EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Meet Shane Battier, Duke's "defensive stopper."
At 6 feet 8 and a broad-shouldered, sculpted 220 pounds, he is the rare player who specializes both in blocking shots and taking charges. (His 33 charges this season set a Duke record; his 53 blocked shots are the ninth best in Duke history.)
A sophomore religion major from Birmingham, Mich., Battier is enthused by his studies of China's Shaolin monks -- or as he put it, "I'm intrigued by their whole dogma."
"How do you spell that order of monks?" a reporter asked.
"S-H-A-O-L-I-N," Battier answered without hesitation.
Oh, and one more thing about the player Duke's media guide touts as the Minister of Defense, which is the sort of label normally attached to players with no offensive game: In his last 13 games, he has connected on 57 percent (24-for-42) of his shots from beyond the three-point arc.
Battier is Duke basketball in microcosm: flat-out unfair. He's too big, too strong, too fast and too smart. With his high cheekbones and deep brown eyes, he's even too darned good-looking.
Duke, which plays Southwest Missouri State tonight in Game 1 of the East Regionals, is the team that is no longer supposed to exist in college basketball.
The Blue Devils, 34-1 and riding a 25-game winning streak, are Wooden-era UCLA. They're the '98 Yankees. They're Microsoft.
Duke's average margin of victory is 26 points, although Florida A&M; and Tulsa, their first two victims in the NCAA tournament, went down by a combined 82 points.
Duke has college basketball's best low-post player -- Elton Brand -- and its best shooter -- Trajan Langdon. William Avery may be the nation's finest point guard, despite the bigger reputations of Michigan State's Mateen Cleaves and Arizona's Jason Terry. Duke freshman Corey Maggette, who scores 11 points a game but can't find a place in the starting lineup, is a future college player of the year if he doesn't bolt too early for the NBA.
At the beginning of the season, Battier looked around at this mix of talent and wasn't satisfied with his niche. "Teams laid off me and defended our other shooters," he said. "I was the weak link on offense, and I felt personally responsible for that."
Battier was the national high school player of the year at Country Day outside Detroit (Chris Webber's alma mater), and won the three-point-shooting contest at the McDonald's All-America game. But last year, he said, he grew into a reticent offensive player after a streak in which he misfired on 20 straight three-point attempts.
His poor shooting, he said, came after a summer in which he worked for Morgan Stanley on Wall Street rather than honing his hoop skills. "I put basketball on the back burner and just focused on growing up a little bit."
The summer before this season he spent in the gym. His teammates were quick to notice the difference. "In the preseason, Shane was scoring; even in pickup games he would light it up," junior guard Chris Carrawell said.
Brand said Battier in early practices "was unstoppable at some points."
Battier could have continued comfortably in his role as a defensive specialist -- probably could have ridden it right into the NBA. But that is not the Duke way, or coach Mike Krzyzewski's.
"Coach K pushes you beyond the role you might see for yourself," said Steve Wojciechowski, a broadcaster on the Duke radio network after four years as the Blue Devils' point guard. "He likes to say a flower will take the shape of its pot, but if you put it outside you don't know what will happen."
Yesterday, Krzyzewski talked of the importance of Brand "continuing to be strong but not being stereotyped in a position. No one should say he's a four [power forward] or a five [center]."
Brand said Battier's development had made things easier for everyone. "I know it makes it easier for me offensively when he's scoring."
Easier for Elton Brand? This is precisely what makes Duke such a frightening opponent. Even before Battier's emergence, the 6-foot-9 Brand was an unstoppable inside force.
Now what is he? "More" unstoppable?
Pub Date: 3/19/99