DURHAM — In the midnight aftermath of Duke’s 84-79 win over Michigan State Wednesday, reporters clustered around freshman Kyrie Irving and asked variations of the same locker-room question: Why are you so great so soon?
Irving is just 18, born in Australia seven days before Christian Laettner fired the legendary jumper through Kentucky’s heart, but he handled the fawning inquiries like a college veteran. He talks the way he plays, with broad vision and mature self-confidence.
“It’s not one single person, Duke basketball,” Irving said. “It’s a collective effort. There’s a brotherhood here. It’s not my team.”
On this occasion, Irving played more efficiently than seniors Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith, more aggressively than the Final Four-worthy Spartans and perhaps more productively than any freshman during Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s long run for history’s roses. The short version: 31 points on 8-for-12 shooting, six rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocked shots in 36 minutes with just three turnovers and one foul.
The longer version featured bold lobs, speed-dribble penetrations, rocket passes to open wing shooters and persistent attacks on the rim that drew fouls. “I missed three free throws,” Irving lamented. “That was on my mind a little bit.”
“But,” a reporter interjected, “you made 13.”
“Yeah,” Irving continued. “I try to be perfect. I can. Tonight, I wasn’t. . .”
Few players entertain the notion. Irving can. Teammate Smith ranks Irving among the best point guards he has seen. Singler considers Irving a freshman in class alone. Most coaches worry instinctively about ego inflation, but Krzyzewski trumpeted Irving’s advanced skills long before the ACC/Big Ten coronation made folks wonder what Irving could do better.
“Defend,” Krzyzewski said. “But I’d like to see our whole team do it.”
Irving endured a vomiting spell Monday that kept him out of practice and kept the staff concerned about cramping during the game. A common worry — how a freshman might react to his first high-voltage national game — didn’t apply.
“I haven’t coached him like a freshman,” Krzyzewski said. “I’ve coached him like a really, really good player. You’ve got to let the really good player make some mistakes and learn. He has done that. You also have to let him follow his instincts. So, we’ve changed the way we play from last year basically because of him.”
He trusts Irving to run the break and read defenses on the fly, rare rookie responsibilities that Krzyzewski heaped on Tommy Amaker, Bobby Hurley and Jason Williams. At 6-3 and 185 deceptively muscular pounds, Irving has the power to absorb interior contact and finish the play, much like Williams, Derrick Rose of Memphis and Ty Lawson of North Carolina.
Making those strong moves against Michigan State’s gifted backcourt enhanced Irving’s stature, and Krzyzewski said so. When a golden-throated broadcaster requested more adjectives, the coach laughed.
“I’m not a big adjective guy,” Coach K said. “In Chicago, we have just one word and it’s an adjective for everything. I get accused of using it too much down here.... Anyway: sensational, scintillating. I’m trying. Was that not a good attempt by me? I mean, for a guy with a low SAT verbal — but a very high SAT math — I thought that was about as good as you’re going to get.
He was great.”
Irving’s imminent greatness, the rapid emergence of 6-10 Mason Plumlee, the Singler-Smith foundation and the flexible bench make No. 1 Duke the unanimous NCAA favorite. With that early label firmly applied, the speculation now turns to Duke’s chances for the first undefeated title season since Indiana in 1976, a long shot shortened dramatically by the ACC’s evident weaknesses.
“You have to have a really old team — old and talented — to do it,” Krzyzewski said. “There’s no way our team would be able to do that. I’m not going to throw a game or anything like that. There’s just too much learning.”
The season proceeds. Just 122 days from now, the basketball audience will see whether Irving and his mates learned enough and dodged enough unforeseen potholes to win Duke’s second straight championship.
lrawlings@wsjournal.com
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement