SoCalHoops Wooden Classic Report

USC Falls To Duke 81-68:
A Photo Essay--(Nov. 28, 1999)

We'll take this in reverse order, and since the last game of the day was USC v. Duke, we'll start with that one first. Despite the fact that things didn't turn out the way some USC fans had hoped, this was not a game to be disappointed with, as USC proved that it can hang with anyone, including a team which many had underrated, but which is still one of the best college teams on the planet. . . . maybe SC couldn't stick around for the whole game, but for about 32 out of 40 minutes, USC was more than in this game. In fact, for the first six minutes of the game, USC led, never by more than 5 points, but the fact that they could come out and lead Duke was impressive, as was the early first half play of Brandon Granville, David Bluthenthal, Sam Clancy, Brian Scalabrine and Jeff Trepagnier. Duke started Carawell, Battier, Boozer , James and Jason Williams., and Duke trailed up until the moment when, at 16:36 on the clock, Coach C substituted Michael Dunleavy, Jr. into the game for James. But more about Dunleavy in a moment, because he was truly the highlight of the game.

USC managed to keep the lead seesawing back and forth throughout the first half, at least until Dunleavy hit the first of his backtoback three pointers with 7:41 to go in the first half to put Duke up by four. USC kept hanging around playing tough and athletic, with Scalabrine hitting a three, getting a steal and in general playing great, and with Trepagnier doing his human highlight reel imitaiton, USC only trailed by 7 at the half, 45-38.

That was as close as it got.

In the second half, the most USC was able to cut into the lead was 7 points again after briefly trailing by 9 at the start of the half, but for most of the second half, Duke led by as many as 17. For the last 8 minutes of the game, Duke just took over, kicking butt everywhere, and going from being just 8 points up with just 8:29 to play following a steal by Trepagnier and a slam dunk, to a 17 point lead with just 1:49 to play.

More significantly, with 8:29 to play in the second half until 4:17 to go, USC didn't score at all. The fact that this scoring drought also coincided with a Dunleavy three, a Scalabrine miss from nearly point blank range, another Dunleavy three-pointer, a Granville turnover (his 6th and USC's 17th of the game), a Boozer steal, followed by a Carrawell slam off a Dunleavy assist, two missed free throws by Trepagnier, and a couple more fouls by Duke, meant that USC generated no offense, and little defense, a deadly combination for USC. In fact, USC's next points came at 4:13 on a Sam Clancy shot in the key, followed by a very nice three pointer by Brandon Granville with 3:55 to go, but it was too little too late for the Trojans.

For Duke, basically only 6 guys played the majority of the mintues, and even without all of those pros on the roster any longer, Duke is still one fine ball club. Really. Well coached, well-executed offense, great court balance, and unbelievable passing and ball movement. It doesn't get much better, but then it surely will, because this was just Duke's fifth game of the season, and only their third regulation game this year (the other two were exhibitions). Duke principally played Chris Carrawell (37 minutes), Shane Battier (who played all but one minute, 39), Nate James (26 minutes), Carlos Boozer (20), Jason Williams (33), and Michael Dunleavy, Jr., (31). Carrawell finished with 24 points, while Battier had 9, Boozer 6, James 14, and Williams 13. The big story though was Mike Dunleavy, who finished with 13 points, 5 assists, 4 steals and only two turnovers. He shot 5-8 from the field, 3-4 from three point range, and grabbed 5 boards (4 defensive). And while these are "nice" numbers, remember, he's just a freshman who is only going to get better. He did some things that were just spectactular.

We didn't listen to any audio from the live telecast at courtside where we were sitting, but we watched some highlights of a tape of the game again today, and what we heard from others, including what one Duke fan wrote on the Duke Basketball Report's website about the Bill Walton play-by-play was true: "You'd think that when Bill Walton dies and goes to Heaven, he will do nothing there but watch Mike D play ball." He was just crazy about Walton, treating him like the second coming. And you know what? Walton may be right. His dad, Mike Dunleavy, Sr., who's a pretty good coach, was also a pretty good player in his day. But the old man's got nothing on Mike, Jr., If there was one single factor for the Blue Devils on Saturday, it was Dunleavy's heady play. He has an unbelievably good handle, great passing ability, and he had the crowd going nuts in the first half with two fundamentally sound textbook bounce passes on the break where he fed the ball to Battier, threading the needle. . . this kid throws bounce passes the length of the court. He moves without the ball, gets into positions where he can be of the most help to his team, and just fundamentally knows the game so much better than so many players. He did everything he needed to do to punch USC just when they were starting to feel they could come back. A steal here, a three knocked down there. It didn't matter. Walton compares him to Larry Bird. He may be right.

For Duke, Chris Carrawell was also impressive, driving to the basket seeming abandon, blocking a shot here, getting two steals in the game, and just being in the right place at the right time for some of those excellent Dunleavy and Williams passes. Carlos Boozer sort of had a good, but not great game, and we were a little puzzled, as were others, that he only played half the game, exactly 20 minutes, but maybe coach K is saving him for more important games (yeah, we know USC is an important opponent, but we mean like ACC contests). Carlos looked stronger, tougher and more mobile, and the surprising thing was that for a guy who wanted to play the three and who told everyone that's where he wanted to play, Boozer did a very good job at the five yesterday. He didn't block any shots, but he was a credible post player. We were surprises that Nick Horvath got such little playing time because we thought he'd get more too.

Defensively, Duke struggled a bit early on, but then came to life, especially during those last 8 minutes of the game, doubling up on Rashad Jones and exposing his weaknesses, causing USC to make bad passes, take bad angles, make awkward shots and in general disrupted the Trojans' rhythym. Battier was especially good later in the game at shutting Scalabrine down, and Brian had been particularly effective early on, hitting several nice shots from the short perimeter and even a three in the first half.

For USC, while others besides the starters did see time, Bibby seemed to also employ the same rotation strategy that Coach K did, and only 6 guys for USC principally saw time. Nate Hair came in for the last four minutes of the game, and while he looks stronger and in decent shape, he only touched the ball once, so this was no way to gauge what kind of contribution he'll make to the team, if any, this season. It seems clear though that he'll slowly work his way back into some playing time this year. Konstantin Charissis, the 7'-0" Greek transplant, played 1 minute officially, although we honestly didn't see him. Which either means we need new glasses, or he's a 7-footer who's easy to miss. Rashad Jones came into the game with about 19:01 to play in the second half, largely because Brandon Granville picked up his fourth foul of the game, and one thing is clear. This team desperately needs another point guard to step it up when Granville is out of the game. Jones is a capable enough ballhandler, but he didn't make good decisions with the ball from a passing point of view, and he didn't push it enough, being content to sort of half-run, half-walk it up.

A fun game though, and lots of action. Can't wait for more.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (2-3)

Bluthenthal 3-11 1-2 7, Clancy 8-12 3-4 19, Scalabrine 8-15 0-2 17, Granville 3-6 0-0 8, Trepagnier 7-16 1-4 15, Hair 0-1 0-0 0, Charissis 0-0 0-0 0, Jones 0-2 0-0 0, Turner 1-3 0-0 2.
Totals 30-66 5-12 68.

DUKE (3-2)

Carrawell 10-16 3-5 24, Battier 4-12 0-0 9, Boozer 2-4 2-3 6, James 5-8 4-4 14, Williams 4-10 3-4 13, Horvath 1-2 0-0 2, Bruckner 0-0 0-0 0, Sanders 0-0 0-0 0, Dunleavy 5-8 0-0 13.
Totals 31-60 12-16 81.

Halftime-Duke 45, Southern California 38.
3-Point goals:
Southern California 3-16 (Granville 2-4, Scalabrine 1-3, Hair 0-1, Jones 0-1, Trepagnier 0-3, Bluthenthal 0-4)
Duke 7-21 (Dunleavy 3-4, Williams 2-6, Carrawell 1-3, Battier 1-5, Horvath 0-1, James 0-2).
Fouled out-None.
Rebounds-Southern California 33 (Trepagnier 12), Duke 35 (Battier, James 7).
Assists-Southern California 15 (Granville 9), Duke 18 (James 7).
Total fouls-Southern California 16, Duke 14.
A-11,847.