Big D Day Arrives for Bilas, Duke : No. 1 Blue Devils Have Only Louisville Left In Their Way

Just when it seemed the tourist attractions were running low, along come Louisville and Duke in the NCAA final to save the day.

What else was there to do? Go downtown to see the glass buildings? It may be entertaining the first few times you see the businessmen on the sidewalks calling their secretaries on their walkie-talkies, but how long can that last?

The press tour of Southfork, featuring a barbecue, a rodeo and B.J. Thomas?

Billy Packer and Brent Musburger leading the Dallas Symphony--this is no joke--in a recital of college fight songs?

What was it everyone came here for? Oh yeah.

The game’s the thing and tonight’s will do. Duke has won 21 games in a row and 37 altogether, the most in college history. The Blue Devils were No. 1 ranked, No. 1 seeded, have been listed as a slight betting favorite, but somehow find themselves a kind of underdog.

This is because of the respect being accorded Louisville by the inner circle, the Billy Packers, Dick Vitales, Jim Valvanos, the commentators, coaches and sportswriters whose annual pratfalls have helped make this tournament so much fun.

There are angles everywhere, starting with the contrast in styles, Duke’s gentlemen scholars vs. the Joe Cools from the ‘Ville.

All four of the starting Duke seniors are graduating on time, two in economics, two in political science.

They demurred when asked to reveal their grade-point averages at Sunday’s press conference, though Jay Bilas, the, uh, defensive ace from Rolling Hills, did observe:

“My GPA is about the same as my points per game.”

The Cardinals strike something of a different pose. Eight of them wore necklaces to Friday’s practice, five wore sunglasses and Milt Wagner brought his tape deck. A Louisville equipment manager featured a haircut with a blonde rat-tail.

Any imbalance in partying might, of course, be redressed by the famous Duke students, whose ‘Die, Pond Scum” and “Die, Ocean Scum (Navy)” banners have been widely reported.

Limited in numbers here, they nonetheless made their presence known to Kansas’ Greg Dreiling, the 7-footer with the newly chopped flat-top, whom they named “Jarhead.”

Sunday, Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski was asked if he was embarrassed by the students (he wasn’t) and what he thought they might have in store for Louisville, seeing as how two Cardinal starters wear braces?

“Tinsel-mouth?” guessed a writer from Rocky Mount, N.C.

There is the mentor angle: Louisville’s Denny Crum, the former John Wooden assistant, against Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, the most successful of the legion of Bob Knight disciples.

Crum invited Wooden to attend as his guest, though Wooden declined.

“He feels it’s a little too early,” Crum said. “Nell (Wooden’s wife) has been gone a year now. He has never been at one of these things without her. He’s not quite ready to come yet. He just wasn’t psychologically ready.”

Knight is here, along with his guru, Pete Newell. Thursday, Krzyzewski borrowed some time on the court at SMU, where Dave Bliss, another Knightie, coaches, so that Newell and Knight could address the Blue Devils.

Despite whatever perceived differences, the Knight and Wooden styles, as embodied by these teams, are similar. Both teams want to run and are strongly committed to pressure defense to create turnovers and start their offenses.

Duke is more like a Knight team, more physical underneath, and more devoted to pure man-to-man. Louisville’s big men are a little smaller (6-9, 195; 6-7, 195; 6-7, 190 to the Blue Devils’ 6-8, 225; 6-8, 220; 6-5, 195) but are better runners and jumpers. Louisville still uses the Wooden-style full-court press, sometimes just to force the pace, sometimes trying to take the ball away in earnest.

The so-called best backcourt in the land, Duke’s Johnny Dawkins and Tommy Amaker, will be tested severely. The No. 3 guard, freshman Quin Snyder, had the flu last week and didn’t play Saturday against Kansas when Krzyzewski let his starters go 75 of a possible 80 minutes. Among their teammates, the Duke guards are famous for their endurance, but the Cardinals are going to want to see for themselves.

The Blue Devils have been top-ranked or near it all season, and as such have taken everyone’s best shot, including those from the press. They have been derided for not having enough athletes, for not having any fun (they held only a restrained celebration at the East Regional), or for having a student section that has too much fun.

If all that was nonsense, the Blue Devils do have one real problem, a shooting slump.

Dawkins is OK, but everyone else is all but dead in the water.

Mark Alarie is coming off fine defensive efforts against Kevin Butler and Danny Manning, but is 18 for 50 for his last three games.

David Henderson is 12 for 36.

Amaker has taken only 16 shots, missing 13.

The nice thing about Duke is that it finds a way to win. The bad thing is that it has had to. The Devils barely escaped Mississippi Valley State, played impressively against Old Dominion, then had to work to get by DePaul and emotionally drained Navy.

Saturday, the Blue Devils edged Kansas, which was functionally without its star, Manning, who missed several shots early and looked rattled. Duke won only after Danny Ferry picked a rebound off the floor in the free-throw lane and scored the winning basket.

“People have said our game wasn’t pretty,” Krzyzewski said. “I didn’t know a game was supposed to be pretty.”

They’re supposed to look prettier than that .

Louisville had a tougher road here, beating a big North Carolina team, a hot, physical Auburn team, and Dale Brown’s band of would-be miracle-makers from LSU Saturday.

All the Louisville starters improved as the season progressed, starting with freshman center Pervis Ellison, who took Memphis State’s William Bedford apart twice, and ending with forward Billy Thompson, who has used his final college tournament to show what he promised in high school but delivered so sporadically thereafter.

All five Card starters averaged double figures during the season.

All are averaging more in the tournament.

Four are shooting 50% in the tourney.

The fifth, Wagner, was at 42% but went 8 for 16 Saturday and hit two key shots down the stretch.

Duke and Louisville haven’t met since 1983, when the Duke seniors were the nation’s No. 1-ranked freshman class. Louisville, with Lancaster Gordon, Charles Jones, the McCray brothers, Wagner and Thompson, would make the Final Four before encountering Houston.

The game was at Durham, N.C. The Cardinals won, 91-76.

“As I remember it, we were up by five late,” said Duke’s David Henderson. “All of a sudden, we found out why Louisville was called the Doctors of Dunk.”

The Docs have moved on but the ‘Ville remains, with too much similarity for comfort.