Time to step back and let the big dog feed.
Yes, it has been very entertaining, these Rand McNally, Scrabble-name schools–Gonzaga for a triple-word score, yes!–the wrong Miami, the non-NIT Big Ten teams surviving into the second week, but sooner or later, the NCAA tournament was going to swing back to the bullies, and there was Duke, winning tournament games by 40 and trying not to yawn.
“We have made it a point to stomp on other team’s hearts,” explained Duke forward Shane Battier.
So what chance did little Southwest Missouri State–“SMS, as they like to be called,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “Let’s not offend them.”–what chance did SMS have against mighty Duke?
Steve Alford, the SMS coach, decided a story from the Bible might help.
“The one about David and Goliath,” said SMS’s Kevin Ault. “He told us that.”
This is assuming that Duke was Goliath and SMS was . . . you know, the little guy, unless Alford had some other twist for the occasion.
“Oh, no,” said Alford, alarmed anyone would think he would mess with scripture. “I’m a very spiritual man, and twisting the Bible would be worse than playing Duke.
“I just told the team, you know, how nobody believed in David, how they mocked and laughed at him. But he had great faith he would get the job done.”
Uh, coach. David also had a rock, something SMS could have used, not counting the basketball, which could, for SMS at least, have qualified as a brick far too often. If Alford had told his team the Jack-and-the-Beanstalk story, Alford would have forgotten the ax too.
Alas, little SMS was without weapons or utensils, though it did have a fair pep band and a chorus of dancing Marilyn Monroes, neither of much use against Duke’s half-hearted interest in making an obscure point, which would have been that the No. 1 team in the nation was not about to be excused by David, Jack, Jethro or all their cousins in Dogpatch.
“We got beat by a better basketball team,” Alford said. “Sometimes that happens.”
Not to keep correcting the coach, but that almost always happens.
Any team that keeps the losing margin below freezing (under 32) comes away from Duke feeling pretty good about itself. SMS was pleased to have lingered as close as 10 significant minutes into the second half.
Then guard Trajan Langdon would hit a three, or center Elton Brand would block a shot or Krzyzewski would nod at scrubs and send a fresh and indistinguishable body to further vex the overmatched boys from rural Missouri, as if there is any other kind.
“(Corey) Maggette comes off the bench, and he could be the best player in the country,” Alford said.
Still, when the sweat was dried, there Duke was looking more vulnerable than at any time since Christmas and finding itself needing to defend a 17-point win that advanced it to the last eight.
“You have to understand two things,” Krzyzewski said. “First, SMS was good, and also, we have been playing unusually terrific basketball. We’re very proud of this win.”
So, there is no reason to suppose that Duke, having now won 30 games in a row, by an average of more than 30 points a game, having scored at least 80 points in every game since beating Kentucky in the same building back in December, was doing a little sandbagging for opponents and creating a false test for itself.
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If no one else was going to give Duke its wake-up call, it would pinch itself until it stopped snoring.
“Realistically,” Krzyzewski said, “it’s tough to keep a peak.”
Duke’s two stars, Langdon and Brand, sat out the final six minutes, after Duke had gotten up by a game-high 22. (“A 20-point lead is the point where the other team knows it can’t win,” guard William Avery said.) Duke did not bother to press, even for the exercise, and Brand was asked to do very little but rebound and defend, which he did adequately against SMS’s best player, center Danny Moore, blocking five of his shots.
“We’re not invulnerable,” Brand said, trying to sound convincing. “We can be beat. We have weaknesses, whatever they are.”
This is not the greatest Duke team, though a 35-1 record might deny that. This is not the Bobby Hurley-Grant Hill-Christian Laettner team that won back-to-back national titles.
“That was one of the great college basketball teams of all time,” said Krzyzewski, who should know because he coached that one too. “This team hasn’t done anything yet. It’s not old enough. We have young guys.
“Not that I’m complaining. We’re not bad. I love my guys.”
Somebody has to love Goliath.