To Boozer or not to Boozer

That is the question that Coach Mike Krzyzewski is going to have to answer come Thursday night when his Blue Devils face a tough test against UCLA in the sweet 16.

When Carlos Boozer broke a bone in his right foot in a game at Maryland three weeks ago, talk around town was that the Blue Devils we're done - all hopes for a title would have to wait until 2002.

Enter Casey Sanders and Chris Duhon.

Since Boozer has gone down, the Blue Devils have not only been ok, they have thrived and stomped over their opponents. They proceeded to wreck UNC on the road, run the table at the ACC Tournament, and win two games in the NCAA Tournament (scoring 189 points in the process). How did they possibly do this? Well, there was no doubt that Duke would be faster with the more agile, albeit more foul-prone, Sanders running the floor. But with the much-improved play of Chris Duhon and with Battier and Williams stepping up their game, Duke has been unstoppable behind the three-point arc. They have been playing defense with a passion and running the break with reckless abandon. They have gelled together as a team and seem to be on a momentum-building run all the way to Minneapolis.

Which then begs the question: To Boozer not to Boozer? Well, let's hear what Coach K had to say:

What Carlos has to do is readjust to us. We shouldn't re-adjust to him… Our dominant players are Shane and Jason and Carlos will come in and rebound and play defense and give us low-post scoring, but not to where we're going to change what we've been doing the last three weeks. We've been playing high-level basketball.