Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 26, 1991 TAG: 9103260134
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From Landmark News Service and Associated Press reports
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Sleeping fitfully.
He's in a pool. No special pool. No pool he recognizes. But he's swimming around. Suddenly, across the way the water swirls and a fin breaks the surface of the pool. "There's all kinds of fins and stuff in the water," he said. The shark is large, yet only the fin can be seen.
Hurley leaps from the water.
And awakes from his dream.
Just a dream. A silly dream.
Except that it came back, again and again, through the summer.
"I had the dream about once a week all through the summer," Hurley said. But by July, early August at the latest, he no longer leaped from the swimming pool of his dreams to escape the sharks. "I got to where I wasn't afraid of them any more," he says. "They never attacked and I decided they weren't going to hurt me." In his dreams, Hurley eventually swam among the beasts unafraid.
His was a recurring dream that has all kinds of symbolism now that Duke and Hurley will be facing Jerry "Tark the Shark" Tarkanian's Nevada-Las Vegas team in the national semifinals Saturday night in Indianapolis.
The same Tark the Shark and the same Runnin' Rebels who last April cut Duke and Hurley to ribbons in the national championship game.
As the Duke point guard, he was almost always the man back when UNLV stormed down the floor on one fast break after another en route to a 103-73 victory, the most one-sided national championship game since the NCAA started staging them in 1939.
"It was devastating," Hurley said.
There is no translation of the dream as far as Hurley is concerned. He finds nothing in it to indicate that Duke is about to turn the tables on UNLV and The Shark, though he has grown so accustomed to the sharks of his dreams that he has lost his fear of the creatures and, frankly, would not be surprised if he and his teammates end the Rebels' winning streak at 45 Saturday night in the Hoosierdome.
"If we didn't think we could win," he said, "then there's no need to go."
\ They told Mike Krzyzewski not to worry about winning when he got to Duke 11 years ago.
But just eight miles away was North Carolina and coach Dean Smith, models of consistency for nearly 30 years.
"The athletic director just mentioned that we want to be competitive and we want good kids, to be educated, and represent Duke," Krzyzewski said Monday. "Don't worry about winning. Maybe I was naive enough to believe that, and I'm still naive enough to believe that."
Krzyzewski won't compare his achievements with UNC's, but he does say the improvement in Durham, N.C., has benefited both sides.
"When you're competing against really good people, you get better," Krzyzewski said. "I think it's helped me greatly. I think it helps Dean maintain his hunger, the fact that we're good."
In his 25 meetings with Smith, Krzyzewski is 8-17.
Krzyzewski says he still hears about the "monkey," the one dogging him about failing to win the national championship. Smith heard about it, too, until the Tar Heels beat Temple to get to Indianapolis.
"I get one or two letters every year asking when am I going to get back to the Final Four. In '82, I said we may never get back," Smith said. "And it's true. You have to be lucky and good."
At Duke, it may be luck. But it's turning into habit.
\ When UNLV went on a 14-0 tear to open the second half of Saturday's NCAA West Regional finals, it meant the beginning of the end for Seton Hall's season.
UNLV has made a habit this season of starting second half action several minutes before they let their opponents into the game. The key, says Tarkanian, is knowing which player to motivate.
"You have to try to push the right button when the time comes," he said. "Each kid is motivated differently."
With the assistance of these emotional lifts, the Rebels (34-0) are two games away from becoming the first team since UCLA in 1973 to capture consecutive NCAA championships and the first since Indiana in 1976 to do it without losing a game.
Keywords:
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by CNB