John Beilein, Michigan's veteran coach, remembers his first encounter with Duke. It was in 1992, when his Canisius Golden Griffins visited Durham.
"It was my first Division I game as a Division I coach," said Beilein, who recalled a sea of tents as he neared Cameron Indoor Stadium.
"I go, 'Damn, they're set up in Krzyzewskiville to play Canisius?' I asked somebody, 'You're set up, camping out for the Canisius game?' He said, 'Heck no, we play Michigan this weekend.' "
Duke and Michigan will play again today, this time with Beilein at the helm of the Wolverines and with the stakes much higher. Tipoff will be at about 2:45 p.m. (WFMY Chs. 9, 110 and 1110)
There are no tents at the doors of Time Warner Cable Arena for this third-round game in the NCAA tournament, and Beilein's Wolverines will be expected to pose more of a challenge than his Griffins, who gave up 110 points and lost by 48 back in '92.
Beilein's Wolverines haven't been without challenges this season. They were picked to finish at or near the bottom of the Big Ten in some preseason polls and were on the way to fulfilling those prophecies — at one point, they were 1-6 in league play.
"Most people would have had the fight taken out of them," said coach Mike Krzyzewski, tipping a cap to the team standing between his No. 1-seeded Blue Devils and a trip to next weekend's West Regional semifinals in Anaheim, Calif.
The eighth-seeded Wolverines (21-13) are one of the nation's youngest teams — with six freshmen, five sophomores, four juniors and no seniors — and have embraced their underdog status.
"That's like the story of our season," said leading scorer Darius Morris. "I think it definitely helps us out there is a reason why we fight so hard just to prove everybody wrong."
Tim Hardaway Jr., the Wolverines' other double-figures scorer, said: "We are a young team. But I think we are playing very, very well right now, and we built more confidence against Tennessee."
The Wolverines blew out ninth-seeded Tennessee by 30 points on Friday to advance. Duke (31-4) also had little trouble in its opening game, thrashing Hampton by 42.
For the Blue Devils, their challenge will be defending a Wolverines' offense that uses four guards, thrives on back cuts to the basket and commits few turnovers. On defense, the Wolverines can sprinkle in Beilein's staple 1-3-1 zone with man-to-man coverage.
"We haven't seen too many offenses like theirs this year," said Nolan Smith, Duke's top scorer. "They're not the three-guard, two-big-men type team that most teams are. They play four little guards. They've got an offense that tries to spread it out, and they shoot a lot of 3s."
"We know we're going to have to play a little differently with the shooters they have and we really have to contest out on the perimeter," teammate Miles Plumlee said.
Kyrie Irving, a key reentry to the arsenal who returned from a near season-long toe injury to lead Duke in scoring against Hampton, said: "They are a team that changes defenses often. We need to really attack, and play Duke defense."
The key for Michigan against a bigger, more experienced Duke team?
"We need to get rebounds," Hardaway said.
Krzyzewski, who would notch his 900th coaching win with a victory today, said that his team will indeed have a height advantage against the Wolverines, who will have just one starter taller than 6-foot-5.
"But they'll use our height against us as far as spacing, so I think it's going to be a really good game, and we're going to have to play very, very well to win," Krzyzewski said. "They've played outstanding teams. They're not going to be in awe of our height. They're going to figure out ways of trying to use that against us."
Beilein, who has led four programs to the NCAA tournament (Canisius, Richmond, West Virginia and Michigan), said that limiting turnovers will perhaps be the key for both teams.
The Blue Devils and Wolverines, who last met in 2008-09 when they split two games, have met twice in the NCAA tournament — both times in the Final Four. Duke won both, in the 1964 semifinals and in the 1992 championship game.
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