Duke has McDonald’s All-Americans. So does UCLA.
Duke has national titles. UCLA has more.
Teams get up to play Duke. They do the same against UCLA.
Duke lost three superstars from last year. So did UCLA.
Duke has Mike Krzyzewski, the can-do-no-wrong demigod, the man with a home court named after him.
UCLA has Steve Lavin, eternally on the hot seat.
And that’s where the comparisons become contrasts.
Duke pummels early-season opponents. UCLA lost to teams like Northridge and Pepperdine early on in past years.
While Krzyzewski’s teams are often already in fifth gear by early December, Lavin’s teams are usually stuck in first.
So as the No. 15 Bruins (0-1) and No. 6 Blue Devils (2-0) lock up Saturday at the Wooden Tradition in Indianapolis, why is it that the differences are more apparent than the similarities?
“They’re definitely doing something right,” sophomore guard Cedric Bozeman said. “They have a great program and are used to winning. Every program wants to model itself after theirs.”
So what’s going on at UCLA?
“We have so much talent, it’s hard to imagine we have to bring it every day,” junior Jon Crispin said. “Duke, the teams they should beat by 30, they beat by 50, and the teams they should beat by 10, they beat by 20.”
So it comes as little surprise that, at this young stage of the season, most expect little out of Lavin’s Bruins – especially against Krzyzewki’s like-clockwork Blue Devils.
Including Lavin.
Throughout Monday’s press conference, the Bruin headman kept trying to keep the focus of conversation on Tuesday night’s San Diego game. But, as it happens when two basketball titans go at it, the subject kept coming back to Duke.
“On offense against Duke, they put such great pressure on you,” Lavin said. “But you can’t start running around like a hamster, bouncing the ball off your feet, or else they’ll go on a 20-0 blitz.”
It’s just a creative way for Lavin to say that he expects Bozeman to remain calm and to not get overwhelmed at the point. Lavin knows it will be no easy task, especially since Bozeman is likely to see Chris Duhon, Dahntay Jones and Daniel Ewing all competently handle the ball at different times.
“Like us, they have new kids, but their guards started 30-plus games last year and they have three guys who run the point and transition, and they’re all back,” Lavin said.
Bozeman, Lavin explained, has had a tougher time finding his game groove, especially after sitting out a month of last season with a knee injury. He’ll also be without the help of Ryan Walcott, who must sit out the game to finish out a two-game suspension.
And he said the Bruins are less likely to be in the same kind of shape as Duke, who played seven exhibition games overseas in August in London.
But while Lavin talks about taking a long view with his team, promising it will be better come March, Duke just wins. Exhibition games. Regular-season games. It doesn’t matter.
Jones was asked what would happen if Duke did the unthinkable and lost an exhibition game.
“They wouldn't be too happy, but they would still be supportive,” Jones said. “There wouldn’t be any outrage, because it is still the beginning of the season. Exhibition games don’t mean anything.”
The Bruins couldn’t agree more. And if there is any program that can’t be counted out of a challenge like Duke, even after two completely uninspiring exhibition performances, it is UCLA.
“I’ve seen us lose when we were supposed to win, and win when we were supposed to lose,” said junior T.J. Cummings, who had narrowed his choice of schools down to UCLA and Duke before deciding to come to Westwood. “I haven’t known it any other way.”
Duke has.