Duke Tries to Reach the Top This Time

When players on the Duke University basketball team talk about the school’s success in the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament during the past five years, they don’t speak in terms of a dynasty.

“A legacy,” senior forward Robert Brickey called it last week.

The legacy continues this week at McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, where the Blue Devils will play in their third straight Final Four and their fourth in the past five years.

Duke, the first school since Houston to reach the NCAA tournament semifinals three years in a row, will meet Arkansas on Saturday. Georgia Tech plays Nevada-Las Vegas in the second semifinal.

But this legacy is filled not only with remarkable achievements, but also with lingering frustrations. Duke has not won the national championship.

Asked Monday what he remembers most about the previous two trips, senior forward Alaa Abdelnaby put it succinctly. “Losing,” he said.

Though Abdelnaby will be trying to erase the memories from Kansas City, Mo., and Seattle, and Duke fans also will be trying to forget Dallas in 1986, Blue Devils Coach Mike Krzyzewski says that this team should be judged on its merit.

“For me, each team is different,” Krzyzewski said Saturday, after the Blue Devils had beaten Connecticut, 79-78, in the NCAA East Regional in East Rutherford, N.J. “I just want to make sure we make the most of our opportunity, win or lose.”

This Duke team is quite different from the past three that have made the Final Four. In many ways, it is perhaps the biggest surprise of any of Krzyzewski’s recent teams to have gone this far.

“When you look at the Duke teams that have made it to the Final Four, this one has to stand out as the least likely,” said Tommy Amaker, point guard on the 1986 and 1987 Final Four teams and now an assistant coach. “It’s had a lot of ups and downs. At times, it hasn’t had the most confidence.”

This is a team that has had more distractions and controversy, on the court and off, than most in recent Duke history. “It’s been a crazy year,” Abdelnaby said.

There was a midseason knee injury to Brickey, a nationally publicized X-rated tirade by Krzyzewski directed at members of the school newspaper and Henderson’s blowup at his teammates after Duke lost to Georgia Tech in the semifinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.

Henderson used a few expletives to describe what he perceived as a Devils-might-not-care attitude of his teammates during their late-season fold.

Asked last week about the incident, Henderson said: “What I said after Georgia Tech is something I’ve said to my teammates during the season. It’s something that we have discussed. I’ll never open up to the press like that again.”

But Henderson’s message apparently woke up some of his teammates. Abdelnaby became a dominant force inside during the first four games of the NCAA tournament. Freshman point guard Bobby Hurley played more under control. And the whole team seemed more focused.

“I think we played with more emotion,” said Brickey, who pulled his left hamstring in the victory over the University of Connecticut. “I think we’re playing as well going into the Final Four as we ever have.”

For his part, Krzyzewski refuses to liken this Duke team to those of the recent past. If anything, the only constant has been Krzyzewski.

“It’s not fair to these kids,” Krzyzewski said. “You don’t have the same team, the same personalities. It’s not like a pro team that goes to the Super Bowl three years in a row.”

Said Amaker: “The only similarity is that this team is also in the Final Four, but that’s the most important similarity to have. It’s like going to school after an older brother or sister. If they’ve done well, the teachers say, ‘Why can’t you do as well?’ But this team has a chance to do something that no other Duke team has done.”

Nevertheless, the comparisons will be made. And the questions will be asked, most specifically: Is making the Final Four good enough? And, if not, when does catching the bouquet become tiresome?

Krzyzewski will prepare his team not only for the Razorbacks but also for the media onslaught. He knows that this team will be reminded of the Final Four disappointments.

“That’s my job, to make sure they’re not thinking about those teams before they go out to Denver,” Krzyzewski said. “Why should Bobby Hurley feel that pressure? Why should Phil Henderson feel it? If Phil and Alaa were as good last year as they are now, we would have won it.”

“That’s like asking someone who’s made a million dollars, why haven’t you made $2 million?” asked Henderson, one of three starters on this year’s team to have played in two Final Fours. “It’s a big achievement, and nobody should take that away from us.”

Said Brickey: “There’s no pressure on us to win this time. We have a goal in mind. We have our eye on the prize. But, as a senior, I think anything less (than a national championship) would give me a shallow feeling.”

And what if the Blue Devils were to win? What if Duke erased its past disappointments and found itself cutting down the nets at McNichols Arena come Monday night? Krzyzewski knows that somebody wouldn’t be satisfied completely.

“I’m sure if we win it, I’m going to be asked, ‘When are you going to win it again?”’ he said.

That is probably a question Duke won’t mind answering.