An e-mail message arrived on Monday, a day before guard J.J. Redick and the rest of the Duke Blue Devils would be back on the court to prepare for the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.
"I noticed a couple things wrong with your shot," the message began. That was all Redick needed to read before he hit the delete button. No, he is not desperate enough to take advice from strangers. Not yet.
It was not about the shot, Redick said, and he had not lost his confidence and had not become worn out physically. Redick, the 2005 national player of the year, is facing the weight of expectations as he enters the final weeks of his college basketball career. Although he is averaging 27.8 points a game and vying with Gonzaga's Adam Morrison for player-of-the-year honors, Redick said that he had struggled under the spotlight after recently having becoming the career scoring leader at Duke and in Atlantic Coast Conference history.
PHOTO: AFP
"I just think I put a lot of pressure on myself, feel a lot of pressure from outside sources, and it hasn't been fun for me," he said on Tuesday. "I think there's always pressure from outside sources, always pressure from media attention, from family members.
"When you play here, when you play at a big-time program in college basketball, you're always in a fishbowl. The past couple of weeks, I haven't been able to watch ESPN. It's driving me crazy. They can't stop debating about us. Give it a rest for a couple of days."
This is no time for the hype machine to rest, not with the ACC tournament up next for the Blue Devils and then a possible No. 1 seeding in the NCAA tournament. It is not a good time to be in a slump, either. But going into Friday's ACC tournament quarterfinal game against Miami in Greensboro, North Carolina, Redick is 23 of 80 from the field in his past four games, including 8 of 36 from 3-point range. Duke has lost two of those four games, including a rare defeat at home Saturday against its rival North Carolina. Redick shot 5 of 21 in that game, including 2 of 10 on 3-point attempts.
"I just missed shots," he said. "I really think that each shot has become bigger than it is. I'm putting pressure on myself. Teams defend me well every game. I hit a lot of tough shots. It's tough shots that I'm taking, and when you put that added pressure on yourself, you can have those 5-for-21 nights."
But he cannot have them and expect Duke to win.
That was the reality of Saturday's loss to North Carolina.
"We're probably not going to beat a really good team with J.J. going 5 for 21," coach Mike Krzyzewski said after the loss. "You are who you are, and we're 27-3 because of using that. When it's taken away, or he's human, it makes it more difficult and we need other guys to step up."
Because of Redick's shooting prowess, fans come early to watch him warm up at Cameron Indoor Stadium and count the number of 3-pointers he makes in a row, marveling at his consistency.
There has been little to marvel at lately.
"He has internalized a lot of all of the demands and the stress and the records and the media attention," his father, Ken Redick, said in a telephone interview Thursday. "He's done a really good job in the past of deflecting a lot of that. But I think this time, for some reason, it being the end of his senior year, he kind of took it all in. You could see that in his demeanor; his floor demeanor wasn't the same as it normally is."
This is it for Redick, who arrived in 2002 with a stellar class of recruits, including center Shelden Williams and guard Sean Dockery, who were expected to carry on the tradition and bring the Blue Devils another national championship. It has not happened. The Blue Devils have made the Final Four once in Redick's first three seasons, losing to Connecticut in the 2004 semifinals.
"I think it's a fine line that all of the seniors are walking," Redick said. "You want to be obsessed with a championship.
"But you don't want to put everything into that, where if you don't do that then you feel like you're a failure."
Redick is walking the fine line now. Asked if anything less than a championship would be a disappointment, he snapped.
"Are you kidding me?" he said. "Dumb question."
Syracuse 86, No. 1 Connecticut 84
Gerry McNamara waited one day to one-up himself.
The senior guard hit a 3-pointer with less than a second to play to give Syracuse a win over Cincinnati in the opening round of the Big East tournament.
On Thursday, his 3 with 5.5 seconds left in regulation tied the game and the ninth-seeded Orange went on to beat No. 1 Connecticut 86-84 in overtime.
"I said yesterday's shot was the best under the circumstances," an exhausted McNamara said on Thursday. "I'd have to change that to today's. We needed it."
The win should help the Orange (21-11) end any talk about whether they deserve an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
"Obviously they're a tournament team," Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun said. "I thought they were a tournament team yesterday."
That was a McNamara highlight show ago. On Wednesday, his running 3 with less than a second to play meant a 74-73 victory over Cincinnati.
He topped that performance in the quarterfinals by scoring 17 points and handing out 13 assists, one short of the tournament record.
"He amazes me every time I see him play. He has more guts than anybody I've ever coached," said Syracuse's Jim Boeheim, who apologized for using profanity in defending McNamara on Wednesday after local media reported the player was overrated. "As soon as he released it, there was never a doubt. There was nothing but net. I'd say it's one of the best wins, if not the best, Syracuse has ever had."
The loss shouldn't affect the No. 1 seed expected to go to Connecticut (27-3), but it ended a 10-game winning streak in the Big East quarterfinals for the Huskiesa.
The Orange, who lost twice to Connecticut during the season, led 39-28 at halftime and a 3 by McNamara extended the lead to 49-35 with 16:43 to go. The Huskies, who trailed 10-0 just 2:30 into the game, started chipping away and were within 62-56 with 7:24 to play.
McNamara hit a 3 to restore the lead to nine points, but Connecticut tied the game with a 9-0 run capped by four free throws by Hilton Armstrong.
Rashad Anderson's 3-pointer with 32 seconds left in regulation gave Connecticut the lead for the first time, 72-71.
Josh Wright missed a shot with 12 seconds left -- McNamara could be heard complaining he didn't touch the ball on the possession -- and Denham Brown made two free throws with 11 seconds left to make it 74-71.
McNamara took the inbound pass -- something Calhoun had implored his team to not let happen -- and he dribbled to just outside the 3-point line and drilled his third 3 of the game to tie it.
Marcus Williams of Connecticut missed a jumper from the free-throw line as time expired.
Syracuse took the lead for good at 79-78 on Darryl Watkins' three-point play with 3:20 to go. Demetris Nichols and McNamara each made two free throws to extend the lead to five points, but Brown hit a 3 with 28 seconds left.
Watkins, a 50 percent free throw shooter, made two 2 seconds later and Brown hit another 3 with 18 seconds left to make it 85-84.
McNamara, a 91 percent free throw shooter who was 7-for-7 at that point of the game, then made one of two with 17 seconds to go and the Huskies still had a chance. Williams' jumper from the foul line with 9 seconds left rattled in and out and the ball was tied up, with possession going to Connecticut. Williams had another jumper at the buzzer but it bounced off the rim.
Carmelo Anthony scored 29 points, including the go-ahead basket with 18.9 seconds left on Thursday, and Ruben Patterson added 20 to lead the Denver Nuggets to their third straight win, 97-93 over the Philadelphia 76ers.
Marcus Camby had 13 points, 14 rebounds and one of the Nuggets' two blocks on Philadelphia's last true possession that allowed them to hang on for their first three-game winning streak since Jan. 14-25. Denver also improved to six games over .500 for just the second time this season.
Allen Iverson scored 38 points and Chris Webber had 17 points and 20 rebounds for the Sixers, who lost their third straight game.
Anthony scored 20 points in the second half, none bigger than when he dribbled down the baseline and came around from under the right side for a one-handed layup that put Denver ahead 95-93.
Mavericks 109, Trail Blazers 92
At Portland, Oregon, Dirk Nowitzki had 33 points and 10 rebounds, and Dallas beat Portland for the second time in three nights.
Zach Randolph had 29 points for the Blazers, following up his 33-point, eight-rebound performance against Dallas on Tuesday.
Jason Terry had 19 points and Devin Harris added 12 points and seven assists for the Mavericks.
Reserve Sebastian Telfair had 12 points and eight assists for Portland, which has lost nine of 10 games since the All-Star break and sits in last place in the Western Conference.
Spurs 117, Suns 93
At Phoenix, Tony Parker scored 29 points -- all in the first three quarters -- and San Antonio snapped short-handed Phoenix's 11-game winning streak.
The Suns, without Steve Nash and his backup Leandro Barbosa, were no match for the reigning NBA champions, who shot 55 percent in their eighth victory in nine games.
Manu Ginobili added 18 points for San Antonio on 6-for-8 shooting and Tim Duncan scored 16.
Boris Diaw had 16 points, nine rebounds and nine assists for the Suns, who failed to reach 100 points for the first time in 23 games. Shawn Marion had 18 points and 11 rebounds and Raja Bell scored 16.
Kansas State fired basketball coach Jim Wooldridge on Thursday shortly after the Wildcats' season ended with a loss in the first round of the Big 12 tournament.
Athletic director Tim Weiser said Wooldridge needed to get the team into the NCAA tournament to keep his job. By finishing 15-13 following a 73-65 loss to Texas Tech, that wasn't going to happen, so he was let go.
"The expectations were pretty clear," Weiser said. "We wanted to be in the NCAA tournament. We thought the prospects were very good."
Weiser broke the news to Wooldridge following the game, then told the team at their hotel. He returned to the arena to discuss the decision at a news conference.
Wooldridge went 83-90 over six seasons. He took over a club coming off a 9-19 season, got it to 14-14 in his fourth season then had winning records each of the last two seasons. Although this year's club won two fewer games, they beat top rival Kansas for the first time since 1994 and lost nine games by five points or less, including one-point losses to Texas and Oklahoma.
While Weiser thanked Wooldridge for leaving the program better than he found it, he made it clear that wasn't good enough.
Wooldridge never got the Wildcats higher than seventh in the Big 12, never won more than one game at the league tournament and never made the NCAA tournament or even the NIT. K-State hasn't been in the NCAA field since 1996 and hasn't won an NCAA tournament game since reaching the regional finals in 1988.
"We appreciate what Jim and his staff have done," Weiser said. "But, as most of you know, this is a bottom-line profession. We have high expectations for all of our programs. We had hoped by taking the time we had that things would turn out differently, but they have not and it's time for us to move on."
Weiser said a nationwide search would begin immediately, with former South Carolina and Vanderbilt coach Eddie Fogler assisting him. Having gone through a similar process in the fall after the retirement of football coach Bill Snyder, Weiser said he hopes things move quickly -- but he won't rush anything.
"We're not going to hurry up and make a mistake," Weiser said. "We want somebody familiar with our situation. Does it have to be a K-Stater? No. We will not limit ourselves on those things. We want to find somebody that can take us to the NCAA tournament."
Wooldridge has a career record of 312-237 over 19 seasons, with previous stints at Louisiana Tech, Texas State and Central Missouri. Before taking over the Wildcats, he spent two years as an assistant with the Chicago Bulls at the start of the post-Michael Jordan era.
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