With 7:42 remaining in the first half, the Cameron crowd did something that it probably has not done too many times in Duke history-it cheered for the opposition.
Sleep-deprived insanity had not taken hold. No, the crowd applauded something that had only happened one other time-a Michigan basket.
With 7:44 remaining, Michigan scored its third and fourth points of the game. In doing so, the Wolverines pulled to 34-4 after ending a 25-0 run that lasted 8:52.
For all intents and purposes, the game was already over. Sure there were almost 28 minutes left to play, but the opening explosion put the game out of contention. Unlike last weekend's rout of Temple, in which remarkable shooting keyed the victory, this Duke blowout came from what Shane Battier called one of the best defensive efforts in his four years at Duke.
"Every night we want to come out and jump down people's throats," Mike Dunleavy said. "We felt like we had a let-down against Davidson. We wanted to come out tonight and have the kind of performance [that we had against Temple]. I think we took it to another level tonight."
Duke held the Wolverines to 19 points in the first half. The Blue Devils forced 20 turnovers and allowed only two assists.
"Our defense was at a different level in
Jason Williams and Chris Duhon stymied Michigan's undersized point guard Avery Queen throughout the first half. When the Wolverines passed the ball under pressure, Dunleavy and Nate James stepped into the passing lanes. The two combined for seven steals.
Those first-half steals set up fast breaks, and the Blue Devils converted. Duke scored a staggering 26 fast-break points in the first half alone.
Guard play created many of the scoring opportunities, but most of the credit for the minuscule 21.7 percent that Michigan shot from the floor in the opening frame should go to the big men.
The Wolverines, who did not use their normal starting lineup, came into Cameron hoping to use size to their advantage. Michigan started 7-foot-2 Josh Moore at center, while the Chris Young, the team's everyday center, received the nod at power forward.
The Blue Devils were not intimidated by the lineup. Duke's frontcourt knocked the Wolverines off the ball and forced them into bad shots the whole half. They allowed only eight points in the paint in the first half and held Young, Moore and Bernard Robinson to seven points on 10 shots. Michigan's trio also committed seven turnovers.
James said afterward that the perceived lack of respect served as a motivating factor.
"We had a team coming in tonight that said Duke is soft and from the suburbs, and we're tough and from the city," James said. "When the ball went up in the air, we took what they said personally. When the ball went up in the air, Duke was the only team smiling."
Whatever created Duke's attitude Saturday, Krzyzewski felt the entire team showed what is necessary for success.
"In the first half, I felt that it hurt us when they scored," he said. "That's how I want us to play, when it hurts us when they score."
Battier said the Blue Devils understand that they are a great team on offense, but that they have to be even better on defense to sustain the level they achieved Saturday.
It should be noted that the evening was not without its disappointments. The late-half Wolverine flurry kept the Blue Devils from achieving one of their goals.
"We wanted to keep them to single digits [in the first half]," Battier said. "I don't know how many teams can boast of that, so we were trying to keep them in single digits going into halftime. That would have been pretty cool."
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