In the heart of Villanova territory Saturday night, at least one player was pulling for Duke to beat Texas. And when the Blue Devils secured a place in the Sweet 16 opposite the Wildcats, Taylor King immediately made reservations to be in Boston this weekend.
King had been eyeing a matchup between his current and former teams since the bracket was released on Selection Sunday, and not even his new head coach, Jay Wright, was going to tell him he couldn't be in TD Banknorth Garden Thursday-even if that meant attending class Wednesday, finding a ride and driving five and a half hours from Philadelphia Thursday.
"It's a long drive, but I'm willing to drive that long to see this game," said King, who landed at Villanova after deciding to transfer from Duke after last season, his freshman year.
Per NCAA rules, the 6-foot-6 forward with a quick trigger and soft touch was forced to sit out a year. He's not allowed to travel with the team and can't stay with the Wildcats in their hotel, which left King to make and pay his own way to Boston tonight.
King, who averaged 5.5 points and 9.7 minutes per game as a freshman, trades text messages and instant messages with Nolan Smith at least five or six times a week, he said. King, Smith and Kyle Singler lived together in a triple in Bassett Dormitory on East Campus last year, and in the last week, King said he has talked with his former roommates, but there hasn't been any trashtalking yet.
And even though King is more familiar with this Duke team than perhaps any other player in the country, he laughed at speculation that he could be the Wildcats' secret weapon.
Villanova's coaches know just as much about the Blue Devils' X's and O's, and while King said he would be happy to give them a scouting report if they asked, Wright's staff hasn't taken him up on the offer.
"I told him, I didn't want him to be in the middle of this at all," Wright said Wednesday. "We don't need Taylor King scouting reports. Everybody watches Duke enough and knows everything about Duke."
Still, it doesn't take King's intimate knowledge with the programs to notice the similarities between the two squads.
"We both buckle down and play very good halfcourt defense," said King, who added that, for once, he won't be rooting for Duke Thursday. "Each team has extreme talent, and to be honest with you, I think this game will probably be the best game in the Tournament. And that's a great thing to be a part of."
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