Duke's Kurz, hoops star here, is hoping to attend Villanova

Posted at 12:35 PM, June 1, 2006

Laura Kurz, a former star guard and forward at Germantown Academy, is leaving Duke's powerful women's basketball team and said yesterday that she wants to transfer to Villanova.

"There's been contact, but nothing is final yet," Kurz said from New York, where she has a summer job at a public- relations firm. "There's just a lot of paperwork involved with enrolling, transferring grades, and all that."

She added that she hoped such matters could be resolved "in the next week or so."

Kurz, a prolific three-point shooter, was a substitute the last two seasons for the Blue Devils, who lost the NCAA title game to Maryland, 78-75, in overtime in April.

"I loved my teammates and my coaches, but I like Villanova's system," Kurz said. "I think it would be a better fit for me."

Wildcats coach Harry Perretta acknowledged being contacted but declined to elaborate, citing NCAA transfer rules.

Kurz is perfect for Perretta's offensive schemes, which are built on perimeter players. She shot 59.0 percent from beyond the arc as a senior in high school and 57.0 percent from the field overall.

Duke coach Gail Goestenkors said, "We understand she wanted to get more playing time, and she will have more of an opportunity there at Villanova."

Kurz, who resides in Lower Gwynedd, would have two more seasons of eligibility after sitting out next season under NCAA rules.

She was one of the top high school recruits in the country in 2004, when she finished her career as Germantown Academy's all-time leading scorer with 2,247 points. As a senior, Kurz averaged 22.5 points, 10.1 rebounds and 2.3 steals.

Kurz would be the most significant transfer to the Wildcats since center Brandi Barnes moved from Maryland in 1997.

In two seasons at Duke, Kurz hit 56 of 125 three-point attempts, or 44.8 percent. She averaged 5.6 points and 2.3 rebounds in 13.6 minutes a game.

Kurz would be the second quality transfer to a Big Five school in recent weeks. Penn picked up West Virginia's Sarah Bucar, a sophomore last season.

"That's a good catch for [coach] Pat Knapp," Perretta said of Bucar, who competed against the Wildcats in the Big East Conference. "She's a nice guard."  Cheyney announced yesterday that Darryl Brown would be the interim women's basketball coach. He had been an assistant coach for Jada Pierce, who left the Wolves to become an assistant at Marist in Division I.

Boateng planning to head to ASU

Posted at 7:13 AM, May 18, 2006

Duke transfer Eric Boateng said Monday that he plans to sign with Arizona State.

Boateng, a 6-foot-10 center and a 2005 McDonald's All-American, said he was impressed with new ASU coach Herb Sendek's plans.

"I just feel very comfortable with Coach Sendek's vision for Arizona State," said Boateng, who visited the Tempe campus within a few weeks after the announcement on April 3 that Sendek was leaving North Carolina State for ASU.  NCAA transfer rules mean Boateng, a Duke freshman last year, will have to sit out next season. The first of his three years of eligibility will begin 2007-08.

NCAA rules prohibit Sendek from commenting about transfers until they enroll.

Sendek, who has been with his family in Raleigh, N.C., for the past few days, recruited Boateng before he signed with Duke.

He played little last season, averaging 2.5 minutes in 20 games.

"I just didn't feel like Duke was a good fit for me," said Boateng, who grew up in Great Britain.

According to scouting reports, he still has a lot to learn. However, his potential has been evident. Michigan, Notre Dame and George Washington also recruited him after he announced he was leaving Duke.

After playing prep basketball at St. Andrews School in Middleton, Del., he was recruited heavily by Georgetown, Georgia Tech, UCLA, Villanova, Boston College and North Carolina.

Boateng is the second player to announce he will sign with ASU since Sendek was hired to succeed Rob Evans.

Shooting guard Jerren Shipp of Fairfax High School in Southern California signed a couple of weeks ago. Shipp, who will be a freshman on this season's ASU roster, is the brother of UCLA guard Josh Shipp and former California swingman Joe Shipp.

Duke's patience pays off

Posted at 8:56 AM, May 9, 2006

Duke’s men’s basketball team went nearly a year between additions to the 2006 recruiting class, but it was well worth the wait.

The Blue Devils received commitments from top-30 prospects on three consecutive days in the middle of May 2005, then signed the trio — Gerald Henderson, Jonathan Scheyer and Brian Zoubek — to letters-of-intent in November.

After that, Mike Krzyzewski and his staff poured considerable energy into courting 6-foot-8 Lance Thomas. Last week, the patience paid off as the combination forward from Newark (N.J.) St. Benedict’s chose Duke over Rutgers and Florida. He has a power forward’s size and a small forward’s agility.

Thomas, who is ranked No. 23 by prepstars.com among the nation’s seniors, gives the Blue Devils one of the top-five classes in the country and the second-best in the Atlantic Coast Conference behind only North Carolina.

The Tar Heels have landed five of the top 50 players, including the No. 1 power forward, wing guard and point guard, and six of the top 75 seniors.

ACC schools landed 25 of the top 100 seniors in the country and six of the top 20. In all, the 12 league teams added 48 players, including two junior college transfers.

The spring signing period concludes May 17. After that, colleges may continue to sign athletes, but the letters-of- intent will not be binding.

Indiana to face Duke in Big Ten-ACC Challenge

Posted at 1:23 PM, May 3, 2006

Kelvin Sampson wanted to test himself at one of the nation's most prominent college basketball programs. It won't take him long.

The Indiana Hoosiers will visit Duke on Nov. 28, the second straight year two of the nation's big-name programs will meet in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.

Purdue, meanwhile, will host Virginia on Nov. 29, with the Boilermakers looking to improve on their 1-4 record in the inter-conference matchup.

The Boilermakers last played Virginia in November 2000, when they won in Charlottesville, Va. Purdue also is scheduled to play in this year's Maui Invitational in November, a field that includes Kentucky, Memphis, Oklahoma and UCLA, last year's national runners-up.

The IU-Duke game will the first time in school history that the Hoosiers will travel to Durham, N.C. The top-ranked Blue Devils escaped Bloomington last year with a 75-67 victory.

"Duke is the premier basketball program in the nation," Sampson said Tuesday. "For us, this is a great opportunity, and to me, it is an honor to go to Duke and play. Playing Duke will be a great experience for our kids and will certainly prepare us for the wars we are going to have to play in the Big Ten."

The Hoosiers last victory over Duke came in March 2002, when Indiana rallied from a 17-point halftime deficit to upset the top-ranked Blue Devils 74-73 in a regional semifinal game during the NCAA tournament. Indiana eventually reached the NCAA championship game before losing to Maryland.

This year's Big Ten/ACC Challenge opens Nov. 27 when Michigan plays at North Carolina State.

Other top games include Maryland visiting Illinois on Nov. 28, while Michigan State travels to Boston College on Nov. 29.

The headline game may also come Nov. 29 when Ohio State visits North Carolina, pitting two teams expected to open the season in the Top 10. It also will be a matchup between two of the nation's premier big men - North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough and incoming Ohio State freshman Greg Oden of Indianapolis.

McRoberts says he'll return to Duke

Posted at 12:36 PM, April 28, 2006

ASU awaiting decision from Duke big man

Posted at 10:07 AM, April 25, 2006

Arizona State officials were awaiting word Monday on whether a big man from Duke  will transfer to the Sun Devil basketball program.  Eric Boateng, who played sparingly this past season, is strongly considering ASU, according to sources familiar with the recruiting process. Boateng visited the campus over the weekend.
Boateng, a 6-foot-11 center from England, would have to sit out next season, then would have three years of eligibility remaining.
Boateng averaged 0.7 points and 0.6 rebounds in 2.5 minutes per game for Duke.
Also, Jeff Pendergraph — the team’s best inside player last year — reiterated what he’d said 10 days earlier, that he plans to remain at ASU under new coach Herb Sendek.
“I don’t want to be anywhere else,� said Pendergraph, who acknowledged he was “kind of in the middle� about whether to leave when ASU fired Rob Evans last month.
But he decided to stay after getting to know Sendek and his staff.
Also, the fact that he’s grown close to his teammates was “a big factor� in his decision.
“We’re like brothers,� he said.
“It seemed like a waste to go to another school to build camaraderie, when I have excellent camaraderie and brotherhood already.�
The 6-10 Pendergraph, who made the All-Pac-10 freshman team, will be a sophomore next season.
“I’ve really enjoyed getting to know him,� Sendek said. “He’s a terrific young man.�
ASU has 10 players on scholarship now, including incoming freshmen Christian Polk, a guard from Glendale Deer Valley High School, and George Odufuwa of Kimball High School in Dallas.
Another player who had planned on playing at ASU when Evans was the coach, Josh Love of Hill College in Texas, is not being recruited by the current staff.
ASU has two scholarship openings; they hope to fill one of them with Boateng.

Former Duke Basketball Player To Coach Oklahoma

Posted at 8:17 AM, April 12, 2006

Jeff Capel was hired as Oklahoma's basketball coach Tuesday, resigning at Virginia Commonwealth to replace Kelvin Sampson and take over a program under NCAA investigation.

"In everything we do we're going to strive to be excellent, in the community, in the classroom and on the court," Capel, a former Duke  player, said at a news conference after being introduced by Sooners athletic director Joe Castiglione.

"I really feel this is a place, the University of Oklahoma, where you can win the whole thing."

Castiglione predicted success for the 31-year-old Capel.

"We know he is going to be the next great coach of Oklahoma basketball and one who is going to make all of you and our fans everywhere very, very proud," he said.

Capel was 79-41 in four seasons as coach at VCU. He signed a two-year contract extension last month that ran through 2012.

"We are both sad and happy with Jeff's announcement that he is going to Oklahoma," VCU athletic director Richard Sander said. "He did a great job here, and we know he will do a great job there."

Sampson left to become Indiana's coach March 29. Sampson was 279-109 in 12 seasons at Oklahoma.

The Sooners are awaiting a decision from the NCAA in a case involving more than 550 improper recruiting phone calls by Sampson and his staff. The accusations against Oklahoma include "lack of institutional control," one of the NCAA's most serious findings.

Oklahoma has argued for a lesser "failure in monitoring" finding and instituted self-imposed sanctions including probation and recruiting cutbacks. A hearing is scheduled April 21 in Utah.

Capel, whose father is an assistant coach for the Charlotte Bobcats, led VCU to the Colonial Athletic Association title and an NCAA tournament berth in 2004 and then to the NIT in 2005, the school's first consecutive postseason berths since 1985. His Rams finished this season 19-10 and did not make the postseason after losing to Hofstra in the conference tournament quarterfinals.

The signature of his VCU teams was defense. This season, the Rams allowed 62.4 points a game. On offense, they averaged only 12.5 turnovers and made nearly eight 3-pointers a game.

Capel inherits an Oklahoma team that loses three of its top four scorers and top three rebounders in seniors Taj Gray, Terrell Everett and Kevin Bookout, but features a strong recruiting class that includes McDonald's All-American guard Scottie Reynolds from Herndon, Va.

Capel started 28 games as a freshman guard alongside Grant Hill on Duke's 1994 team that made it to the NCAA championship game but lost to Arkansas. He graduated in 1997, then played in the CBA and in France before beginning his coaching career as an assistant to his father, Jeff Capel Jr., at Old Dominion.

He moved to VCU as an assistant in 2001 and became the head coach the following year. At 27, he was the youngest head coach in Division I at the time.

Don't mess with Texas: State falls short in bid for Barnes

Posted at 7:20 AM, April 7, 2006

N.C. State offered him tons of money, a chance to come home and the challenge of going up against Duke and North Carolina for Tobacco Road supremacy. But in the end, Texas apparently offered Rick Barnes a little bit more.

According to sources close to the process, after a strong push from the Wolfpack, Barnes has decided to remain in Austin. State, meanwhile, has turned its attention to other candidates to replace Herb Sendek, who left for Arizona State this week after 10 years in Raleigh.

Barnes' decision ends a five-day period in which Wolfpack fans held their collective breaths while Barnes never publicly conceded he was even considering an offer.

But multiple sources said State and Barnes conducted the process through third-party attorneys.

Wolfpack officials had hoped they could offer a mix of nostalgia and opportunity that would appeal to Barnes.

As a teenager growing up in Hickory, Barnes followed State closely, particularly the years when David Thompson starred for the Wolfpack. Barnes had spoken fondly of how a Wolfpack alumnus, Paul Gavitt, helped give him his start in college coaching, first by taking him to the ACC Men's Tournament in Greensboro, then by setting up a job interview with Davidson coach Eddie Biedenbach, another State alumnus.

Barnes had confided to friends in the past that the State job had always interested him. And he had shown a clear willingness to battle with the titans of the ACC when he was a coach at Clemson, most famously having a confrontation with UNC coach Dean Smith at the 1994 ACC tournament.

But by staying in Texas, Barnes chose to remain at the head of a strong program he has built into a consistent national championship contender.

In recent years he has had the pick of the best recruits in Texas, which is loaded with basketball talent. And this year he even branched out to Maryland, where he beat out UNC for forward Kevin Durant, a top-five recruit in the class of 2006.

Barnes also will likely get a significant raise to stay in Austin.

State was offering a package worth considerably more than the reported $1.3 million in annual compensation Barnes currently receives. Texas athletics director DeLoss Dodds said this week that he intends to make sure Barnes is among the top 10 college basketball coaches nationally in compensation.

While Barnes is closing that deal with Texas, State athletics director Lee Fowler will be turning his attention elsewhere.

Fowler has kept details of his search to a minimum, but names that have surfaced in various media reports include Kentucky coach Tubby Smith, a High Point University graduate; Miami coach Frank Haith, an Elon graduate; and LSU coach John Brady, who guided the Tigers to the Final Four this season.

Terrapins' talent shines through

Posted at 3:57 PM, April 6, 2006

Talented but young. That was the label hung on the Maryland women's basketball team all season -- all the way to the program's first-ever national championship.

After Tuesday's night's stunning 78-75 overtime upset of archrival Duke  in the title game, the Terrapins ended any speculation that they might be a year away from true greatness.

"They have nothing to say anymore," said junior Shay Doron, who serves as the elder statesman because there are no seniors in the starting lineup.

In the Terps' case, talent overcame inexperience and carried the program to a school-record 34 victories - with the biggest of all coming against the Blue Devils.

And yet, in retrospect, it's no stretch to say that the Terps were an unlikely champion.

Doron and post player Crystal Langhorne, the team's top two scorers in 2004-05, returned at the start of the season to anchor the team. Highly-regarded freshmen Marissa Coleman and Kristi Toliver joined that duo and immediately had an impact, providing ballhandling, shooting and versatility. Laura Harper, limited to nine games last season because of a torn Achilles' tendon, worked her way back into the starting lineup and provided another post presence in addition to Langhorne.

Nobody doubted that Maryland would be good; they were 14th in the preseason rankings.

But with three virtually new players coming on board, no one beyond the Comcast Center could have foreseen the season that would follow.

"Surreal" was one word that Frese used to describe it yesterday, following a raucous celebratory pep rally that drew more than 1,000 true believers.

The talent was certainly there; no team wins without it. All five starters were high school superstars coveted by virtually every program in the country. All wound up at Maryland in large part because of Frese's energy and enthusiasm. She sought players interested in winning a first championship at Maryland, rather than another one at an established power such as Tennessee or Connecticut. That common sense of purpose and shared goal helped carry the team through some tight situations.

The Terps were 6-0 in overtime games, including the championship game and an upset of then top-ranked North Carolina in Chapel Hill. In the final against Duke, the Terps rallied from a 13-point second-half deficit. In the Terps' victory over the Tar Heels (their only loss of the regular season), they came from 14 points down with 12 minutes to play.

Great chemistry was the reason Frese cited most often for the team's surprising success.

"I've not witnessed a team like I had this season," she said. "They were each others' best friends. They were hungry, they listened, they wanted to get better."

All five starters averaged in double figures, meaning that the team was virtually immune to long scoring droughts if one player struggled. Doron labored through much of the NCAA Tournament, but tied for team honors with 16 points in the final, including the Terps' first four in overtime. In the narrow 81-74 victory over St. John's in the NCAA's second round, Langhorne scored a game-high 30 points on 11-for-16 shooting on a night when her teammates combined to hit just 15-of-43 shots. In the regional final against Utah, the Utes sagged inside to prevent Langhorne from another big scoring night. So Toliver fired away from the outside, finishing with a career-high 28 points as the Terps earned a spot in the Final Four for the first time in 17 years.

"On any given night," Frese said. "Someone's gonna step up."

Experience also played a role in Maryland's success this season - despite the team's overall youth. Doron, Langhorne and Coleman all gained international experience last summer. Toliver and Harper, meanwhile, practically grew up with the game. Harper's father was a standout player at George Washington in the 1970s, while Toliver's dad played at James Madison and in the old American Basketball Association before becoming an NBA referee.

Though just a freshman, Toliver has been around the game since she was a toddler and possesses a confidence that belies her youth. Frese wanted her to take the potential game-trying shot near the end of regulation, although Toliver improvised on the play. She was supposed to receive a pass, come around a screen, pass off and then get the ball again behind another screen. But Toliver, despite a 1-for-9 first half, took matters into her own hands, and simply kept the ball herself. She managed to create some space between herself and Duke's 6-foot-7 Alison Bales, and popped in the 3-pointer that ultimately forced the overtime.

"If I'd given it up, who knows what might have happened?" she said. "I just felt like I wanted the ball in my hands. I've always kind of had that swagger. I've always wanted to be better than anybody I played against."

Thanks to her heroics, now the Terps can justifiably say they are better than anyone.

Of all the players on this year's team, probably none can appreciate what the Terps have accomplished collectively more than Doron. Though still just a junior, she's got the most perspective on what has happened and how far the program has come. She was Frese's first top-of-the-line recruit and one of the few who still around from the difficult days of that first 10-18 season. Since then, she has watched the talent around her improve and the expectations grow. In her mind, there's no one thing that keyed the run to the championship. On the court or in the locker room, it was the mixture that created the success.

"It's the balance, it's the experience, it's the bond we have with each other," she said.

A 1-2 Punch in Final

Posted at 11:35 AM, April 4, 2006

NCAA women's basketball championship game has seen its share of high-powered offenses, but Tuesday night's game between Duke  and Maryland may set a new standard. In the past, the high-scoring teams that made it this far were carried by one spectacular player, such as Connecticut's Diana Taurasi in 2004 or Tennessee's Chamique Holdsclaw in 1998.

But the Blue Devils and the Terrapins, who finished 1-2 in the nation in scoring this season, feature much more diverse attacks. Each team features scorers at every position. While Duke's Monique Currie and Maryland's Crystal Langhorne lead their teams in star power, neither needs to have an outstanding game in order for her team to win.  We're the true definition of a team," Maryland forward Laura Harper said. "We don't have a star, really. We don't look at anyone as being the player to stop because when you try to stop one of our players somebody else goes off. I think that's why we're so hard to beat."

Maryland has five players scoring in double figures, led by Langhorne's 17.4 points per game. And while Langhorne has been impressive throughout the tournament, the Terrapins wouldn't have made it to the championship game without Kristi Toliver pouring in 28 points against Utah in the region final or Harper exploding for 24 points against North Carolina in the national semifinal.

At 16.2 points per game, Currie is one of three players averaging in double figures for Duke. Yet the Blue Devils would not have made it this far without Alison Bales scoring 15 points and grabbing 13 rebounds against Connecticut in the region final or Abby Waner erupting for 14 points against Michigan State in the region semifinal.

Duke Coach Gail Goestenkors has long been a proponent of high-scoring, crowd-pleasing basketball. In her 14 seasons at the school, the Blue Devils have scored 100 points or more 42 times. This season, they have topped the century mark six times and reached 90 points a school-record 15 times. Their 86.3 points per game leads Division I. Without a doubt, it is a style that appeals to her players.

"I'd rather transition all day than have to run a play," Currie said. "It's just more fun that way, and you can play more freely."

Maryland's scoring average has skyrocketed since Coach Brenda Frese's arrival in 2002. Before she came to College Park, the Terrapins rarely broke 70 points. In three seasons, Maryland has gone from 67.4 points per game to 83.5 points per game -- second best in Division I.

"That's what people want to see in basketball," Maryland guard Shay Doron said. "They want to see the ball go in the basket.

"I love the pace of our games. [Frese] knew recruiting me, if you're going to build a program, and if I'm going to be a main part of that, it's going to have to be that kind of game."

Point guards play a big role in setting the tone and tempo of a game, and both teams have point guards who excel in this style. Duke's Lindsey Harding uses her defense to create fast-break opportunities and has a knack for finding teammates in the open court. Toliver has a good court awareness as well as a talent for hitting back-breaking three-pointers. Harding gave Maryland fits in Duke's 86-68 win in January. She tied a career high with 19 points and was a big reason the Blue Devils shot 58 percent from the floor.

"I think she's their best player on the team," Doron said. "Monique Currie probably gets all the attention and whatnot, but Harding does all the little things for them."

The key to setting up the fast break is rebounding, and both teams have post players who are dogged underneath the basket. Maryland grabs a Division I-leading 12.3 rebounds more than its opponents. Duke is outrebounding its competition by more than 10 per game. The Blue Devils had more rebounds in each of their two wins against the Terrapins this season, but fewer rebounds in their loss to Maryland. It is for that reason that the Terrapins have put a particular emphasis on rebounding, posting signs to remind the players of its importance.

"They are everywhere, even when we are sitting on the toilet," Harper said.

Indications are that this style of basketball is here to stay. A high school player scored 113 points in a game this year. A college redshirt freshman dunked twice in a game. The teams playing for the national championship are the two that lead Division I in scoring.

"Players are a lot more athletic," Currie said. "They're taking more shots, hitting more threes and the game is a lot faster so with that, scores are higher. I think that makes the game a lot more fun."

And the players believe it is exactly what women's basketball needs.

"I think the improved scoring helps the game a lot," Harper said. "I think most [people] look at the women's game as a slower-paced game, kind of boring, not really up and down. Now we are scoring, getting fast breaks, showing emotion and catching people's eyes. I think that is what is needed for the sport."

Put up your Dukes

Posted at 12:52 PM, March 20, 2006

Mike Krzyzewski was going to beat everyone to the punch, throw it out there before someone else could grab a microphone and present the question to his beleaguered star. This is the Duke  coach's time of year, a master of March psychology trying to diffuse a modicum of the pressure on J.J. Redick. 

Duke's star missed five free throws, a crisis of Tobacco Road proportion surrounding the best foul shooter in NCAA history.

"We're going to have Shelden Williams work with J.J.," Krzyzewski said Saturday, a sheepish smile working its way across his sarcastic lips. "I've been waiting four years to needle him about his free throw shooting."

Now, Redick was laughing, his coach finding a way to turn one more late-season crack in his star's game into a laughing matter. Mostly, Krzyzewski wants to see Redick take a deep breath and smile.

In the interview room, Redick did smile. Usually, he takes it all. All the Duke hate, all the envy, all the vitriol, it somehow seems to get bottled up and unleashed on Redick. He's too good. Too pretty. Too ... too ... too Duke.

"He's human," Krzyzewski said.

Redick has never been so human for the Duke Blue Devils. There's a burden that goes with chasing greatness at Duke, a Yankees kind of burden that you're never really a true Blue Devils great in modern times until you've won a national championship. The George Washington Colonials promised a hellacious NCAA tournament game for Redick at the Coliseum, something they were unable to deliver in a 74-61 loss to No. 1 Duke.

The best the Colonials could do was get Redick to miss five of seven free throws -- including three straight for the first time this season. At 92 percent for his career -- 95 percent in the NCAA tournament -- it was an unspeakable sequence for Redick. So, he'll go back into Cameron Indoor Stadium tonight and shoot 500 when everyone else is sleeping.

"I'll be teasing him all the way back to campus," Duke's Sean Dockery said.

I'm still holding onto my Wooden Award ballot for the national player of the year. It's due just before the Final Four, so I'll let Gonzaga's Adam Morrison and Redick fight it out throughout the rest of the month. Redick had a historic ACC tournament. Morrison dropped 35 points in Gonzaga's opening-round victory over Xavier. But this season, Redick did it in the ACC, and did it with the world rooting so hard against him. In the year of the white guy in college basketball, the two have developed a cellphone and e-mail friendship throughout the year.

Still, they have a lot less in common than you would assume. There's so little pressure on Morrison, who helped defeat Indiana on Saturday night to join Duke in the Sweet 16. Morrison is a cult figure with that goofy mustache and gangly body and underdog school. Redick is no soft suburban kid, but people love to cast him in the role.

"You can't imagine how mentally tough J.J. needs to be, with all that comes at him," Dockery said.

He is some resourceful player, though. George Washington kept running defenders at him, kept trying to muscle him with long, fresh bodies. Still, Redick did his damage for 20 points. He would pick up his third foul early in the second half, but would never let himself get the fourth. He has a maddening habit of initiating an entanglement with a defender, locking his arms with his man's and then feigning that he's getting held. He did it to the Colonials' Carl Elliott, drawing the call, and you could just see Elliott doing a slow burn.

That's what Redick does to people: Just gets under their skin, gets them good and angry and then usually puts them away. He's the greatest scorer in ACC history, a Blue Devil legend with just one agenda left in his career. That's the first Monday night in April, that's cutting down the nets at the Final Four.

"For the seniors, we've already been to the Sweet 16 three other times," Redick said. "We're looking for a bit more than that."

Duke is still the team to beat in this tournament. That never changes. Redick is still the player to stop in college basketball. Always, they're coming for him.

Colonials want to gain respect from Duke, nation

Posted at 10:32 AM, March 17, 2006

George Washington Colonials will try to gain respect from Duke , nation. 700.

It was a game between two "overs."

UNC-Wilmington is good but felt overlooked. George Washington is good but is said to be "overrated."

So how did it go?

To overtime, of course.

UNCW "exposed" George Washington in the second half as the Seahawks jumped to an 18-point lead with 11 minutes left.

Then George Washington showed the strength behind its top-10 ranking by storming back to force overtime and win 88-85 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Afterward, GW coach Karl Hobbs was using another "over" word, calling his team an "overachiever."

The problem is that the overachiever with only two losses and the most wins in school history now must face top-ranked and No. 1-seeded Duke in the second round.

The only "over" for George Washington may be "it's over."

Or is it?

Conventional analysis would say that any team that struggles so mightily with UNCW is no match for Duke. And perhaps the struggle itself will make George Washington even weaker in the second round.

Still, the Colonials are a danger for Duke. GW wasn't happy it didn't get seeded higher than No. 8.

Duke isn't happy about stepping into what should be an easy second-round game and finding a team that's 27-2, especially after the Blue Devils struggled some with No. 16 seed Southern.

But GW's ranking and record aren't what should worry Duke. What's impressive is the way GW plays.

Hobbs calls it "share the game." The Colonials rotate the ball on the perimeter and look for their big man, 6-foot-9 senior Pops Mensah-Bonsu inside.

When Mensah-Bonsu isn't open or on the bench (as he was for 18 minutes of Thursday's 45-minute game), GW takes 3-pointers (10-for-22) or drives.

The part of Thursday's box score that will get Duke's attention is this: Seven GW players played significant minutes, and six of them scored in double figures.

Mensah-Bonsu, a regular star of ESPN's dunk highlights, said he welcomes the chance to show the country how GW can play against Duke.

"I was looking forward to it once I saw our seeding and what could happen in the second round," he said, "I said, 'This is what college basketball is about. This is what dreams are made of.' If we can go out and play like we can, we can prove to everybody that we deserve a little bit more respect."

Beyond balance, Duke must be wary of GW's tenacity. It begins with Hobbs, a 44-year-old former Connecticut point guard who instills his own intensity into his team.

In Hobbs' first game as GW's coach, the Colonials came back from 19 points down to beat Marshall. The team has come back often this year and is 6-2 when trailing at halftime.

"We've been in this situation before," Hobbs said of being down 18 to UNCW. "The resiliency and the will to win is just incredible, and it really speaks to the character of my players."

Mike Hall, a 6-8 forward and one of four starting seniors, said, "I can't explain how we can get down, but I know how we get back. Just being a mature team, guys banding together and knowing what we got to do to win. Just that 'never die' attitude. Everybody on the team, from the stars to the walk-ons, have it."

In coming back, the fog of obscurity lifted off the team from D.C.'s Foggy Bottom.

Thursday's comeback was the Colonials' first NCAA Tournament win in 12 seasons. Their No. 8 seed, though disputed, is their highest ever.

But GW could use a win over Duke to come all the way up. Junior guard Danilo Pinnock said the team often is reminded the nation hasn't quite figured out who the Colonials are.

"We still get confused with Georgetown sometimes in the airport," he said.

On Saturday, George Washington wouldn't mind be mixed up with the Hoyas. Georgetown was the first of only three teams to beat Duke in the regular season.

George Washington wants to be the first in the postseason.