It was nearly seven minutes into the game before the Nike Elite team hit its first field goal to stop a 24-1 Blue Devil run, and by then one thing was clear: It was by no means Elite.
Or at least, the Blue Devils were stripping that label from the team. After all, they had beaten Georgia Tech, taken Florida State and North Carolina to the wire and stayed within 11 points of No. 2 ranked Maryland at halftime.
However, during Thursday's 128-75 romp, none of that was an issue. From the get-go, Duke was aggressive and after a few standard plays, the Nike Elite team was frustrated and the Blue Devils were able to exploit that frustration by creating turnovers and running great fastbreaks with the help of the nation's best backcourt, Jason Williams and Chris Duhon.
"They were really kind of fun to watch and play. They put on a clinic in the first half," said Nike Elite coach Bill Frieder. "They beat us pretty good, but I venture they're going to beat a few other people in there pretty good."
The clinic heated up with 17:17 left to go in the first half. After Nike guard Darren Kelly missed a standard jumper, Mike Dunleavy was able to grab the rebound and quickly dish the ball to Duhon, who got it to Carlos Boozer for the easy dunk, and one of the sophomore's 11 assists on the night.
The play was just the start of a series of explosive set-ups that lasted two minutes and culminated in the Jersey boy tandem of Williams' pass to Dahntay Jones for a high flying alley-oop layup at the 15:39 mark.
About two-an-one-half minutes later, the same play was repeated, but this time, it resulted in a monster dunk that demonstrated Jones' tremendous leaping ability and brought down the house.
This type of "creative" play, as coach Mike Krzyzewski called it, continued through most of the first half. Almost everyone on the Duke team displayed some of their best skills, playing a quick game and not allowing the Nike team to set its weak zone defense for most of the half. The result after 20 minutes: 72-35.
"We have always allowed our talented players to be creative in a way that makes plays," Krzyzewski said. "We're not going to do anything like showboat; showboat's different from creative. Dahntay was creative today-in the second half, he probed on his drive-that's what we want. Dunleavy can be very creative. These kids have to be given an opportunity to use their minds, not just their bodies."
However, just as quickly as Duke's explosive play started, it ended, save a few second-half follow-up dunks by Casey Sanders. The Blue Devils began the final 20 minutes in a slower style, due in part to Nike's rejuvenated defense that was now playing more man-to-man.
This, by no means slowed down the defending national champions, who demonstrated they could play both styles of basketball. Instead, they simply adjusted-which resulted in a huge game for Dunleavy, who finished with 28 points after catching fire from behind the arc.
"The guards were doing a good job kicking it out to us and we just started taking what the defense gave us," Dunleavy said.
That is just what the Blue Devils proved against Nike Elite-they scored against a variety of defenses playing multiple styles of basketball. Their point total was lower in the second half, not only because the pace was slower, but also because some of their bench players were putting in serious minutes. But they still managed 128 points. Of course, that total was helped by Duke's 58.8 field goal percentage, which included 56.3 percent shooting from behind the arc.
Regardless of how well it shoots, Duke still made serious mid-game offensive transitions, and its offensive play covered nearly all parts of the basketball spectrum. Any team that can do that on a regular basis is guaranteed to shoot well because they will create open shots for themselves, no matter who it's playing.
"My only hope is that Coach K got something out of this," Frieder said.
He sure found out his team could score prolifically playing many styles of basketball.
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