CHAPEL HILL - Baptism by tobacco juice.
Hmm.
After all the talk in the media of Casey Sanders' second start panned out to exactly 11 minutes and two points, maybe it is fitting that Mike Krzyzewski said the only thing that could be said of Chris Duhon's first career start when he slammed down his foot, pumped his fist like a piston on double-time and growled down his bench with three minutes left, "Yes."
Score one for Duhon.
Score one for Krzyzewski.
Starting the freshman Duhon was not a surprising move-he had long been more of a sixth starter than sixth man, especially after an awkward floater in the fading seconds of the Wake Forest game made him another resident ACC story-but starting him over senior Nate James and in the shadow of the Boozer melee was, in the least, unexpected.
Sanders' start meant 11 minutes.
Duhon's might have meant the game.
"Duhon had an amazing game," the proud coach said afterward, the growl replaced by the usual calm demeanor. "He had a couple of steals, he kept [UNC] from coming back."
While teammates Shane Battier and Jason Williams filled up the stat sheets, it was Duhon who made all the second-half filler plays to keep the Blue Devils streaking.
During the intermission of Williams' scoring show, Duhon shined, putting up all 15 of his points in the second half (including a three-pointer when the Tar Heels crept to within 10), taking pressure off Duke's starting point guard and keeping the offense up-tempo even as the game's frenetic pace wore Williams down.
Which is, of course, exactly why Krzyzewski started him.
"It wasn't a knock against Nate," said Krzyzewski, who added that he will start Duhon or James according to the opponent from now on. "I thought we needed to move the ball up the court quicker; I felt we needed a little more speed in the lineup. Some teams have been denying Jason the ball so we wanted to have two point guards in the lineup."
And the two point guards allowed the Blue Devils to keep the pressure on.
There were no comebacks.
There were no leads lost. There was just Duke rolling to an unprecedented fifth ACC title-literally running the Tar Heels out of the gym. And on the biggest stage in college basketball, there was Chris Duhon, proving that he could move from the wings to center stage-tobacco juice optional.
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