A CUT ABOVE

However good you think Duke looks on television, believe this: The Blue Devils are more impressive in person.

Coaches who scout them on film come away more daunted after seeing the real thing.

It happened to DePaul’s Pat Kennedy during the regular season and Tulsa’s Bill Self in the NCAA tournament, and maybe it will happen to Michigan State’s Tom Izzo today. He hasn’t seen the Blue Devils since December.

Virginia’s Pete Gillen only knows he saw way too much of Duke in three losses by a total of 129 points.

“A wrecking machine,” he said.

“They put you in a coma,” Georgia Tech Coach Bobby Cremins said.

The Blue Devils are bigger, stronger, faster, quicker, smarter and more relentless than you know.

Point guard William Avery’s three-pointers are deeper than they seem, and Trajan Langdon’s more deadly. The Steve Kerr of college basketball, Langdon has made 106 in 240 attempts.

Center Elton Brand, the national player of the year, is a 6-foot-8, 260-pound, nimble, power-dunking Larry Johnson, though he still lacks much of a jump shot.

Forward Shane Battier? A 6-8 tight end who steps out to shoot the three-pointer--he has made almost 56% over the last two months--and is so dedicated to taking charges he was once flattened by Michigan’s Robert Traylor for the sake of a no-call.

Chris Carrawell is a 6-6 forward so versatile he can bang inside, slash to the basket, sink the three, or play backup point guard.

Corey Maggette? If you have to ask about the first man off the bench, you didn’t see the freshman’s elbows-above-the- rim dunk off an offensive rebound before the halftime buzzer against Temple.

All that, and yet they are nothing.

Not yet.

Dominant tournament favorite? Sure, and two victories from their third title in nine years.

One of the greatest teams in the history of college basketball?

Check back after Monday.

“I don’t think we can say yet,” Kansas Coach Roy Williams said. “It depends on what happens this weekend.

“They’re the best team I’ve seen in 21 years of college coaching. But they’ve got to be able to finish the job. Last year in football, everyone was saying all that about the Vikings. After they lost, you didn’t hear it anymore.”

Think back. There are others who have failed, and Mike Krzyzewski is bent on trying to keep Duke from being an addition to that list.

“I remember Coach talking about how we were supposed to be invincible in the ’86 game,” said Chris Burgess, the backup center from Irvine who was only a youngster when Duke went into the 1986 tournament ranked No. 1.

“We were 37-2 going into the championship game, and Louisville comes into the championship game and beats Duke.

“Coach still says, ‘I look back at that game, and I regret what happened.’ That’s something I know we can’t do, we can’t look ahead.”

Think of the swagger of Nevada Las Vegas in 1991, when the dominant Rebels were supposed to become the first post-Wooden team to repeat as NCAA champion--but ended up losing in the semifinals to Duke, a team they beat by 30 in the final the season before.

Think of the Rebels, and understand this: These Blue Devils have none of that air about them.

“We know we’re not invincible and the other terms used to describe us,” Brand said. “We know we’re just a team and we make mistakes also.

“Coach, man, he keeps us under wraps. He’s had great teams before and people said that about his teams before, so he really knows what’s going on.

“UNLV, Larry Johnson and those guys, all the hype and everything, and they lost.”

That UNLV team started Johnson, Stacey Augmon, George Ackles, Anderson Hunt and Greg Anthony.

Match them up, and this Duke team seems better--especially when you consider the sixth man is Maggette, a national player-of-the-year candidate next year who some NBA types have said would go No. 1 in the draft this year.

He is the biggest factor in Duke’s much-ballyhooed depth.

Coaches marvel at the nine McDonald’s high school All-Americans on Duke’s team.

Krzyzewski points out he’s using nine scholarships--only three to players older than sophomores--along with five walk-ons, and plays an eight-man rotation. That’s right, McDonald’s All-American Taymon Domzalski, a senior, doesn’t really get in much.

The starting five, plus Maggette, Burgess and forward Nate James, are enough.

“I would have to liken it to waves of troops coming on the beach at Normandy,” said Battier, the Blue Devil most likely to hold elective office some day. “You look over there and you see Chris Burgess and Corey Maggette getting ready to come in, then later it’s Elton Brand and Chris Carrawell coming back in. It’s waves of great players. Defensively, that’s a scary thing.”

So is the film-doesn’t-imitate-life phenomenon.

“I think tape, it doesn’t necessarily show how fast you are. It’s relative to who you’re playing against,” Krzyzewski said when asked why so many coaches think they can play with the Blue Devils on tape, then find they can’t match up on the court.

“Sometimes, it’s just size. We actually are the size we’re listed. Maggette is 6-6 and 220 and plays the way he does. He shouldn’t move as fast as he does.

“William really is 6-2, and strong. Elton really has long arms. It’s probably all those things together.”

How to turn Duke into a team immortalized on film as one of the great ones not to win a title?

Bob Huggins is the only coach who can speak from experience.

Cincinnati beat Duke, 77-75, on Melvin Levett’s dunk off a length-of-the-court play in the final seconds at the Great Alaska Shootout in November, and the Bearcats held on when the buzzer sounded a moment before Avery’s potentially game-tying tip-in.

“We made shots. I think it’s real simple,” Huggins said. “We shot 55% [actually 57%]. You’ve got to make shots against them because they’re going to make shots. When their guys have open looks, they knock them down.

“Weakness? None that I can find. I think they’ve only got nine guys. Mike couldn’t find another McDonald’s All-American to round out 10.”

You can bet Izzo has been looking for that flaw.

Rebounding, maybe. Michigan State won that battle in its 73-67 loss in December, 41-25.

“But I guess if you really have to search, search, search, it’s a backup point guard if Avery gets in foul trouble,” Izzo said. “That could be a problem.”

Good idea, but good luck. Avery has fouled out once this season, in the overtime victory against St. John’s, and has picked up his fourth only two other times.

Avery’s evolution as a point guard who made Duke fans forget Steve Wojciechowski in a hurry has been one of the biggest reasons the Blue Devils have been able to have the season they have.

Instead of struggling with turnovers, he has proved able to handle the ball and score with abandon, both off penetration and as one of the six three-point threats--the very reason it is so tough to batten down the hatches on Brand inside.

It’s hardly all offense, though.

Duke’s opponents have shot less than 39% this season, and only 36% in the NCAA tournament.

“If you beat somebody, they always rotate,” Tulsa’s Michael Ruffin said. “Everybody on that whole team is looking out for each other. They play great team defense.”

Some of that defense leads to blocked shots--Duke has rejected 236 this season and had only 94 of its own blocked. Those blocks, along with turnovers and rebounds, fuel a ferocious transition game.

“They’re big, strong and athletic, and they’re like a bunch of sharks. They smell blood, and they swarm,” said Self, the Tulsa coach.

How to beat Duke?

“When Trajan was out, I would say you’d beat us with a zone,” Carrawell said. “But he’s back. You can’t use a zone.”

William Fontleroy, the Southwest Missouri State point guard, looked up and managed a smile in the locker room after his loss at that question: “Don’t miss a shot,” he said.

Where will this team rank, when all is said and done?

One coach after another describes the Blue Devils as the best team they remember--including Kansas’ Williams, who was an assistant at North Carolina when the Tar Heels won the 1982 title with James Worthy, Michael Jordan and Sam Perkins.

But think, too, of the 1996 Kentucky team that won with Ron Mercer, Antoine Walker and Tony Delk. Mercer, had he stayed in school, would be a senior this season.

And how do you compare the great teams of yore, the UCLA teams and the last undefeated national champion, Indiana in 1976?

True, Duke will have the most victories of any team in NCAA history with 38 if the Blue Devils win the title, but that’s essentially meaningless in a historical perspective.

Where do they really rate?

“That’s for somebody else to decide,” Krzyzewski said. “It would be really dumb of me to even be thinking about those things right now, because we’re going to have to play a hell of a game to beat Michigan State.

“If we are fortunate enough to win the national championship, then that’s for other people to determine where this team fits, this year or any other year.”

For now, they are a team to be admired.

“They have respect for the game,” Temple Coach John Chaney said. “You don’t see this team running around, slapping hands, standing over people celebrating. There’s a class about that team.”

Krzyzewski says again and again how much he loves this team.

But even last week, he wasn’t willing to call this group better than the 1992 Blue Devils who repeated as national champions--a veteran team that had Christian Laettner, Grant Hill and Bobby Hurley.

You know why.

Because these Blue Devils haven’t won yet.

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DUKE’S DOMINANCE

On paper, the Blue Devils look every bit a 36-1 team bidding for its third NCAA championship of the ‘90s.

Games Played: 37

Minutes played: 1,485

Average margin of victory: 25.9*

Shooting percentage: 51.8

Games Duke trailed in second half: 5

Minutes Duke trailed in second half: 111

Average points: 95.9* Opponent shooting percentage: 38.8

Opponent free throws attempted: 701

*

Guard play is expected to be in the spotlight, but if El-Amin, Moore, Penn and Redd cancel each other out, that’s when things could get interesting. Page 8

The Spartans aren’t buying into the hype that the Blue Devils are unbeatable. Trouble is, neither are the Blue Devils. Page 8