01:00 AM EST on Saturday, March 25, 2006

If you're a fan of the Duke Blue Devils, this is going to make you see red.

If, that is, you can see anything at all through those red-rimmed, tear-filled eyes. Just like, you know, the ones J.J. Redick had Thursday night after the top-seeded, highly-regarded -- and highly-recruited -- Dookies were done in by a bunch of kids from Baton Rouge, 62-54.

Which, by the way, raises a few questions about coach Mike "You guys shoot around while I shoot another commercial" Krzyzewski, too.

The great players -- the true champions -- are at their best in the biggest games.

That's what makes them great, what sets them apart.

As Exhibit A, we offer Joe Montana. He played in four Super Bowls and won them all. He was the MVP in three of them. One of them was over by halftime, when he threw for four touchdowns in the first 30 minutes of a 55-10 rout of the Broncos. Against the Bengals in Super Bowl XXIII, Montana cooly executed a 92-yard drive in the final 3:20, finishing it off with a 10-yard TD pass to John Taylor with 34 seconds to go that gave the 49ers a come-from-behind, 20-16 victory.

He did the same stuff in college. As a junior at Notre Dame, he led the Fighting Irish to a national championship in 1977, trouncing undefeated, top-ranked Texas and Heisman Trophy-winning running back Earl Campbell in the Cotton Bowl, 38-10. But that wasn't as impressive as what Montana did the following year at the Cotton Bowl, against Houston. After remaining in the locker room, where he was being treated for hypothermia, after halftime, Montana returned to the field with Notre Dame trailing, 34-12, midway through the third quarter and rallied the Irish to a 35-34 victory, completing the winning touchdown pass as time expired.

That's greatness.

Michael Jordan. Reggie "Mr. October" Jackson. Tiger Woods. Larry Bird. Wayne Gretzky. Magic Johnson. Jack Nicklaus. Tom Brady. They all played at the highest level under the utmost pressure.

Not Redick. And not Gonzaga's Adam Morrison, either. One of them will be Player of the Year. And deservedly so. They both have had tremendous seasons. But neither of them is a player for the ages.

When Morrison made two free throws, for his 23rd and 24th points, Thursday night against UCLA, the 'Zags had a 9-point lead, 71-62, with 3:23 left to play. But the Bruins staged a remarkable comeback, outscoring Gonzaga, 11-0, the rest of the way to win, 73-71.

With the game slipping away, Morrison couldn't score a point. He missed a jumper at 2:22. He missed a layup at 1:03. He missed another jumper with 25 seconds to go. And so the 'Zags wound up missing out on what, with a little over three minutes to go, had seemed like a surefire trip to the regional finals. Instead of a going to the Final Four, Morrison wound up on the floor, face down, in tears.

There may not be any crying in baseball, but there sure is a lot of weeping in college hoops.

As for Redick, for the third time in four years, he came up small in the regional semifinals. Unable to get away from tenacious freshman defender Garret Temple, he was a dismal 3-for-18 against LSU.

Anyone can have a bad game, you say? True. But how about last year, when Redick was 4-for-14 as the Blue Devils lost to Michigan State in the regional semis? And what about his freshman year, when he scored only five points in a bittersweet 16 loss to Kansas?

Forget about how many points a guys scores against Wake Forest or Clemson in January or February. It's what he does in the NCAA tournament in March that people remember.

Now, the truth is that, in every team sport, even a great player can be shut down. That's when his teammates have to step up. And when his coach has to come up with alternative ways to win.

It was "Bum" Phillips who quaintly, but sagely, said a great coach "can take his'n and beat your'n, or take your'n and beat his'n.'

Let's take a look at the material the legendary Coach K, already an enshrined Hall of Famer, had on hand Thursday night.

In addition to Redick, he had five other former McDonald's all-Americans, primo recruits any team in the country would love to have had.

There was Josh McRoberts, the McDonald's high school Player of the Year in 2005. There was Greg Paulus, honored by Gatorade as the national Athlete of the Year in 2005 because he also was highly-recruited as a quarterback. Sophomore DeMarcus Nelson is the all-time leading scorer in California high school history. Sean Dockery and Eric Boateng also were McDonald's all-Americans.

In addition, the Dookies could call on freshman Jamal Boykin, who was the Gatorade Player of the Year last season in California, and senior center Shelden Williams, who twice was Gatorade Player of the Year in Oklahoma as a schoolboy.

Against that array of top-notch talent from all across the country, LSU had three kids from Baton Rouge -- sophomore Glen Davis, redshirt freshman Tyrus Thomas, and Temple, who tenaciously followed Redick wherever he went.

Duke had all that talent, and Krzyzewski has all those Coach of the Year awards, and yet the Blue Devils were stymied and flummoxed, left frustrated and clueless -- how'd you like it when Davis, after missing a foul shot late in the game, was able to grab the rebound, even though there were four Dookies in the lane, and he was the only LSU player on that side of midcourt? -- by the Bayou Bengals.

This will be heresy to some, and lunacy to others, but it could it possibly be that Coach K is getting by on his reputation?

Yes, he's won three NCAA championships, but just one in the last 14 years -- an inability to finish that might have gotten the legendary John Wooten fired at UCLA.

Another indication of a coach's prowess is how his protégés are doing. Consider the following disciples of Coach K: Tommy Amaker has been unable to restore Michigan to hoops glory. Or even the NCAA tournament. At Notre Dame, Mike Brey is looking more and more like Ty Willingham, a nice man who can't get the job done. Dave Henderson just got fired at Delaware -- Delaware? -- with two years remaining on his contract after his third straight losing season. And Quinn Snyder was fired at Missouri amidst questions of unethical activities.

Similar to all those televised sales pitches featuring coach K, the Dookies try to sell their program as the nation's best -- that Redick is the best player in the country, and Krzyzewski is the best coach in the country.

But I'm not buying it.

jdonalds@projo.com / (401) 277-7340