Duke cruises by Cal, into regional semis
March 21, 2010
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP)—When Brian Zoubek is calling for the ball and scoringat will, you know things are going really well for Duke.
Exploiting a huge advantage in size and depth in the frontcourt, thetop-seeded Blue Devils glided into the round of 16 of the NCAA tournament forthe 19th time under coach Mike Krzyzewski with a 68-53 victory overeighth-seeded California on Sunday.
The 7-foot-1, light-scoring Zoubek had 14 points and 13 rebounds whileteaming with Lance Thomas and reserves Miles and Mason Plumlee to dominate asuspension-weakened Cal frontline featuring 6-foot-8 Duke transfer Jamal Boykin— and little else.
Nolan Smith led the Blue Devils (31-5) with 20 points and spearheaded Duke’strademark man-to-man defense that made it difficult for Cal’s high-scoring trioof Jerome Randle, Patrick Christopher and Theo Robertson to get open looks.
Kyle Singler scored 17 for Duke, which advanced to the South Regional inHouston, where the Blue Devils will face fourth-seeded Purdue on Friday.Zoubek’s 6-for-6 shooting more than made up for leading scorer Jon Scheyer going1 of 11 and finishing with seven points.
With starting forward Omondi Amoke suspended for an unspecified teamviolation, Cal (24-11) once again went with a three-guard lineup thatoverwhelmed Louisville in the opening round because of exceptional 3-pointshooting.
Krzyzewski said he couldn’t remember the Blue Devils facing a team with somany players capable of stretching a defense. But Cal’s lack of size and depthunder the basket hurt the Golden Bears all day.
Boykin, who transferred from Duke after spending a little more than a seasonwith the Blue Devils, led Cal with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Randle had 12points and Robertson 10, but the Golden Bears misfired on nine of 12 3-pointattempts and Christopher was held to two points—14 below his average.
One day after the 17th anniversary of Cal beating Duke in the second roundto stop the Blue Devils’ bid for a third consecutive national title, the GoldenBears simply didn’t have the firepower to block the Blue Devils’ path toHouston.
Jason Kidd was the point guard on that 1993 Cal team. Randle was the Pac-10player of the year and one of the keys to the Golden Bears winning their firstconference title in 50 years this season, but Duke never allowed him to get intoa rhythm.
The game plan was to make Cal work hard for shots, even the NBA-range 3sthat Randle, Robertson and Christopher like to launch. The Golden Bears madefour of them to open an early 18-point lead against Louisville, but were just 1of 6 from behind the arc in falling behind 37-34 at halftime against Duke.
When Zoubek and Duke’s best defender, Thomas, weren’t clogging the lane ondefense and taking advantage of their size to score easy baskets on offense, thePlumlee brothers were doing the job for the Blue Devils.
Zoubek and the Plumlees were a combined 7 for 7 from the field in theopening half. Cal made one run in the second half, scoring eight straight pointsto pull within 44-37 before Zoubek’s tip-in started a burst that put the gameaway.