Lucas: Lights Out

By Adam Lucas

Let us go back to the beginning.

Now, full disclosure: we are going back to the beginning partially because it is too painful to write about the most recent one. Saturday night was an 87-67 Duke victory. So, you know, let us go back to the beginning.

At the beginning, Mike Krzyzewski was a completely unknown whippersnapper who had been the coach at Army. His second visit to Carmichael Auditorium came at the conclusion of the 1981-82 regular season, when Carolina was loaded.

A minute and a half after tipoff, the Carmichael power failed. Matt Doherty was dribbling towards the basket and then…lights out. This would have perhaps been a defensive strategy to attempt on A.J. Griffin.

In 1982, it took an hour and ten minutes to get the power turned back on. And kids, here's the amazing part: the sellout crowd survived that delay with no cell phones. Oh, the horror.

During the delay, the teams went back to their respective locker rooms. Dean Smith dispatched manager Chuck Duckett to the Duke locker room to see if the Blue Devils needed anything and give them an update on the efforts to restore power.

When Duckett came back to report to Smith, being young and filled with the exuberance of a manager on a team that started both Michael Jordan and James Worthy, he couldn't resist adding to Smith, "They are not very good right now."

Smith's reply was something that Duckett has never forgotten: "They will be. That man can coach."

Dean Smith was right, of course. Mike Krzyzewski can coach. The latest and final version of his Blue Devils has a collection of NBA talent. This is how Hubert Davis described the problems presented by Duke when he conducted his postgame interview with the Tar Heel Sports Network:

"From a defensive standpoint, we only had one guy who could guard Paolo (Banchero) and A.J. (Griffin), and that was Leaky. We couldn't split him in half. Leaky started off on A.J., and Paolo established himself. Then we switched him on to Paolo, and A.J. established himself."

That, folks, is what you call a matchup problem. When you don't have enough bodies to guard all the other team's bodies, it's going to be a very challenging evening. The surprise is not that Duke was a much more complete team on Saturday night than Carolina. The surprise is that this same Duke team already lost two games in a down Atlantic Coast Conference.

The mismatches resulted in Armando Bacot, Carolina's best and most consistent player throughout this season, earning two fouls and heading to the bench just three minutes and five seconds into the game. While he sat, Duke stretched the lead from nine points to 19 points.

Behind an experienced, veteran head coach in Dean Smith against a newbie ACC head coach in Mike Krzyzewski, Carolina led that 1982 game 16-2 and 40-12. Behind an experienced, veteran head coach in Mike Krzyzewski against a newbie ACC head coach in Hubert Davis, Duke led on Saturday night 19-5 and 31-8.

In 1982, Krzyzewski had no choice but to keep coaching, to keep trying to figure out a way to close the gap. Now we're in a different era, with different rules (or lack of rules) and different circumstances. But Davis is in a very similar situation.

"There are only two choices," Davis told his team after the game. "Stay down on the mat and whine and complain and point fingers and make excuses. Or get up off the mat. Those are the only two choices. I'm already off the mat. My hope and expectation is everyone else in this locker room will do the same."

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

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