Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 4, 1994 TAG: 9404040072
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
But as three seniors go out as Blue Devils in a very apropos fashion - in uniform in the NCAA championship game - it's a junior who may be the key to Duke's title bid.
When 6-foot-11 Cherokee Parks awoke Sunday, his left knee was swollen. Torn cartilage, suffered in Saturday's semifinal victory over Florida, is suspected. Coach Mike Krzyzewski listed Parks as "probable."
Parks is going to have to be much more if Duke (28-5) is to have a chance to upset Arkansas (30-3) in the final of the 56th NCAA Tournament in a 9:22 p.m. tip-off at the Charlotte Coliseum.
The Razorbacks have won 18 their past 19 games and are talented, versatile and deep. They present similar - although more - problems to those posed by North Carolina, which twice beat its neighbor on Tobacco Road this season.
While Parks' health is the big question for this night, the one for the future is how will the Devils replace their three seniors - All-American Grant Hill, underrated forward Tony Lang and sixth man Marty Clark.
While Duke is making its fourth NCAA title-game appearance in five years, the Devils' senior class is playing the last game of the college basketball season for a third time. Hill, Lang and Clark each own two title rings and have been part of three ACC regular-season championship teams.
Their class has a 118-22 record. Only 13 players in NCAA history have won three national championships - all at UCLA. The last was Larry Farmer from 1971-73.
"Regardless of whether we win or lose, it's going to be a sad night," Hill said. "It just seems like yesterday that it was two weeks before school started my freshman year and I was calling [then-Duke guard] Tommy Amaker asking him if I could really play there."
Not only could Hill play, but he is "the best player I've ever coached," Krzyzewski said. "When Christian Laettner was a senior, he told me, `Grant is the best player on our team.' Bobby Hurley said the same thing."
What has been most gratifying about the Hill-Lang-Clark finish is a season that has been better than expected.
"We found a way to jell," Lang said. "We had made a lot of changes, and we didn't know what kind of season this would be."
The same might be said about Duke's future. Parks will be the senior leader next season, and the backcourt of freshman Jeff Capel and sophomore Chris Collins returns, although Collins' job isn't assured with star recruits Ricky Price and Trajan Langdon arriving from California and Alaska, respectively.
There is some talk Krzyzewski will redshirt backup center Erik Meek, who is a junior, and play raw but improving Greg Newton, now a freshman. That way, Meek and Newton could play together when Parks graduates.
It doesn't appear Duke will have a Final Four team next season. Then, it didn't seem the sixth-ranked club that plays the Razorbacks tonight would have enough to reach the Durham university's seventh Final Four in nine years, either.
"It's ultimately important to have senior leadership," Krzyzewski said, "because players can and need to learn from more than just a coaching staff. It's like a family.
"In our family, our second and third daughters learned from our oldest daughter. It's the same principle. I really believe when Grant says something to Chris Collins or Jeff Capel, at times it means more to them than if I would say it.
"When you're young, especially, you don't understand you have that power to influence. It's really something. Hurley never understood that completely. That's why we tried early in his career to get that whiny look off Bobby's face, mainly because it had a negative influence on his teammates.
"When Grant has his look, everybody is more confident. That's an immense thing to have in your arsenal, and we've been ultimately lucky to have that. I think that's a major reason why we've been able to go back to the Final Four."
Krzyzewski's 48th NCAA Tournament game will be the last, however, for Hill, Lang and Clark, whose class is an incredible 18-1 in the tournament.
"All I want is when we leave the court Monday night, that we can say we did everything we could to win," Clark said Sunday. "If we win, great. If we lose, that's fine. We just want to know we tried as hard as we can."
by CNB