Today / East Regional

Duke (34-1) vs. Southwest Missouri State (22-10): Next up for the Duke juggernaut is Steve Alford’s team, and by the way, Alford is 1-0 against Duke in the NCAA tournament after beating the Blue Devils, 88-82, in the Sweet 16 as an Indiana player on the way to the 1987 NCAA title. This is a little different. His upstart Bears are 28-point underdogs against Duke. “I think as a young boy, you dream of being No. 1 or playing No. 1,” Alford said. “I think you’re in awe of Duke. We were in awe of Duke just watching their shootaround.” Duke won its first two games by 41 points each, but Southwest Missouri State has pulled off two upsets by holding Wisconsin and Tennessee combined to 27.8% shooting and 41.5 points a game, beating Wisconsin by 11 points and Tennessee by 30. “Our defense has been very stingy all year long, but we haven’t played a team averaging 93.6 points with a bucketful of All-Americans and a Hall of Fame coach,” Alford said. “If we’re in awe at 7:35, by 7:45--like a lot of other teams--it will be over with.” Duke has considerable size, strength and quickness advantages, but there’s an interesting matchup at center, where Southwest Missouri State starts Danny Moore, who is 6 feet 11 and steps out for three-pointers, and Duke starts 6-8, 260-pound, player-of-the-year candidate Elton Brand, a bull in the lane.

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HOW THEY COMPARE

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Duke SWM Record 34-1 22-10 Avg. Pts. 93.6 73.5 Opp. Avg. Pts. 67.3 65.4 Margin 26.3 8.1 FG% .517 .463 Opp. FG% .389 .415 3-Pt. FG% .394 .365 Opp. 3-Pt. FG% .306 .349 3-Pt. FG-Game 7.5 5.4 Opp. 3-Pt. FG-Game 5.0 6.7 FT% .710 .711 Rebound Margin 9.8 -2.3 TO Diff. 3.4 2.7 Avg Steals 9.4 8.9 Avg Blocks 6.4 4.1

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Temple (23-10) vs. Purdue (21-12): Purdue Coach Gene Keady acknowledges he didn’t much care for his team a few weeks ago, when the Boilermakers limped to the finish by losing five of their last six games and were in danger of not making the NCAA tournament. “You’re right, I don’t like guys with bad attitudes. I think we’ve come a long ways from then,” he said. “I think I was more disappointed in myself and the staff that we hadn’t figured out what the problem was during the Big Ten season. . . . I was starting to like my team better because I knew what the problem was.” After an attitude adjustment, Purdue beat Texas and upset a very good Miami team to reach the Sweet 16. “Personally, I didn’t think we deserved to get in at the end of the season,” forward Brian Cardinal said. “Once we found out we were in the NCAA tournament, I think we had new enthusiasm.” Now the Boilermakers face Temple, another team that was highly ranked early in the season but struggled along the way.

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HOW THEY COMPARE

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Pur Tem Record 21-12 23-10 Avg. Pts. 68.9 66.4 Opp. Avg. Pts. 65.3 57.8 Margin 3.6 8.6 FG% .438 .412 Opp. FG% .442 .378 3-Pt. FG% .307 .312 Opp. 3-Pt. FG% .315 .360 3-Pt. FG-Game 5.2 6.5 Opp. 3-Pt. FG-Game 5.2 8.5 FT% .671 .651 Rebound Margin -0.3 0.9 TO Diff. 2.0 4.8 Avg Steals 8.2 9.9 Avg Blocks 3.2 3.8

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