Quin Snyder’s never been better.
“Quin is not an Amaker or Dawkins, but I think maybe he went to a different level today,” said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, referring to his oft-maligned junior guard, who scored a career-high 21 points in the Blue Devils’ 74-70 overtime win over Kansas on Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.
Snyder, the much-ballyhooed high school sensation out of Mercer Island, Wash., who averaged 2.3 points as a freshman, 6.7 as a sophomore and just 6.9 so far in this his junior year, would have made former Duke phenoms Tommy Amaker and Johnny Dawkins proud Saturday.
His three-point bomb in overtime sliced a 68-63 KU lead to just a bucket, and his two free throws at :03 hiked a two-point Devil lead to a back-breaking four.
He was something else, surprising even his own teammates.
“I’ve never seen Quin play like this,” said senior guard Kevin Strickland, whose key stickback with :56 left in overtime wiped out a 68-67 Kansas lead and kept Duke in front to stay.
“I could see it in his eyes. Whether passing or shooting, he was going to do the right thin. People say when the game is on the line, Quin doesn’t play well. He made every play tonight. He took it in his hands and said, ‘I’ll make the big play.’ Like coach ‘K’ said, he moved his game up another level.”
Snyder, who totaled three steals and five assists, was a Kansas killer throughout. He cashed a three-pointer and a layup midway through the second half, upping Duke’s 45-43 lead to a shocking 50-43. Shocking because Kansas led by a game-high 15 at one point in the first half.
If it seemed like Snyder was playing possessed…well, he was, sort of.
“I’ll be honest. I wanted to play well. It was a tough decision between Duke and Kansas,” he said of his college choice. “I know a lot of guys on their team.
“It was a long time ago,” he added, referring to the recruiting process, “but it was that close.”
Snyder seemed to take greatest delight in stifling Kansas’ frenetic first-half surge. The Jayhawks, helped by their 15,800 fans – ones made delirious by Milt Newton’s spectacular, one-handed, in-your-face dunk, jumped out to a 15-3 lead and stretched the margin to 23-8 with 7:14 left in the half.
Duke, just like that, scored 13 unanswered points and cut the gap to 23-21 just before halftime. Snyder had five in that stretch.
“They did a great job defensively,” said Snyder. “They were really tough denying the passing lanes. They took it to us. We weren’t playing real strong early. We were not catching it and they were playing physical and hard.
“Their crowd took us out of the game. Bill (King, two points, who also picked Duke over KU) and I were talking just now. That’s the loudest crowd we’ve ever heard. Kansas played the first 10 minutes with so much emotion.
“It made me think about what I could do to maybe ignite something. We got going defensively and also got our break going. We tried to push it up the floor.”
Duke’s Krzyzewski sought mere survival the first half.
“That’s as hard as a team has come out against us, emotionally and physically,” said Krzyzewski. “I don’t know if anybody would have been ready for Kansas today. I felt they extended so much energy early, we could wear ’em down, but we didn’t. In a great college atmosphere, we feel fortunate to come back.
“I was hoping to keep it close the first half. We did that with defense. The second half is the way I felt it would be, back and forth, back and forth.
“These are probably two of the top man-to-man defensive teams in the country,” a talkative Krzyzewski noted. “The way they denied the ball, we didn’t adjust.”
Duke did throw a zone at Kansas with success during its first-half comeback.
“At a time like that (with crowd going bananas) there’s no life-preserver,” said Krzyzewski, known for his aversion to zones. “It might have changed their momentum a bit.”
“It gave us a different look and a chance to rest,” said Snyder.
He admitted to being dead-tired after such an emotionally-draining game.
“I tried to make good decisions all day today, even though I was tired,” Snyder said.
Seems the fact the game was on national TV, plus KU’s exuberant fans, coupled to make this one so emotionally draining.
“I’ve never heard it that loud,” said Strickland, whose key overtime stickback marked just his second hoop of the game. He scored five points, 12 below his average. “At times, on the court, it was so loud, we could not communicate. That’s never happened before. We read in the papers that Kansas wanted revenge on us for what happened at the Final Four (Duke beat Kansas two years ago in a semifinal in Dallas). But I didn’t anticipate them coming out like that. They didn’t let up for eight to 10 minutes.”
Strickland shrugged off his two-of-11 shooting effort and showed incredible resilience, knocking in the key stickback on his second attempt.
