Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 26, 1994 TAG: 9403260059
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: KNOXVILLE, TENN. LENGTH: Medium
CBS Sports moved the NCAA Southeast Regional championship game until after today's West Region final and got what it wanted. The 6 p.m. tipoff sends third-ranked Purdue against No. 6 Duke.
Getting more personal, it's Glenn Robinson against Grant Hill. It's two consensus 6-foot-8 All-Americans, often playing man-to-man on the floor at Thompson-Boling Arena. If Robinson is the "Big Dog," Hill is anything but a pound puppy.
"We might guard each other a lot," said Robinson, the nation's leading scorer. "I guarantee you it won't be the whole game though."
And if it were?
"We'd both probably get in foul trouble," he said.
Hill isn't sure how he will guard the Purdue star who is averaging 37.1 points in his past nine games.
"I guess the big thing to do is just to pray," Hill figured. "Maybe I'll go down to the Knoxville Dog Pound and see what they'd do before the game.
"You just can't get caught up in all that. I want to be Grant Hill, and let Glenn Robinson be Glenn Robinson."
That would be OK with Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who with a win would take the Blue Devils (26-5) to their seventh Final Four in nine years. That would be OK, as long as Robinson's fellow Boilermakers don't start throwing down shots.
That's how Purdue pushed past stubborn Kansas in Thursday night's regional semifinals. After Robinson had 40 of his tournament-best 44 points, he went 10 minutes without scoring. However, forward Cuonzo Martin shot Kansas off the yellow brick road to the Final Four with 3-pointers.
"As a coach, you see so many other ways of getting beat," Krzyzewski said. "As a fan, you see only Robinson beating you. Glenn and Grant make this a great showcase game for college basketball - not that the other guys out there are bad."
Purdue (29-4) has equaled its school record for wins, and one more triumph will send the Boilermakers to their first Final Four since 1980. It would also be the first national semifinals appearance for coach Gene Keady.
"You don't have to say any more than `We're playing Duke,' " Keady said. "That team has been the power in our sport in the '80 and '90s.
"I read somewhere the other day where Grant said he was tired of hearing and reading about Arkansas and some other teams, like Purdue. He thinks he gets tired?
"I go out and go up to some mountaintop and there's a guy wearing a Duke shirt up there. I go out of a golf course in Palm Springs and there's a guy wearing a Duke cap. I'm the guy that's really tired of it."
Keady coached Hill on the U.S. team that won a bronze medal at the 1991 Pan American Games. He knows the Duke senior's game well and said, "We've played some pretty good players over the years in the Big Ten, but no one like Grant that's that doggone good on defense."
That's why Hill will play Robinson most of the time, with 6-11 center Cherokee Parks getting the switch-off when the Purdue star is in the post. Antonio Lang will defend Martin.
"We've got to try to figure out ways in our man-to-man to help on Robinson, and help on Martin, without giving their other players too much," Krzyzewski said. "Robinson is going to get his points.
"I think one key is that whoever ends up on Robinson, that they don't get dismayed or disheartened by him scoring. He's going to score points."
Robinson has 108 in three NCAA Tournament games. The record is 184 by Michigan's Glen Rice in 1989.
"He's a really different player," Hill said of the junior who is likely to be a unanimous player of the year. "He does everything well; shoots the ball, posts up, rebounds, sets up his teammates.
"There's not really much you can do against him except play him tough. I don't know if I've seen anyone in college basketball like him. Probably not. It's like he's a four- or five-year veteran in the NBA playing on this level. He's just so much better than everybody else."
Does Hill have confidence he can handle Robinson?
"Watching him play," Hill said, "doesn't give me much confidence at all."
The Robinson challenge will be intriguing for Hill, who says his toughest defensive assignments have come in trying to guard smaller players on the perimeter. The ACC player of the year named Wake Forest shooter Randolph Childress as his toughest-to-defend this season.
"The only difference I see between Grant and me is that I shoot more and he passes more," Robinson said. "I'm not going to change my game. I'm and inside-outside player. He's probably an outside-inside player.
"We're two different kinds of versatile."
They'll be getting similar attention today.
"What we'll do is attack the scorer, which is what we've always done," Krzyzewski said. "When one guy gets 300 more shots than anyone else on the team, if you don't try to limit that, you're crazy. That's a very good basketball team with a phenomenal player."
by CNB