Women's Basketball ACC Postseason Supplement

2 | THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 2010 THe CHRoniCle

Editor: Gabe StarostaManaging Editor: Sabreena Mer-chantPhoto Editor: Michael NaclerioSports Photo Editor: Ian SoileauRecruitment Chairs: Taylor Doherty and Andy MooreAssociate Editors: Dan Ahrens, Ryan Claxton, Harrison Comfort, Car-oline Fairchild, Kevin Fishner, Laura Keeley, Kyle Lambrecht, Lucas Nevola, Jason Palmatary, Scott Rich, Jeff Scholl, Nicholas Schwartz, Felicia Tan Senior Associate Editors: Ste-phen Allan, Ben Cohen, Joe Drews, Alex Fanaroff, Will Flaherty, Archith Ramkumar, David UngvaryFirst-Year Writers: Rachel Apostoles, Chris Cusack, Tom Gieryn, Alex Krinsky, Patricia Lee, Jacob Levitt, Matt Leven-berg, Andy Margius, Vignesh Nathan, Stuart Price, Tim Visutipol, Danny VinikPhotographers: Lawson Kurtz, Lar-sa al-Omaishi, Christina Peña, Caro-line Rodriguez, Sam Sheft, Zachary Tracer, Xavier Watson, Melissa Yeo Special thanks to: Chronicle Editor Will Robinson, Managing Editor Hon Lung Chu, Design Editor Charlie Lee, News Photo Editor Courtney Douglas and the NUJI Group

The Women’s ACC Tournament Preview is a sports supplement published an-nually by The Chronicle. It can be read online at:

www.dukechronicle.com

sportsstaff Table of Contents3

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A mature Blue Devil squad already won an ACC regular season crown. Can Duke add to the trophy cabinet this March?

Seniors Bridgette Mitchell, Joy Cheek and Keturah Jackson have high expectations out of their last postseason

French freshman Allison Vernerey’s transition to American life—not to mention basketball—has been a smooth one

Duke’s post players—including some non-traditional inside performers—could define how far the Blue Devils go in the NCAA Tournament

Dynamic guard Jasmine Thomas (right) keys Duke’s offense, but can the Blue Devils beat good teams if she has an off night?

Chronicle columnists Nicholas Schwartz and Chris Cusack de-bate whether Duke can make the Final Four in San Antonio

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postseason preview tournament outlook

miChael naClerio/ChroniCle file photo

Duke hopes to celebrate this weekend and in the nCaa tournament, just as it did against north Carolina three weeks ago.

Blue Devils hope for revenge in tourneysby Patricia Lee

THE CHRONICLE

No. 9 Duke enters the upcom-ing ACC and NCAA Tournaments secure in its place as regular sea-son champion and confident on what its growth will allow it to ac-complish, although the team has to overcome a series of setbacks to challenge the nation’s best.

The Blue Devils (24-5, 12-2 in ACC) have advanced tremendously as a team this year. Elevating its lev-el of play against difficult teams like Ohio State and Florida State, Duke has built itself into a more domi-nant defensive team and a threat offensively. But against elites like Connecticut and Stanford, the Blue Devils have come up well short.

Still, head coach Joanne P. McCallie is impressed with her team’s development since the be-ginning of the season.

“We are growing and have be-come more mature,” McCallie said. “From a team standpoint, we’re playing more aggressively and being smart, and everyone’s been a part of that. We’ve just had good, strong, aggressive, tough play by everyone defen-sively, fairly consistent rebound-ing, excellent leadership from everybody and the juniors and seniors together have formed a bond of understanding of what it takes to compete at this level.”

Going in as the favorites to win the ACC Tournament this year, the Blue Devils are looking to focus on improving against teams they per-formed poorly against earlier in the season. Specifically, Duke had a disappointing loss against Boston College in early February in which junior guard Jasmine Thomas was the only scorer to get in double digits, and another gainst North Carolina to end the season.

The offensive rhythm the team

has settled into later on in the year—with powerhouses Thomas and Joy Cheek both averaging more than 10 points per game and Karima Christmas not far behind with 9.5—will prove essential come the quick turnaround in both the ACC and NCAA Tournaments.

“We’ve been practicing hard, and we’re looking forward to great competition, which is what the ACC brings,” senior forward Bridgette Mitchell said. “We always do a post-game scout report, so we’ll be ready to receive teams and more effec-tively counter their strong points.”

Throughout regular season play, Thomas has been proud of the juniors’ and seniors’ strong presence on the court and in the locker room.

“The seniors have definitely been big with emotion and have definitely been playing like it’s their last year,” Thomas said. “Their leadership on the floor is important, and if we need some-thing big on the floor, we know that we can always look to them.”

And though Duke has accom-plished its goal of earning the regular season championship—although the Blue Devils split it with Florida State on the last day of the season—there are still ele-ments that Duke needs to work on to attain a higher level of play that McCallie stresses. The coach often uses the metaphor of a series of games as a row of dominoes to be knocked down regardless of what teams the Blue Devils are playing.

“We have a defensive intensity and the ability to really clamp down on opponents,” McCallie said. “But we need to continue dominating rebounding and our passing needs to improve tremen-dously in terms of the quickness of ball movement and throwing it harder. You’ve got to look the

other team in the eye, and I’d love to see UConn again, but you can’t predict it. It’s NCAA bas-ketball, and it’s amazing and un-predictable, but you can up your chances by bringing a mature team to the battle.”

And with their last game—a 64-54 loss against the Tar Heels Sun-day—behind them, the Blue Devils are preparing for more competi-tive ACC play and are confident they will be a foreboding presence at the NCAA Tournament.

“Hopefully you’ll go into it with the mindset that you’ll go as far as you can and that in every game you can’t save anything,” Thomas said. “As far as the ACC and NCAA, you have to face every opponent like it’s your last game.”

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postseason preview the three seniors

Senior trio brings attitude to Blue Devils

by Rachel ApostolesTHE CHRONICLE

There is a certain expectation of leadership that comes with being a senior. Having three years of play at the col-legiate level under their belts, seniors often set the tone for the team—not necessarily by netting the most points or registering the most boards, but by relying on their experi-ence to drive their team through trying situations.

And Duke’s three seniors, Joy Cheek, Bridgette Mitchell and Kenturah Jackson, have performed that role to a tee.

“I definitely think they all have different leadership qual-ities,” junior forward Karima Christmas said. “They all have their own qualities but they’re definitely great leaders. They just bring energy. They bring energy in different ways.”

The senior trio has been a pillar of consistency for the No. 9 Blue Devils, stepping up and executing when the team has needed it most.

Last Friday’s game against then-No. 18 Virginia illustrated their reliability. Cheek, Mitchell and Jackson propelled Duke to a 83-65 victory over the Cavaliers, a win that guaranteed the Blue Devils at least a share of the ACC regular season title. Cheek showed off her offensive tenacity, bucketing 13 points for Duke, while Mitchell and Jackson demonstrated their ath-leticism and versatility. Mitchell added eight points, four re-bounds, three assists and two steals, and Jackson contributed four points, four rebounds, two assists, two blocks and a steal.

“I’m very happy for the seniors,” head coach Joanne P. McCallie said after the Virginia game. “I thought all of them played pretty well and were very aggressive.”

The feeling of being ACC regular season champions is nothing new for the Class of 2010. The trio garnered the same title in 2007 and has strived to repeat the feat ever since. With

this season being their last at Duke, they have stepped up in a big way to improve the level of play for the entire team.

They have also been consistent with their leadership style, which sometimes involved not being afraid to hurt the feelings of their teammates with constructive criticism.

“I think I see more of our team demanding more from each other, not being ready to accept less,” McCallie said. “We’re not a sensitive team. There’s a lot said out there in terms of holding people accountable. Our team is not sensitive and they’re will-

ing to pay the price of analysis, critical thought.” Each senior has her own leadership style and skill set on

the court, which gives this team more depth and adaptabil-ity than the typical roster. Cheek brings an offensive energy, while Mitchell is a leader on the boards. Jackson often sparks the Blue Devils on defense.

“We’ve really been striving to be great leaders for the


seniors Joy Cheek, Bridgette Mitchell and Keturah Jackson (left to right) have been asked to fill diverse roles by head coach Joanne p. McCallie.

SEE seniors ON PAGE 10

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postseason preview allison vernerey, the import


allison vernerey’s first career start came against north Carolina at Cameron indoor stadium, and Duke won her dream debut at home.

Vernerey translates game, lifestyle to NCAA athletics

melissa yeo/ChroniCle file photo

Freshman allison vernerey’s versatility down low has allowed her to develop her post game, first in limited minutes and lately as a starter.

by Tom GierynTHE CHRONICLE

There are some who say that basketball is a universal language. And in a way, they’re right. You can put a center from Cameroon with a point guard from Paris and a small forward from Slovakia, and they might be able to put a ball through a hoop with ease. But at Duke, women’s basket-ball isn’t just about basketballs and backboards. The sport may not get lost in translation, but the players sure can.

The closest Durham to Allison Vernerey’s home in Al-sace, France is nearly 800 miles away—in Great Britain. The Durham where she goes to school—in North Car-olina—is more than 3,000 miles from home. It’s taken all of her considerable talent to make the transition to basketball, and life, in the United States.

Vernerey was born in Paris. Her father is a professional basketball coach, and her mother and sister also played at high levels in France. It was only natural that a six-year-old Allison got in on the action. By age 15, she was repre-senting France in the U-16 European Championships. She would go on to be captain of her U-16 team, and eventu-ally, of France’s U-18 team as well.

In France, Vernerey said, there is little concept of a stu-dent-athlete. You either become a professional athlete, or

you become a student.“I didn’t want to have to choose one and let the other

one go,” she said. “I want to keep my options open.”And as it turned out, Vernerey wasn’t the only one dream-

ing of her move to America. Scouts at the European Cham-pionships took notice too, and Vernerey’s name reached the ears of Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie. Still, as a foreign player, it was up to her to make first contact, and Vernerey sent letters and video footage to all the major col-lege programs: Duke, Connecticut and Maryland.

But it wasn’t just basketball that attracted McCallie’s attention. Vernerey is the epitome of a worker: She un-derstands her skills, but doesn’t play them up and is al-ways eager to get better.

McCallie had been impressed with the game tape she’d seen, but Vernerey the person blew her away on an even higher level than Vernerey the basketball player.

“Her eyes are so bright, her excitement, her alert-ness, her confidence in pursuing her dream of coming to the States for an education,” McCallie said. “I thought she was courageous, brave.”

Vernerey was especially interested in Duke from the start. Allison’s uncle Laurent Vernerey had received an MBA from Duke in 1998. Duke was bigger than any school Allison had ever attended, and a transition to a huge state school like Connecticut or Maryland would have proven even more dif-ficult. Duke combined the quality basketball program she needed with the scholastic reputation she wanted.

Duke was just a far-away thought in Vernerey’s head at that point, but McCallie’s visit sealed the deal. She came to Allison’s hometown, met the Vernerey family and Allison felt a connection immediately.

A week after McCallie’s visit, Vernerey officially com-mitted to the Blue Devils. But that was the easy part. The translation was just beginning.

Vernerey says her English was better than that of her peers in France, but that wasn’t enough to mean she could waltz right into American life.

And then there was the food. She’s been to Vin Rouge but not Parizade. She spent most of her dinners eating Marketplace pizza.

SEE vernerey ON PAGE 9

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6 | THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 2010

by Sabreena MerchantTHE CHRONICLE

As the season wears on, tired legs lead to missed jumpers and the game slows down, it’s useful to have a strong inside presence to turn to on offense.

A year ago, the Blue Devils leaned on Chante Black as their back-to-the basket scor-er. Black—the team’s leader in points—was usually able to overpower her defender given good position in the post. Unfortunately for Duke, this offensive set was highly predictable and easy to adjust to, causing the Blue Devils’ scoring to stagnate late in games. A quick look at Duke’s season-ending loss to Michi-gan State, in which the Blue Devils failed to score from the field in the final seven-and-a-half-minutes, is proof enough.

Nevertheless, the concept of an inside-out offense wasn’t the problem. It was merely the execution that failed. Which is why a year later, Duke is still determined to work the ball inside, but with a different set of personnel, and, it hopes, better results.

“We’re going to play the ball inside and out, and attack the paint and be aggressive, because we want to get to the paint and we want to get to the free-throw line, and we want that as a mainstay in things we do,” head coach Joanne P. McCallie said.

The Blue Devils no longer have a power center capable of dominating the game on the offensive end. Instead, the team has a bevy of post players, each with a different skill set, lending diversity—and sometimes inconsistency—to the inside attack.

Junior center Krystal Thomas has as-sumed Black’s position in the starting lineup, but has functioned mainly in a de-fensive capacity. At 6-foot-4, Thomas is a force on the boards and can alter shots, leading the team with 7.1 rebounds and nearly two blocks per game.

Meanwhile, freshman Allison Vernerey has provided the perfect offensive comple-ment to Thomas. Vernerey has a thinner frame, but her smooth stroke makes her a double-digit threat on any given night, and the freshman has hit that mark nine times this season. In the team’s Feb. 26 contest against then-No. 18 Virginia, Vernerey put up 17 points on 8-of-8 shooting while Thomas led Duke with nine rebounds and two blocks, demonstrating the Blue Dev-ils’ options at center.

“It’s worked in our offense as far as bringing different looks into the post,” ju-

nior guard Jasmine Thomas said. “Allison’s a finesse player [and] she finishes well at the basket. [Krystal Thomas] is a power down in the post.... It puts a lot of versatility down there in the post and it helps us be-cause we can just rotate them in.”

The most noteworthy aspect of Duke’s offense this year has been the frequency of post-ups from the forwards. Senior Joy Cheek worked with Black in the paint last year as a power forward, but has often played on the perimeter this season, utiliz-ing her range and height to shoot over smaller defenders. That leaves room inside for the small forwards, namely Bridgette Mitchell and Ka-rima Christmas, to operate.

Christmas, in particular, has been a force at the three despite coming off the bench for the ma-jority of the season. Her combi-nation of size and athleticism is a nightmare for defenders down low, and the result has been a jump in the junior’s scoring average to 9.5 points per game. Like many of her teammates, Christmas is capable of exploding offensively, most recently against Maryland Feb. 21 when she put up 25 points on just 13 shots.

“It’s just that [Bridgette and I]

are versatile players,” Christmas said. “We have height to play in the post and quickness to play in the post. Either way, we can play outside or in-side. It’s helping the team out a lot.”

The Blue Devils’ multi-faceted, and nearly unpredictable, post at-tack has posed a significant defen-sive challenge for opposing teams. Duke doesn’t have one player down low to focus on, and Christ-mas and Mitchell are mismatches for smaller wings.

“It makes it extremely hard [to defend] because when you have two players like Karima and [Bridgette] playing in the post, they can take the larger and slower posts outside and go around them,” Cheek said. “Their quickness is what helps. It helps our defense, too, because their speed al-lows them to get deflections.”

No matter how each player is contributing, the very fact that so many Blue Devils have the abil-ity to make a difference on the offensive end has made this year’s squad more effective. Chante Black doesn’t play in Cameron Indoor Stadium anymore, but the post players Duke does have should give the team a fighting chance in the coming weeks.

Offensive success rests

with bigs

A YEAR IN REVIEW


this season has already included a series of joyous occasions for Duke, and the Blue Devils hope to celebrate an aCC tournament title in Greensboro this weekend.

DUKE 83 - OSU 67December 3rd, 2009

A huge game from guard Jasmine Thomas—she

scored 29 points and went 10-of-20 from the field—

gave the Blue Devils an ex-citing win over then-No. 3 Ohio State at home. Buck-eye forward Jantel Laven-der put up a monster 20 points and 18 rebounds

and played all 40 minutes in the losing effort.

UCONN 81 - DUKE 48January 18, 2010

Five Huskies score in double figures in front of a sellout crowd at Cameron Indoor Stadium as No. 1 UConn

steamrolls Duke on its way to an undefeated regular season. The Blue Devils

trailed by 10 at halftime and cut that lead to eight early in the second period, but hot Huskie shooting wid-

ened the margin of victory to more than 30

DUKE 83 - UVA 65February 26, 2010

The Blue Devils come out of the locker room at halftime

fired up and turn a slim two-point lead at the break

into an 18-point blowout against the Cavaliers to earn

at least a share of the ACC title. This was a balanced

offensive game for Duke, as six players scored at least eight points. But two days later, the Blue Devils get

beat by a mediocre North Carolina squad in Chapel Hill, forcing Duke to share the top spot in the confer-

ence with Florida State

The Blue Devils no longer have a power center capable of dominating the game. Instead, the team has a bevy of post players, each with a

different skill set, lending diversity—and some-times inconsistency—to the inside attack.

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by Vignesh NathanTHE CHRONICLE

When it comes to who the best player on Duke’s squad is, there’s not a question about it—it’s Jas-mine Thomas. Thomas leads the Blue Devils in points, assists and steals, and she became the 26th player in Duke history to score 1,000 points, as a junior, earlier this year. Last week, she was named as one of 30 candidates for the Naismith Player of the Year award. The list goes on and on, but there is one question that is much more pertinent to Blue Devil fans—can

Against the best, Thomas’s performance key for Duke

Duke win without her?Although Thomas may be the

most consistent offensive con-tributor on the team, she is by no means the only. Duke’s team con-sists of a plethora of experienced players who have the potential to dominate offensively. Seniors Joy Cheek and Bridgette Mitchell are both capable of having career games on any given night, while ju-nior Karima Christmas and fresh-man Allison Vernerey are known to put up impressive figures.

And given Thomas’s some-times inconsistent shooting this season, these are the players that have contributed signifi-cantly to the continued success of this year’s team.

For example, take the Feb. 8 game against rival North Caroli-na. Thomas could not generate any momentum on the court, shooting a measly 20 percent, and going 0-for-5 from 3-point range. Still, Duke pulled away for the victory and put up the most balanced scoresheet of its season, with six players scoring in double-digits, including soph-omore Shay Selby, who is com-ing back into form after knee surgery last summer.

“We have different people in different spots. You saw [Christ-mas] step up, you’ve seen [Cheek] step up as well,” head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “[Jasmine Thomas] has been steady for us. Other people have stepped up for us as well. [Krystal Thomas] has had big games. [Ver-nerey] had big games. It’s just a matter of getting us all to fire off all cylinders at the same time.”

But that’s precisely the prob-lem. When these Blue Devils have faced off against the nation’s toughest talent, they haven’t been able to all step up at once. Rather, they seem to rely on their point guard’s assertiveness to ei-ther notch a win, or suffer a loss.

A great example was Duke’s early victory against then-No. 3 Ohio State—the Blue Devils’ first quality win of the season. Thomas had a career night, scoring 29 points on a wonder-ful shooting performance. The rest of

the starters? They combined for fewer points than Duke’s lone star.

When Duke traveled to Califor-nia to take on No. 2 Stanford two weeks laer, the Blue Devils’ box score could not have been more lopsided. Thomas and Christmas combined for 30 points, more than the other eight members of Duke’s team com-bined. And Thomas scored her 14 points on 4-of-17 shooting, not good enough to beat a potential top seed like the Cardinal.

Where were the rest of the Blue Devils? Mitchell, tradition-ally a reliable scorer, remained scoreless on an 0-for-4 perfor-mance from the field. Fellow seniors Jackson and Cheek were not much more impressive.

The final test came against No. 1 Connecticut in January. And though Thomas scored 17 and looked impressive in doing so, none of her teammates scored in double digits, and her own scor-ing didn’t come close to closing the gap against the Huskies.

The fact remains that many Blue Devils have not been consis-tent scoring threats. On the season, only two Blue Devils average dou-ble-digit points—barely (Joy Cheek is averaging 10.0 points per game). In contrast, seven of the other nine teams in the top 10 have at least three double-digit scorers, and a few even have four.

For McCallie, the focus of the next few weeks will be on devel-oping different scoring options so that the Blue Devils don’t rely so heavily on one player.

“That’s the power of team. That’s the power of everyone,” McCallie said after the Blue Dev-ils’ victory against North Caroli-na. “Everybody on this team can offer something.”

These words may be true enough to send the Blue Devils to San Antonio. But based on the evidence, if the Blue Devils con-tinue their sloppy play against other national title contenders, only Jasmine Thomas can deter-mine whether Duke brings home a national championship. If she fails, so does Duke. Blue Devil fans can only hope she doesn’t.

are versatile players,” Christmas said. “We have height to play in the post and quickness to play in the post. Either way, we can play outside or in-side. It’s helping the team out a lot.”

The Blue Devils’ multi-faceted, and nearly unpredictable, post at-tack has posed a significant defen-sive challenge for opposing teams. Duke doesn’t have one player down low to focus on, and Christ-mas and Mitchell are mismatches for smaller wings.

“It makes it extremely hard [to defend] because when you have two players like Karima and [Bridgette] playing in the post, they can take the larger and slower posts outside and go around them,” Cheek said. “Their quickness is what helps. It helps our defense, too, because their speed al-lows them to get deflections.”

No matter how each player is contributing, the very fact that so many Blue Devils have the abil-ity to make a difference on the offensive end has made this year’s squad more effective. Chante Black doesn’t play in Cameron Indoor Stadium anymore, but the post players Duke does have should give the team a fighting chance in the coming weeks.


this season has already included a series of joyous occasions for Duke, and the Blue Devils hope to celebrate an aCC tournament title in Greensboro this weekend.

Christina pena/ChroniCle file photo

the Blue Devils haven’t always shown that they can beat good teams when star Jasmine thomas has an off night.

The Blue Devils no longer have a power center capable of dominating the game. Instead, the team has a bevy of post players, each with a

different skill set, lending diversity—and some-times inconsistency—to the inside attack.

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NicholasSchwartz

ChrisCusack

The road to san antonioChronicle columnists Chris Cusack and Nicholas Schwartz debate

whether Duke, a potential No. 1 or No. 2 seed, is Final Four material

UConn aside, Blue Devils can match top teams Too much reliance on Thomas to performI was there in Cameron Indoor Sta-

dium as a determined and generally unguardable Jasmine Thomas torched then-No. 3 Ohio State for 24 second-half

points en route to an im-pressive 83-67 upset. From my seat on press row, it looked like an experienced Blue Devil

squad led by one of the top guards in the country

could grow to be one of the postseason favorites in the coming months.

That, however, was on Dec. 3 of last year,

some 91 days ago, and while players such as Keturah Jackson and Allison Vernerey have since made sizable con-tributions and helped the Blue Devils to a 24-5 record and a

regular season ACC title, Duke is suffering from one setback it never could have predicted.

Jasmine Thomas has lost her mojo.

The same junior point guard who scored 57 points over a two-game stretch against the Buck-eyes and Southern California has since fallen a bit flat in ACC play. While Thomas can still break out offensively—she scored 22 and 20 points against Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech, respec-tively—it’s been her alarming drop-off in offensive efficiency that is cause for concern.

Over Duke’s first 15 games in which the Blue Devils went 13-2, Thomas shot just over 40 percent from the field and averaged a team-high 15.8

points per game. Since a midseason clash with Wake Forest, however, it’s been all downhill for Duke’s star.

In the last 14 contests, Thomas has av-eraged 5.78 made field goals per game—just 0.38 more than her average over the first 15 games—despite taking over two more shots per game (from 13.4 to 15.9). But it’s not just Thomas’s ability to score that has been compromised.

Thomas began the first 15 games averaging 5.1 assists per game, but has averaged almost a full two assists fewer over the last 14 games.

Overall, she drops just over four dimes per game this year, but that num-ber drops to three when you only count games against ranked teams.

In Duke’s losses this year, Thomas’s inef-fectiveness has been showcased. The guard has fired just under 20 shots per game and has shot 31.9 percent on average in each of Duke’s losses and is dishing just 3.4 assists per game in those defeats.

Thomas’s struggles may signal a con-fidence issue, or it could just be a func-tion of wear and tear—she leads the Blue Devils in minutes per game with 32. Although Duke will have a bit of a break before the ACC Tournament, and another extended rest before the NCAA Tournament, there’s no rest for the wea-ry once the big dance begins.

If Duke’s best player is off, it’s any-one’s guess as to where the points are going to come from. Five players besides Thomas average between seven and 10 points per game, but of that bunch, only Karima Christmas can be expected to create on the perimeter.

On a team where she is both the prima-ry ballhandler and primary scorer, Thomas is going to need to play her best in order for Duke to see San Antonio.

Why not us?That’s the question that should be post-

ed on every bulletin board and every wall of Duke’s locker room. It should be head coach Joanne P. McCallie’s mantra, perma-nently branded into the minds of her play-ers. The Blue Devils should believe, and rightfully so, that they have what it takes to make the Final Four come April.

Duke will likely be given a No. 2 seed when the tournament bracket is released in two weeks, setting up a potential Elite Eight matchup against one of the top four teams in the country: Connecticut, Stanford, Ne-braska or Tennessee.

True, Geno Auriemma coaches what is far and away the best team in women’s bas-ketball (possibly in its history), winners of 69 straight games, including a dominating 33-point victory over the Blue Devils at Cam-eron Indoor Stadium. The Huskies appear destined to come away with another NCAA title, their fifth in 10 years, leaving the rest of the nation clamoring for second place.

If Duke gets stuck in Connecticut’s bracket come Selection Monday, it would be next to impossible to envision the Blue Devils sliding their way into San Antonio.

Stanford is the obvious choice to face Connecticut in the championship game. Its only loss came at the hands of the Hus-kies before Christmas, 80-68, arguably Con-necticut’s toughest game of the year. The Cardinal have also demolished the Pac-10 to the tune of an average margin of victory of over 24 points per game.

Yet Stanford has not played a top-tier foe—conference or nonconference—on the road all season, not counting Connecticut.

The Pac-10 has no teams currently ranked in the top 25, and the Cardinal’s last—and best—nonconference road win was against unranked Fresno State before New Year’s.

True, the Cardinal used a big first-half

run to earn a 71-55 victory over the Blue Devils in Palo Alto, but the game came on the heels of a nine-day layoff for Duke’s ex-ams. Stanford was able to ride the Blue Dev-ils’ cold shooting after the layoff in the first half, but Duke matched the Cardinal in the second period. That loss can be explained in many different ways, but two stand out.

First, the Blue Devils shot just 28 per-cent from the field, well below the team’s average of 42 percent. Sec-ond, on a day in Maples Pavilion that celebrated the Stanford foot-ball program, the home court ad-vantage was enormous—an edge that cannot be ignored considering that the top four teams have yet to lose a game on their home floors. However, if all else stays even, the Cardinal will likely wind up in a different region than the Blue Devils; as a result, No. 3 Nebras-ka or No. 4 Tennessee look to be Duke’s largest obstacles on the road to the Final Four.

On first glance, the Corn-huskers are the most intimi-dating of the two. Standing undefeated at 27-0, with wins over No. 11 Oklahoma, No. 15 Texas A&M (a team that pound-ed Duke Nov. 15, 95-77), No. 18 Texas and No. 20 Oklahoma State, Nebraska is led in scoring by two senior forwards: Kelsey Griffin and Cory Montgomery.

However, the Blue Devils’ great-est strength this season has been rebounding and using size inside to own the paint. The team has a positive-9.7 rebounding margin, better than Nebraska or Tennessee.

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by Danny VinikTHE CHRONICLE

Just over a month apart, senior Joy Cheek and junior Jas-mine Thomas joined an elite cadre of Duke players to score 1,000 points over the course of their careers in Durham.

On Jan. 29, Cheek scored her 1,000th career point to become the 25th woman in Duke history to reach that milestone. Six games later against Maryland, Thomas—a year earlier than her teammate—joined her as the 26th member of the exclusive group.

“It means a lot to be amongst that group of women,” Cheek said after reaching the mark. “It’s an honor. It credits your hard work and how much you put forth. I know we’ll have some more ladies on that team that will be right behind me.”

Although a year younger, Thomas followed Cheek less than a month after.

“It was never really anything I thought about,” Thom-as said. “Scoring is just something I can do and I guess over time, [points] add up. It’s cool to get there and be part of history, but [now it’s time to] move on.”

Entering Friday’s ACC tournament quarterfinal, Cheek has scored 1,081 points as a Blue Devil, while Thomas has amassed 1,039 points. Head coach Joanne P. McCallie praised the pair’s achievements.

“I just think it’s great for them,” McCallie said. “It’s an individual accomplishment, but a well-deserved in-dividual accomplishment. Joy’s been a mainstay, a ter-rific person for us as a senior leader. Jas is incredibly talented as a junior. I’m very proud of both of them.”

McCallie is also using Cheek and Thomas’s accomplish-ment as an example for the younger players to follow.

“It sends a message that if you work hard and you really commit yourself, good things happen and fun things happen,” McCallie said.

“I guess when I arrived I was really excited because, you know, America is like, you eat pizza,” Vernerey said, laugh-ing. “You eat burgers. You go to the Marketplace, you have pizza every day. And that’s finally what I end up taking ev-ery day. And finally I’m like, well, it has been two months now. Maybe I should try something else.”

Basketball proved to be something of a new language as well. Like all freshmen, she was well behind in the weight room. Some of her teammates weren’t sure how well an inter-national player would integrate into their system. The rules changed: narrower paint, longer shot clock. And doesn’t ev-ery basketball player have to take issue with the officiating?

With an innocent tone that belies her vocal aggressive-ness on the court, she tells the story of her first game: “My first game here I fouled out, and I was like, ‘What’s going on? I promise I didn’t do anything wrong.’”

But things got easier by the day. Vernerey’s teammates pointed her in the right direction any time she needed help, and she wasted no time shaking the stereotype of a timid outsider struggling to adjust.

“She’s not sensitive. She’s very mature,” McCal-lie said. “Allison can handle being yelled at, she can handle being challenged. She’s vocal, she’s aggressive, she’s tough, she’s hard-nosed.”

Vernerey began the season showing flashes of poten-tial. She has excellent agility for a post player. She runs the floor very well and can score with either hand around the basket. She also brings a high basketball IQ.

“There’s no part of that game that you don’t want. She can do it all for us,” Thomas said. “With me being a point guard, and a guard that likes to play fast, it’s going to be good to have someone that can run the floor.”

And in recent weeks, she has indeed been doing it all. She got her first career start in a huge rivalry game against North Carolina at Cameron Indoor Stadium and showed off her all-around skill set with 10 points, six rebounds, two assists, two blocks and two steals in a season-high 28 minutes of action. Vernerey followed that with a 20-point, 10-rebound performance against N.C. State. The freshman is averaging a solid 7.6 points and 5.2 rebounds per game.

Not surprisingly, she downplays her increased role on the team.

vernerey from page 5

xavier watson/ChroniCle file photo

allison vernerey’s teammates and coaches praised her for her ambition in moving to the United states and her willingness to listen on the court.

“As far as just being here, the life I get here, the balance with basketball and my studies, the new people I meet, is already extraordinary,” Vernerey said. “But then Coach P giving me the chance to start is a great thing.”

The translation process is nearing its completion—only her accent and the occasional misplaced preposition give away that she’s not a native English speaker. She’s branched out to meals other than pizza. She’s only fouled out twice since that first game.

But there’s one thing she hasn’t gotten used to, and maybe never will.

“I guess it’s just so much excitement,” she said. “I’ve nev-er had that many people in a gym for a basketball game.”

Allison Vernerey might need to get used to that, though: If she keeps getting better, she and her Duke teammates will play in plenty of packed houses.

Thomas, Cheek enter Blue Devil record books

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Duke Mens BasketballINdianpoli:Layout 1 2/4/10 7:39 PM Page 1


Six-foot-four Krystal Thomas and 6-foot-5 Allison Vernerey have several inches on the Cornhusker stars and are a force to be reckoned with in the lane. No team has been able to successfully force Nebraska to live or die by the three yet this season, but if anyone is built to do just that, it’s Duke.

Pat Summitt and the Volunteers, on the other hand, would present a defensive test for the Blue Devils. Allow-ing its opponents just 57 points per game on 34.6 percent shooting and used to playing in front of big, boisterous crowds, Tennessee will be a tough out. However, McCallie’s squad has recorded even gaudier defensive numbers in a tougher conference, and is one of the only teams that can match up with the Volunteers’ massive frontcourt, the big-gest reason Tennessee is in position to earn a No. 1 seed.

Now, Duke has issues of its own, highlighted by its over-reliance on Jasmine Thomas to create offense, but to sug-gest that the Blue Devils won’t be in the April mix is ridicu-lous. As long as they stay far, far away from Connecticut.

CUsaCK from page 8


Duke’s Krystal thomas will be asked to guard and rebound against some of the best post players in the country in the coming weeks.

team, both in practice and in games, showing the right demeanor, right attitude, positive energy,” Mitchell said. “That’s what we’ve been focusing on as seniors.”

In game situations, the seniors’ experience enables them to be leaders on the court. They were role models for young-er players during high-pressure situations, maintaining their composure and executing when the team needed it most.

“I think the seniors have definitely been big with emotion and they’re definitely playing like this is their last year and they have nothing else but to give it all,” junior guard Jas-mine Thomas said. “Their leadership on the floor, always be-ing able to turn to them, when we need something big done in the game, whether it’s a rebound or a steal or a bucket, we can get it from any of them. They’ve been big for us.”

Although their final regular season as Blue Devils is com-plete, Cheek, Mitchell and Jackson are not ready to hang up their jerseys just yet. The trio should get to play two more games in Cameron Indoor Stadium—the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament will be held there—but this group of seniors has its sights set long past those early stages.

“I still don’t think of this as the last game,” Cheek said after Duke’s Senior Night. “I think the last NCAA game that we have will resonant a little more. I felt like I was coming back after [Friday]. That was the mindset that I had. I guess I’ll have another Senior Night.”

seniors from page 4

Christina pena/ChroniCle file photo

senior guard Keturah Jackson was rewarded for an excellent sea-son on defense by being named to the all-aCC Defensive team.


No. 5 Wake Forest

No. 12 Miami

No. 8 North Carolina

No. 9 Maryland

No. 7 Boston College

No. 10 Virginia Tech

No. 6 N.C. State

No. 3 Virginia

No. 2 Florida State

No. 1 Duke

No. 4 Georgia Tech

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2010ACC TournamentChampion

Thursday Friday SundaySaturday

No. 11 Clemson

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2010 ACC Tournament

Bracket

Documents

Women's Basketball ACC Postseason Supplement