INDIANAPOLIS — When Duke was awarded a No. 1 seed at the NCAA tournament and what most pundits considered the easiest possible road to the Final Four, the reaction was outrage.
Kansas and Kentucky were clearly superior in the regular season and Syracuse supporters thought the Orange deserved better as well.
But give Duke — a decent but by no means great team — credit, it played to its strengths and walked out of Indianapolis as NCAA champion as a result.
After getting by two weak teams, a Purdue side missing its best player, a tough Baylor and the gang that couldn’t shoot straight from West Virginia, Duke edged Butler by doing what it had to do — taking advantage of its considerable size advantage.
Centre Brian Zoubek, a remarkable story himself, considering he barely played for the Blue Devils until halfway through his senior year — was able to get whatever he wanted down low.
More importantly, Zoubek locked things down inside, leading a Duke defence which blocked seven shots — tying for second-most ever in the championship game.
“It was why we’ve won this whole year — defence,” Zoubek said moments after lifting the championship trophy.
“(Zoubek) really elevated our team over these last six weeks, seven weeks, to where we would have a chance to play and win a national championship,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski confirmed.
Zoubek also hauled in six offensive rebounds, consistently giving his side a chance to make up for its suspect shooting (Jon Scheyer and Nolan Smith combined to go 2-10 from outside).
Of course, Duke’s win had a lot to do with its head coach. As with most Krzyzewski outfits, this one carried out his game plan — particularly on defence — spectacularly.
Duke was 22-0 when holding opponents under 60 points and below 40% shooting, as it did Monday.
Granted, Butler was a pretty horrific offensive team — the Bulldogs shot just 32.7% for the Final Four — but following Coach K’s orders, Duke’s Singler, Zoubek and Lance Thomas bullied Butler into 34.5% shooting in the title match.
Singler, known as little more than a standout scorer before Monday’s game, emerged as a deserving Most Outstanding Player recipient.
Shooting 15-for-29 in the Final Four (6-11 from three) was almost expected.
The defence by Singler on Butler’s one elite scorer, Gordon Hayward, wasn’t.
Singler stuck like glue to Hayward, holding him to 2-11 shooting.
The only time Singler wasn’t right up on Hayward was on the final play of the game, when Singler was levelled by a hard screen, leaving Hayward free to barely miss a banker from around half-court.
Singler recognized how close Duke was to going home empty-handed.
“They weren’t going to go away. We needed every last minute of that game to get this win,” Singler said.
And that is what separates this Duke squad from Krzyzewski’s three previous national champions. Those Blue Devils would have made short work of Butler.
Shane Battier, Elton Brand, Jay Williams, Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley, all were better players when they were lifting Duke than Singler is. The supporting casts were generally stronger too.
But these Blue Devils were as good as they had to be. And that was good enough.
“Somebody new stepped up every single night,” Zoubek said of Duke’s tournament run. “It’s about the team. And we needed everyone to get where we are right now,” Singler said.
ryan.wolstat@sunmedia.ca
