Bailey Regains Starting Job

Coach Steve Lavin said that senior guard Toby Bailey will start Sunday at Duke after he benched Bailey for the first 5:35 of Wednesday’s victory at USC.

“It’s not like he’s in my doghouse now or anything,” Lavin said Thursday.

Bailey was taken out of the starting lineup after Lavin asked him to leave Tuesday’s practice for a lack of intensity. After the game, Bailey said he was merely frustrated by his performance in the final seconds in the loss to Stanford last week and the mood continued into the California game on Saturday and beyond.

“I think what happened is he probably was pressing because he didn’t play well the previous weekend,” Lavin said. “And he was probably down on himself. I think that carried over to practice.

“And all I was trying to do was give him a wake-up call and make him realize that, ‘Hey, you’re too important, you’re too valuable to this team to practice like that.’ ”

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Lavin said that he called Jelani McCoy hours before Wednesday’s overtime victory at USC and that McCoy asked Lavin to wish his teammates the best for the Trojan game. It was the first time Lavin had spoken to McCoy since the junior center resigned from the team last weekend.