ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- For being one of the hottest and most intriguing non-conference men's basketball rivalries in the country, the Duke-Michigan series is awfully one-sided.
Saturday in front of a rabid Crisler Arena crowd of 13,562, the fourth-ranked Blue Devils extended their recent mastery of the No. 3 Wolverines in a convincing 73-63 victory. Duke (5-0) has won five consecutive games in the ongoing five-year series and remains the only team that the heralded Fab Five (now down to four) recruiting class has played but not beaten.
"Four times I've played them, four times I've lost to them," said Michigan junior forward Juwan Howard, a member of the Fab Five who scored 20 points in defeat. "But life goes on. I can't dwell on it."
Although the Blue Devils came into the UM game having made great strides in their previous two games against Xavier and South Carolina State, it was unclear how Duke would respond in its first road contest of the year against a UM team that had looked impressive in the first two weeks of the season.
But Duke answered any questions about its ability to play on the road against tough teams with a resounding victory. Behind Cherokee Parks' career-high 23 points, Grant Hill's 18 points and a solid team rebounding effort, the Blue Devils led from start to finish and had to endure just a few anxious moments down the stretch.
During the second half, Duke stretched a 36-32 halftime lead to 64-50 by scoring on 11-of-14 possessions in a fast-paced display of basketball punctuated as much by Blue Devil poise as by offensive prowess. It was during this middle part of the second half that Michigan began to find its offensive stride behind Howard and Jalen Rose's game-high 31 points.
But every time Rose or Howard -- this duo scored all of UM's second-half points before the 4:00 mark -- found the basket, the Blue Devils answered. It was either a turnaround jumper from Parks or Antonio Lang (10 points), or a three-pointer from Hill, who was a perfect 3-of-3 from beyond the arc Saturday.
A trifecta from Chris Collins gave Duke its 14-point margin, and the game looked like it was already one for the books.
But Duke's offense lost its punch, and Michigan resorted to a furious full-court press to get back in the game. The Blue Devils proceeded to turn the ball over in five of six possessions, and the Wolverines pulled to within 67-63 on a long Rose three-pointer.
But it was too little, too late for the Wolverines, as Parks, just as he had done all day, put the nails in the coffin by making six consecutive free throws down the stretch to seal the win.
"I thought we were going into exams with a loss [when Michigan made a run]," said Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski. "They had us flustered. We have to grow up sometime. I thought we grew up a lot during that segment."
"I think we executed better [down the stretch] than we did last year," said Hill, who handled the ball extensively against Michigan's pressure defense during his 39 minutes of action. "We're doing a better job of not being behind [at the end] and having to catch up. That's what's important."
Indeed, although the Blue Devils almost let the game get away with some sloppy ball-handling -- Duke had 22 turnovers on the day -- it was Michigan that was forced to play catch-up all day long on its home floor.
The Blue Devils -- aided by 39 percent shooting by the Wolverines -- opened up a 7-2 lead before the first TV timeout and never looked back.
"Our effort was good, our inability to finish plays and complete them for baskets was not good at all," Michigan coach Steve Fisher said. "Against people as good as Duke, you have to make open, easy shots."
Michigan got to within one point following a technical foul on Krzyzewski, but Duke maintained a steady four- to six-point cushion throughout the first half.
"I thought we were really ready to play," Krzyzewski said. "We were excited with a smile on our face. We came in with a loose but determined attitude."
But even though the Wolverines eventually got some baskets to fall, the combination of the accuracy of Parks (8-of-9 from the floor, 7-of-7 from the charity stripe), the ball-handling poise of Hill and the timely shooting of Marty Clark and Collins off the bench was too much for Michigan.
"I'm just trying to be a lot more aggressive," said Parks, whose solid early-season performances are helping him shed an image of softness. "I'm just going to try and go out and stir some things up."
NOTES: Duke is 9-0 against the Big 10 conference since a 113-108 overtime loss at Michigan on Dec. 9, 1989. The Blue Devils' next game is Dec. 22 at Iowa, another Big 10 school that Duke has beaten the last three years...About 30 Michigan students braved sub-zero wind-chill factors last week and camped out to get good seats in Crisler for the UM-Duke grudge match...Duke's win at third-ranked Michigan is the Blue Devils' first road win over a top-10 team since a 75-65 win at No. 4 UCLA on March 1, 1992.
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