Anaheim, Calif. ? In every Sweet 16 there is fear. Fear of failing. Of going home earlier than you’d like to. Of losing not only the next game, but of the chance to play in the Elite Eight and reach the Final Four. Fear is an element, an intangible, that coaches and players — even at the highest level — never quite know how to overcome.
Duke and Kansas have such fears and both noted as much after Wednesday practices at The Arrowhead Pond as they prepared to collide tonight in a matchup of storied programs and marquee coaches.
The fear Duke has is obvious. The Blue Devils must not allow KU’s senior guard Kirk Hinirch to penetrate the passing lanes, send on-the-money assists inside the paint, particularly to senior Nick Collison, and watch the Jayhawks’ adrenalin grow with each basket and chorus of “Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk.”
The fear Kansas has of Duke also is obvious, and Coach Roy Williams said as much.
“We don’t want their 3-point shots to go in like it’s raining,” Williams said.
For what it’s worth, Duke’s associate head coach, Johnny Dawkins, stood as erect as a statue at midcourt during practice Wednesday and watched J.J. Redick, Chris Duhon and Daniel Ewing put on a shooting clinic. Swish, swish and swish again with only a few misses. If the Duke shooters are on, Williams knows he could be in trouble and KU could be heading home.
But inside the Blue Devils dressing room, there was a calm, almost somber, look to the three shooters knowing that their task would go much farther than drilling shot after shot against the Big 12 regular-season champs, the No. 2 seed in this West Regional.
Their mission: Stop Hinrich. The fear factor was evident Wednesday, and so was Duke’s focus on the Kansas guard wearing jersey No. 10.
“First we have to stop Kirk in transition because once he gets the ball, he’s one of the fastest guys in the country in going north and south; and once he gets into the lane, he scores and he sets up his teammates,” Duhon said.
“Then, when they’re in their offense — and he doesn’t have the ball — we must make sure that he doesn’t get any open looks. He’s one of the top 3-point shooters in the country and when he has his feet set, he’s automatic from the 3-point line. You have to shadow him and not give him easy buckets. We can’t let him see the ball go through the hoop consistently.
“That’s what we have to do, make it tough for him, make him earn everything he gets.”
Duhon thinks he will draw the initial assignment on Hinrich, and this shouldn’t come as a surprise based on what Mike Krzyzewski saw in Salt Lake City last week.
“Duhon is playing his best basketball right now,” Krzyzewski said. “So much is expected of him.”
But Krzyzewski knows the poise and experience of Hinrich, the 6-foot-3 KU senior from Sioux City, Iowa, is enough to concern any defender or any coach, even if his last name is Krzyzewski.
“Hinrich is really good and he has tremendous competitive courage,” Krzyzewski said. “He revels in moments other people might shy away from.”
Krzyzewski would know, too. The last time Duke met the Jayhawks, in the second round of the 2000 NCAA Tournament, Hinrich held Duke’s Jason Williams to a 2-of-15 shooting performance.
Duhon’s aim will be to try to wear down Hinrich as much as possible, a mission that seems next to impossible. Hinrich went 38 minutes against Utah State and 32 in the Jayhawks’ blowout of Arizona State. He has played in 4,054 minutes in his career, started 114 of 137 games, is a 50-percent career field-goal shooter, and has 654 assists, 200 steals and 223 3-pointers. He has scored 1,689 points, ninth-best in Kansas history. Danny Manning is first, and Wilt Chamberlin, by the way, is 18th.
Hinrich combs his hair the way the Beatles did, and when he’s on his game, it can be a long and winding road for the opponent.
“We have unfinished business,” Hinrich said. “But I think the pressure will be equal. Maybe my being a senior might give me a sense of urgency because it is my last shot, but it’s not as much pressure as the urgency to get the job done.”
Kansas is 1-6 against Krzyzewski’s Duke teams, but the Jayhawks aren’t concerned about history. Hinrich figures that the key to winning is all about not turning the ball over against the Blue Devils’ pressure and finding the high-percentage shooters.
“Against Duke, it’s about attack or be attacked,” Hinrich said. “They have been playing a four-guard lineup, and they like to attack, penetrate and kick, and the most difficult thing will be defending Duke’s penetration.”
The theory that as Hinrich goes, so go the Jayhawks has some merit. Consider that the Jayhawks won their second consecutive Big 12 regular-season title on March 9 when they won at Missouri, 79-74. Hinrich and Collison each had 20 points, and Hinrich also added seven rebounds and four assists. But six days later in Dallas, in the semifinals of the Big 12 Tournament, Missouri upset Kansas 68-63, limiting Hinrich to 12 points on a 5-of-12 shooting performance.
Who knows how many people Krzyzewski has asked about how to defend Hinrich (Mizzou coach Quin Snyder, maybe), but Ewing admitted having talked to his high school teammate, Texas guard T.J. Ford, about Hinrich.
“I don’t think there’s anyone similiar to Hinrich in the ACC because he can play the point and he can also play off the ball,” Ewing said. “There aren’t too many people in the ACC right now. It’s important for us not to let him get on a roll.”
