They had, just last week, brushed up against mortality. Their magnificent streak, their lofty goals, their search for a second consecutive title-all were endangered in their East Regional final and preserved only by a shot that bordered on the miraculous.
That memory drove Duke`s Blue Devils through the practices that followed as they prepared for their NCAA semifinal against streaking Indiana. It gnawed at them and fused their efforts and-most importantly-reminded them just how precariously they were perched atop their lofty throne.
Then, on Saturday night in Minneapolis` Metrodome, they brushed up against mortality again, met a torrid Indiana team that pushed them into a dangerously deep hole. But again they responded by coming back and then holding on to beat the Hoosiers 81-78 and move into Monday`s championship game against Michigan.
Their hero this night was point guard Bobby Hurley, who hit 4 of 6 threes, scored 26 points and single-handedly carried them when they were in trouble. It was a sparkling performance that overcame Christian Laettner`s miserable evening (eight points) and a Hoosier team led by Greg Graham (18 points) and Alan Henderson (15 points).
All kinds of expectations surrounded this match between Mike Krzyzewski and Bob Knight, this meeting between the country`s best team (Duke) and the tourney`s most impressive team (Indiana).
For the Hoosiers, so ordinary at regular season`s end, were soaring and roaring now, and arrived here after shooting spectacularly (56.2 percent in their four tourney games) and strafing each of their opponents in the West Regional.
That promised to make this affair hotter than a blast furnace, and its opening lived up to that expectation. Indiana, performing as it had the two previous weeks, looked unaware of the setting, operated with a cool efficiency that gave no notice to the enormity of the moment.
”We have to play much better defense, or we`ll get killed,” Blue Devil forward Brian Davis had said, but the Hoosiers immediately shredded that defense. They hit four of their first five shots, 12 of their first 14, and were running their passing-and-slashing offense with all the precision of a watchmaker.
It was Duke that appeared flustered, Duke that was rushing its shots and committing errors. Laettner, who had led them all season and saved them last week, missed his first three attempts and was so obviously out of joint that Krzyzewski pulled him so he could collect himself.
Davis, the Blue Devils` other senior, was performing similarly, and only point guard Hurley was saving them. He had suffered through an unproductive regional, but Saturday he hit three threes in the first nine minutes.
That kept his team close, but the Hoosiers were afire, in the midst of a six-minute stretch when they hit eight straight. Calbert Cheaney began it with a dunk, center Henderson hit his first three of the season, and then came a deluge that ended with a Graham flyer up the lane.
That put the Hoosiers up 27-19 with 10:15 remaining in the half, but then they hit a drought and went nearly six minutes without a field goal and with only four foul shots. Yet even here the Blue Devils could not close as Laettner suffered through a stretch where he missed a jumper and twice on the front end of one-and-ones.
The last of them came with 4:19 remaining, and when Hoosier guard Chris Reynolds jetted by Hurley moments later for an easy layup, the Hoosiers were up 10, 35-25. Now Reynolds stripped Hurley, caused a tieup that went Indiana`s way, but then Jamal Meeks walked and Laettner finally hit a pair of free throws.
The Blue Devils had been rocked up to now, had taken the best shots of a talented opponent on a roll, and still they were within hailing distance. But Henderson dunked home a Graham miss to push the Hoosiers back up 10.
Laettner, who would end the half 1 of 6 and with four points, was then stripped by Henderson, which ignited a Graham fast-break layup that gave the Hoosiers their biggest lead, 39-27 with 2:17 left until halftime. Again Duke was reeling, and again Hurley steadied them with his fourth three of the first half.
Thomas Hill, another Blue Devil who opened this one off kilter, followed a Meeks turnover with a basket down low, but then Duke`s defense gave Damon Bailey an open three. That made it 42-32, Indiana, with 1:17 left until halftime, yet Duke spurted once more with five straight points to trail only 42-37 at intermission.
It had not performed well, it had absorbed all types of punishment, but still it was around, and then came the second half`s opening, an opening three minutes full of histrionics and pyrotechnics. There was an Antonio Lang jumper at 19:03 and, after a Nover turnover, successive calls on Bailey that saddled him with his third and fourth fouls.
Grant Hill then blocked Bailey on Indiana`s next possession, and Knight ignited and got hit with a technical by referee Ted Valentine. Hurley calmly made the free throws, and when Grant Hill followed that with a power move low, Duke was up for the first time since this one`s second minute, 43-42.
The game had clearly turned, and the Hoosiers` troubles only mounted. Laettner blocked Cheaney, and followed that with a basket low. Nover missed, and Hurley followed that with a three. Cheaney missed, then Reynolds missed, then Cheaney missed and picked up his fourth, then Henderson missed.
That was seven straight misses for the Hoosiers at this half`s start, a streak that wasn`t broken until Graham nailed a three at 13:46. That pulled them back to within five, but then Thomas Hill hit a front end and Cherokee Parks put back his miss of the second and again Duke was up eight, 53-45, with 12:16 remaining.
The reversal was stunning here, the reversal that found the Blue Devils going from 12 down to eight up in less than 10 minutes. Now Bailey exited with his fifth, the Hoosier woes were multiple here, and with 6:48 remaining, Duke was up comfortably, up 63-51.
