Barnes, a North Carolina native, wants to cap his return to Atlantic Coast Conference country by leading Texas into some familiar territory, too.
If his seventh-seeded Longhorns (23-11) are to reach the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 for the sixth time in eight years, they’ll need to knock off one of Barnes’ old nemeses, the second-seeded Blue Devils (29-6), tonight in the second round of the East Regional.
Barnes, who grew up a 90-minute drive away in Hickory, went 4-5 against Duke in four seasons at Clemson and a quarter-century ago interviewed for a job on Coach K’s staff. He hopes that familiarity with the Blue Devils translates to the court.
“There are some staples in their program that they do - obviously, every game they come out extremely aggressive to start with,” Barnes said. “They’re going to apply a great deal of pressure in the first four or five minutes and see how you’re going to handle that.”
For the Longhorns to spring the upset, they’ll need to handle it better than 15th-seeded Binghamton did.
After winning its eighth ACC Tournament title in 11 years, Duke spoiled the Bearcats’ first tournament appearance by scoring 24 points off their 18 turnovers and rolled to its most lopsided NCAAs win since a 28-point romp over Seton Hall five years ago during its run to its most recent Final Four.
Now comes the next challenge for the Blue Devils: Keeping that momentum flowing well enough to push them into the second weekend for the first time since 2006, when they advanced to the regional semifinals for the ninth straight year.
“Coming off a game where we did win pretty big, it’s a confidence-booster for our team,” Duke forward Lance Thomas said. “Everybody is in the mindset believing that we can win.”
Both teams seem to have turned their seasons around by making changes at point guard.
Duke slipped to 20-5 after a loss at Boston College when Krzyzewski shifted shooting guard Jon Scheyer to the point and started high-energy freshman Elliot Williams at shooting guard. The Blue Devils have won nine of 10.
Similarly, Texas dropped to .500 in Big 12 play about six weeks ago, when Barnes inserted Dogus Balbay into the starting lineup. The Longhorns reeled off victories in eight of the next 12 games, including an upset of then-No. 2 Oklahoma and a 76-62 win over Minnesota in the first round, giving the Longhorns a win in their NCAA opener for the fourth straight year.
“He definitely was nervous (Thursday) and it showed up, because we came out and absolutely did not establish what we wanted to do early in the game with our transition and getting him going,” Barnes said. “I’ve told him he’s going to have to shoot the ball some, and he’s capable of doing it.”
While Balbay’s scoring numbers are meager, his presence frees up one of the tournament’s most dangerous shooters, guard A.J. Abrams, to get open on the perimeter.
“He reminds me a lot of how J.J. shot,” Krzyzewski said, referring to former Duke star J.J. Redick. “Even his misses are right there.”
Abrams set Texas’ NCAA Tournament record by hitting eight 3-point shots against the Gophers and has given Duke something to worry about besides Dexter Pittman, the Longhorns’ 6-10, 298-pound bruiser who generates plenty of matchup problems for the perimeter-based Blue Devils.
“We just have to basically do everything in our power to try to keep him off the boards,” Thomas said. “(But) we can’t focus on just the post. We have to play an overall game.”
Since moving to Texas, Barnes is 0-3 against the Blue Devils. The most recent meeting came three seasons ago, when Abrams was a freshman and the Longhorns were routed by 30 points in a midseason, neutral-site game.
