ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- You won't find it celebrated at most schools, but because the men's basketball team observed Respert Awareness Day under the slanted roof of the Thunder Dome Sunday, the Blue Devils are headed for the Sweet 16.
Duke was able to contain Michigan State junior guard Shawn Respert for one half and that helped propel it to an 85-74 victory over the Spartans in the second round of the NCAA Tournament's Southeast Regional.
With the win over Michigan State, Duke advances to the Southeast Regional semifinals in Knoxville, Tenn., where it will face sixth-seeded Marquette Thursday.
"We're really pleased to beat an outstanding Michigan State team," said Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski. "They are so well-coached and drilled . . . To beat a team like that and get to the Sweet 16 is a tremendous accomplishment for us."
Entering Sunday's game Respert was averaging 24.4 points per game and had scored 25 points in the Spartans' 84-73 first-round victory over Seton Hall. But Respert, wearing tape on his right thumb and a bulky elbow pad on his left arm, was stymied by the Duke defense in the first half. Sunday, he missed the only shot he took in the first half and committed six turnovers as Duke used a variety of defenders to slow him down.
"Respert is tough to guard," Grant Hill said. "They run a lot of things for him. He gets a lot of screens -- double screens, single screens, triple screens. Tony Lang helped out well, sometimes Marty Clark was on him, Jeff Capel. It was Respert awareness out there. I think it wasn't just me, it was everybody out there who came out and just did a good job trying to contain Shawn Respert."
Though he scored 22 points in the second half, Respert said that his sub-par performance in the first half contributed to his team's inability to pull off the upset over Duke.
"You talk about reasons for this team not having the showing the way we wanted to, I contributed a great deal to that because I'm a key part to the offensive attack," Respert said. "We try to take it to teams and for me to be so tentative in the first half, it put a lot of emphasis on why we played so poorly."
Though a number of Duke players helped to guard Respert, it was Hill who bore the greatest share of that burden.
"They do so many things for Shawn, that I'm sure Grant Hill is worn out from chasing him everywhere," Krzyzewski said. "For Grant to have that defensive assignment and still score as many points as he did was outstanding."
Indeed, Michigan State needed a better sense of Hill awareness Sunday. Hill turned in yet another superb performance, scoring 25 points and adding seven assists and five rebounds. The senior All-American scored in a variety of ways -- on jump shots, drives to the baskets and once on an impressive breakaway 180-degree reverse jam.
"A lot of things he doesn't do that well he does better than the average guy," Michigan State guard Eric Snow said. "He's a great player, you can't take anything away from him, he played great. He played like the All-American he is. You just have to give him credit."
Hill's partners on the frontline, Cherokee Parks and Antonio Lang, also need to be given credit. Parks scored 24 points and grabbed nine rebounds and Lang added 16 points and nine rebounds.
Things did not look all that promising for Duke in the early going. Michigan State took an early 13-6 lead with 13:15 left in the half when Kris Weshinskey ball-faked the Duke defense and drove down the lane for a layup.
At that point, however, the Blue Devils went on a 25-8 run to give them a 10-point lead. Duke's defense was a key during that stretch as Michigan State went without a field goal for six minutes. Duke also forced 15 first-half turnovers by the Spartans.
"You have to give Duke credit for playing the type of defense that they did," Respert said. "They did a great job with such little time of scouting us. They stopped a lot of our fast-breaking and easy-bucket opportunities. It kind of took us a while trying to figure out how to counteract that.
Duke went up 31-21 when Parks threw down a powerful two-handed slam dunk and added a free throw free throw with 4:10 left in the half.
Michigan State, as it did all game, battled back and closed to within 35-31 at halftime.
Respert was able to get back on track in the second half. He went 8-of-13 in the second half and scored 22 points.
"They had a very physical game against Seton Hall," Krzyzewski said. "[Respert] could have been worn out. In the second half showed his true colors and almost brought them back."
The Blue Devils, however, went on a 7-2 run to begin the second half and never let the lead get below five after that.
"The way we played in the first half and then came back and were only down by four, we talked about it at halftime and said we were in great shape," Michigan State head coach Jud Heathcote said. "We cut it to three and they made a couple of baskets. Four different times we had it down to five and it seemed like every time we got it down to five, Duke would come up wth a big play."
Michigan State cut it to five points four different times between 14:02 and 10:56, but two jumpers by Jeff Capel and one by Hill and a jam by Lang prevented the Spartans from drawing any closer.
Duke matched its largest lead of the game with 6:26 left when Lang made a three-point play to put Duke up 64-54. Lang went up for an open 15-foot jump shot and was hit on the arm by Quinton Brooks. When he made the basket, Lang went over to the sideline squatting down and punching his fist in the air towards the floor
This is a perfect example of the emotion Duke felt is had been lacking in the past two or three games leading up to the tournament, but re-exhibited in Florida.
"If you've followed us, we've been very emotional and upbeat and that's why we've won so many games and that's why we won the [ACC] regular season," Krzyzewski said. "But for that one week we were not. I thought this week it was a lot of fun. [In] practice, everyone was very upbeat, the locker room before each ballgame was intense . . . It was a lot of fun and that's the way it should be."
Michigan State again closed to within five points when its pressure caused a Duke turnover and Respert knocked down a three-point basket from the left side to make it 64-59. But Marty Clark and Hill made clutch drives for baskets, and Duke hit 15-of-17 foul shots in the final three minutes to hold off any late rally by Michigan State and Respert.
"I was struggling in the first half," Respert said. "If I had played just average in the first half like in the second half, we probably could have pulled it out."
Instead, in the aftermath of Duke's masterful defensive job, Respert, an All-Big Ten performer in 1993-94, is left recomitting himself to one more year of college basketball and raising his game to the level of the man who left him with doubts.
"This tournament, this two-game tornament answered my quesions about leaving school for the NBA," Respert said. "This is proof that Shawn Respert isn't ready. I don't have the ablity to take over games like great players like Grant Hill did today. I'd rather have another year left to work on that part of my game."
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