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Game commentary

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Blue Devils to forgotten form in Anchorage**

ANCHORAGE, Alaska--In the second half of Saturday's championship game of the Carrs Great Alaska Shootout, the men's basketball team faced a familiar situation. After leading nearly the entire first half, Duke had let No. 10 Iowa slip ahead shortly after intermission.

A Jess Settles three-pointer with 7:21 remaining in the game gave the Hawkeyes a 64-55 lead, and it appeared the momentum was clearly in Iowa's favor. Unable to inbound the ball against the Hawkeyes' full-court press, the Blue Devils were forced to call a timeout.

"Last year in that situation, we would have gotten blown out," junior co-captain Jeff Capel said.

But things are different for Duke this season. Even though the Blue Devils seemed to be on the verge of defeat, they remained confident during the timeout. So after the coaching staff had given the team some words of advice, Capel and senior co-captain Chris Collins summoned their teammates into a huddle.

In some ways, it seemed that the only similarity between the three games was that Duke won each contest. But there were three keys to all of Duke's Shootout victories: defense, teamwork and confidence.

With the graduation of Erik Meek and Cherokee Parks, the Blue Devils knew that they did not have as much size or talent as last year's 13-18 squad. To make up for this, the Blue Devils have focused on playing tough defense in practice this season.

"We realize that in order for us to win, we have to go out and stop people," Capel said. "We're not a team that can go out and outscore people. We tried that last year and saw that wasn't successful. We have to go out and attack people defensively."

This defensive preparation was evident throughout the tournament. Duke frustrated the Monarchs on Thursday by closing off passing lanes and making it nearly impossible for Old Dominion's big men to receive passes in the post. Then, against Indiana, Price gave Hoosier star Brian Evans very few easy looks at the basket. Throughout the weekend, the Blue Devil guards pressured opponents' ball-handlers, forcing ODU, Indiana and Iowa into 60 turnovers in the three games. While all of Duke's guards have noticeably improved their defense this season, Wojciechowski was particularly impressive, providing a spark off the bench by pressuring opposing point guards.

Besides defending well individually, the Blue Devils succeeded in stifling their opponents' offenses because they were able to help out one another. In the Indiana game, for example, when Evans touched the ball, Capel or junior forward Carmen Wallace would often help out Price to help prevent a good look at the basket. This team-oriented defensive philosophy is a sign of the chemistry which this year's Blue Devils have already developed.

"This is the closest Duke team I've ever played for," Capel said. "My freshman year, we had a very close team. We were pretty talented that year. This year, we're not as talented, but we're so close as a team."

In Capel's freshman year, Grant Hill was the senior leader who held the team together. The Blue Devils always knew that they could count on Hill to make a big play in a crucial situation, and this made them more comfortable on the court and more cohesive as a team. This year, the Blue Devils don't have a go-to player like Hill. Ironically, the lack of such a player has helped bring this team together by making the Blue Devils trust one another more than they did last year.

"They're confident in one another that if they give the ball up, they'll get it back," head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "Last year, we didn't do that as much. They really like one another and they're playing off one another really well."

Because of this, it is likely that Duke will find different sources for scoring nearly every game. On Saturday, for instance, Collins was nearly unstoppable from the floor, hitting eight of his 12 shots, including five of his seven attempts from behind the three-point arc.

"We wouldn't have won this tournament without Chris Collins," Krzyzewski said. "He was absolutely sensational. He had 30 points [Saturday night], played with unbelievable heart, handled the ball with the press, bringing it inbounds. He was a star tonight."

On other nights, though, Capel or Price or Newton may be the star for the Blue Devils. Against Old Dominion, Newton's 18 points led the team, and on Friday, Capel had the hot hand, scoring 19 points in the victory over the Hoosiers. Price contributed the Duke's scoring throughout the tournament, chipping at least 16 points in each of the contests with his high-arcing jump shots and his crowd-pleasing dunks.

But balanced scoring has not been the only reason for the closeness of the Duke team. The Blue Devils' arduous efforts in practice have also translated into better team chemistry.

"We've been working as hard as I have or as any of these guys have in their lives," Collins said. "We're just so excited. We worked so hard to get to this point. We took a lot of negative criticism last year. We came here, and no one expected us to do much. But we came out and won the whole tournament."

The Shootout victory has certainly given the Blue Devils confidence in themselves. After all, Duke knocked off two well-coached top-25 teams in winning the title. But after a slow start against ODU, the Blue Devils demonstrated throughout the rest of the tournament that they are more poised than they were last year.

Even when they were down against Iowa late in the second half, Duke did not panic.

"We really believed we could win," Collins said. "We knew Iowa is a team of spurts, and they're going to let you back in the game if you just are persistent and are strong against the press. We went to a five-guard lineup, and we did the job. Once we took the lead, we knew we were going to win."

The source of the team's confidence is probably the same as the reason behind its vastly improved defense and the hard-working attitude which has brought the team closer together--Krzyzewski. One of the biggest lessons that the Blue Devils--and the rest of the college basketball world--learned from the Shootout is that Coach K is back, and he appears to again be working his coaching magic. That alone has given the Blue Devils loads of confidence.

"Coach is back," Price said. "We're back. We have a new attitude."

Unlike last year's team, which almost always lost close games, this year's Duke squad has already learned how to win games. And based on its success at the Carrs Great Alaska Shootout, it appears that Price is right--Duke is back.