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Paulus Brothers Bleed for Greg and Hoyas
12/5/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By John Roth, Blue Devil Weekly
DURHAM, N.C. - All four of Greg Paulus' older brothers, along with their father Dave, were crammed into the bleachers behind the Duke bench on Saturday night, in heavy anticipation of another basketball war between the Blue Devils and the Georgetown Hoyas. The brothers Paulus ? David, Matt, Dan, Chris ? all attended Georgetown, most recently Chris, who just finished his senior year as a football linebacker who led the team in tackles.
Matthew Laurance of the Duke Radio Network approached with a microphone about 45 minutes before tipoff and the chatter was on. One claimed superiority as the dominant force in the family's legendary ping-pong battles back home in New York. Another suggested that he was the best athlete of the group, “followed second by Greg, then our little sister Sarah third, and these other three tied for fourth.” Eyes rolled. And no mention of the sixth Paulus brother, Mike, who's slated to arrive at UNC as a football quarterback next year.
You could almost imagine the lively conversation and banter at dinner the night before as the guys arrived in Durham from all over the country for a long weekend reunion, David coming the farthest, from California.
“We're bleeding Hoya blue, but we're here supporting our brother,” said Chris.
Georgetown's student newspaper queried the guys in the days leading up to the contest and found that last year, when the Hoyas handed the top-ranked Devils their first loss, David, a former football and basketball player at the school, didn't mind rubbing it in with Greg afterward.
The Paulus pipeline to Georgetown is so strong that father Dave jokingly suggested the university could name the new wing of the business school for him with all the tuition he's paid. And he'd love to see Sarah become his fifth child to enroll at Georgetown, as a member of the women's basketball team.
“But I am for Duke in this one,” the elder Paulus confirmed. “I am so proud of Greg, and he is off to a good start this season. I think Duke wins on Saturday.”
His forecast proved accurate, and his son had a huge hand in making it so with his best performance since injuring his foot on the second day of preseason practice.
Greg started slow with no points and three turnovers in the first half, which concluded with the Georgetown alumni cheering a 34-27 lead. But it ended with Duke rallying for a 61-52 victory and Greg the last to leave the floor as the player-of-the-game TV interviewee with ESPN's Doris Burke.
Paulus had 13 points and just one turnover while playing 18 of the final 20 minutes. He was not the only one to make a big play, as he frequently mentioned later, but he made more than his share. Perhaps the biggest came with five minutes left in a tie game, when he raced down the floor on a fastbreak and scored to make it 51-49, giving the Blue Devils the lead for good.
“It was a long rebound and I saw two Georgetown guys and I think I even saw Jon Scheyer coming,” Paulus recounted. “Everybody was going to get it and I felt if I tried to jump and tried to run then I would've been called for a travel. So I just tried to tip it up to myself and push it because I didn't see anybody in front of me. If they were all set up, I was going to pull the ball out, but I saw a little seam and just tried to be aggressive and take it to the basket.”
Contrast that with Paulus' second game back, three weeks ago against Georgia Southern, when he was motoring down the floor on a fastbreak and tried to feed the ball to a teammate for the finish. The ball instead hit a Georgia Southern player in the head, then bounced fortuitously to DeMarcus Nelson, who caught it in stride for the layup. Clearly pressing and forcing some of his passes, Paulus was not as fortunate on several other plays in that game in finishing with five turnovers, and he had six in back-to-back games in Kansas City the following week.
But he has gradually cut down on the mistakes as he's gotten healthier and more comfortable on the floor, leading to his best showing of the young season in one of the games that means the most to him because of the sibling rivalry.
“I've still got some work to do,” he said. “I was a little tired toward the end, and I like to be my strongest at the end. So I'm going to continue to do extra work before and after practice, extra conditioning. It's good to get the win here, but I understand I've got a lot of work to do.
“Just the fact that my four brothers came from all over the country for this game, it was kinda like the Georgetown-Duke reunion. They also came to the one last year. They got us last year and we got them this year.”
Several minutes before his breakaway, Paulus drained a three-pointer at the end of the shot clock on a pass from Josh McRoberts. A few moments after the big fastbreak, he scored on another drive to make it 53-50.
Manly was the adjective Mike Krzyzewski used. No Paulus, in royal or Hoya blue, could disagree.
Duke's defense took over from there, allowing Georgetown just one tipin the rest of the way, that coming in the final minute.
In fact, over the last six minutes, the Hoyas were able to score just that one field goal and one free throw against the Devils, while missing 11 of their last 12 shots.
A defense that has yielded 52 points or less in all six home games thus far was at it again, as Georgetown hit just 6-of-23 from the floor in the second half.
“That's the way it's always going to be. That's coach's big thing, the defensive end,” Paulus said, “and if we're playing defense the offense eventually will catch up. We just tried to go out there and make as many plays as possible, try to contain them, try not to get beat backdoor, and we really just played hard.”
Just about everyone came through with a boost at some point in this game, from Nelson with his quick start to Scheyer with his nine second half points to McRoberts with his team highs in points, rebounds and assists.
But everyone also acknowledged that it was good to see Paulus starting to return to form.
“He stepped up bigger than I've ever seen,” said McRoberts. “That was the best game I've ever seen him play. He really stepped up big when we needed him.”
“He seemed a lot more assertive and a lot more aggressive in the second half,” Georgetown coach John Thompson said. “It seemed like the first half he was trying to get everyone else involved in the game, but in the second half he decided to get himself involved. I thought for the most part we did a decent job with him. He had a couple of breakaways and made some tough layups in the second half that he was missing in the first half. He is a very good player, he's experienced and it's hard to contain that guy.”
Krzyzewski didn't start Paulus in three of the first six games but decided the Georgetown game was a time to test his limits and see if he was ready to play extended minutes. He got his answer.
“He got off to a little bit of a shaky start but then he really showed a lot of poise and toughness,” said the coach. “He's still not in the shape that he will be in, but he played with a lot of courage tonight and did a good job on (Jonathan) Wallace. I like Wallace; he's a really good guard and their best shooter and he only had seven points, which was a big thing for us.”
October and November were months of rehabbing, stationary bikes, electric boned stimulators and shoe orthotics for Paulus. December opened on a decidedly brighter note. All that was left to determine after Georgetown was how much Greg rubbed it in with the older guys. And the guess here is not much, if at all. While the debate lingers over athletic prowess, just about everyone who would know says Greg is definitely the most humble Paulus.
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