ANAHEIM, Calif. - They simply weren't prepared.
It's as good an excuse as any, if, for whatever reason, anyone on the Blue Devils team was in an excuse-making mood after their 81-68 victory over Southern California-they simply weren't prepared.
After all, who really would be?
Southern Cal wasn't the most talented team-they were coming off a loss to mighty Utah State-and that fact alone probably ensured that the U in USC wouldn't stand for upset after Saturday's game, but the Trojans were at least, unique.
Duke fans didn't particularly care for unique; they tuned in to see how their Blue Devils would fare against a team that wasn't Uncle Sam or Uncle Buck. It was Duke's first test against a legitimate team and its first game away from Cameron since the season-opening losses at Madison Square Garden, and everyone was watching to see Duke pull away from the Trojans and offer up a flashing neon 'We're OK' sign.
But for 20 minutes, they got a Duke team struggling with a strange system.
They play an interesting style of basketball out in L.A. these days, a style of hoops that makes words like "cement-footed" and "bruiser" match with their team about as well as a brown belt does with black shoes.
"They're a different team to play against," coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "For our squad it was good because we're not used to that."
In gracious terms, it's known as a high-post offense, but in reality it's a little bit like spotting UFOs. Talk about it in theory all you like, but admit to doing it and you're a certified nut.
Unless, of course, you've got an agile near-7-footer who can shoot the three and handle the ball on the wing wandering around campus. A few teams do-Jason Collier in Atlanta earned preseason All-ACC honors for it-but they occur with about the same frequency as Duke zone defenses.
But Henry Bibby's Trojan squad takes it to extremes, and with All-PAC-10 selection Brian Scalabrine to work with, you can't much blame him.
So you can understand, at least, why through the first 20 minutes of the game in which Duke struggled to a seven-point lead-bloated four points by a couple of late steals-the Blue Devils just weren't prepared.
Scalabrine had his way with Duke in the early going. He hit a three, he barged his way onto the offensive glass, he even drove from the wing and laid the ball in like a 6-footer.
It was fitting that it was his 15 foot turnaround jumper that put USC ahead 23-22 with just over 12 minutes to play in the first half.
And it was equally fitting that it was his last meaningful basket of the game.
Because a funny thing happened on the way to an upset-it didn't happen. And in the press room after the game, Scalabrine stumbled onto the truth about this Duke team.
"I knew after I scored [13] points that [Shane Battier] didn't want to give me any more points," Scalabrine said. "And that's exactly what he did. He shut me down."
For all intents and purposes, Scalabrine vs. Battier was the game. The tale of two halves saw Duke struggle with the high-post offense in the first and Battier unable to control Scalabrine. But in the second half, Battier took out the USC offense's centerpiece as Duke rolled.
"In the first half, he was all over the place," Battier said. "He made me react to him. At halftime I made mental adjustments and made him react to me."
And he did in it such a way that most of the crowd of 11,847 didn't even notice. Battier made Scalabrine adjust the way he played in the offense. In the second half, Scalabrine had to catch the ball out of his comfort spots, dribble with his left hand or post up much higher in the block than he wanted.
"Defense starts before your man even touches the ball," Battier said. "So if you can adjust how he catches the ball, you can stop him."
Without their star center, who went 0-for-6 in the second half before connecting on a pair of garbage-time buckets with under a minute and a half to play, the Blue Devils were able to control the game of runs.
Southern Cal would reel off a few straight points, but without their go-to player, every Trojan run was thwarted before it became dangerous. And in the streaky second half, nothing was more valuable.
Not even an agile near-7-footer.
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