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  PATIL ARMENIAN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Duke Guard Jason Williams, considered to be one of the best players in the country, attempts to drive past Missouri’s Wesley Stokes.

By Chris Umpierre

Daily Bruin Staff

GREENSBORO, N.C. - If you think UCLA will wilt at the sight of the all-mighty top-ranked Duke Blue Devils when they play them in the Sweet Sixteen Thursday - think again.

"We feel not only do we have to play Duke, but they have to play us," Bruin point guard Earl Watson said after his team beat Utah State 75-50 in the NCAA tournament's second round.

"We're UCLA," he added. "We have a lot of tradition. We play with the best players in the world in pickup games in the summer. It's going to be a battle, it's going to be a war."

The war between the No. 1 seeded Blue Devils (31-4) and the No. 4 seeded Bruins (23-8) in the NCAA tournament's East regional will take place Thursday in Philadelphia's First Union Center. The victor will face either USC or Kentucky in the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament.

For every Bruin except Watson it will be the first game against Duke, widely considered to be the last decade's most dominant program in college basketball. Over the last four years, Duke is 129-15.

Instead of shying away from the game, players like forward Matt Barnes welcome the challenge with open arms.

"It's a dream to play Duke," said Barnes, who came to Westwood one year after the last meeting between the schools, a 120-84 Blue Devil blowout in Durham, N.C.

"It's going to be a great opportunity," he added. "I see them on ESPN all the time but I've never had a chance to play them."

In order to hang with the Blue Devils, which feature seven McDonald's High School All-Americans, UCLA must first find a way to stop or slow down Duke's super sophomore point guard Jason Williams.

Arguably the leading candidate for Player of the Year, Williams is good enough to start for a number of teams in the NBA right now.

  PATIL ARMENIAN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Senior Forward Shane Battier is a dominant presence on the #1 seeded Duke team. The Bruins will face the Blue Devils Thursday in a Sweet Sixteen showdown. Williams can beat a team in many ways. He can do it by drilling the three-pointer (he has hit 11 treys in the tournament's first two rounds). He can do it by driving to the basket. And he can do it by finding the open man (he had nine assists against Missouri Saturday).

Watson will be Williams' assignment on Thursday, and he knows he'll have his hands full.

"He's one of the best point guards in the country," Watson said. "He's only a sophomore; he's way ahead of his time. But to me, the key is to stop (Duke forwards) Nate James and Michael Dunleavy. They are the X-factors, and they always seem to hit the big time shots."

Oh yeah, the rest of the Duke players are no picnic either.

In addition to Williams, Duke is led by Shane Battier, arguably the best power forward in the college game. Battier averages 21 points a game and is a handful in the paint and on the perimeter.

Despite having debatably the best two players in college basketball, Williams and Battier have no problem sharing the ball.

"Most of the problems you have with a team comes from insecurity and jealousy," Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski said after his team beat Missouri 94-81 in the second round. "(Williams and Battier) know they're not bigger than the program. They coexist on high levels."

If the aforementioned firepower is not enough, Duke will get a boost Thursday as center Carlos Boozer is expected to make his return to the court after he fractured his right foot on Feb. 27.

When Boozer went down, Duke won games with its three-point shot (see a tournament-record 18 three's against Monmouth Thursday). The return of the 6-foot-9 sophomore makes the Blue Devils a more balanced team that can go inside as well as out.

UCLA's 6-foot-11 center Dan Gadzuric will likely be the difference maker this Thursday. Regardless if Boozer plays or if backup center Casey Sanders is in, it's imperative that Gadzuric stays out of foul trouble and is effective down low for the Bruins. If there is a weakness for this solid Duke team, it's at the center position.

Toward the end of the regular season, Gadzuric has realized that he really is 6-foot-11 and has played that way through the tournament's first two rounds. He's been active on offense, at times calling for the ball. On defense, he's jumped into passing lanes for steals and rejected balls into the stands. Against Hofstra, Gadzuric scored 14 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. Versus Utah State, he scored 16 points and pulled down 14 rebounds.

Gadzuric must play over 30 minutes and put up similar numbers if UCLA is to pull off a shocker in Philadelphia.

Williams knows Gadzuric and the rest of the Bruins present quite a challenge for Duke, a favorite according to numerous critics to win the national championship.

"UCLA's a great team," Williams said. "What Earl Watson did last year against Maryland (in the tournament) where he had 16, 17 assists was incredible. He's a heck of a basketball player. And they have Dan Gadzuric, Jason Kapono - it's a heck of basketball team."

While its true only one of the Bruins has ever played against Duke, this UCLA team has shown an ability to step up against quality competition.

They beat a top-notch Kentucky team 97-92, they beat then-No. 1 Stanford 79-73 at Maples Pavilion, and they beat Arizona 79-77 in Pauley Pavilion.

So why can't UCLA pull off the upset?

"All I know is Stanford beat Duke and we beat Stanford," Bruin shooting guard Billy Knight said. "They're a great team but we're not going to be scared of them."