Hot-shooting Duke blows by Temple

PHILADELPHIA - Duke did a lot of things well to produce a 25-point victory against a Temple team that almost pulled off an upset the last time the two teams met. The Blue Devils dominated the entire game, but anyone who watched, played in, or for that matter, heard about Saturday's spanking of Temple can tell you the key to victory. "We shot the ball really well," coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "I'm not sure about the percentage, but we shot the ball really well. We played great, and we shot the ball incredibly. We're not going to be able to shoot like that every time." If Duke was that consistent, it would be time to pick up your 2000-2001 NCAA Championship T-shirt. The Blue Devils opened the game by connecting on eight of their first 12 threes, which would be a perfectly reasonable percentage were this game being played on your Sega Dreamcast. Duke finished the first half 11-for-18 from behind the arc, impressing everyone in attendance. "This is as good of an outside shooting team as I have ever had," Krzyzewski said. The Blue Devils' shooters deserve the lion's share of the credit for Saturday's blowout, but a change in Temple's strategy made the shooting performance possible. In the final of the preseason NIT, Temple focused its defense around putting pressure on Duke's perimeter game. With the Owls' defense spread out, Carlos Boozer wreaked havoc on the inside totaling 26 points on only 14 shots. Determined not to make the same mistake twice, Temple turned its efforts to controlling the paint. "We concentrated our efforts on cutting off the inside," Temple coach John Chaney said. "We shut [Boozer] down by sending someone underneath [when he got the ball]." The Owls' defensive attack proved successful in taking Boozer out of the game offensively. The sophomore finished with eight points for the game, taking only six shots. Unfortunately for Temple, shutting down the inside proved to be a Pyrrhic victory. "They tried to take Boozer out of the game, which they did," Krzyzewski said. "But we are a good shooting team." Boozer did not force bad shots against the double-team, and rather than consistently trying to force the ball inside, the Blue Devils spread the floor and found each other open for the trifecta. "They spread with four or five guys," Chaney said. "Then they hit their shots. We had to give them something. You've got five fingers and they've got six parts." Jason Williams was the biggest beneficiary of Temple's shift in focus. The sophomore came out on fire, connecting on all six of the threes he attempted in the first half. Williams had 22 points before the break, 16 of which came in the final nine minutes. That nine-minute stretch extended Duke's lead from five to 22 and put the game out of contention. Williams went 2-for-4 from behind the arc in the second half and finished the game with a career-high, and team-leading, 30 points. "Jason has improved in every way," Krzyzewski said. "He's in better shape, he's making better decisions and he's keeping his feet under him [when he shoots]. Jason is one of the top players in the country and he is still learning about the game." Krzyzewski added that he thought Duhon's ability to relieve Williams of some of the ball-handling duties and the responsibility of guarding the dangerous Lynn Greer were major factors in Williams' shooting performance. Whatever the cause of the three-point barrage, the result was evident. Temple's players looked like punch-drunk fighters, and a large portion of the record-breaking crowd was already in its cars by the time the game finally reached a conclusion that seemed inevitable since late in the opening frame. Afterwards, Krzyzewski said the Blue Devils were finally playing up to their ability level. But he was not letting the performance lead him to place this team among the greats in Duke history. John Chaney, not one to shy from hyperbole, drew more dramatic conclusions. "I don't know what you what you guys are seeing," he said. "They just tore us apart. They handed us our heads. This is a very special group that you saw tonight. "I've never seen a team as good as this team."