ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The irony was obvious when Shane Battier stepped to the baseline with 4.5 seconds left in Sunday's South Regional final at Tropicana Field. As millions of TV viewers undoubtedly noticed, the men's basketball team found itself in almost exactly the same position as in its 1992 East regional final win over Kentucky, when Christian Laettner made UK fans hate Duke's Blue Devils as though they were Bob Knight's Indiana Hoosiers.
But the most-talked-about irony of Sunday's game was hardly the only, or the most significant, irony in a contest that seemed scripted by fate.
Irony was Wildcat coach Tubby Smith removing his leading rebounder, Nazr Mohammed, only to watch his smaller lineup beat Duke by attacking the offensive boards.
Irony was Cameron Mills, who hadn't made a shot all tournament, giving Kentucky its first lead of the game on a three-pointer with 2:15 left to play. Smith had sent Allen Edwards to the scorer's table to replace Mills, who had made an error on defense, but because no whistle had blown to allow Edwards into the game, Mills stayed in long enough to drain his crucial shot.
Irony was Heshimu Evans setting up Mills' three-pointer with a tap-back rebound. Neither Evans nor his Wildcat teammates had ever practiced the tap-back, but Evans, while watching a scouting report on Duke, had noticed the Blue Devils using it to set up second-chance points.
So when Evans went up among a group of Blue Devils and realized that he couldn't grab the ball, he put a hand on it-somehow sending it directly to Mills-and helped beat Duke with one of its own favorite rebounding techniques.
Irony was Duke, one of the nation's best three-point shooting teams and an outstanding club at defending the three, getting beaten by the deep ball. The Blue Devils had held previous opponents below 30 percent three-point shooting and the Wildcats to 2-of-9 from beyond the three-point arc, but Kentucky hit 7-of-8 three-pointers down the stretch.
But the greatest irony of all, and the one that put a bizarre twist on the evening, also explained why the Blue Devils couldn't cry their eyes out after the game or look for 'what-if's.'
More ironic than all the other ironies was this: Duke-a top seed in the NCAA tournament, the nation's No. 1-ranked team for much of the year and the first team ever to win 15 regular-season Atlantic Coast Conference games-played its best game of the year, but still lost. The Blue Devils executed their offense with precision, flew all over the court on defense, broke Kentucky's press consistently and, for most of the game, shot the ball well.
Although their shooting abandoned them late, they stayed aggressive from start to finish, attacking the basket on both ends, and couldn't find any easy excuse that would explain their defeat.
Kentucky simply played better.
The Wildcats found what Duke had located 22 days earlier, with 11:40 remaining at Cameron Indoor Stadium. There, the Blue Devils trailed North Carolina, 64-47. They were getting beaten in every facet of the game.
Just like Kentucky on Sunday.
But as the Blue Devils did against the Tar Heels, the Wildcats Sunday found a motivator greater than any coach's pep talk.
"They felt a sense of urgency," Duke guard Trajan Langdon said. "If they didn't get it done, they were going to lose."
The Blue Devils were anything but complacent. Unlike in their previous losses, they didn't start firing perimeter jumpers, stalling on offense or softening up in the paint. But they couldn't sense their own demise the way the Wildcats could feel theirs.
Twisted though it may sound, leading by 17 put the Blue Devils at a disadvantage.
They no longer faced a deep, quick, experienced team, one with talent, wits and a knack for making runs. Now they faced a desperate but controlled team, one that would do whatever it took to win, but also one that wouldn't panic under pressure.
Kentucky was on a mission, and just as Duke outscored UNC 30-11 over the final 11:33 of its unforgettable, 77-75 victory, the Wildcats outscored the Blue Devils by a near-identical 32-13 score in the last 9:26 on Sunday.
In the Feb. 28 game, the Tar Heels lost their cool. They stopped communicating, made bad decisions and abandoned their strengths.
The Blue Devils on Sunday did none of the above. They didn't play flawlessly through the final 9 1/2 minutes, but they played well.
An excellent team playing well usually wins-unless it runs into an excellent team that plays even better.
As if Duke's losing in its best game weren't ironic enough, a comment three days earlier by senior forward Roshown McLeod added to the irony. McLeod was asked whether Syracuse, in its regional semifinal contest with Duke, would have any chance if the Blue Devils played their 'A' game.
McLeod applied his response not only to the Orangemen, but to any future opponent Duke might face.
"If we're on our 'A' game, then it'll be tough to beat us," McLeod said. "If we lose playing our 'A' game, then it's not really a loss."
That was easy to say on Thursday, but tough to remember Sunday night. No matter how well the Blue Devils played, none of them would call the defeat to Kentucky "not really a loss," not after a 17-point lead and a ticket to the Final Four had slipped away in 9 1/2 minutes.
"This is a loss that hurts, whether it was to go to the Final Four or not," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "What we as a staff have to do is make sure that our kids feel the pride, the joy, the fulfillment of having had a great year. Because we've had a terrific year."
A terrific year and a terrific final game. The Blue Devils may have lost, but after Sunday, feeling shame for their play would mark the greatest irony of all.
Dave Berger is a Trinity senior and assistant sports editor of The Chronicle.
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