Ocular Fusion

"Let me just say first of all, it was a very physical game...we just never adjusted to their physicality."--Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski following the Blue Devils loss to LSU

"Certain things are in your control and certain things are out of your control. I'm not a great athlete, and LSU has great athletes."--J.J. Redick in a postgame interview

Both Coach K and J.J. Redick, stunned following the Blue Devils 62-54 loss to LSU in last night's Atlanta regional semifinal, are speaking in code. Coach K and J.J. are much too classy to just lay it all out there, but I'm not Coach K or J.J. and I can say whatever I want since nobody cares what I think anyway, so allow me to translate:

Coack K: "Those guys were all over Shelden and J.J. like cats on a June Bug. In fact, Garrett Temple spent so much time holding J.J.'s hands that I could have swore he was J.J.'s prom date except for the fact that that he wasn't wearing a tuxedo. Unfortunately, once again we had the bad luck of drawing Bruce 'Dang it, where did I put my glasses again?' Hicks who, by the time he drags his aging carcass to the other end of the floor, doesn't have enough oxygen left to blow his whistle. Hey, but even when we did get open looks, we missed them, and although Shelden was magnificent, there was no one else stepping up to pick up the slack. Bottom line, we got beat by a very good team (not great, as will be proven in their loss to Texas in the next game) and we're going home. But you're not done with me, because you'll be watching my commericals all the way to Indianapolis--Ha!"

Redick: "I can shoot the lights out with only a fraction of available time and space, but tonight I had the leanest, meanest black dude that I've seen all season covering me. Dang, that was one quick brother! And then there was that other dude (Tyrus Thomas) who I could have swore had springs in his shoes considering how many shots he packed and alley-oops he intercepted."

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm not black and only 6'4", which means that I can barely dunk and was no match for this guy's "athleticism." Yeah, it cuts like a knife, and yeah, people will say I "choke" in the big games because I never won a title, but just let anyone of those naysaying jerks get their fat, middle-age arses out on the floor and try to do what I did over the past four years and then come back and talk smack to me. I know all the Duke Haters wanted me to start crying, and yeah, I got a little teary, but I kept up a stiff upper lip and shook everyone's hand like a classy guy should without giving my many enemies the satisfaction of seeing me lie down on the floor and pull my jersey over my head and cry like a baby as Adam Morrison did (poor guy, I know that had to hurt)."

"In a few months, I'll have a wheelbarrel full of records and personal honors, a Duke degree and a multimillion dollar NBA contract in hand. After that, I'll be able to spend the next decade raining down my patented treys all across this great country of ours because I guarantee you I'll never see defense like that in the NBA! Believe me, it could be worse."

Credit LSU with doing what no other team in the country has been able to do this year--solve the J.J. problem. And that, simply put, was the difference in the game. LSU employed a strategy that many soccer teams use when facing a high scoring, superior opponent--expend every ounce of energy on containing their biggest gun and pack it all in on defense in order to keep the score low and hope for just enough scoring opportunities of your own to squeak by.

LSU employed this strategy to perfection, taking Redick out of the game, so much so that even when he did get a rare open look he wasn't able to find the bottom of the net most of the time. Shelden carried the Dookies on his broad shoulders, but freshmen McRoberts and Paulus just weren't able to provide the necessary supplemental assistance to pull Duke through. And there was also the mysterious absence of both Sean Dockery and Lee Melchioni (come on boys, the two of you couldn't combine for nine measly points?) from the scoring column, with Dockery in particular passing up several open looks in the first few minutes of the game, earning him a quick trip to the bench. Add it all up and it comes to a trip home to Durham for the Dookies and a relatively easy waltz into the Final Four for the Texas Longhorns.

With Duke shooting a paltry 27.7% FG percentage for the game, a great team such as Memphis, Villanova or UConn would have put the Dookies away by 30-40 pts. The Bengal Tigers barely had enough to win, shooting only 39% from the field and less than 50% from the free throw stripe and were very careless in their ballhandling, none of which bodes well for an upset of Texas. Now that I've had the benefit of seeing who's hot and who's not, I would have to pick the Memphis Tigers at this point. I like their depth, balance and, ahem, "athleticism," and John Calipari is a great coach who is overdue for a title. There's still some great action and heartbreaking moments ahead and I'm predicting a typical Final Four photofinish.

As for my Dookies, their lack of balance and depth caught up with them in the end, but it may turn out that the nucleus of another championship team has already been formed in Durham, even with the disappointing finish. McRoberts and Paulus, who will be very "old" sophomores next year after their freshman-year baptism of fire, will be joined by yet another Blue Chip recruiting class. It probably won't happen next year, but in two years, after Boykin, Pocius, Boateng and the new recruits have developed as players, a team very similar in depth and appearance to the 2001 National Champions will have emerged. Still, I can't help but wistfully dream of "what might have been" this year had Luol Deng stayed at Duke (he would have been only a junior this year) and had Shaun Livingston not gone directly to the NBA from high school...

Yeah, I'm feeling a little Blue Devil blue this morning, but it's a pretty day outside and I have the day off. Like J.J. says, it could be worse.