Anaheim, Calif. ? Nick Collison looks like the guy who’d hold the door for your grandmother or help some poor guy change a flat tire, and in a Kansas windstorm no less.
Rumor has it if you ask him, he’ll come over and mow your lawn, too. He is, well, studious and serious, but when he puts on that Kansas basketball uniform he can break your heart, just like he did Thursday night at Arrowhead Pond to the Duke Blue Devils.
There was Jackie Givens that night in 1978 when he poured in 41 points in the NCAA title game against the Devils, and then there was Pervis Ellison that night in Dallas in 1986 and, naturally, there was Danny Manning in that 1988 Final Four and who could forget Richard Hamitlon shooting like some wonder child in that 1999 title game that broke Duke’s heart, too.
Now you can add Collison, all 6-feet-9 of his senior frame, because, time after time, when the Kansas Jayhawks needed it, they got it from the Iowa Falls native — and big-time, too.
The Jayhawks beat Duke, 69-65, because Collison scored a career-high 33 points, making 14-of-22 field goals and pulling down 19 rebounds (23 is his career high, oh by the way). The 14 field goals are the most made by a KU player in the Coach Roy Williams era. The way Collison was playing, going to the basket with supreme confidence, Duke couldn’t have stopped him with six guys, much less five.
“Duke chooses to play four guards which makes them tough to guard,” Collison said. “But there’s also more room inside to operate.”
If this wasn’t Collison’s best game, it’s close. It was his 14th double-double of the season and his 33 points was the second-highest total by a Duke opponent this season, but his 19 rebounds was the high. Oh yes, Collison played all 40 minutes.
Ah Nick, your best game?
“It’s up there,” Collison said. “We beat Texas in a big game and that was close and we put it all on the line. But here it’s different because if you lose here, you go home. So, I’ll be proud of this one for a long time.”
Sooner, or later, you just knew Kansas was going to beat Duke in a basketball game that meant something big, like advancing into a West Regional final and a date in the Elite Eight on Saturday with Arizona.
The Jayhawks were resilient, but they were also fortunate in as much as J.J. Redick, who rescued Duke in the ACC Tournament championship game against N.C. State, just couldn’t buy a basket. The Duke rookie was 2-of-16 and missed his last eight 3-point attempts. For Duke, a team which relies so much on its perimeter shooting, it was like playing with one hand tied behind its back.
“Collison was great,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “He’s the best player in the country. For them to score 69 points and for him to get 33 of them, it’s one of the great performances you can have in a tournament. He played like a champion, and it took that type of effort to beat us.”
Amazingly, Duke took KU guard Kirk Hinrich’s offense and made it disappear. Hinrich was 1-of-9 from the floor and didn’t score until the 12:24 mark of the second half when his only basket knotted the game at 49-49.
But Hinrich shadowed Redick and shut him down like nobody has all season. Redick ended 1-of-11 on 3-pointers.
“This was Kirk’s best defensive job I’ve seen,” said Kansas guard Keith Langford, the only Jayhawk, other than Collison, to register double figures, with 13 points. “Kirk was chasing Redick down the whole game. It might have cost Kirk on the offensive end but he made it as difficult as possible for Redick.”
Of all the baskets Collison made, consider the three-point play he made with 7:10 left that put KU up 59-57 as a big one, because the Jayhawks secured the lead for the rest of the game and actually went up 65-59 on a Collison putback at 3:11. Duke just couldn’t stop him.
“In the first half, Duke kept me from getting the ball,” Collison said. “They were really trying to get me to be passive, but I just kept moving and got some openings.”
All of the Blue Devils seemed to know what hit them. “Collison was very consistent and he played as hard as he could,” Chris Duhon said. “He is the best player in the country and he proved it.”
When Hinrich, who throttles the Jayhawks’ offense, picked up his fourth personal at 7:47, it slightly changed Collison’s game but nobody would have noticed it.
“All night I tried to be aggressive, so when Kirk left with his fourth foul, I was already in that mood,” Collison said. “I didn’t have to do a lot extra.”
Collison is a KU benchmark of resilience, an experienced weapon inside or on the baseline. The game with Duke was his 139th straight game in a Jayhawks uniform and he has started 74 of his last 75 contests.
“We were trying to get the ball inside to Nick because we felt we had a great matchup,” Williams said. “We really tried to challenge our guys to show how good they are. When you’re playing Duke, you always know that something is going to happen because of how successful they have been. It doesn’t erase losing to them in the 1991 national championship game, or getting knocked out of the tournament three years ago, but this does feel better.”
Duke can review the game until its eyes get bloodshot but the same scenes will be there — Collison putting on a clinic and the Blue Devils shooting only 33.3 percent in the second half, 38.5 for the game.
When they clicked off the lights at the Arrowhead Pond and when everybody went back to their hotels, or to their southern California homes, it was evident they’d witnessed the best of Nick Collison.
