Game Commentary: Blue Devils befallen by late UConn comeback

SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- Remember the Alamodome.

   

  That is an attitude I imagine the men's basketball team will grasp in the coming months as the players take a few weeks off from the daily grind, from the mental exhaustion of being big-time Division I athletes. And in that time, the Blue Devils may prefer to get away from the game a bit--or they may take 500 shots a day. One thing is for certain, however: they'll all remember their loss to Connecticut, and remember it well.

   

  "It's a tough feeling and it hurts, it hurts so bad," sophomore Sean Dockery said. "But we're still living and life goes on. We've got to play with this pain through the whole season next year. Even though I hate talking about next year now, but we've just got to play with this pain next year and get over it."

   

  And why will this hurt so badly? Because Duke was in control of the game with four minutes remaining, despite being strapped with foul problems virtually the entire night. This loss will sting more than most because the Blue Devils had been the predetermined underdogs by nearly all of the renowned media pundits, and Duke was right there at the end of the game--as should have been expected. Falling victim to UConn will prove more disheartening than other Final Four losses for the Blue Devils because Duke played exceptional basketball for 32 minutes or so of the game, leading for much of the contest in both points and most statistical categories, but couldn't corral the Huskies in the end.

   

  "We're incredibly happy, incredibly proud of our kids, we are incredibly respectful of Duke and Mike [Krzyzewski]," UConn head coach Jim Calhoun said. "They're just really, really good. They just--you just can't beat them sometimes until you beat them. You almost have to take the last breath out of them. We were able to do that with some great plays and some great defense."

   

  Duke was grasping for a bucket in the final minutes, but it had very little to do with Connecticut. The Blue Devils were suffocating from a lack of offensive execution, not from anything the Huskies were doing differently on defense.

   

  "I just think that we just settled late in the game," said Chris Duhon, who fought back tears during a brief press conference. "You know, we just settled for jump shots instead of realizing that we were in a double bonus and that...we needed to penetrate, hopefully got fouled, knock down big free throws. I think in those last three minutes we settled for a lot of jump shots instead of being aggressive like we were the whole rest of the game."

--

   

  People will look at the outcome of this contest and reminisce about past Duke late-game losses in postseason play, most notably a 1997 loss to Kentucky in the Regional Finals and this past ACC Championship's letdown versus Maryland.

   

  "We didn't relax at all," J.J. Redick said. "We had been in that position so many times this year, and we learned from a previous loss when we were in that position against Maryland. I thought we did a better job of execution tonight, we got good shots, we ran the clock down when we had the lead."

   

  But this was not a case of Duke falling part. This was no collapse. A collapse is defined very strictly by a team morphing into mush, self-destructing, turning the ball over, etc. The Blue Devils were playing just fine on the defensive end. They did what they could to stymie Connecticut's furious charge. But the Huskies are a team equally deserving of good fortune as the Blue Devils, and they earned the win. Duke may have done this as well, but they didn't make the plays on the offensive side of the ball to match UConn down the stretch.

   

  That's not a letdown. That's just unfortunate. And that's perfectly okay. But you won't read about that in the papers. Instead, you'll be subjected to more fantastical news: how mighty Duke blew a chance at advancing to an all-ACC national title game.

   

  "First of all, it's a three-possession lead," Krzyzewski explained. "A three knocks it down to five points. That's why [Rashad] Anderson's was so big. We fouled a couple times there. The foul trouble we had in the second half especially was difficult because our centers played 40 minutes and had 15 fouls. So how you defend the post down at the other end got [Emeka] Okafor on the line.... We took a couple jump shots. Then when we were down by one, J.J. made a great play, I thought."

   

  The play in question was a drive by Redick that resulted in a turnover. And though a foul could have been called on the play--perhaps should have been called on the play--it was refreshing to allow the players play in a game that was arrested with 44 fouls, much to the conspicuous angst of players and coaches on both sides. It was surprising, then, that on a play that was perhaps more physical than other whistles earlier in the contest the game was allow to continue unimpeded.

   

  "The game went the way it was," said Luol Deng, the most intelligent, most promising and most talented freshman in America. "You can't think about the officials. They weren't one-sided. The officials were out there to do their job. There were a lot of fouls called for a Final Four game, but the ref is going to call what he sees."

   

  But I digress. The fact remains that UConn outplayed Duke in the waning minutes, which places a limited amount of culpability on the Blue Devils. The Blue Devils did not fall apart--they were befallen.

   

  UConn was opportunistic and inspired, and its Cerberic attack of Ben Gordon, Anderson and Okafor spearheaded the scoring onslaught.

But Duke will be back in the fall with, perhaps, its most promising team on paper since the 1991-92 season.

   

  Duke will remember the Alamodome, and do so to its advantage. It will be a stepping stone to future triumphs. It will not be considered a squander, nor will it serve as a stain on what was, truthfully, an excellent season--even with the loftiest of standards that have been bestowed upon the Blue Devils.

   

  "We just have to learn from it," Deng said. "That is the best that we can do."

   

  And because Deng's attitude is one shared by the rest of his team, one fostered by his Hall of Fame coach, the Blue Devils will be back again, and again and again.

   

  And don't you forget it.