As a No.13 seed in the 1998 NCAA tournament, little-known Homer Drew and his Valparaiso Crusaders shocked the world by knocking off Mississippi and Florida State to reach the Sweet 16.
Thursday evening, the now-famous Crusaders (13-11, 10-5 in the Mid-Continent) march into Cameron Indoor Stadium to take on coach Mike Krzyzewski's Blue Devils (22-3, 11-2 in the ACC) in the first ever matchup between the two teams.
Krzyzewski said that it's Drew's shrewd coaching and impressive tournament record that have earned the Crusaders a spot on Duke's non-conference schedule.
"Homer is a good friend of mine. He is the epitome of a coach. He's won over 500 games and he does it the right way," Krzyzewski said.
"Historically, in the NCAA tournament, he's helped at our tournament with some upset specials, and that's one of the reasons we wanted to play them."
Ever preparing his team for the Big Dance, Krzyzewski also scheduled Valparaiso to simulate an early round matchup.
"I think it's good [to play Valparaiso] because it'll prepare you for the tournament," forward Shavlik Randolph said. "Especially going into the tournament, we're going to be playing a lot of teams that we don't know. Valpo has traditionally upset a lot of teams in the NCAA tournament, so I think it'll be good preparation as a team where people would tend to think, 'We don't have to play our best.' We do have to, and that's going to prepare us down the road."
Few mid-major teams have the NCAA pedigree of the Crusaders. Their fabled 1998 run was part of six consecutive tournament appearances, a streak which ended in 2002. Valparaiso, however, has won eight of the past nine Mid-Con regular season titles and leads this year's league race by half a game. As such, the Crusaders appear primed to return to the field of 65. The Crusaders are paced by strong play from 6-foot-8 forwards Joaquim "Kikas" Gomes and Dan Oppland. Gomes, a senior, averages 9.2 rebounds per game, second-best in the Mid-Con. Oppland, a sophomore, is the team's scoring leader at 15.3 points per game. Six-foot-6 point guard Miguel Ali Berdiel should generate some matchup problems for the Blue Devils. The lanky Puerto Rico native has shown flashes of brilliance, notching an impressive 28-point, eight-assist outing in a midseason loss to Oral Roberts. Berdiel has been inconsistent, however, scoring only 11 points in his last two games. For Valparaiso to have a chance at unseating Duke, Berdiel must snap out of his recent funk. If his starters play poorly, Drew can turn to a particularly long bench, with 10 players averaging at least 14 minutes per game. Important reserves include freshman guard Jimmie Miles, massive freshman center Kenny Harris and sixth-year senior Greg Tonagel. Nonetheless, Valparaiso brings a very young and inexperienced team into one of the nation's most difficult road venues, and the Crusaders can only boast a relatively mediocre 13-11 record in a mid-major conference. That being said, don't expect the Blue Devils to sleep on this potential giant-killer. "Just because it's Valparaiso, people might expect that to be an easy win for us, but we can't go into the game like that," guard Daniel Ewing said. "But if we go into the game and play like we did [against Maryland], then I think we'll have a good outcome."
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