NCAA: Blue Devils, heavenly touch

John Wooden, Adolph Rupp, and a mentor from West Point named Bob Knight.

Mike Krzyzewski, otherwise known as Coach K, can now join those three names and say that he, too, has won more than two college basketball championships.

In the week leading up to the Final Four and in the aftermath of the National Semifinal win over Maryland, Krzyzewski talked at length about the need for him, as a coach, to adjust to his players and enable them to trust their instincts on the court. When his team fell behind Maryland by 22 on Saturday, Coach K simply told his team to play basketball and abandon any set plays.

It's this emphasis on freedom within the fundamentals that has enabled Krzyzewski's Duke teams to embrace their coach, work hard, and build the Durham, N.C., school into a modern basketball colossus. But within the game of basketball, what's even more important than those significant outcomes is the fact that Duke teams--Coach K teams--always seem to display a complete assortment of well-rounded skills.

Going back to Mark Alarie and Danny Ferry and then continuing with Christian Laettner, Coach K's Duke career has been defined in large part by his ability to mold big men into all-court players who could change and win games in different ways. This trend continued on Championship Monday with the performance of Shane Battier.

For so much of the season, Duke fell in love with the three-point shot. Quick hoists by Jason Williams and Battier himself often prevented the Blue Devils from putting teams away. Battier often seemed tethered to the arc and unwilling to mix it up inside at the offensive end of the floor. His defensive toughness and courage have never been questioned, but on offense, Battier had not displayed a devastating low-post game that would have made Duke a much more complete team. Entering the NCAA Tournament, he needed to add that dimension to an already-diverse set of skills.

In the East Regionals against UCLA and USC, Battier did just that. He spent more time on the blocks, catching entry passes and diving to the basket when he didn't have the ball. Crashing the boards for putbacks and making quick, agile baseline moves became a more natural part of his basketball repertoire--just in time for the biggest games of the year.

Against Maryland, Battier led the biggest Final Four comeback ever. Monday night against Arizona, Battier became relegated to the background as the second half wore on. With Michael Dunleavy hitting three treys in 46 seconds to steal the show in the second half, Battier became something of a forgotten man.

But when a gallant Arizona team, playing with a decidedly damaged Gilbert Arenas, still managed to creep within three points--71-68--in the final five minutes of play, it was Battier who came up with the two biggest plays of Duke's championship season.

Arizona's Richard Jefferson, he of the enormously high vertical leap, had smothered the likes of Illinois' Frank Williams and Michigan State's Jason Richardson with his incredibly rangy and athletic defense. As the game hit its stride and began to feature tremendous shotmaking at both ends of the floor, Jefferson's defense became an even bigger key for a Wildcat team that got within three points on a few occasions late in the game. It was at precisely this moment, with Duke clinging to a small, one-possession lead, that Battier put a final, defining mark on the game and his collegiate career.

On two consecutive possessions, Battier leaped and twisted around a statuesque Jefferson to put back misses--once with a remarkable tap-in, another time with a thunderous dunk--to give Duke a 75-70 lead with less than 2:30 left. After a season of relative passivity when it came to warring in the paint on offense, Battier reached into the well and scored the four prettiest blue-collar points of his Blue Devil career. Showing agility on the tip-in, power on the dunk, and courage in each instance against the acrobatic Jefferson, Battier showed something new within himself, a dimension of versatility not often seen from him during the balance of ACC competition this year.

Once again, Coach K had a keeper in a power forward who proved he could do just about everything, especially when the moment demanded it.

Battier's two putback baskets weren't the only measure of Duke's wonderfully diverse skills. At several points in the game, different Duke players all showed tremendous touch around the basket. Chris Duhon's skyscraping teardrops, Nate James' agile finishes, Dunleavy's silky shots, and Carlos Boozer's use of the glass all revealed a Duke team that met one of the central challenges of basketball at any level: channeling emotions into a focused and effective performance.

In pressure-packed games, adrenaline can easily cause shots to go long and fundamentals to disappear. Not so with Duke. The Blue Devils must have followed John Wooden's advice to "be quick, but don't hurry," as they applied their energy and athleticism to the game without abandoning their instincts and natural skills.

This general facet of basketball is what separated Duke from Arizona on Monday night. The Wildcats had a number of opportunities to finish plays near the basket at critical points in the game, but couldn't convert. Gilbert Arenas, obviously limited by a shoulder injury, lacked a full amount of agility and touch on his forays to the hoop. His shots hit hard off the glass and bounced away, whereas Duke's players got the ball on the glass and the rim with a decidedly softer touch. The Blue Devils got several acrobatic old-fashioned three-point plays at moments when they desperately needed a basket.

After a season of relying on three-point shots, the Devils were able to show the world that they could make old-time three-point plays as well. The Dukies took Krzyzewski-type balance to another level, and it's the reason why they won a national title for the first time since 1992, when the national title game also happened to be played in the Metrodome and Minneapolis.

Because he's always promoted freedom on his Duke teams, Mike Krzyzewski has been able to win NCAA Tournament games in many different ways. After ending a nine-year title drought, Coach K now has his own freedom, a freedom that comes from having as many championships as his mentor, Knight.

The same Bob Knight who helped make Krzyzewski the coach he is today is also the person who, after losing to Coach K's Duke team in the 1992 National Semifinals in the Metrodome, refused to acknowledge his pupil. Nine years later in the same building, Coach K can say that with a third title in his ninth Final Four, he's reached the level of his teacher, and maybe even surpassed it.

Instilling confidence in his players, and enabling them to show the multidimensional skills they displayed on Monday night, is Krzyzewski's secret to success. A touch of everything--toughness and grace, skill and savvy, interior and perimeter excellence--enabled Coach K, Shane Battier, and the 2001 Duke team to embrace ultimate victory once more.