CHAPEL HILL - Swagger. It's the buzz word of the year for these Blue Devils. And there was no better showing of swagger than Saturday night's 81-61 demolition of No. 14 North Carolina in the Dean Smith Center.
To be sure, this win meant a lot to Duke. Beyond the perfect ACC season and the school-record 24-game winning streak, there was an old-fashioned whooping of the Tar Heels, in their house, on their Senior Day. But to look at the demeanor of the team on the court and after the game, you knew the Blue Devils were not allowing themselves to get too excited about another regular-season win. Their work is just now beginning.
"[The 16-0 record] hasn't been a goal," coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "You don't get a banner or anything like that."
Banners are indeed what this team is all about now. And the possibility is very real that this team will be raising a number of banners to commemorate this season. There are four within reach: final No. 1 ranking, ACC tournament champions, Final Four and National Champions. The last Duke team to raise those four banners was the 1992 squad. Swagger was a buzz word for those Blue Devils, too.
"When I was there... we had a nasty streak," former Blue Devil Grant Hill told Sports Illustrated. "There was a feeling of complete confidence, complete arrogance and total disrespect for whoever we played."
Some of that confidence was on display Saturday. Trash talking.
"I've driven home four times from here after losses," senior Trajan Langdon said. "Last year, they pretty much embarrassed us [a 97-73 UNC dismantling of Duke]. For us to come in here and quiet the crowd and win by 20, that's a great feeling."
Chris Carrawell, who is perhaps the chief exemplar of swagger on this team, knew the Blue Devils had what it took to go into Chapel Hill and emerge victorious.
"We knew coming over that we were going to win," said Carrawell, who offered a 12-point, eight-rebound, turnover-free performance to back up his words. "It was not like last year. We were nervous then. This is like payback."
The streetwise, playground-tough Carrawell summed up his team's confidence when he calmly said, "We knew tonight was our night."
Saturday night was their night. 1998-99 could be their year. More and more, confident and arrogant are words aptly applied to this Duke team. These Blue Devils remind one of the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld. Teams are dismissed with a quick "No soup for you!" before Duke then turns to the line, shouts "Next!" and commences another beating.
This team shows no fear, no anxiety about being in close situations. Duke may only have been up 35-33 at halftime on Saturday, but the team never appeared worried about the final outcome.
"Our focus was to play defense and rebound," Langdon said. "In the second half I thought we did a great job of that. We knew our shots were going to fall at some point, even though they weren't falling right away. We knew if we played defense, a run was going to happen. I guess we did expect it in a way."
That expectation is a key to having championship-level swagger. So is the need not to just win, but win big-a killer instinct.
"We know that we gave them confidence in Cameron this year," said Will Avery of the Blue Devils' less-than-dominant 12-point defeat over the Tar Heels on Jan. 27. "We wanted to come out and really send a message to them tonight."
81-61. Message sent and received.
Now, with a 16-0 record thrown out and the second season beginning, the swagger and confidence of the Blue Devils will really be put to the test.
"The ACC tournament is really big for us," Avery said. "We know teams are going to be gunning for us."
Avery added that he wants this Duke team to go down in the history books as one of the school's best, if not the best, of all time. Where this Blue Devil team stands against the teams of the past remains to be seen. But in achieving the same attitude as those previous teams, these Blue Devils have already taken a major step towards the wins, the banners and the legacy of champions.
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