Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 18, 1990 TAG: 9003182314
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk Sportswriter
DATELINE: ATLANTA LENGTH: Medium
And no one has to remind 15th-ranked Duke that, with a victory against the Redmen (24-9) in today's nationally televised Omni opener at 12:15 p.m., the Blue Devils will return to their Final Four launching pad.
In 1986, Duke advanced to the national semifinals from the East Regional at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J. It was the same in 1988 and 1989. Seldom has a one-time New Jersey swamp been so alluring.
"Everyone talks about how we lost four of our last six games going into this tournament," Duke forward Robert Brickey said. "We didn't really play that bad; we just seemed to lose some of our concentration and our defensive aggressiveness."
Those ingredients were back for the Blue Devils (25-8) in Friday's 81-46 opening-round crushing of Richmond. One reason is the recovery of the high-flying Brickey, a 6-foot-5 senior who missed eight January games with a right knee injury.
Duke was 10-2 when Brickey went down, and, thanks to the inspired play of Greg Koubek, coach Mike Krzyzewski's team went 7-1 without Brickey. Then the Blue Devils slumped to a 7-5 finish entering the NCAA Tournament.
"In that stretch at the end, except our [regular-season-ending] loss to North Carolina, we played fairly well," Krzyzewski said. "People think that you always really play well when you win and really bad when you lose; but usually, neither of those is entirely the case."
Another factor was the return of Brickey. Now, Duke has a nine-man rotation, a team depth that could be a problem for St. John's seven-man combination.
"One reason I'm very pleased with what this team has done is the consideration of what we've been through," Krzyzewski said. "We've gone through a couple of months of adjustment, and that really hurt.
"We spent a month adjusting to playing without Robert, then a month adjusting to having him back. It isn't a situation that affects just Robert.
"When he came back in early February, he physically couldn't play like he had. And I think we had a couple of guys who had taken a step back themselves in watching Robert come back."
When the 6-6 Koubek stepped into Brickey's small-forward starting role, backups Brian Davis and Thomas Hill received more playing time. When Brickey returned, the Devils had more depth, but uncertainty, too.
"All of a sudden they say, `Now here's the guy back, and now I have to get back into my old role.' And we tried to get those guys to play and say, `Hey, we don't want your old role, we want you to play the way you have been playing.'
"I think now we've adjusted to that. And I said that when Robert was coming back, that I thought the adjustment, the transition we would make with him coming back, would be harder than when he left.
"Not that we didn't want him, but that we were so far into the season that it's tough making those adjustments. And that's why I'm really pleased with what we've done this year."
Brickey said that where, before his injury, "I tried to talk guys into being ready to play" behind him, he now leads by example.
"The younger guys, Davis and Hill, got valuable experience, and that makes us a better team now," said Brickey, a forward from Fayetteville, N.C. "We wouldn't have had that if I hadn't gotten hurt, although it seems kind of silly to say it was great to get hurt."
Brickey's internal conflict, which flared as he sat and waited for his knee to recover, is about over. He's still wearing a large brace, but his physical capabilities are back.
Because Brickey runs the floor so well, the Blue Devils' transition game depends on him. Krzyzewski said freshman point guard Bobby Hurley struggled while Brickey was down, because Hurley's options on the break were limited without Brickey soaring for a two-point landing and forcing turnovers with his quickness on the defensive end.
"We're a whole team again," said senior guard Phil Henderson, who has averaged 20.5 points in the past six games and criticized the Blue Devils' work ethic and toughness after the ACC Tournament semifinal loss to Georgia Tech.
In today's second game at 2:40 p.m., UCLA (21-10) meets fifth-ranked Kansas (30-4).
The winner will meet the Duke-St. John's survivor in an East Regional semifinal Thursday night at the Meadowlands. Top-seeded Connecticut will face Clemson in the other East semifinal.
\ NOTES: Duke's opening-round NCAA win over Richmond was the 300th of Krzyzewski's career at Army and Duke. . . . Duke is 9-1 in games at the Meadowlands.
by CNB