NEW YORK - Chris Carrawell remembers how opponents' faces looked last year, when teams arrived at Cameron Indoor Stadium well aware that they didn't stand a chance against the juggernaut that was Duke basketball.
"Other teams, in the back of their minds, knew they couldn't beat us," the senior said.
All that changed when the Blue Devils lost six of their top nine players from last season's national runner-up squad. Now opposing players see Duke blue and drool at the opportunity to exact revenge for one of last year's beatings or brag to the world that they upended the big, bad Blue Devils.
That's why Carrawell knows the 1999-2000 edition of Duke basketball can't kick off periods the way it did last night. Stanford opened the first half with 10 unanswered points, the second with an 11-4 spurt and overtime with a 10-2 run. The Blue Devils were forced to spend the rest of the game clawing back from deficits.
"We've just got to go out and play," Carrawell said. "Teams are not going to lie down. They're going to come out even harder this year because they think we're vulnerable."
If Duke were simply turning the ball over or launching ill-advised shots, these problems might be easier to explain-and to cure. When a team misses more than three-quarters of its field goal attempts, that usually means lots of long, long-range threes and off-balance
But the Blue Devils moved the ball well most of the night; when they struggled to score, they missed quite a few open shots.
"We had 12 shots inside in the first half and made one," Mike Krzyzewski said. "[But] I loved our shot selection."
Maybe it was just bad luck, one of those off nights a basketball team can have. Maybe it was the inexperienced Duke frontcourt, whose four tallest players include three freshman and a sophomore who hasn't seen action in three years. Maybe it was the nervousness of a season-opener in Madison Square Garden or the intimidating presence of the Cardinal big men.
But Carrawell suspected part of the problem was the Blue Devils' lack of focus coming out of the gate, and he realizes that can't become a trend.
"We've got to match other teams' intensity," he said. "We missed a lot of layups in the first half, and that can't happen."
Last season, even if opposing players wanted to believe they could upset the Blue Devils, Duke often only needed a few minutes to dissuade them of such thoughts. The 1998-99 Blue Devils specialized in early-half spurts, putting opponents in a quick hole and making their task doubly difficult.
Duke doesn't have the same weapons at its disposal as it did a year ago, but as other teams start to feel more confident against it, playing well early becomes even more important. The Blue Devils don't have the resources to routinely come back from large deficit, and they don't need opponents thinking, "Wow, Duke really is down this year."
With Duke's drop in talent level, making the easy shot is essential. Trajan Langdon is no longer draining threes like the basket is 10 feet wide and Elton Brand is no longer scoring at will inside. But this year's Blue Devils are versatile and athletic, good passers who can play tough defense and hold their own on the boards.
"Things were real physical in there," Carrawell said of last night's game. "Sometimes [the ball] would just not go in. We don't have a dominant inside player like we did last year. This is a new team; a lot of guys are in new roles. But we've still got to finish and convert inside."
Duke did a lot of things well last night. The Blue Devils bettered the taller Cardinal on the offensive boards, 26-14, and held Stanford's three big men, Mark Madsen and Jarron and Jason Collins, to a respectable 30 points combined. Duke hit its last 10 free throws with the game on the line.
But a lot of what the Blue Devils did well needed to make up for early deficits, and in the end it wasn't enough.
"Our defense was much better than I thought it would be," Krzyzewski said. "And our defense kept us in the ballgame. [But] we had a hard time converting close to the basket."
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