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(04/22/99 4:00am)
I'd love to take this whole column and expound on Elton Brand's and Will Avery's early departures for the NBA, but I doubt there's anything that hasn't been said already. I can't say I'm exactly happy about that, but at the same time, it would be rather quixotic of me to expect Duke basketball to remain a static entity when in the course of the past four years, Duke itself, my friends, my family, and the rest of the world-not to mention yours truly-have all moved on.
(04/15/99 4:00am)
Another episode of the Jack Kevorkian show has ended, this time with "Dr. Death" guilty as charged and facing 10 to 25 years in prison. After three acquittals and a mistrial, the assisted suicide advocate has finally gotten what he deserves.
(04/14/99 4:00am)
The men's tennis team has come a long way this year, from an NCAA regional loss last spring to a place in the upper echelons of collegiate tennis, with several upsets over top teams en route. And none of the Blue Devils have traveled a longer journey than Pedro Escudero.
(04/09/99 4:00am)
In the first three years of its existence, the women's lacrosse team has conquered all of its ACC foes but one-Virginia.
(03/29/99 5:00am)
The men's and women's basketball teams weren't the only Blue Devils to pull out close wins this weekend.
(02/22/99 5:00am)
The baseball team's series against Mount St. Mary's this weekend may not have been pretty, but with Jeff Becker joining the growing list of star players injured, the Blue Devils will take wins however they can.
(02/08/99 5:00am)
The women's track outdoor season hasn't even begun, but the Blue Devils are already geared up for what they think looks to be a promising year.
(02/01/99 5:00am)
The women's tennis team started off its spring season with a rude awakening.
(01/28/99 5:00am)
It wasn't always easy and it wasn't always a thing of beauty, but in the end, it got the job done.
(01/25/99 5:00am)
NEW YORK - It may not have been the Final Four, but it didn't feel much different.
(01/25/99 5:00am)
NEW YORK, N.Y. - About two months ago, a largely untested men's basketball team faced underdog Cincinnati in the Great Alaska Shootout title game. For the first time all season, the Blue Devils faced a defense as tenacious and an offense as prolific as their own. For the first time all season they entered the locker room behind at halftime-and for the first time all season, despite a second-stanza comeback, they lost.
(12/14/98 9:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The men's basketball team entered its game against Michigan Saturday night seeking revenge. By the time the Blue Devils walked off the floor at the final buzzer, they had more than gotten what they were looking for.
No. 3 Duke (9-1) snapped a three-year losing streak against the Wolverines (5-6) Saturday night in Cameron, handing the Wolverines their most lopsided defeat ever in a 108-64 drubbing.
"We lost to a very hungry and very talented basketball team," Michigan coach Brian Ellerbe said. "They came out with a lot of tenacity to prove something. When you've got that many good players and they play at that level, lopsided victories happen. They came out with an unbelievable passion, and they really took it to us from the start."
The Blue Devils came out looking to score early and score often, using their up-tempo game to run the Wolverines ragged. The tactic worked, as Duke built up an 18-6 lead within the first 5:06 of the game and never looked back.
"We thought that if we played at a high tempo, that would help," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "They want to play at... a slower tempo, so we tried to speed that game up. That was to our advantage. We can do that with our defense.
"You can look at their scores; they average in the mid-60s, so that's how they feel they're going to be successful. We feel we'll be successful playing where there's more possessions in a ball game."
The Blue Devils, who entered the game averaging 96.6 points per game, scored on their first six possessions, as Birmingham, Mich., native Shane Battier and then Chris Burgess each hit three shots in a row to commence the slaughter. Burgess' third shot, a reverse jam off a feed from Will Avery with 17:15 left in the first half, capped off a 13-2 Duke run.
Brandon Smith answered with a slam dunk of his own to cut the Blue Devils' lead to seven points.
For the next seven minutes, Duke kept the game out of reach, but Michigan refused to fade away. With 10:22 left in the first stanza, Louis Bullock, the Wolverines' leading scorer, hit a running jump shot. Josh Asselin followed with a slam dunk, and Bullock added a driving layup to cut a 25-10 Blue Devil lead, Duke's largest so far, to a nine-point gap. But Duke answered with a 14-0 run within a span of 2:05, and the Wolverines didn't come within a single-digit margin again.
By the time the halftime buzzer sounded, the Blue Devils had racked up a 57-29 lead, outrebounded the Wolverines by a 19-9 margin and recorded 15 assists to Michigan's one. Even so, Duke knew it couldn't lose its intensity. After blowing double-digit halftime leads in their last two contests against the Wolverines, the Blue Devils were determined to keep running on all cylinders for the entire game.
"This year we played hard for 40 minutes; last year we played hard for about 20," Burgess said. "We haven't beaten these guys in three years. For me that was my first loss last year. We wanted to come out and we wanted to beat Michigan."
Duke accomplished its goal of maintaining intensity in the second half, starting the second stanza with a 13-2 run in the first 3:12 of the half. Trajan Langdon, who led the Blue Devils with 24 points, drained two of his seven three-pointers during this stretch.
While the Blue Devils were red-hot from outside, the Wolverines froze up behind the arc. They only sank one three-pointer in the entire game.
Indeed, Duke effectively stifled Michigan's backcourt. In addition to limiting Bullock to 18 points and only one three-pointer, the Blue Devils held Robbie Reid, who averages 12.2 points per game, to six points and none from three-point land.
"They're scoring 50 percent of the points, so we felt if we concentrated on them, took away their three-point shots, they'd have a hard time scoring-and I think they did," Langdon said of Bullock and Reid. "That was what we came in wanting to do, and I think we did a great job executing and staying focused."
Duke outplayed Michigan in the paint as well, outrebounding the Wolverines 37-28, and scoring 15 second-chance points to Michigan's nine. Furthermore, the Blue Devils took advantage of Michigan's 19 turnovers, converting 29 points off the Wolverines' miscues. They also proved the more unselfish team, dishing out 25 assists to Michigan's 11.
With the victory, Duke snapped one of its longest losing streaks to another team. And perhaps more importantly for the Blue Devils, they conquered what for the past three years had been an unshakable nemesis.
"It was a little personal vindication to come out and get the quick start and play well against the team I grew up watching as a child," Battier said. "Once I committed to Duke, I heard all the stories and all the catcalls. One of my fondest memories growing up watching basketball was watching Grant Hill, Laettner and Hurley battle the Fab Five.
"That's one of the best rivalries in college basketball.... We wanted to get that monkey off our back and stop the losing streak we had against Michigan. For us, it was one of our most important games of the year."
(11/30/98 9:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The very same defensive strategy that Marquette used to upset No. 13 Florida in the first game of the Duke Women's Basketball Classic became its undoing when it battled the host Blue Devils in the last.
In both of its games this weekend, the Golden Eagles employed a collapsing zone defense, double-teaming opposing post players while leaving openings on the perimeter.
When it started the tournament Saturday, Marquette held Florida's leading scorer Tonya Washington, who averages 19.2 points per game, to 10 points. Meanwhile, led by guards Kiesha Oliver and Kristi Johnson, the Golden Eagles poured in one three-point shot after another en route to a 77-61 win. Playing against the 20th-ranked Blue Devils for the tournament championship yesterday, however, Marquette found this tactic didn't work.
"Florida played a 2-3 zone," Duke coach Gail Goestenkors said of Marquette's upset over the Gators. "It really enabled Marquette to execute their offense, and they just ran the ball and made five, six passes every possession until they got the wide-open shot, and they took that wide-open shot.
"Today they didn't have a lot of open shots. With our pressure-man [defense], they didn't have the same looks as they had yesterday."
After center Michele VanGorp tallied 23 points to carry her team to a 75-47 win over Villanova Saturday, the Golden Eagles clamped down on her, frequently double-teaming and sometimes even triple-teaming the 6-foot-6 center. What they didn't seem to realize, however, was that Duke's backcourt could be just as dangerous as its frontcourt.
Aware that Marquette would play a collapsing zone, the Blue Devils prepared to take advantage of the open looks their guards would be able to find. So when the Golden Eagles neutralized VanGorp, Duke was not at all surprised.
"I knew they were going to play zone, that sagging 2-3 zone made famous by Texas Tech, where they double team your post players," Goestenkors said. "What is open is the guards. We knew it was going to be there, and we came out hot."
Nicole Erickson led the Blue Devils from the perimeter, racking up 18 points, 12 of which came from beyond the arc. Coming out of a recent slump, Erickson attributes increased confidence to her improvement yesterday.
"I just started off playing confidently tonight," she said. "If I start that way, I can really set the tone for my game. I'm just feeling better with my performance now.
"Right now it's all mental for me. This year I haven't been aggressive enough at times, waiting for the ball instead of going after my shot."
Erickson wasn't the only Blue Devil hitting shots from downtown either. Naz Medhanie and Krista Gingrich contributed to Duke's barrage from the perimeter, adding three and two trifectas, respectively. With nine minutes to go in the first half, 15 of Duke's 22 points had come from threes.
Meanwhile, the Blue Devils stifled the Golden Eagles' backcourt, preventing it from replicating its performance against Florida. Duke held Oliver to two points and Johnson to one assist.
"We were really pleased with the defense tonight, especially in the second half when we extended the defense out and took their guards out of the flow," Goestenkors said.
Finding itself frustrated by Marquette's defense, the Blue Devil frontcourt evaded the pressure and the double teams by passing the ball back out to the guards. Forward Georgia Schweitzer collected three assists on the afternoon, and Rochelle Parent and Payton Black had two apiece, helping Duke's backcourt to capitalize on its open looks.
"[The post players] did a great job tonight [kicking the ball out], and that's exactly what we're going to need from them," Erickson said.
(11/23/98 5:00am)
Just like that, it was over.
(11/16/98 5:00am)
WINSTON-SALEM - Watching the ACC men's soccer championship game between Duke and Clemson, there appeared to be an invisible wall somewhere in front of the Tiger's goal.
(11/13/98 5:00am)
This year, the men's basketball team's backcourt will have a new look-and it won't just be the new face running the point.
(11/03/98 5:00am)
During the first half of the field hockey team's regular season finale against Princeton last night, No. 13 Duke (10-9) appeared to be on the way to staging an upset over No. 4 Princeton (14-2), holding the Tigers scoreless and concluding the half in a 0-0 tie.
(11/02/98 5:00am)
This weekend, the women's soccer team saw a pair of must-win games turn into couldn't-win games.
(10/21/98 4:00am)
After two frustrating years, the men's soccer team is finally happy.
(10/05/98 4:00am)
For 66 minutes yesterday, the third-ranked men's soccer team (10-1, 2-1 in the ACC) battled it out with archrival North Carolina (5-4, 0-3), with neither team scoring a single goal. Then Duke coach John Rennie put freshman midfielder Scott Noble on the field at striker.
