Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball versus Countdown to Craziness on October 3, 2025 at 7 p.m.
/
7 p.m.
Men's Basketball
vs Countdown to Craziness
.png&width=24&height=24&type=webp)
Featherston Column: Bruins Threaten Duke's Final Four Hopes
3/16/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
DURHAM, N.C. - If Duke hopes to reach the 2008 Final Four, Blue Devils may have to beat the Bruins coming and going.
The Blue Devils (27-5), seeded second in the West Regional, will open their NCAA Tournament journey Thursday at the Verizon Center (formerly named the MCI Center) in Washington, D.C., against the No. 15 seed Belmont Bruins (25-8). The top-seeded team in the regional ? and the team Duke will most likely have to beat to reach the Final Four in San Antonio ? is the West's top-seeded UCLA Bruins.
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski will offer his reaction to the seeding in the next day or two, but he's unlikely to complain about his team's placement ? even the decision to send the Blue Devils to Washington for the first two rounds, rather than allow them to play in Raleigh.
“When I was younger I used to comment about it,” he said last week when asked about potential NCAA placement. “It didn't do me any good. I just said, ?Forget it. So we have to pack longer or do we take a plane or a bus? I'm just happy we're going.”
Krzyzewski would have preferred a Friday-Sunday placement ? which would have given his team one more day of rest ? but he can't be unhappy to be returning to the Verizon Center, where the Blue Devils won the 2005 ACC Tournament. Besides, he also said last week that “who you play is more important than where you play.”
Belmont offers an interesting challenge in the first round.
Rich Byrd's Bruins appear to be almost a carbon copy of Duke in many ways. The team lacks size (except for little used 6-11, 230 pound soph Mike Dejworek), but boasts a deep crop of strong, physical wings ? including 6-4, 210-pound junior Shane Dansby (13.8 points, 6.2 rebounds), who is the team's top rebounder. Then there's 6-8, 220-pound soph Matthew Dotson (11.3) who prefers to step outside and shoot 3-pointers (41.7 percent) rather than to battle down low (just 3.6 rebounds).
Belmont's main weapon is 6-2 senior Justin Hare (14.9 points, 91.5 percent free throw shooter). Alex Renfroe, another 6-2 junior, is the team's top playmaker with 126 assists (and just 51 turnovers). The Bruins shoot the 3-pointer well (making an average of 11 a game), but have been turnover prone, averaging almost 15 turnovers a game.
The Tennessee school (Belmont is located in Nashville) won at Cincinnati and at Alabama earlier this season, then dominated the Atlantic Sun Conference, winning the title for the third straight season. Interestingly, the Bruins have lost in the first round to a Final Four-bound team in each of the last two seasons ? falling to UCLA, 78-44, in 2006; losing to Georgetown, 80-55, last year.
If Duke gets past the first pack of Bruins in its path, the Blue Devils will face a Sunday afternoon game in Washington against either No. 7 seeded West Virginia (24-10) or No. 10 seeded Arizona (18-14).
The Mountaineers finished strong in coach Bob Huggins first season, winning nine of 11 down the stretch before a Big East Tournament loss to Georgetown. During that run the Mountainers split with the Pitt team that beat Duke (losing by one point at Pitt) and knocked off UConn in the Big East Tournament.
Huggins inherited a 3-point oriented team from John Beilein and turned it into a terrific defensive team ? one that limited opponents to 41.9 percent shooting and forced an average of more than 17 turnovers a game.
The Mountaineers aren't big inside, but 6-8 junior Joe Alexander (16.8 points, 6.1 rebounds) and 6-7 sophomore Da'Sean Butler (12.8 points 6.1 rebounds) have been solid performers. Guards Alex Ruoff (13.5 points) and Darris Nichols (10.9 points) provide the outside firepower with almost 150 3-pointers between them.
In contrast to fast-finishing West Virginia, 10th seeded Arizona stumbled into the tournament, losing eight of its final 12 games. Of course, six of those losses came to teams that are in the NCAA field ? including two games to top-seeded UCLA, the last one a 2-point loss in Tucson.
Arizona, coached this season by Kevin O'Neill as Hall of Famer Lute Olson is taking a temporary leave of absence, played the nation's toughest schedule with 10 games against the nation's top 25 RPI teams. The Wildcats were plagued in injuries as star freshman guard Jerryd Bayless (20.0 points) missed four games at midseason and point guard Nic Wise missed seven games late in the year.
Arizona's chief inside threat is 6-9, 211-pound Jordan Hill (13.2 points and 7.8 rebounds). Sophomore Chase Buddinger is an explosive 6-7 scorer (17.0 points), who gets many of his points from beyond the 3-point arc.
That's the four-team mini-tournament that Duke will have to win this weekend to earn a trip to Phoenix for the West Regional semifinals and finals. More tests will await in the desert, but in the past Coach Krzyzewski has preferred to take the NCAA Tournament one weekend at a time.
He'll worry about the second pack of Bruins in his path if his Devils get out of Washington alive.
Just a few notes and personal observations about the 2008 NCAA field that was announced Sunday night:
- NCAA selection committee chairman Thomas O'Connor, the George Mason athletics director, was asked why No. 2 Georgetown was sent to Raleigh, while No. 2 seed Duke was sent to Washington, D.C.
O'Connor explained that Georgetown was the higher-rated No. 2 seed and thus had priority in placement. Since the Hoyas can't play on the home floor at the Verizon Center, Raleigh was the next best site for the Big East regular season champions.
His explanation makes sense. Based on its placement as the No. 2 seed in the region with the weakest No. 1 (Kansas), it would appear that Georgetown was judged the strongest of the No. 2 seeds. Duke, in the region with the third-strongest No. 1 (UCLA), would appear to be the second-strongest No. 2.
There's only one problem with that logic ? that would make Tennessee the WEAKEST No. 2 seed, since the Vols are paired with North Carolina, the top-rated team in the field. That's hard to believe ? Tennessee finished the season as the nation's No. 1 RPI team, tied with UCLA for the team with the most top 50 victories. The Vols' loss in the SEC semifinals might justify dropping them from the No. 1 line to the No. 2 line, but in no way does that justify making them the fourth of the No. 2s.
On the other hand, Tennessee has to like its geographical path to the Final Four. The Vols get to play two games in Birmingham, Ala., and then potentially two games in Charlotte ? by far the closest regional to Knoxville.
It appears that in Tennessee's case, geography trumped balance.
- Duke has never faced Belmont ? either in regulation or NCAA play. The Blue Devils are 4-3 all-time against Arizona, including a 1-0 mark in NCAA play ? that win coming in the 2001 NCAA title game. Duke has a 17-6 all-time edge over West Virginia, which used to be in the Southern Conference with the Devils. Duke is also 1-0 in NCAA play against the Mountaineers, beating WVU in Greensboro in the second round of the 1988 tournament.
- The NCAA usually tries to avoid situations where a higher-seeded team in put at disadvantage a lower seeded opponent. But it always happens. While most of the national attention is on the chance to No. 1 seed Memphis might have to play No. 2 seed Texas in Houston, there are a couple of similar situations in the earlier rounds.
South Alabama, the No. 10 seed in the East, could have a crowd advantage in Birmingham against No. 7 seed Butler. And No. 10 Davidson could have an edge in Raleigh against No. 7 seed Gonzaga.
Duke should not face any similar geographic traps. It's true that UCLA has always been well-represented in Phoenix, but the Bruins are the top-seeded team in the West and ? like UNC in the East ? have earned a geographic advantage.
- Duke goes into the NCAA Tournament with an 8-4 record against teams that are in the field. The Blue Devils beat No. 1 seed UNC, Miami, Clemson, Marquette, Wisconsin, Davidson, Cornell and Temple, losing to UNC, Pitt, Clemson and Miami.
In addition, two more Duke victims barely missed the field ? Illinois losing in the Big Ten title game with Wisconsin and New Mexico State losing in triple overtime to Boise State in the WAC title game.
Al Featherston is a 1974 graduate of Duke and has over 30 years experience covering the Blue Devils along with North Carolina and N.C. State. His work has appeared in the Durham Herald-Sun, Basketball Times, Blue Ribbon, Blue Devil Weekly, the ACC Sports Journal and the Duke Basketball Report. The views expressed in this notebook are the solely the views of Featherston and not necessarily the views of Duke Athletics.
Jon Scheyer Press Conference: Summer 2025
Tuesday, July 08
Duke vs Houston: Press Conference
Sunday, April 06
Duke vs Alabama: East Region Champions Press Conference
Wednesday, April 02
Duke vs Arizona: Duke Press Conference
Friday, March 28
