MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - Ever since he arrived at Duke, Mike Dunleavy has been overshadowed.
Whether it has been living in the limelight of his NBA championship-winning father, being considered only the third-best in his talented sophomore class, or being known as the lesser of two roommates in comparison to his co-inhabitant Shane Battier, Dunleavy has never received the attention of those who surround him.
And while Battier and his teammates were a key component of Duke's 82-72 victory over Arizona, it was Dunleavy who carried the Blue Devils in the second half, as they worked steadily toward Duke's third national championship ring.
The sophomore poured in 18 second-half points, including three straight three-pointers midway through the half, which gave the Blue Devils enough breathing room to survive the ever-present Wildcat onslaught. The high-octane performance by Dunleavy was extremely gratifying for the Oregon native, who had played a much lesser role throughout most of the NCAA tournament.
"It's about time," Dunleavy said of his shooting streak. "I finally made my shots in the second half and was able to give us a little boost."
A little boost? Scoring 18 points, including 15 of his team's 16 points during a six-minute stretch, is hardly a small contribution. Dunleavy gave his team its first double-digit lead at 49-39 with 16:16 remaining in the contest, and when Arizona attempted to make a run of its own, Duke's swing man responded with a dunk, followed by a layup with nine minutes left. Those two buckets allowed the Blue Devils to maintain a multiple-possession lead and seemed to take the wind out of a still-confident Wildcat team.
"Coming into the second half, I was just thinking, 'Stay aggressive,'" Dunleavy said. "Coach [Chris] Collins and I had a long talk yesterday about being aggressive on offense. Shots didn't go for me in the first half, but that didn't change my mindset.
"I was really feeling it [in the second half]. It was good timing, too, to do it at the national championship game."
Dunleavy believes his great timing has been a staple of his basketball upbringing. While going through poor shooting spells and looking out-of-sync at some moments, the sophomore asserts that he generally thrives when the game is on the line. And for that reason, Dunleavy is more than comfortable when he receives the opportunity to make a crucial play for his team.
"I think I've had a past of playing big in pretty big games, most recently in the NCAA championship game," he said. "Growing up, going through high school, I always felt pretty comfortable in the spotlight and in big-game situations. And needless to say, in the second half I found that spot again."
Clearly, one reason that Dunleavy was able to shine so brightly in the second half was the attention that Arizona gave to Duke's duo of All-Americans, Battier and sophomore Jason Williams. In large part, this extra attention paid off for the Wildcats, as Williams shot poorly throughout the evening, going 5-for-15 from the field and 3-for-11 from behind the arc, while Battier also was unable to consistently connect from outside, hitting only 1-of-5 threes.
But as Williams acknowledged, Duke is not a two-man team-no matter how much hype its All-Americans receive-and Arizona paid the penalty for this strategic error last night.
"So many times, people are saying that if you stop Shane and I, you can beat Duke," Williams said. "We're so much bigger than that.... Like Mike said, he was due. For the past few games our shots haven't been falling. I could tell by the way Mike was shooting in the couple practices before that he was going to have a great game, and he did."
Whether or not Dunleavy's surprising yet impressive performance was a sign of things to come or merely an aberration remains to be seen. But one thing is for sure-his roommate Battier has passed the torch to Dunleavy, Williams, and Carlos Boozer, all sophomores who will have a chance to duplicate the euphoric feeling they all felt last night. And Battier feels good about the prospect of Dunleavy succeeding in the way that he did throughout his four-year Duke career.
"Mike Dunleavy is not a great basketball player, he's a phenomenal basketball player," Battier said. "It was great to show what he could do. I think he's overshadowed on this team. People talk about Jason and myself, but we believe Mike is just as good as us, so it's no surprise to us that he came up huge in this game."
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