ATLANTA - Some things about the women's basketball team were made clear this past week.
First, Duke is very good. In fact, the Blue Devils are several notches above very good. Just ask Georgia Tech head coach Angus Berenato.
"Compliments to Duke, a great team," Berenato said. "352 teams in the nation, and there are 351 who are not as good as Duke right now. That's why they are No. 1. Compliments to Alana. She is absolutely everything she is touted to be.... She showed why she is up for player of the year."
Second, Alana Beard is in a league of her own. When she is on, she can literally put the team on her back and carry it to wins. Just look at the Virginia game last Thursday. The rest of the team made three field goals the entire game.
Game over, right? Not with Alana. All she does is pour in 41 points and hit the game winning free throws with less than a second left in the game. Winner, Duke.
Third, Duke has some other players, too, and they are pretty good, as well. With Beard a non-factor for the entire first half - she was hampered by foul trouble and only managed two free throws in the first twenty minutes of play - the rest of the team picked up the slack.
Iciss Tillis scored 15 points on a variety of moves. Michele Matyasovsky was stepping out and hitting jumpers. And the rest of the team was contributing as well.
"You look at box score and we have five people in double figures, and we would all prefer for that to be the way the game goes for us, Alana included," Duke head coach Gail Goestenkors said. "Alana doesn't want to have to go out and score forty points and we don't need her to.
"In a way in the long run it was good for us for Alana to really struggle because we need to understand that there are going to be games when [her shot's] just not going to fall, and that's okay because we have so many other players who can step up."
So what does a week's lessons of basketball teach us?
Simply put, despite all the talk about depth and team efforts - this is Beard's team.
She is Duke's heart and soul. She was the second half spark. The team will go as far as she can take it. She did it against Virginia and Georgia Tech.
Yes, other Duke players made some huge plays: Krapohl hit a three pointer that essentially ended the game, and the rest of the Blue Devils could probably have beaten the Yellow Jackets without their star.
They all have incredible skills and basketball resumes, but Duke beat Tech by twenty and Beard had 19. Without her, it's a one point game.
So is it possible that without Alana Beard, Duke is just a good team?
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