouling, and we had some serious problems.

"We were just able to weather that storm in the first half. We could have lost the game in the first half, there's no question about that. But we kind of regrouped at the end of the half and during halftime, and we came out and played really well in the second half."

 

Deng finds inspiration in victory
1-12-04
By Tim Peeler Staff Writer
News & Record

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- With five minutes to play in the first half of Sunday's game between Duke and Virginia, the game was tied at 30 each, and the No. 2 Blue Devils were in trouble.

Both Shelden Williams and J.J. Redick had three fouls apiece and all the other starters had at least two, a result of the Duke defense trying to stop Virginia's penetration. The first-half result was 14 fouls, and unscheduled appearances by fifth-year senior Nick Horvath and sophomore Lee Melchionni.

Blue Devils senior Chris Duhon had already chewed out freshman Luol Deng, both on the floor and on the bench, for not hustling after a loose ball that had touched Duhon as it rolled out of bounds.

"We made a lot of bonehead plays early," Duhon said.

That little lecture seemed to inspire the freshman playing his first ACC road game, and in the final five minutes of the half, he got aggressive, particularly after Virginia cut Duke's lead to four points with a minute to go in the half. Deng took the ball away from Virginia's T.J. Bannister and dunked the ball and, on Duke's final possession, he missed a 3-point jumper, but scrambled for the rebound, got it and put up a fall-away jumper that went in at the buzzer, giving his team a 46-38 advantage, its biggest lead of the first half.

Dismantling Virginia (0-2 ACC, 10-3) from that point on was relatively easy in the 93-71 victory.

The Blue Devils (2-0, 12-1) scored on their first seven possessions of the second half, then let well-rested Williams, who played only seven minutes in the first half, have his way with a tired Virginia defense.

Williams scored 18 of his career-high 21 points in second half, which included an astounding 9-for-10 performance at the free-throw line.

"I wanted to come out there and make a big point in the second half, because I didn't play that much in the first half," Williams said. "I wanted to play hard and get my game on."

But Williams second-half performance, which was a function of Virginia's inability to stop him, wasn't as important as some of the other development's in the Blue Devils' ninth consecutive victory.

First, surviving foul trouble was one of Krzyzewski's biggest concerns when he began paring down his rotation from 10 to seven in mid-December.

Second, getting Deng acclimated to a hostile road environment is key to his development as one of the ACC's most versatile and reliable go-to players. His dressing down by Duhon was educational.

"Things are just different when you play in conference (road games)," Krzyzewski said. "It takes a little bit for kids to realize the level of intensity of both teams, the crowd. It just means more. This is what makes our conference so great. When you step on the court in conference games, it's a different level, it's a higher level."

Redick, despite being limited by fouls, did manage to set the ACC consecutive free-throw record by making two foul shots early in the first half, with the banner of Jeff Lamp's retired jersey hanging just to his left.

Redick noticed that banner while warming up, and figured he would likely get his chance to break the record while facing Lamp's name.

"I am just glad I didn't psych myself out," said Redick, who had 14 points and made four of his five 3-point attempts in returning to his home state. "I didn't think about it much, but when I stepped up there, I did think 'This is for the record, let's knock it down.' "
 

Cavaliers Don't Hinder Devils
Virginia's Defense Doesn't Do Much Against No. 2 Duke: Duke 93, Virginia 71
By Jim Reedy
Special to The Washington Post
Monday, January 12, 2004; Page D07

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Jan. 11 -- Virginia hung with second-ranked Duke for 15 minutes, but its ACC-worst defense faltered again, allowing a season-high point total as the Blue Devils cruised through the second half to a 93-71 win at University Hall.

Tied at 30 with 51/2 minutes remaining before halftime, Duke (12-1, 2-0) assembled an 18-point run by scoring on 14 of 18 possessions. Up 63-45 four minutes into the second half, the Devils maintained a double-digit cushion the rest of the way.

The Cavaliers (10-3, 0-2) got 19 points from Devin Smith, but their other veterans were far less effective. Derrick Byars had four fouls and no points in his worst game of the season. Todd Billet was overmatched by Duke's quicker guards and held without a three-pointer for the first time in 24 games. Elton Brown had 13 points but again struggled to finish scoring opportunities inside.

"We needed Elton Brown or Derrick Byars or Todd Billet -- one of those veteran guys -- to give us some real good juice," said Coach Pete Gillen, whose team remains winless in conference play with trips to No. 8 Georgia Tech, No. 12 North Carolina and No. 5 Wake Forest coming this month.

"We had some moments, but you've got to play more than moments."

Virginia had struggled for much of the season to defend the three-pointer, but the Blue Devils hit 6 of 18 attempts from behind the arc. Instead they carved up the Cavaliers by shooting nearly 60 percent on two-point baskets.

Shelden Williams, one of six Blue Devils who scored in double figures, scored 17 of his 21 points in the second half, leading Duke to 54 points in the lane and its ninth consecutive win. Chris Duhon added 15 points and eight assists.

The win was the 675th of Mike Krzyzewski's 29-year coaching career, tying him with Denny Crum for 17th in Division I history.

Gillen went with quickness in the back court, giving heavy minutes to freshman guards T.J. Bannister and J.R. Reynolds while keeping Majestic Mapp on the bench and limiting Billet to 24 minutes, his second-shortest stint of the season.

The strategy worked for much of the first half, even as Byars, Virginia's third-leading scorer, spent much of the period on the bench after picking up three fouls in the first four minutes.

Virginia took a 30-28 lead, its last of the game, with eight minutes left before halftime after Billet and Brown combined to hit six straight free throws. But Duke tied it at 30, then scored on four straight possessions to push ahead, 39-32.

The Cavaliers, meantime, used free throws to survive a 71/2-minute field goal drought that included seven misses.

"We were just able to weather that storm in the first half," Krzyzewski said. "We could have lost the game in the first half. There's no question about it. . . . We started playing defense a lot better around the eight-minute mark when we [limited Virginia's penetration]. Because of their penetration we were fouling. We had some serious problems."

After the Blue Devils jumped ahead 63-45, the Cavaliers scored on their next six possessions to pull within 11, but their momentum dissipated as Duke buckled down again on defense.

Williams continued to establish himself inside and the Blue Devils pushed their margin back out to 78-60 with 61/2 minutes remaining. Gillen signaled for his final timeout a moment later, and portions of the Cavaliers' first sellout crowd of the season began heading for the exits.

"We've really got to work on defense," said Virginia's Donte Minter, who had 12 points. "On offense, we've got a lot of scorers. Everybody on our team can score, but we've just got to pick up the intensity on defense. Just get in our mind that we're going to stop the other team."

Cavaliers Notes: Jason Clark, the Virginia forward who missed the first 12 games because of academic problems, played five minutes in his season debut and grabbed two rebounds. . . . The Blue Devils have won 17 of the past 19 meetings with Virginia and 36 of their past 45 ACC road games. . . . Duke has scored 192 points in its past two games.
 

Despite less star power, Duke shines
BOB LIPPER
TIMES-DISPATCH COLUMNIST Jan 12, 2004
Contact Bob Lipper at (804) 649-6555 or e-mail blipper @timesdispatch.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE Maybe one day in the future, when Britney Spears is a grandma and SUVs get 38 miles to the gallon and Jerry Springer dwells in a monastery, Duke basketball will descend from Mt. Krzyzewski and find out how the other half lives.

But I doubt it.

Duke won't go away. Won't cut anybody a break. Won't become just, umm, OK. This is bad news for its ACC rivals. On the other hand, it's not something those poor dears didn't know already. The Blue Devils have claimed the past five ACC tournaments. They're 115-19 against league opponents since 1997. They've won 36 of their past 45 conference starts away from Durham. And you thought Mel Gibson was a road warrior.

They crunched Virginia 93-71 yesterday, and you would not be damning them with faint praise to describe their performance as workmanlike. Those 93 points notwithstanding, this is not a high-voltage Duke entry. There's no Jason Williams attacking the rim, no Carlos Boozer laying waste to the low post (although Sheldon Williams was a reasonable facsimile yesterday), no 6-8 guys like Shane Battier and Mike Dunleavy taking defenders outside and burying 3-pointers from insane distances.

Oh, sure, there are schoolboy All-Americans up and down the roster (with more on the way for fall-of-'04 delivery - sorry) and plenty of firepower and a senior point guard and enough size and depth and that Krzyzewski guy pushing buttons on the bench. Whether this crew can maintain its grip on the league - it figures to get a major test Saturday from Wake Forest - we'll learn soon enough. Whether it stocked up on glue over the summer, we already know.

"We don't have the electric players we've had," Chris Duhon said. "I've been on teams when we had Jason and Shane and Mike and Carlos. Any of those guys could take over a game. We don't have that kind of talent on this team. On this team, we need to depend more on each other. We have to continue to realize we need each other. That's what's different about this team."

These Blue Devils put six players in double figures yesterday, sank 52 percent of their shots, owned the lane and the foul line after intermission. U.Va. stayed in contention by outscoring Duke 13-5 from the line during the first half. The Cavaliers registered a mere two freebies thereafter. When they surrendered points on Duke's first seven possessions after the break, it was over with a capital O.

The Cavs could learn a thing or two by studying Duke's defense. These Blue Devils aren't slap-the-floor zealots. They don't pick you up at the locker-room door. What they do is lock in at the top of the circle, close off the passing lanes and funnel their mistakes to Williams, Shavlik Randolph and Luol Deng. More size plus less gambling equals a resistance force that's limited opponents to less than 39-percent accuracy. U.Va. topped out at 40.3.

"That's what we're emphasizing," said Duke guard J.J. Redick. "We're trying to establish an identity as a great halfcourt defensive team."

They've already established a reputation as the Mercedes of ACC hoops. Some coaches find pleasure in the challenge of taking over a doormat and building it to respectability or more. Mike Krzyzewski specializes in producing degrees of juggernaut.

"I think it's harder to keep it at a high level every year," he said.

Could've fooled me.

 

Virginia dumped by Duke
Cavaliers' defense missing as Blue Devils make 52.3 percent of their attempts
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Jan 12, 2004

CHARLOTTESVILLE - The best crowd of the season at University Hall saw Virginia play some of its worst defense.

The Cavaliers didn't shoot or rebound DUKE 93 VIRGINIA 71well, either. All of which enabled second-ranked Duke to break open a close game and hammer ACC foe U.Va. 93-71 before a sellout crowd of 8,392.

"The crowd was there for us," junior center Elton Brown said. "We just didn't live up to it."

Six players scored in double figures for Duke (2-0, 12-1), which shot 52.3 percent from the floor and outrebounded Virginia 43-30. The Cavaliers (0-2, 10-3), meanwhile, shot 40.3 percent from the floor and only 62.5 percent from the line.

The victory was the Blue Devils' 17th in their past 19 games with Virginia.

"They're a great team, no doubt about it," U.Va. coach Pete Gillen said, "but I thought we could have done better . . . We had some moments, but you gotta have more than moments [to beat Duke]."

On a night when Gillen desperately needed his veterans to shine, two of them virtually disappeared. Senior guard Todd Billet scored only four points, had no assists and failed to make a 3-pointer for the first since Feb. 9, 2003. Sophomore forward Derrick Byars went scoreless, giving him seven points in his past three games.

"Devin Smith was tremendous," Gillen said. "We needed somebody else from our veterans to give us a big boost."

Smith made 5 of 6 shots from beyond the arc and scored 19 points. The 6-5 junior forward also had six rebounds and two blocked shots. Brown added 13 points for U.Va., but he missed several open shots inside and grabbed only four rebounds.

Duke center Shelden Williams, by contrast, led all scorers with 21 points - 17 after intermission - and pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds.

The Blue Devils opened the game by scoring on six of their first seven possessions, but the Cavaliers, energized by the raucous crowd, didn't fade. Virginia battled back to take a 30-28 lead on two Brown free throws at the 7:55 mark. With Duke in foul trouble - the officials whistled Mike Krzyzewski's club for 14 first-half personals - U.Va. had a chance to take a substantial lead into the break. Instead, the Cavaliers stalled.

The Blue Devils rallied for seven straight points during a stretch in which U.Va. failed to score on five consecutive possessions. Virginia fought back again and pulled to 42-38 on freshman center Donte Minter's basket at the 1:10 mark. After a Duke turnover, the Cavaliers looked to cut their deficit further. But they turned the ball over twice in the final 45 seconds, and the Devils parlayed those errors into a 46-38 halftime lead.

"If we go in down four, we had the ball first in the second half," Brown said, "and if we score there, we're down two, and it's a game."

Duke had other plans. The Blue Devils scored on their first seven possessions of the second half to build a commanding lead. U.Va. staged yet another rally, closing to 69-58 on freshman point guard T.J. Bannister's short jumper. But the Cavaliers scored only two points in the next 8:13, and the game became a blowout.

"In the second half we executed very well," Krzyzewski said.

Duke guard J.J. Redick, a sophomore from Roanoke, set an ACC record for consecutive free throws by making his first attempt with 9:36 left in the first half. That was Redick's 49th in a row and broke his tie with former U.Va. star Jeff Lamp. Redick then dropped in his second foul shot to push his streak to 50.

If there was an encouraging sign for U.Va., other than Smith's brilliance, it was the play of the team's five freshmen: starter Gary Forbes and reserves Minter (12 points, six boards), Bannister (five assists), forward Jason Cain (four points, two rebounds) and guard J.R. Reynolds (seven points). Forbes, a 6-6 swingman, scored eight points and had three assists, but he also missed 6 of 8 attempts from the line.