Boozer, Blue Devils steamroll Grand Rapids

It is not often that an exhibition team poses much of a challenge to the second-ranked men's basketball team. In years past, these early season games have been little more than a training exercise against a team that had less talent than a Division III squad puts on the floor.

In Saturday's 104-74 victory at Cameron Indoor Stadium over the Grand Rapid Hoops of the Continental Basketball Association, however, the Blue Devils received a mild challenge against a team of former collegiate champions and NBA first-round picks.

For the Blue Devils, this rare difficult exhibition game was an excellent opportunity to gain valuable experience for the upcoming season.

"This is more like when we used to play the Russian national team or the Italian national team," Mike Krzyzewski said. "The caliber of talent, the play and them getting the ball down the court quickly. We really haven't had this type of game for four or five years. The score is not indicative of the physical play and how good it was for us."

From Shane Battier asserting his authority during the opening tip-off to Casey Sanders' final six-foot jumper, the two teams faced off in a physical game that included Grand Rapids' Corey Beck being ejected for purposely stepping on Sanders' hand.

Aside from that play, both squads also saw a player foul out. For Grand Rapids, it was guard Sean Colson, whereas Duke lost Jason Williams with more than five minutes left in the game.

The sophomore point guard found himself riding the pine with four fouls for a significant portion of the game. He only played 23 minutes, scoring two points, but racking up 10 assists.

"I couldn't score tonight for my life," Williams said.

However, it was Williams' brief return leading to a series of Boozer dunks that put the game out of reach. The last play, coming with 7:30 left in the second half, consisted of Boozer finding not only a huge hole in the Grand Rapids' defense around the basket, but also a perfect inbounds pass from Mike Dunleavy for a slam dunk alley-oop. That, coupled with a few Williams assists, got the Cameron Crazies on their feet and put the game in the books.

"When Jason came off the bench with his fourth, he just exploded. He was so good for those three or four minutes," Krzyzewski said. "He made several spectacular plays and probably had three assists and a bucket in a minute and a half. That just blew the game open."

This game also marked the return of Antonio Lang to Cameron, one of three players for Grand Rapids who played on a winning NCAA tournament team in college. Lang was the sixth man on the Duke team that won the title in both 1991 and 1992. He also started for the Blue Devils during their run to the title game in 1994.

Lang, who received a hero's welcome when the starting lineups were announced, found himself in an unfamiliar situation when he was taunted during foul shots. Either way, Krzyzewski was pleased to see his former player.

"It's always great to see Tony, but I'd rather see him with Sacramento," Krzyzewski said. "I think Tony is good enough to be in the NBA. I'd like to have him right now. He's a good player and he's a good team player, very unselfish and one of the really great guys who has played here. He wasn't a player here, he was a champion here."

Even though Lang put up 11 points and five rebounds, the Blue Devils were too much for the CBA team. After an early challenge, they now turn their attention to Tuesday night's 9 p.m. game in Cameron against Princeton in the Preseason NIT. The Tigers, who are long range bombers, will pose an interesting challenge for Duke.

"I think we're going to be ready," Williams said. "I think during these two exhibition games, we learned a lot about ourselves, so we just have to bring that to the table when we play Princeton. I look forward to the opportunity."