EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - This time around, history wasn't destined to repeat itself.
Duke was too talented, too focused and, most importantly, too experienced.
The end result was a seemingly comfortable 85-64 win for the No. 1 seed and a subsequent plane reservation for St. Petersburg. If it wasn't for the bad memory from last season, yesterday's win wouldn't have offered too much drama. The Blue Devils built a lead, held it and cut down the nets. Simple enough. The first 28 minutes went according to the script, as did the last few.
But for several uneasy minutes there, last year's infamous loss to Kentucky stuck its ugly head in the back door of the Continental Airlines Arena.
Just as they had a year ago in the Regional Finals, the Blue Devils took their 17-point lead midway through the second half, this time taking a 63-46 advantage with 12:21 left.
Once again the opponent, in this case Temple, made a quick run. Just over two minutes later the Owls sliced the lead to 10 and were poised for more.
"It seems like the clock went in slow motion," Chris Carrawell said. "You kind of think about last year. I kept saying, 'It's not over. It's not over.'"
Fortunately, this time it really was over. The big guns, Elton Brand, Will Avery and Trajan Langdon, scored all of the points on offense and an 11-2 burst later, Duke was comfortably ahead,
"I was smiling a little bit last year and look what happened," said Carrawell, comparing the two games. "When we were up 18 with a minute left [yesterday], we brought the subs in and I knew that was it. Then I got a smile on my face."
It was hard to gauge just how much of an impact the loss in St. Petersburg had on this one. Duke this year also has the added talent and focus to go along with the experience.
As Temple coach John Chaney admitted after the game, Duke was clearly the better team and, in his mind, the best team. After all, sixth-seeded Temple was no Kentucky. Then again, since 1977, 16 different teams have entered the tournament with either one or no losses. None have won the championship.
Sometimes, it takes previous memories to fuel the fire. The Blue Devils took the court yesterday having been there before, not just in last season's tournament but in wins earlier this year against Kentucky, Maryland and St. John's.
"Playing out here today, I felt like a veteran," Brand said. "Last year, it was an entirely new experience. This was like an ACC game."
And just as it did in every conference game, Duke outexecuted the opposition. Temple didn't play badly. The Owls shot poorly from outside but matched the Blue Devils' physical play on the inside and avoided turnovers.
The Owls, however, weren't the first to keep their poise against the Blue Devils. That's when it is up to the better team to pull away. Duke outgritted Kentucky in late December and both the Red Storm and North Carolina in late January.
Yesterday, nothing changed. The Blue Devils did as they have done all season.
"We've been in big games, tough situations," Avery said. "We can handle that now. If we can come out and play like we did today, nobody can beat us."
So finally, one year later, that nightmarish Sunday in St. Pete is a thing of the past. The Blue Devils will return to Florida later this week, having buried past history and inched just two wins away from the program's third national championship.
Kentucky almost gave Duke a direct shot at redemption, before falling to Michigan State in yesterday's other game. It doesn't matter much any more, though.
This was a team that began its quest in mid-October with a national championship as its ultimate goal. With past experience as a guide, the Blue Devils cleared one of their final roadblocks, a mental one.
"We didn't want to talk about that and use it as motivation, but it's hard not to do," Chris Burgess said. "To get to the Final Four is a feeling that's so hard to describe. We didn't want to repeat last year."
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