NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : EAST REGIONAL : His Inspiration Helps Band Team Together : Duke: Hurley, a freshman guard, plays to honor former coach who died last Saturday at 32.

When Duke plays Connecticut today with a berth in the Final Four at stake, Bobby Hurley will be wearing a white cotton wristband, the same one he wore against St. John’s and UCLA.

Hurley, the Blue Devils’ 18-year-old freshman point guard, never used to wear a wristband, but then he always had Rich Barret before.

Barret, who was Hurley’s basketball coach for three years from the sixth through the eighth grades in Jersey City, N.J., died of a heart attack last Saturday. He was 32.

On the inside of his wristband, Hurley has written the initials RB in honor of his former coach.

“I put them on the inside because I don’t want to show it,” Hurley said. “But I have them there.”

On Wednesday, the day the Duke team got to town, Hurley attended Barret’s funeral. That was the day before Hurley had nine assists and 12 points in a 90-81 East Regional semifinal victory over UCLA.

The idea of the wristband came to Hurley because he did not want to forget the person who meant so much to a skinny kid growing up in a tough neighborhood.

“It wasn’t so much X’s and O’s that he taught me, it was that he cared for me,” Hurley said. “He was just a good person. He was a generous person. He gave of himself, and those are the people you miss the most.”

Hurley already carries the burden of running the Duke offense against a Connecticut pressure defense that preys on weakness. Hurley acknowledges his new burden and finds comfort in playing basketball.

“That way, I keep what happened in the right place in my mind,” Hurley said.

The Connecticut pressure defense is a daunting spectacle that has helped produce 31 victories for the Huskies of the Big East. Called the Iron Curtain, Connecticut’s defense has come crashing down on several formidable opponents.

Into its path, Duke throws a 150-pound teen-ager with dark, sunken eyes who stands barely 6 feet tall. Hurley appears overmatched, but appearances can deceive. Boo Harvey, star point guard for St. John’s, made only four of 18 shots against him. UCLA’s Darrick Martin was one for nine.

“Quite frankly, I didn’t realize just how tough and how good he is,” Connecticut Coach Jim Calhoun said. “Experience is no factor to him at all. He really handles that club well. He controls and he orchestrates and he is just terrific.”

Poise under pressure is vital if Duke (27-8) is to beat Connecticut (31-5).

How will Duke handle it? The ball is in Hurley’s hands, just as it has been all season. A first-team high school All-American at St. Anthony’s in Jersey City, where he played for his father, Hurley averaged 19.8 points and 8.0 assists as a senior.

In his first year at Duke, Hurley has started every game and played more minutes than anyone on the team, averaging 9.3 points and 7.7 assists while leading the Blue Devils in steals.

Although he looks brittle, Hurley has taken three times more charges than any of his teammates. Still, Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski counts on Hurley’s ability to run the team on the floor more than on his ability to draw offensive fouls.

“Bobby has mirrored the progress of our basketball team,” Krzyzewski said. “As the season has progressed, Bobby and the guys around him have gotten to be more confident in one another.

“For us to beat Connecticut, the key is to play our butts off. And if they win, we just go over and shake their hands.”

Calhoun expects Duke to combat the Huskies’ press by dribbling through the defensive pressure. He dubbed this tactic “the dribble theory,” which Hurley plans to follow.

“I think I’m going to have to dribble through it sometimes, but hopefully I won’t need to do it all by myself,” Hurley said.

Clemson found the dribble theory useful when it outscored Connecticut, 21-4, in the second half to take a one-point lead with one second left Thursday night.

But Connecticut was rescued when Tate George caught a length-of-the-court inbounds pass from Scott Burrell and swished a 15-foot jump shot at the buzzer for a 71-70 victory.

Calhoun brushed off comments that Connecticut was destined to win the NCAA title after such a play.

“I’ve been going to the Final Four for 21 years and I’ve never known a team of destiny to win the championship,” he said. “People win because they’re good enough.

“I hope it is destiny. If it’s destiny, fine, stay on our shoulders. We’ve won 31 games and we’ve won pretty convincingly. We’ve had to win only two close games all year.

“It hasn’t been destiny. It’s been good play, but fate or whatever helped us win the last time.”

Fate or whatever has brought Hurley to a critical stage of his college career in only his first year.

“It’s mind-boggling. . . . I’m playing for a possible national champion,” he said. “It’s pretty hard to believe where I’m standing right now. A year ago at this time, I didn’t think I would be in this position.”

But that was before Hurley started wearing the sweatband with the initials on the inside, close to his skin.