Don’t trust the scribes on Tobacco Road

Thursday, March 25, 1999 | 11:52 a.m.

Steve Carp's college basketball notebook appears Friday. Reach him at carp@lasvegassun.com or 259-4087.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- It didn't take long for the subject to come up. And as he usually is, Mike Krzyzewski was prepared for it.

Someone asked Coach K how this Duke juggernaut that is the prohibitive favorite to prevail in this weekend's Final Four compares to the 1991 UNLV team the Blue Devils defeated in Indianapolis en route to the national title.

Krzyzewski wasn't about to play that game. From his perspective, these Dookies haven't done anything yet. Sure, they ran the table in the Atlantic Coast Conference, going a perfect 16-0, the first time that has ever happened. Yes, they are the nation's No. 1 ranked team and sport a gaudy 36-1 record. And yes, they are in the Final Four, two steps removed from the national title.

But until the '99 Blue Devils cut down the nets at Tropicana Field, Krzyzewski will withhold comment.

In fact, he went so far to say Wednesday that contrary to reports he had given his team a pre-tourney pep talk on the perils of the 1991 Rebels, no such conversation took place.

"I never talked to the team about the 1991 UNLV team," he said. "Don't believe everything you read."

Or what the Tobacco Road writers write. We'll take Coach K at his word that he didn't use Jerry Tarkanian's 1991 team as an example of not letting up, even though that UNLV team hardly let up that April Saturday at the Hoosier Dome. Perhaps a better pep talk for Krzyzewski is to point out what the '91 Duke team did and that it set the proper standard for this team to live up to.

In comparing the two Duke teams, Krzyzewski said there are a couple of similarities.

"We were very young and we were very good," he said of the '91 squad that included Grant Hill, Christian Laettner and Bobby Hurley. "I think we were a more experienced team in '91 compared to the '92 team (which won in Minneapolis)."

This Duke team is talented and experienced, though tinged with youth. But it is deeper than the '91 or '92 squads. It was that depth Tarkanian cited a week ago, when he said the '99 Blue Devils could have beaten his '91 UNLV squad.

I'm not so sure that would be the case.

Had Greg Anthony stayed on the floor the last five-plus minutes instead of fouling out, UNLV might have won, and the comparison would indeed be '99 Duke vs. '91 UNLV. And Tark didn't need a bench. The seven guys he played were plenty.

But what's done is done. And the focus needs to be on this group of Dookies. That was Coach K's point Wednesday. He doesn't want to get into comparisons with this team or that team. Especially when there's unfinished business that needs attending to this weekend.

"We try and treat the tournament as if it's our first time," he said. "I'm very nervous about it.

"When you reach the Final Four, it's almost as if you've been validated. We have to guard against that kind of thinking and not be satisfied."

Krzyzewski's thinking is each team you take to the Final Four is special. And the easiest thing to do is start drawing comparisons.

But the circumstances are always different. That's especially true with this team, born from the ashes of a 1995 season that saw Krzyzewski take a medical leave of absence and the program wallowing in chaos.

Coach K bounced back, and so did the program. And Krzyzewski admitted that it was truly rewarding to be here.

"To be where we were at a few years ago, it's a great feeling," he said. "My staff has done an amazing job in getting good people. It comes from having good kids who believe in what we're doing and listen well and having leadership from within."

You get the sense in listening to Coach K that this one may have more meaning than the others, given the circumstances. Of course, Duke, the East Regional champion, still has two more games to win, starting with Saturday's semifinal against Midwest Region champ Michigan State, before it can lay claim to the accolades and the inevitable comparisons.

Given where things were a few years ago, just being here in St. Pete is a heck of an accomplishment. However, that's exactly the thinking Krzyzewski wants his team to guard against. Don't be satisfied with just getting this far.

So here come the Dookies of iron will and strong inner resolve, to make their own personal statement and bring things full circle.

To say they can't would merely show ignorance. Just like anyone who thought the program would stay down for very long.