By Mike Wise
Friday, March 21, 2008

With less than six minutes left last night, a good portion of press row began Googling the words "Belmont University." They weren't trying to make sure a player's name was spelled right or find a three-point statistic; they wanted to know where this team rattling Mike Krzyzewski's cage was from. When someone inquired whom the Bruins' best player was, the reply came, "Secretariat?"

Shame on us cynics, no? We had no right to dismiss such a quality team, a program that showed it had just as much right to play in the second round of the NCAA tournament as determined and fortunate Duke.

Krzyzewski said his players paid these 15th-seeded kids from Nashville much more respect on the night they narrowly escaped their second straight first-round knockout at the hands of another college basketball peasant.

He was effusive in his praise of Belmont afterward, saying: "We played against a team that played an amazing game. They're very good. I mean, they're just -- we were ready to play. You wouldn't hear any of our players say that we overlooked them; there's no way."

Krzyzewski often goes overboard in congratulating his vanquished foe. But after watching this pulsating 71-70 thriller from courtside, he was very convincing. If not for Gerald Henderson's length-of-the court, streaking layup with 11.9 seconds left and an errant pass underneath Belmont's own basket in the final seconds, the Blue Devils would have become just the fifth No. 2 seed in the history of the tournament to be eliminated in the first round.

The Bruins and Duke played an heirloom in the second half, trading leads and monstrous three-pointers from well beyond the arc. Belmont came back from 10 points down, a feat that had more than 18,000 at Verizon Center standing in awe. More than half of the building wore Duke blue, holding their breath in utter fright of going home early again.

They had never heard of players named Alex Renfroe, Andy Wicke and Justin Hare, just as they had never heard of Virginia Commonwealth's Eric Maynor a year ago before the VCU guard let fly the shot that decked a Philistine from the ACC.

Hare hit two free throws with two minutes left for the sixth lead change of the game, and suddenly everyone grew quiet and began to wonder if Duke actually had the poise and purpose to stave off the upset.

"I've coached in 89 of these games now and I told the guys as far as game pressure goes, this has to rank in the top three or four," Krzyzewski said. "And hopefully the people at Belmont take that as a real compliment because they should be complimented."

Indeed, Duke's players didn't almost go down because they let an inferior team stay with them. If anything, Belmont's ability to stay with one of America's premier programs is another indication of how the gap keeps closing in college basketball, how there are supreme coaches and very talented players at every level of the game -- even at a former NAIA school from Nashville.

"Well, certainly this is a disappointing moment for our team and our program and our young men," said Rick Byrd, the legendary Bruins coach who, by the way, has won more than 500 games in a very distinguished, if less prominent, career than his Thursday night counterpart.

"To put forth the kind of effort we put forth, to be so close, so very close to getting a huge win for our school and then you have to go in and talk to a bunch of kids who are crying and lost the game."

Fifteenth-seeded programs don't take solace in staying close to an ACC power anymore. Their kids weep in the locker room, knowing they could have been this year's Virginia Commonwealth or George Mason had they just finished off Duke the way VCU did a year ago in Buffalo.

The moment Maynor's jumper dropped in over Greg Paulus and sent Duke home for the season, at no point did I believe the Blue Devils had played an awful brand of basketball that contributed to their demise. VCU simply wanted the that game more that night, wanted to survive until the next round.

Byrd, whose program did not even go Division I until 1997, has a good 10 players with starter mentalities, Coach K noticed.

If Duke should be faulted for anything, it's getting caught up in an up-tempo game with essentially one of America's church-league teams. Belmont declared itself open once it left the state of Tennessee. The Bruins release three-pointers at any time and from anywhere on the court. They made 8 of 23 in the game, none bigger than Wicke's with 2 minutes 28 seconds remaining that drew Belmont within one.

When Paulus released his own three-point attempt with Duke ahead by three with less than three minutes left -- with 29 seconds still on the shot clock -- you wondered what he was thinking. It's one thing to keep attacking, it's another thing entirely to remember the clock is your friend and you should spend all the time needed in a key possession at the end of the game.

But that's what teams such as Belmont do. They threaten to knock out a team such as Duke with the way they play. Renfroe was the kid who threw the bad lob pass that DeMarcus Nelson intercepted to essentially end the game, and when he copped to it afterward -- and his coach covered for him by saying he should have called time and ran another play -- you felt bad for both of them. They had come so close.

In the end, college basketball royalty has its privileges. When your coach has been in almost 90 of these games, your team is less likely to throw the ball away in the clutch. Duke had more options. When some of the Blue Devils showed frustration, they found the one guy who kept his cool, and Henderson responded to save the season.

It's not like his team wasn't prepared to play a plucky No. 15 seed or was looking ahead to the second round. The Blue Devils were ready; but the Bruins were, too. Duke outlasted Belmont because its desire to stay alive barely trumped the resolve of a small school from Nashville. Belmont didn't go on, but the Bruins leave Washington unbowed.