Garrett Temple and LSU held J.J. Redick to 11 points on 3-of-18 shooting. AP

ATLANTA -- LSU wanted to be humble about this one. They didn't mosh on the floor after their monumental, 62-54 upset of No. 1-seeded Duke in the Sweet 16. They stayed composed in the press conference. But when freshman forward Tasmin Mitchell answered a Blackberry call in the locker room long after he had changed into his sweats -- and saw it was a friend who didn't think the Tigers could actually win -- he yelled into the mouthpiece, "J.J. who? J.J. who?"

After the call, Mitchell turned to teammate Garrett Temple, the relatively unknown freshman guard who held J.J. Redick, the nation's second-leading scorer, to just 11 points on 3-of-18 shooting, and joked, "G-man, you gonna be able to put your clothes on?" It was the only thing Temple had failed at all night -- he was still standing, clad only in a towel, calmly fielding questions from reporter after reporter on how his glue-like D had sparked the fall of the nation's No. 1-ranked team and also the nation's most celebrated player. Duke is dead, and long live the fourth-seeded Tigers -- at least until Saturday.

The Blue Devils exited the tournament in the Sweet 16 for the second straight season after a game in which Redick had just one wide-open look at a 3 off a set play -- and made just one trip to the free-throw line. LSU teetered on the edge of disaster with both of its post stars, Glen "Big Baby" Davis and Tyrus Thomas, playing with four fouls down the stretch -- but Temple played all 40 minutes, constantly chasing Redick one-one-one, getting plenty of double-team help off screens, and contesting nearly every Redick shot attempt. Temple turned in what, unquestionably, was the game of his life -- never mind that the stat line read just three points and three rebounds. "I thought about Redick all of last night -- I'm not gonna lie," Temple said. "I focused a lot, and watched a lot film ... and I only got six hours of sleep."

Temple said he had been told that Redick "didn't like physical play, and I tried to be physical the best I could without fouling. Fortunately I got hands in his face and was able to make him miss shots." Redick went 2-of-7 in the first half, as Duke trailed 31-27 at the break, and 1-of-11 in the second, when the Devils squandered a five-point lead with 8:47 to go and lost by eight. After Duke took that 45-40 lead, the likely National Player of the Year was 1-for-7 with one turnover, his lone make coming on a right-wing 3 that rattled in after Temple had been picked off by a screen.

Redick had a similar, tragic letdown in 2005's tourney loss to Michigan State -- shooting 4-of-14 for just 13 points -- but his downfall this season, unlike the last, could not be attributed to poor conditioning. It was solely a case of LSU's rabid defense never wavering -- and giving him the roughest treatment of any opponent the 32-4 Blue Devils had faced all season. Temple forced Redick into four turnovers, blocked him once, and challenged numerous shots with his 6-foot-5 wingspan, while fellow freshman Thomas wreaked havoc inside with his vertical, blocking five shots and grabbing 13 rebounds.

"Certain things are in your control and certain things are out of your control," said Redick. "I'm not a great athlete and LSU has great athletes. It was just a very physical game and obviously I'm disappointed in the way I've played."

Temple, who had been run ragged by his teammates in practice in the past two days in Redick-chasing simulations -- loads of double- and staggered-screens -- was surprised that Duke's game plan mainly stuck to single picks. He was, however, in full agreement with Redick's statement about the physicality.

When Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski pulled Redick and fellow senior Shelden Williams -- who carried the Blue Devils with 23 points and 13 boards -- from the game with nine seconds left, so they could receive one, bittersweet farewell from the blue-clad faithful, Temple was still standing on the floor. As Redick was breaking into tears, Temple was celebrating -- with just three fouls to his name.

"LSU is a team that doesn't give up on plays," Krzyzewski said. "And they can make a play when you don't think that they can make a play."

No one -- and I mean no one -- thought Temple and the Tigers could lock down J.J.-27.2-points-per-game Redick. And few people thought the storied careers of Redick and Williams would end so soon. As Davis stood outside LSU's locker room in the postgame, he said, "I'm calling Garrett the sheriff. He locks up. He put the click-clacks on Redick."

"'G' was in him -- I mean, in 'em," Mitchell said of Redick, "and there wasn't anything he could do about it."

For Redick and Duke, there was a feeling of helplessness. All they had mustered was 54 points -- the lowest total they had scored in an NCAA tournament game since 1980. Williams matched LSU's muscle, but the Blue Devils had been outjumped, outrun and swatted by Thomas, and Redick had been chased, and chased, and harrassed by Temple until his season came to a crushing conclusion. "I've had a good year," Redick said half-heartedly in the press conference. "Shelden's had a good year. We have had a pretty outstanding year as a team. I'll be all right."

LSU and Temple didn't need to reassure anyone of their happiness after the game; the ecstatic looks on their faces said it all. And now that the Tigers have beaten Redick and Duke to the Elite Eight, they can realistically begin chasing something that seemed far more improbable a week ago: a Final Four and a national championship.

Luke Winn/SI

Luke Winn/SI

We did spot one NBA exec outside the Georgia Dome. Can you guess who he is from this postage-stamp size shot? He got his tickets from the Duke Will Call, but he didn't go to school there ...

Enjoy the game, folks -- and comment about it here until we hit you back later tonight.

Team   Tempo (Rk.)  OEff. (Rk.)  DEff. (Rk.) 
Duke   72.3  (25)   119.5 (1)    89.5  (17)
LSU    69.8  (88)   111.1 (39)   87.7  (9)
* Rk. is national ranking in all of D-I

          FTs          2s           3s
Duke-Off  23.6 (22)    48.3 (266)   28.1 (157)
LSU-Def   15.1 (326)   54.8 (66)    30.2 (99)

           FTs          2s           3s
LSU-Off    20.6 (143)   62.2 (4)     17.3 (333)
Duke-Def   16.6 (301)   65.7 (1)     17.7 (334)

Luke Winn/SI

When I hopped into Glen "Big Baby" Davis' Dodge Magnum a few weeks ago, he said, "Just roll with the big fella," and exclusively spun one disc -- Lil' Wayne's Tha Carter, Vol. 2. "This is Louisiana music," Davis said, and I kept hearing Lil' Wayne cuts everywhere I went on that trip. I sat near Davis as he had a tattoo of his mother, Toyna, inked onto his chest at Effum Body Works in Baton Rouge, and LSU wide receiver Dwayne Bowe -- who had randomly strolled in for a tat of his own -- was standing next to me, ham-rapping Wayne's Best Rapper Alive into Big Baby's grill to take his mind off the pain of the needle. As a kid, though, Davis was into James Brown: He hooked me up with the video at right (click the pic to play it), from his sixth-grade talent show, of him lip-syncing and deftly dancing to Get Up (I Feel Like A Sex Machine).

Vanderbilt's Mario Moore, quite possibly the most professional musician in the college game, vented his frustration with his portrayal in the Nashville media by posting rap tracks on his myspace.com page. The song Tell Me, which has since been removed from the page, had the opening lines,

You think you know me/
You think you know what my life's like/
What I go through day to day/
Or do you know what the papers say?

Even older white men were not immune from the hip-hop craze -- the 56-year-old George Mason head coach, Jim Larranaga -- got into the music act this year. Stewart Mandel gave us the report of Larranaga playing a Big Boi cut (!!) -- the Purple Ribbon All-Stars' Kryptonite -- on the locker room stereo to pump up his Patriots before they faced North Carolina.

Gonzaga's Adam Morrison, meanwhile, is a professed fan (to Wahl and others) of the now-defunct Rage Against the Machine, which rose to fame (and heavy rotation in my Sony Discman) in the mid-1990s with its blend of hip-hop and metal. Perhaps Morrison's signature 'do -- which, to my amazement, still draws the ire of some short-haired fans and sportswriters -- is the white-boy version of RATM frontman Zach De La Rocha's Chicano dreads. West Virginia's Kevin Pittsnogle is as tattooed as De La Rocha's rap/metal-peer Anthony Kiedis, but I get the feeling, from Pittsnogle's wedding photos, that he might be more of a Z.Z. Top kind of guy.

Ace Cowboy

What I'm still waiting to find, however, is a modern-day Bill Walton. Blogger Ace Cowboy sent us the cell phone pic at right from Monday's Allman Brothers Show at the Beacon Theater, showing a jubilant Walton with his arms thrust in to the air during a jam. Ex-Bruin Walton was one of the college game's greatest players -- and is still one of the jamband community's biggest celebrity fans, an avowed Deadhead and, obviously, an Allmans-head as well. Readers, does the hippie still have a place in NCAA basketball, or is it completely a hip-hop world? For all the famous Phish shows at college arenas -- like Illinois' Assembly Hall or Wright State's Nutter Center -- I've yet to find a Phish-head hoopster. Does one exist?

The Road Stereo

The Tivoli stereo here in the room is winding down on my road-trip album of the week, Loose Fur's Born Again In the USA (the trio of Jim O'Rourke and Wilco's Jeff Tweedy and Glenn Kotche). I've been alternating between that album and Destroyer's Rubies for a few days now, and I fear that indie-rock, despite my efforts to keep it alive in the Blog, is also sorely under-represented in the college game. As Big Baby said to me during that car ride, "Your music is called indie rock? What the hell is that?"