Rhode Island Puts End to Miller Time

Andre Miller was the only Utah player who could penetrate Rhode Island’s zone defense. Miller was the only Ute who could shoot from the outside, who could drive for a layup, who could force a turnover when he was playing defense.

Miller, the Utah senior guard from Los Angeles who had charmed the nation during Utah’s magical run to the NCAA championship game last March, tied a career-high with his 28 points Wednesday night. He certainly made the four rows of NBA scouts who had come to the United Center pay attention. But for now Miller is operating in a vacuum, alone among the Utes with the ability to make a shot when it counts and so Rhode Island was the upset winner over No. 21-ranked Utah, 70-63, Wednesday at the Great Eight tournament.

In the final game of the two-night, four-game format, No. 4 Duke started out with a 17-2 lead and that was the end of ninth-ranked Michigan State. The Blue Devils did fritter away much of that early lead, but the final score was 73-67 and there was never the sense that Duke would be beaten.

The fast start indicated clearly the Blue Devils were eager to play again after suffering their only loss of the season and losing their No. 1 ranking when they fell to Cincinnati, 77-75, at the Great Alaska Shootout last weekend.

This Great Eight format is supposed to include all the NCAA regional finalists from the previous year. So here was Rhode Island, which had blown what had seemed a humongous upset over Stanford in the final seconds of the Midwest Regional and Utah, an incredible finalist and near winner over Kentucky in the championship game.

Except not exactly.

Rhode Island (4-3), coached by former UCLA coach Jim Harrick, lost three starters including its talented backcourt of Cuttino Mobley and Tyson Wheeler. Utah (3-3) has seven of 11 scholarship players who had never been in a college game before this season.

Utah Coach Rick Majerus put his team through an intense 2 1/2-hour practice Tuesday. And Harrick spoke longingly of how he wished his point guard, Preston Murphy, didn’t have a lame leg.

Or that his intriguing 21-year-old freshman Lamar Odom, who played at three high schools in his senior season, who committed to Nevada Las Vegas, who never went to Nevada Las Vegas after its recruiting of Odom was put under NCAA scrutiny, who finally ended up at Rhode Island and who couldn’t qualify for his freshman year, hasn’t struggled with a sprained ankle and with the necessity of overcoming rust even though a Boston columnist had compared Odom to Magic Johnson after one game.

What happened in the game was that Miller, pretty much by himself, gave Utah as much as a 12-point lead in the first half. And in the second half Rhode Island’s inside strength and better quickness wore down the Utes. Odom, 6-feet-10 and as likely to be playing point guard as forward, made some spectacular shots--most notably a pull-up 26-foot three-point basket and snaky driving layup that drew Minnesota Timberwolves General Manager Kevin McHale from his seat--scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half.

But even more important, forward Antonio Reynolds-Dean, one of the starters from last season, was deadly with a 12-foot jump shot. He was 10 of 16 from the field for a team-high 22 points and caused Majerus to rub his head and say that “I underestimated the ability of Reynolds-Dean to hit that shot all night. My fault.”

While Harrick said that he is willing to accept some early season losses as the Rams try to find a new personality, Majerus is having a harder time letting go of the fun from last year.

“We’re so young and have such a long way to go,” Majerus said. “I have to forget how it was and remember how some of last year’s seniors were when they were freshmen and sophomores.”

While Duke (6-1) never trailed, the Spartans (4-2) did manage to get within five points a couple of times in the second half.

Irvine’s Chris Burgess, a 6-10 sophomore center, had eight points and three rebounds and was the only Blue Devil starter not in double figures in scoring. Senior Trajan Langdon had 23 points to lead Duke while junior forward Morris Peterson came off the bench to lead Michigan State with 24 points.