Massacre in Michigan: Duke schools Wolverines

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Ask any Wolverine about his game against Duke Saturday, and he will say it was decided in the first eight minutes, when the Blue Devils, in a blizzard of slam dunks and 23-foot jump shots, propelled themselves to a 29-4 lead. For Duke, Jason Williams dropped 14 in just a couple ticks over four minutes, and both Mike Dunleavy and Chris Duhon capitalized on fast breaks created by strong team defense. On the other side, LaVell Blanchard, Michigan's most heralded player, picked up three fouls in seven minutes, overshadowing the fact that he scored his 1000th career point later in the game. And the local police should have restrained Bernard Robinson, who had averaged close to 12 points a game coming into the day, from throwing up brick after hopeless brick. Nevertheless, amidst the carnage in Crisler Arena, Carlos Boozer and Chris Young were just warming up underneath for what later developed into the most intense one-on-one matchup of the Blue Devils' young season. Despite his team's demise in that decisive time period, Young took a commanding early lead in the game's most compelling on-court subplot.On consecutive trips down the court, the 6-foot-9, Plymouth, Mich., native drew a shooting foul after a technically perfect box-out of Boozer, and then executed a quick spin move that added two to the board and left the normally chatty Boozer completely dumbfounded. Seconds later, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski decided that the junior center needed a rest, and the first battle of the war ceased with a clear victor. "Chris Young was our catalyst today," Michigan coach Tommy Amaker said. "He was our one big bright spot with his presence inside and ability to score. He really anchored the inside for us." In fact, the first half ended with Boozer looking fully outclassed by Michigan's big man. Against lesser opponents, Boozer typically maximizes his output by asserting his brute strength to overpower his defenders. Nevertheless, realizing that he needed a physical performance to reverse that trend, Young used all of his 240-pound frame to stop Boozer from creating any easy shots, and the Alaska native headed into the locker room with only six points on 1-for-4 shooting. Krzyzewski, impressed and slightly taken aback by Young's performance, gushed over the Michigan center. "Young was sensational. He was very difficult to defend in the post, and they do very good things to get him the ball," the Duke coach said. "They use that kid as a real weapon. Two years ago, no one would say that about Chris Young, but that's what he is--a weapon." After a 20-minute intermission to assess the damage, Boozer returned in the second period with renewed vigor, and the prize fight reached its fevered pitch. In nine minutes of neck-breaking, head-to-head basketball, Boozer dropped 17 points without missing any of his six field goal attempts, while Young countered with 12 of his team-high 25. "The second half I was not doing a good job of getting around him," Young admitted. "I was playing behind him a lot, and he was getting good shots." Scoring totals aside, the two behemoths battered each other so thoroughly that they could only muster three rebounds apiece. At times it seemed as if they were simply too busy jockeying for better inside position to think to grab the ball. "I think they were both difficult for each other to defend," Krzyzewski said. "When two guys are pounding and pounding like that, you'll find that the center doesn't rebound too well. It's like they've just been in a sumo-wrestling match." Ultimately, the game itself did not hinge upon the victor of this particular struggle, but the contest's real drama, especially when Duke stretched the game out into garbage-time mode, played out under the boards. "It was incredibly difficult," Young noted, with a grin that expressed both exhaustion and pride. "I went up against one of the best big men I have ever played, and I came out having played a good game.... It was just confidence--confidence in myself, and my teammates having confidence in me." At the beginning of the season, Boozer said he wanted to show that he was one of the country's best big men. Saturday afternoon, he was one of the best big men on the floor, and considering his competition, Boozer should hardly feel insulted.