When the bracket was released Selection Monday and Duke was placed in the Berkeley Regional, a number of potentially intriguing pairings for Duke emerged, including bouts with Tennessee and Texas, the new home of former Blue Devil coach Gail Goestenkors.
The Lady Volunteers and Longhorns were both eliminated in a wave of upsets in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, but the intrigue hasn't disappeared. Now, top-seeded Duke (27-5) prepares for possibly the most interesting matchup of all: a second-round date with head coach Joanne P. McCallie's former school, No. 9 Michigan State, Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Breslin Center in East Lansing, Mich.
The Spartans (21-10) will be playing on their home court-the first time in Blue Devil history that they have faced a lower-seeded opponent on its home floor in the Tournament. And all of Duke's losses this season came away from Cameron Indoor Stadium, despite leading at halftime in three of those five games.
The Spartans barely bested No. 8 Middle Tennessee State 60-59 Sunday to keep their Tournament hopes alive, and now face off against an opponent who might know them better than anyone else.
"I'm just really proud of what they've done," McCallie said of her former team. "I've just got to focus on scouting them."
McCallie built Michigan State into a contender in her seven-year tenure, taking the program to five consecutive NCAA Tournaments and a national championship game in 2005, when she earned National Coach of the Year honors. She also recruited all but three players on the current Spartan squad-with current Blue Devil assistant coach Al Brown at her side from 2004 until 2007-giving Duke a formidable scouting advantage.
"I know their personnel, but you're talking systems now," McCallie said. "Al [Brown] does a great job with a scouting report in terms of personnel.... Coaching is about looking at a coach's system, and that will be my focus."
Keeping her team's mind on the game has been a task in and of itself for the former Michigan State coach.
Old friends of McCallie welcomed the team to the hotel when the Blue Devils arrived in East Lansing. A few of them got the coach to have a quick bite before Duke's opening-round game, an 83-42 romp of No. 16 Austin Peay. McCallie even admitted that not knowing who the second-round opponent would be before playing Austin Peay was difficult.
But if Duke hopes to survive the opening weekend for the 12th consecutive year, the team will have to ignore the distractions and focus on the game at hand.
The last time these two teams squared off, the Blue Devils dispatched the Spartans 86-61 en route to the 2006 national championship game, and Michigan State's seniors will have revenge on their minds Tuesday.
Although the team says it is playing its best basketball of the year, there are no guarantees in a single-elimination format. The Blue Devils will need to be tougher and more resilient-in the mold of their coach-in order to achieve their goal of leaving East Lansing with two wins.
"I have been here, but any advantage that we have we're going to create," McCallie said. "At this point and time, all of these teams are very, very good. You can't treat anybody differently and you've just got to really focus."
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