ANN ARBOR, Mich. - There were 92,000 fewer fans than they're used to, but even Lloyd Carr and Rich Rodriguez must have been impressed by the atmosphere inside Crisler Arena Saturday afternoon.
On a day of the week typically reserved for football in Ann Arbor-although not for any longer this season-a capacity crowd of 13,751, including Carr and Rodriguez, was in attendance for Michigan's biggest home win in years. And the Wolverine fans made themselves heard, from the opening tip to the final buzzer, when they rushed the court after their team's first win against Duke since 1997, which Michigan also won 81-73 in Crisler Arena.
"[The Blue Devils] play standing room only wherever they go, and that's a credit to what they've done," Michigan head coach John Beilein said. "But it is also, I think that there are some people that are curious because we were able to split in New York against two top-5 teams."
Now, after their second win of the season against the nation's fourth-ranked team, the Wolverines might be on their way to building a resume that will get them into the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1998.
And it may be thanks to a crowd that isn't known for being one of the best in the Big Ten-only 8,190 showed up for a 66-64 win over Savannah State Nov. 29-but that made its presence felt against Duke.
"It's party time when we come to town, so everywhere is tough," Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "Come here all the time, and that's when you have a really great arena. But they were great today, and any team at any school deserves that type of support for every game."
Perhaps inspired by the increased attendance-or simply a shot at revenge-Michigan was more visibly animated and energetic than the Blue Devils for the entire game. Duke, which was playing its second road game in five days the week before final exams, came out flat and failed to get into a rhythm long enough to put Michigan away and take the crowd out of it.
"It's a tough week for us," Krzyzewski said. "We didn't handle it in a mature way. We didn't have energy today."
As the Wolverines stayed in the game late into the second half, the fans become more and more of a factor. After freshman Zack Novak hit back-to-back threes in a span of 29 seconds, Krzyzewski was forced to call a timeout to quiet the delirious fans. Jon Scheyer pulled the Blue Devils back within one on the following possession, but Duke never regained the lead.
At that point, the Michigan fans were not about to let their team blow the lead. And despite a late barrage of Blue Devil 3-pointers, they didn't. An early difference in intensity was too much to overcome.
"They played harder than we did," Krzyzewski said. "We wanted it-I'm not saying our kids didn't want it-but they really played hard and well the whole game. They deserved to win."
With a long break ahead of them, the Blue Devils will have to wait until Dec. 17 to have a chance to show they are not the team that came out flat Saturday afternoon. Not only will Duke be back in Cameron Indoor Stadium then, but it will also be without the end-of-semester distractions that plagued it against the Wolverines.
"There's a lot of interruptions in a basketball season," Krzyzewski said. "If you have extraordinary talent, sometimes you can just overcome that. But we don't have that. We have really good talent."
And for one afternoon at least, that wasn't enough.
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