Duke Is Once Again at Final Forefront

Shane Battier spoke first in the timeout. It was something more than a request, something just short of a command.

His Duke Blue Devils led USC by six points with 14:41 remaining in the East Regional final.

“Let’s go to the Final Four!” Battier said. “Let’s pick it up!”

Mike Krzyzewski got the last word. His players left the huddle, but CBS network wasn’t finished with its commercial break. So he called his troops back to the sideline.

“Take control of this game,” he said.

That’s what Duke does this time of year. The Blue Devils take control and they go to the Final Four.

Chris Duhon made a three-pointer. A minute and a half later, Jason Williams drove for a layup. One minute after that, Williams passed to Casey Sanders for a dunk. The Blue Devils scored seven points after the timeout, the Trojans made only a free throw. Duke led, 58-46, with 11:24 to play, 11 1/2 minutes to Minneapolis. The countdown began. Only a game effort by a determined but overmatched USC squad made it worthwhile to watch through the final minute of Duke’s 79-69 victory.

Some teams and some coaches wilt under the magnitude of the regional final, when the goal is so close but the pressure so great.

Not Duke and Mike Krzyzewski. When they get to this point they’re like horses that catch sight of the ranch. They just keep galloping until they get home.

Krzyzewski is now 9-1 in regional finals. The Blue Devils are especially comfortable at either end of the New Jersey Turnpike. They have won four regional finals in East Rutherford, N.J., and this is their second in Philadelphia.

“I have always thought that a regional championship was the toughest game for a coach to win,” Krzyzewski said. “Going to a Final Four as a coach, it’s The Thing. You have reached the promised land. I have been fortunate to have players to get me through the regionals, and to see a player like [Chris] Duhon drive us into the Final Four is very gratifying for me.”

It almost isn’t fair. You can make the argument that the Blue Devils have only two players who can beat you: Battier and Williams. But those two happen to be the best in the country. Indisputable. The only argument is over who is better, or more valuable.

If you focus on shutting those two down--and the Trojans did as good a job as possible in the second half Saturday night--the “other guys” include a former national high school player of the year in Duhon and a guy who can do Dr. J-like stuff on you, if you’re not careful, in Mike Dunleavy Jr.

Everywhere these Blue Devils turn, they get advice from someone who’s been there. At halftime, assistant head coach Johnny Dawkins, who scored 24 points for Duke in the 1986 championship game, is pulling Williams aside to give him a few pointers. Assistant coach Chris Collins played in the 1994 Final Four.

Battier, who played in the 1999 championship game, is the best leader in college basketball. He’s the hoops equivalent of Mark Messier, as he demonstrated in his little timeout speech.

“Sometimes you lose focus of the fact that we were playing for the Final Four,” Battier said. “I was just being a good mother hen and reminding them.”

But it all starts at the top, and fortunately for the Blue Devils, Krzyzewski still loves this, still lives for this.

“I told my team I was so excited before this game,” Krzyzewski said. “I think I was more excited than my team. I said, ‘Look guys, I’m so excited. Just play your butts off.’

“If it gets old, then I should leave. It’s not old. It’s extremely exciting and fulfilling to have a team win a regional championship and make a Final Four.”

Only two men have taken their teams to more Final Fours than Krzyzewski: John Wooden (12) and Dean Smith (11).

Since Coach K first went to the Final Four in 1986, only one four-year class at Duke has gone their entire careers without a Final Four trip. And that Class of 1998 lost to Kentucky by two points in the regional final.

It used to go without saying that every Duke player stayed all four years. That changed in 1999, when sophomores Elton Brand and William Avery and freshman Corey Maggette left after the team lost to Connecticut in the championship game.

It only served to make this return to prominence and dominance even more satisfying.

“This has been two years coming,” Battier said. “Especially with all the defections two years ago. People said, ‘Duke will never be able to have four-year players again and get back to this level.’ This is a special day, for us to go back to the Final Four.”

One year, Krzyzewski didn’t allow his players to participate in the traditional cutting of the nets after a regional final because he didn’t want them to be satisfied until they reached the ultimate goal. He acknowledged Saturday night that it was an act of temporary dementia.

These are moments to celebrate. Each player and coach got a chance to snip a piece of the net closest to their bench. The rest of it was packed up with the team equipment to be sent back to Durham, N.C.

Meanwhile, Duhon, the freshman, went to the other end of the court and cut down the net to wear as a nylon necklace.

‘I didn’t think anybody wanted it, so I kept it,” Duhon said. “But they’ll probably take it away from me.”

“We’ll get that from him,” a Duke official said. “Freshmen don’t run off with the nets.”

They do it that way because they have rules and they have a hierarchy at Duke. It sure isn’t because they have a shortage of nets.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com.