Duke head coach Gail Goestenkors and her team may be reluctant to acknowledge it, but the sounds of "championship" are in the air. The Blue Devils (33-1) are on a course straight to Atlanta and they do not plan on losing their focus at any moment: they are going to work on Georgia (21-9) this weekend and that is as far in the future as they are going to look.
"Georgia is definitely a team that could beat us and could get to the Final Four," an oft-reserved Goestenkors said. "They're actually playing their best basketball right now. [Georgia head coach] Andy [Landers] elected to take his best player off the team and they've actually been better since that, I think. But that's one of those cases where the adversity sometimes brings a team closer together."
One of the Lady Dogs' biggest challenges this season has been compensating for the loss of star forward Kara Braxton, who was suspended this past February. Since her suspension, players such as junior center Christi Thomas have stepped forward to carry the team. Thomas leads the Bulldogs by averaging 15.9 points a game and 54.5 percent shooting during the regular season.
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"I think Christi Thomas is a real threat, and now they've got one of their players who's been out most of the season, Ebony Felder, who's come back and just had 17 points in their last game," Goestenkors said of Georgia's threatening inside game. "Those two players are very big, strong, and physical. Mistie Bass is going to need to give us some really quality minutes. I think this is a game where Wynter Whitley can also help us because she's one of our more physical players as well as a good defensive player."
Goestenkors alluded to versatility and depth as Duke's biggest advantages in the tournament. Back in February the Blue Devils also realized how important the strength of their bench was after their loss to Connecticut. Since then, Duke has found that it can rely on the depth of its bench with a great deal of confidence. As Goestenkors remarked, bench players such as Bass and Whitley who have big inside defensive games will be key in breaking down Georgia's offense and allowing the Blue Devils offensive powers, such as Alana Beard, to break away.
"When we played Georgia State, it felt like we couldn't do anything right and we had to really struggle for that game," Beard said. "We couldn't get into our offensive flow.... I think [Tuesday] night against Utah we proved that we can overcome any slump that we have and when our defense is on then our offense is on because our defense creates our offense."
Duke is preparing to go into this game with the same frontcourt it has started the past 13 games of the current winning streak. With their mental and physical toughness and their pervading confidence, the Blue Devils are going to be a difficult team for Georgia to upset.
"We have the same mentality that we've had all year long," Goestenkors said. "And that's that we focus on each and every game. And now more than ever you can't afford to look ahead.... Before, you might stumble or trip up. But now, if you do you fall, you're out, it's over. So we understand there's no sense looking ahead."
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