I believe
Cluess instilling confidence before lona showdown with duke
PITTSBURGH — It’s happened in the Steel City before, when Coppin State toppled No. 2 South Carolina in 1997 and became the third No. 15 seed ever to win an NCAA Tournament game.
It’s happened four times in the past six tournaments, and Mike Krzyzewski wasn’t going to wait for the question to wrap up before chiming in:
“Yeah, we’ve been one of them,” the Duke coach said Wednesday.
It was six years ago that No. 2 Duke lost to No. 15 Lehigh. It’s been four years since the No. 3 Blue Devils fell to No. 14 Mercer.
So, when No. 15 Iona attempts to slay Krzyzewski’s latest version of the most talented team in the country — Thursday afternoon at PPG Paints Arena — Tim Cluess already will have told his players about the upsets that once seemed impossible, telling them what no one else in the country can see happening.
“You want to put confidence in them that it can happen,” Iona’s coach said. “You have to think you have an opportunity to win even if it’s going to be a, ‘I have to do this, this, this, this, this 100 [percent] correct.’ You still have a chance.
“We know we’re playing against a tremendous, tremendous team and that we have to play the best game we’ve played probably in some of our guys’ lives.”
Recent bracket-busting opportunities for the Gaels (20-13) — playing in the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time in the past seven years and still looking for their first tournament win since their only previous victory (1980) was vacated — haven’t ended as they envisioned.
Ohio State won by 25. Iowa State by 13. Oregon by 16.
With a massive size advantage — headlined by ACC Player of the Year Marvin Bagley III — and five starters expected to be taken in the first round of the NBA draft this year, Duke (26-7) is an even bigger mismatch and more dangerous because of the brand name, Cluess acknowledged.
“The message is more or less playing hard for 40 [minutes] and not worrying about what the front of the other jersey says,” Cluess said. “The guys who have been there, they need to talk about how important every possession is. You can’t have a bad three- or four-minute stretch because in that stretch a team like this can outscore you by 20 points.
“If you can’t be ready to play Duke, there’s something wrong with you. So, when you look in that mirror, you know that you’ve got to give it everything you have. And I said to them before, ‘Don’t die wondering. Don’t die wondering. Don’t die wondering what could have been if you played as hard as you could. So go out there and let it all hang out.’ ”
Over the past month, Duke has looked like the juggernaut ranked No. 1 in the preseason, having implemented a tremendously effective zone defense and finishing as one of only two teams in the nation with an offense and defense ranked in the top 10 in efficiency.
Still, an early February upset at St. John’s lingers, and the memories of first-round failures have been relayed by their Hall of Fame coach.
“They are not a stranger to the tournament. They’ve been here before — many times before, actually,” Grayson Allen said of Iona. “They’re not just a team that’s lucky to be here. They do this. This is what they do.
“They are a very good basketball team, fast-paced. They can really score the ball. They have a lot of guys that can beat you. … They have six or seven guys who can go off and be their leading scorer any game, so makes them a dangerous team, a dangerous team to defend, too.”
It has happened before. Forty minutes can mean forever.
“We’re not really worried about their great powerhouse success and things like that,” Iona’s Zach Lewis said. “Just 40 minutes we got to be better than them, just for that one day.”