IU has nothing to worry about

The IU basketball team and Hoosier faithfuls have nothing to worry about tonight.\nDuke has Jason Williams, a unanimous All-American and Naismith Award winner. And incredibly he makes every single shot he takes. \nDuke's Mike Dunleavy averages 17.4 points per game, which is only good enough for third on his team. Dunleavy can also routinely make 35-foot hook shots left handed while double teamed. \nDuke has Carlos Boozer, a 6-foot-9, 280-pound center who averages 18.1 points per game. Boozer can bench press 645 pounds, the combined weight of IU's Jared Jeffries, Jared Odle and Jeff Newton. And Duke has other good players too.\nNot all that is true, but you wouldn't know it the way people have talked about the Blue Devils this week. Apparently, what I saw as an unimpressive seven-point win against Notre Dame has been interpreted by the basketball elite as a normal bump in the road for a "team of destiny" that has their second consecutive national title locked up.\nI mean for real, even ESPN's Dick Vital backed the "Dukies" in this contest. You gotta be kidding me!\nThe latest point spread from www.betonsports.com had Duke favored by 13 points -- exactly double the points Maryland is favored over Kentucky, the next largest line of any Sweet Sixteen matchup. \nThe insults don't end there for IU. ESPN the Magazine's Curry Kirkpatrick said, "Duke couldn't possibly have an easier draw in Lexington unless the committee fed 'N Sync and Britney in here." That hurts because I saw Justin Timberlake play in an MTV "Rock and Jock" celebrity game and the kid has no range…so I think Kirkpatrick was trying to say IU won't win.\nLet's give Duke credit, they're a talented basketball team top to bottom. Like the rest of the country, I have seen Duke on television. Actually, the Blue Devils are like an athletic version of a mid-evening sitcom, thanks to ESPN not only carrying their games on any given day, but having the courtesy to replay that same game the following afternoon, in case we missed that Dunleavy hook shot.\nFor the first time this season, IU is a severe underdog. A position the players and fans of this historically powerful program are unaccustomed to. The Hoosiers are over-matched at every position as well as coach and maybe sweat-mop boys. Don't forget starting IU guard Tom Coverdale is still fighting ankle problems. Duke even has a mascot, something IU athletic officials are currently working on for the future.\nAnd still, the Hoosiers and their followers have nothing to worry about.\nWhy worry about this game? Mike Davis won a Big Ten Championship, coached the conference player of the year Jeffries, conference co-defender of the year Dane Fife, won 22 games and put his team in the round of 16 for the first time since 1994. I would call that a successful year so far.\nBest of all, the Hoosiers find themselves facing off with the best team in their bracket and in the nation. IU should play with no fear, no pressure and at worst they will do what everyone thought they would do anyway, lose a basketball game.\nIU has the benefit of playing in Lexington, Ky., relatively close to their home. Kentucky, where the only school the people of the state despise more than IU is Duke, courtesy of Christian Leattner.\nIU basketball is back on the national main stage. Around campus, the buzz surrounding the game is borderline annoying. Tests are being rescheduled and late classes will be skipped like a meatloaf dinner. It is everything right about college.\nIt will be Coverdale, Jeffries and Odle versus Williams, Dunleavy and Boozer, the outcome is obvious to everyone.\nDuke is supposed to win, but don't worry about the Hoosiers tonight -- they're the team playing with nothing to lose.