Redick guns down Texas, looks like nation's best

	J.J. Redick was 13-for-24 from the field, including a career-high nine 3-pointers. AP
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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Texas had J.J. Redick bottled up. Locked down. For about eight seconds, anyway.

Duke had the ball with just under 16 minutes left in the second half, up 55-44; Longhorns point guard Daniel Gibson stayed stuck to Redick as he ran off a screen, and the Blue Devils, for once, looked elsewhere, feeding Josh McRoberts in the post. But after a missed hook and a flurry of tips, Duke retained possession ... and there was Redick, again, momentarily forgotten at the top of the key.

The Longhorns fans in Continental Airlines Arena let out a collective groan as the ball was kicked out into Redick's hands. The rest of the pro-Duke crowd rose to watch his picture-perfect release, and roared upon its swish through the net. Redick ran back down the floor, raising his arms to the roof, wearing the nasty grin of a shooter on fire. "I was in a rhythm," Redick said. "Coach [Mike Krzyzewski] talks about playing with emotion, so I just let out a little emotion there."

By the time of that outburst, Redick had 28 points, on the way to a career-high 41. The Blue Devils were up 57-44, in the midst of a 16-0 run that put the game away, and made what once seemed like a minuscule gap between the nation's Nos. 1 and 2 teams look like a great divide.

Texas came to the Meadowlands hoping to stage an epic showdown, 1 versus 2, before a sold-out crowd of 19,579, on national TV. The 'Horns wore special black jerseys to commemorate their 100th year of basketball, and Heisman candidate Vince Young stopped by -- prior to Saturday's trophy presentation in Times Square -- to support his schoolmates. This was the big battle of the 2005-06 college basketball season, and the buildup to it was huge.

The game Texas ended up playing, however, was The Futile Pursuit Of J.J. Redick. And the lopsided final score, 97-66, adequately reflected just how futile that chase was. The 'Horns opted to defend Redick one-on-one, running with him around screens, rather than fighting through them. In desperation, they tried four different defenders on J.J. at different parts of the game: Six-foot-1 shooting guard Kenton Paulino was Redick Defender No. 1, for most of the first 10 minutes; 6-foot-2 Gibson was No. 2; 6-foot-5 P.J. Tucker was No. 3; and 6-foot-1 reserve guard J.D. Lewis was No. 4. Against this quartet, Redick hit 9-of-16 from long distance, 13-of-24 from the field.

"Teams are going to try every trick in the book on me," said Redick, who entered the game averaging a team-high 22.9 points. "They had a game plan where they were going to try and chase. ... I had heard that P.J. [Tucker] was going to check me exclusively, but I guess their strategy was to use different guys and wear me down."

It was a ploy that may have worked against Redick in previous years, but after putting an increased emphasis on conditioning for his senior season -- Krzyzewski says J.J. is in "impeccable shape" -- he is not going to get run ragged, even by a team of athletic Longhorns. Redick had no trouble listing off his vanquished foes for reporters gathered around him in the locker room. "First Paulino." ... "Gibson." ... "Tucker." ... "Lewis." ... "Toward the end of the first half when we started getting that lead," Redick said of the Dukies' surge to go up 12, at 45-33, before the break, "I was looking at the guys who were guarding me, and they were pretty winded."