COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA MEN’S FINAL FOUR : Remaining Up Front With Hopes for Title : Game 2: Different roads lead to the same destination for Duke’s Cherokee Parks and Florida’s Andrew DeClercq.

When last seen together three years ago, Cherokee Parks was the toast of Cameron Indoor Stadium and Andrew DeClercq was the afterthought, the seventh name on a Duke recruiting list of six.

Both played center. Both had chosen the evening of the Blue Devils’ Blue-White game to make their official visit to the school. Both were eager for a scholarship offer.

As they sat there that night on the wooden bleachers of Cameron, the crowd began serenading the coveted Parks, who played at Huntington Beach’s Marina High and was considered one of the finest low post prospects in the country.

“Cher-o-kee!” yelled one side of the cramped arena.

“Parks!” yelled the other.

Back and forth it went for nearly five strange minutes until Parks turned to Mickie Krzyzewski, wife of Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski and said, “How do you make them stop?”

“You have to stand up and wave to the crowd,” she said.

So Parks stood and waved, leaving the audience then to figure out what to do about the lesser-known recruit, DeClercq.

“My last name was a little more difficult than Parks,” DeClercq recalled.

The crowd did what it could, but it wasn’t the same. DeClercq didn’t mind. He let them struggle for a few minutes and then took a quick bow. What the heck, right? Parks already had told him that he loved the place and planned to sign with the Blue Devils, leaving DeClercq to look elsewhere.

Parks went off to Duke and earned a national championship ring his first year in a Blue Devil uniform. DeClercq went to basketball no-name Florida, where the Gators went to the NIT.

Tonight, on equal footing at last, Parks and DeClercq will play in the second game of the NCAA semifinals at the Charlotte Coliseum. Parks still will likely receive more applause--after all, Charlotte is in the middle of Atlantic Coast Conference territory and only 2 1/2 hours from the Durham campus--but that isn’t really the point.

“We’ve worked really hard all year trying to get people to notice us playing basketball,” DeClercq said.

And here’s what the Gators, underdogs once more, have to show for it: their first Final Four game against a program that has been to seven of the last nine of these things. Along the way, Duke has won two of the last three national titles.

“We’re trying to do the same thing and catch up to their standards,” Florida point guard Dan Cross said.

So far, so good for the Gators. Consider the similarities between the two teams:

--Krzyzewski stresses family and team concepts. Kruger does the same.

--Krzyzewski considers defense the most important component of a team. Kruger does, too.

--Krzyzewski once again has built his team around guards. The same goes for Kruger.

--Krzyzewski has one of the top three players in the country in swingman Grant Hill and, in recent years, has had his pick of some of the best recruits available. Kruger, uh, has one of the top three heaviest players in the country in center/forward Dametri Hill, who has slimmed down from 350 to 290.

Still, don’t count on a lopsided game. Florida’s four other NCAA opponents figured on victories and look where it got them--at home, wondering what if.

DeClercq used to do that. Last season, when the Gators were beaten in the first round of the NIT, DeClercq found himself watching the Blue Devils in the NCAA tournament.

“You think about it,” DeClercq said. “You say, ‘What if I had gone there? Would I be playing or sitting on the bench?’ ”

And now?

“I’m happy where I’m at,” he said.

So are the Gators, who began the tournament as the No. 3 seed in the East Regional. But thanks to the backcourt of Cross and Craig Brown, the work ethic of DeClercq and the surprising play of Hill, who has made 31 of his last 49 field goal attempts, Florida made it to Charlotte.

Of course, it is one thing to have Dametri Hill and quite another to have Duke All-American Grant Hill, probably the most versatile and best defensive player in the country.

In the Southeast Regional final, freshman point guard Jeff Capel, forward Antonio Lang and Parks played brilliantly against Purdue as Hill was stuck on the bench for six minutes with foul trouble. Since then, Krzyzewski has said more responsibility will be placed on Capel and a little less on Hill.

Parks will guard Dametri Hill at game’s beginning, but eventually DeClercq will find himself matched against his former recruiting buddy. Parks said it will be an interesting reunion.

“He’s extra intense,” Parks said. “He’s one of those players you hate to play against.”

Funny how this all worked out. Cheers three years ago. Cheers again tonight.

Said Parks: “It seems like we both made pretty good decisions.”