DATE WITH DESTINY

Wow, what a team, what with all those jumpers, shooters, scorers and blockers.

How is anyone going to stop this blaze of blue and white? The one with the coach who talks sort of funny?

Tonight’s national title game should be a slam dunk, baby.

Take a look at the 1990s track record: seven “Sweet 16” appearances, 28 or more wins five of the last six seasons, 10 consecutive weeks ranked No. 1 this season.

Only Kentucky and Kansas have totaled more wins since 1993.

The point guard is money, the small forward is butter, the center can jam and opponents are toast.

With victory tonight at Tropicana Field, experts can debate where this collection belongs in history. The best since Bob Knight’s 1976 Indiana Hoosiers?

Maybe.

Team for the ages?

UConn argue it.

UConn?

Lost in the gush to judgment regarding Duke’s imminent place in lore is the fact Connecticut has been right on posterity’s tail, cutting a swath almost as large and as wide.

In this Duke-this, Duke-that world of ours, UConn’s own remarkable run toward the title has been somewhat obscured.

Fortunately, UConn gets a center-stage chance to emerge from the long shadows tonight at 6:18 p.m. when it faces done-deal Duke for the championship.

“We are 33-2,” UConn Coach Jim Calhoun reminded Sunday. “We’ve had a pretty good season ourselves.”

How good?

“We expect to win,” Calhoun said.

Connecticut’s players aren’t talking much about place in history should they pull off the upset.

“I’ll let you guys decide that,” UConn point guard Khalid El-Amin said at Sunday’s media session. “You guys are putting Duke in that situation. You guys decide that.”

Just how much better Duke is than Connecticut is open to interpretation. At a Sunday media gathering, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who won three NCAA titles at UCLA, predicted a Duke rout.

Reaction?

“I think his opinion is the wrong one,” El-Amin said.

Maybe El-Amin, et al, have a case.

UConn was No. 1 for 10 weeks in the regular season rankings. Duke was No. 1 for eight weeks.

Tonight’s game marks the first time since 1965, UCLA vs. Michigan, that the only two schools to hold the No. 1 spot during the season will meet in the title game.

Hardly the blueprint for a runaway.

Duke enters the game at 37-1, with a lone defeat to Cincinnati, which lost to Temple in the second round of this year’s East Regional.

UConn is 33-2. Playing without injured starters Richard Hamilton and Jake Voskuhl, the Huskies lost to Syracuse on Feb. 1, then suffered a two-point home loss to Miami on Feb. 20.

Duke has a great point guard in William Avery.

UConn has a great point guard in El-Amin.

Duke has center Elton Brand, the consensus player of the year.

UConn has Hamilton. Consensus is he might have won the award had a thigh injury not slowed him down in February.

Everyone is talking about stopping Brand.

But who, for Duke, is going to stop Hamilton, the leading scorer in the NCAA tournament, averaging 21.4 points in five tournament wins?

Duke’s Chris Carrawell will likely draw the assignment.

“I’ll try and deny him the ball,” Carrawell said, “and hope he misses a lot of shots. That will really help a lot.”

Duke has a defensive ace in Carrawell.

UConn has a defensive ace in Ricky Moore.

Duke has Coach Mike Krzyzewski.

OK, advantage Duke.

Duke has a deeper well, led by freshman swingman Corey Maggette.

“No one comes off the bench with a more talented player,” Krzyzewski conceded.

But Duke also has the burden of having already been crowned champion in the public mind-set. To many, the Blue Devils’ third NCAA title under Coach K is a foregone conclusion.

“If we talked about it, it would be incredibly taxing,” Krzyzewski said. “That’s why we don’t.”

The smart money remains on Duke, but that doesn’t mean UConn doesn’t have pennies to pitch.

First, the Huskies will have to stop Avery, Duke’s getting-better-by-the minute point guard, a player who can dissect and dish with the best.

Answer? UConn can turn to Moore, maybe the nation’s best perimeter defender. Moore held Ohio State’s Scoonie Penn to three-for-13 shooting in Saturday’s national semifinal victory.

Avery thinks he’ll draw Moore at least some of the time, “definitely before the first half ends.”

UConn will also have to double-team Brand with center Jake Voskuhl and a second man, likely forward Kevin Freeman.

“I think the best thing is to double team me,” Brand said. “When I see man-to-man matchup, my eyes light up.”

The risk of helping out on Brand is that it may leave Trajan Langdon alone for open shots.

Langdon is one of the nation’s premiere shooters, making 46.2% of his shots for the season and 43.9% from three-point range.

But leaving Langdon open may be a calculated risk.

How’s that?

Because outside shooters by nature don’t like shooting in airy, domed stadiums, and Langdon has had a miserable time in Tropicana Field, the only domed arena in which he has ever played.

In three games here, two during last year’s South Regionals and Saturday’s national semifinal win over Michigan State, Langdon has made only 11 of 36 shots (30.5%)--five of 20 (25%) from three-point range.

“It’s not the easiest place to shoot in,” Langdon said Sunday. “It’s huge, with not a real good backdrop.”

The rap against UConn, of course, is that it lacks Duke’s swagger. It has posted impressive numbers in the ‘90s but took this long to pull into the Final Four driveway.

“We’ve been criticized for mere excellence,” Calhoun said. “I don’t know that you should be criticized for mere excellence.”

Maybe not, but if UConn wants to put scissors to nets tonight, mere excellence, once again, probably won’t cut it.

TONIGHT

Connecticut

vs. Duke

6 p.m., Ch. 2

GUARDS ARE UP

Play of guards such as William Avery and Trajan Langdon of Duke and Khalid El-Amin and Ricky Moore of Connecticut is critical in the tournament. Page 8

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How They Compare

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Conn Duke Record 33-2 37-1 vs. NCAA field-x 9-2 9-1 vs. Sweet 16-x 2-0 6-0 Home 13-2 14-0 Road 11-0 11-0 Neutral 9-0 12-1 Avg. Pts. 77.3 92.3 Opp. Avg. Pts. 60.9 66.9 Opp. Avg. Pts. 60.9 66.9 Scoring Margin 16.4 25.4 Starters scoring 58.3 67.1 Bench scoring 19.0 25.2 FG Pct. .465 .516 Opp. FG Pct. .386 .388 3-Pt. FG Pct. .343 .397 Opp. 3-Pt. FG Pct. .285 .300 3-Pt. FG-Game 4.9 7.5 Opp. 3-Pt. FG-Game 4.5 4.9 FT Pct. .735 .703 Reb. Avg. 40.2 42.5 Opp. Reb. Avg. 33.1 33.2 Rebound Margin 7.1 9.3 Ast. Avg. 15.4 16.4 Turnover Diff. 1.9 3.0 Steals Avg. 8.1 9.0 Blocks Avg. 4.1 6.3

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x-excluding NCAA tournament games