Duke Gets View From Top With a Breath of Fresh Air

The last time Duke looked down on the college basketball world from atop the Associated Press poll, Bill Clinton was President . . .

Ah, good point.

Duke’s “long” absence from the No. 1 ranking didn’t even cover the high school careers of the four freshmen who helped the Blue Devils become No. 1 last week for the first time since Jan. 31, 1994.

That makes six times in 12 years Duke has been No. 1 at some point in the season, along with 1986, ‘89, ‘92, ’93 and ‘94--for a total of 39 weeks.

Predictions of Duke’s return to No. 1 seemed somewhat premature before the season. You had to wonder if freshmen Elton Brand, Shane Battier, Chris Burgess and William Avery were being overhyped: After all, even they did.

“Sometimes it puts a lot of pressure on you. It’s like, ‘Can you guys live up to all the hype?’ ” said Burgess, the 6-11 center from Irvine Woodbridge High who was once the centerpiece of this recruiting class but has taken a bit of a back seat to Brand and Battier, 6-8 forwards who are both starting.

As it has turned out, Brand is the team’s leading scorer and Battier the leading rebounder, and the foursome have mixed almost seamlessly into a team led by guards Steve Wojciechowski and Trajan Langdon. They have rejuvenated a program that might finally be all the way back from the dark days when Mike Krzyzewski was out because of back trouble.

Duke is playing with the sort of polish and precision you wouldn’t expect to find this early in the season on a veteran team--much less one starting two freshmen.

The way Duke took apart NCAA champion Arizona in the Maui Invitational, leading by as many as 24 points, left little doubt, and the Blue Devils followed that with a 44-point victory over Virginia, their most lopsided Atlantic Coast Conference victory since 1965.

Burgess, an admirer of the playing style of former Blue Devil Christian Laettner, offers these assessments of his classmates--who together are contributing about 45% of Duke’s scoring and 50% of its rebounding:

“Elton Brand, he’s one of the best post players in the Atlantic Coast Conference and one of the best freshmen in the nation. Since Day 1, I’ve been guarding him in practice, and he works so hard. He’ll outmuscle you inside, but he’s also got the softest touch from nine feet.

“Battier, he’s the best hustler, always battling for balls. He’s a great role player. He does the little things and he’s already a leader.

“William Avery, he’s one of the quickest point guards in the ACC. He has an unbelievable first step, and playing against ‘Wojo’ [Wojciechowski] every day is great for him.”

As for Burgess, who went to the same high school as Adam Keefe, he followed a trail to Durham, N.C. that was blazed by Cherokee Parks, another former Orange County player.

“They call me Surfer Kid because I have blond hair,” said Burgess, who doesn’t surf. “No, not at all. Cherokee did.”

CRAZIES TESTED EARLY

The sudden impact of four new arrivals meant the students in Cameron Indoor Stadium have had to be even quicker studies than usual.

“They call us the Killer B’s and Will the Thrill. I like that the best,” Burgess said.

“The Crazies are great, and I’m sure they’ll come up with some other stuff later in the year. So far they have signs that say Shane’s World--like Wayne’s World--and hats. The only other thing they’ve really come up with is a big report card. It says, ‘Mom, here’s my report card: B for Battier, B for Brand, B for Burgess, A for Avery.’ That’s pretty cool.”

DOWN BUT NOT OUT

Arizona lost nine games last season before winning the NCAA championship in overtime against Kentucky, and Coach Lute Olson’s Wildcats already have lost twice this season.

They’ve definitely shown some fight, though.

Down by 24 against Duke, Arizona cut the deficit to six with 30 seconds left before losing, 95-87.

Down by 20 against Kansas, Arizona had a chance to force overtime on a Mike Bibby three-point attempt before losing, 90-87.

“We have to get down 15 before we start playing,” Olson said. “We don’t start playing until we’re three-quarters covered with dirt.

“It’s great we have guys competitive enough to come back like that, but I’m concerned about our competitiveness for the first five minutes, the first 20 minutes.”

TOO MANY CLOSE SHAVES

After the guilty pleas by Stevin Smith and Isaac Burton in the Arizona State point-shaving scandal, the Arizona Republic took a closer look at the four games during the 1993-94 season that came under scrutiny.

The conclusion: If not for the huge amounts of money wagered on those games, the scam might not have been discovered. Another conclusion: A lot of people were duped.

Smith had a career-high 39 points against Oregon State in one of the games, but the margin was right: “If he hadn’t come through for us tonight, we would have had an ‘L’ ” teammate Mario Bennett said at the time.

Against Oregon, an 18-point lead dwindled to eight when Smith went to the locker room with a sprained ankle, then later returned: “If I was selfish, I never would have come back. I did it for the team,” he said. Arizona State, a 12-point favorite, won by 10.

Against USC, nine-point favorite Arizona State lost, 68-56, after winning by 25 in the first meeting. Smith scored 22 points, but went seven for 20.

“We’re smart enough to know that this wasn’t a typical ASU team. They were very lethargic out there,” said George Raveling, then the USC coach, who didn’t know how right he was.

Against Washington, Arizona State missed its first 14 shots, then later went on a 24-0 run. The Sun Devils, 11-point favorites, ended up winning, 73-55.

As for the turnaround, Smith said: “Something took place. I just can’t say what.”

WHO’S COUNTING?

The much-debated return of the closely guarded five-second call isn’t having much effect on games.

“I think I saw it called twice in Hawaii,” said Stanford Coach Mike Montgomery, who opposed reinstating the call. “To be honest, I don’t think officials are counting. It’s something they got out of the habit of doing.

“I hope that the case is maybe we overreacted and either the rule isn’t necessary or those situations we worried about aren’t happening.”

UCLA Coach Steve Lavin doesn’t think the rule change will have much impact after all.

“The key is consistency,” he said. “If they’re going to call it in the last two minutes of the game, they have to call it in the first 38 minutes. It’s like three seconds in the lane.”

QUICK SHOTS

The West Coast Conference is making an impression in nonconference games. The WCC is unbeaten against the Atlantic Coast Conference with Gonzaga’s victory over Clemson, and 4-4 against the Pacific 10. . . . Arkansas Coach Nolan Richardson attributes his unbeaten team’s resurgence to the end of a long NCAA investigation that affected recruiting. “We’re trying to come back from something we thought held us hostage,” Richardson said. “Now that that’s over, our kids are more at ease and can think about performing.” . . . The Pacific-St. Mary’s game tonight was to have a match-up between Pacific’s 7-foot Michael Olowokandi--who made 14 shots in a row in a 31-point game against Pepperdine--against St. Mary’s 7-foot-3, 345-pound Brad Millard, but Millard is out because of a broken foot.