Defeat or Repeat?

Here is how far defending champions since 1990 have advanced in the following season's NCAA Tournament: 2000: Michigan State '01 National Semifinals 1999: Connecticut '00 Second Round 1998: Kentucky '99 Reginal Final 1997: Arizona '98 Regional Final 1996: Kentucky '97 Title Game 1995: UCLA First Round 1994: Arkansas '95 Title Game 1993: North Carolina '94 Second Round 1992: Duke '93 Second Round 1991: Duke '92 National Champions 1990: UNLV '91 National Semifinals

Repeating. Not easy, not at all. The only other time since UCLA's dominance in the late '60s and early 70s was when Duke won back-to-back titles in 1991 and '92.

Duke can do it again this season. The Blue Devils have their core back, the best backcourt in the nation in Chris Duhon and Jason Williams, enough of a nucleus with Mike Dunleavy Jr., Carlos Boozer and newcomer Dahntay Jones.

But it's not a given. Not if recent history has any say in the matter. Six teams since 1990 have entered the season following their national championship as legitimate contenders for the title again. Only Duke was able to repeat. Now, three others reached the Final Four, two even got back to the title game, and one didn't give up its title until overtime. But only Duke was able to retain its national championship.

Duke's run finally ended in the second round of the 1993 NCAA Tournament. But it took Jason Kidd and California to finally end the reign.

Even the most dominating defending champion of the 1990s stumbled it its quest to repeat. UNLV won its first national championship in 1990 and then stormed through the regular season without a loss. They never had a close game until losing to Duke in the '91 national semifinals.

Rick Pitino's final season at Kentucky saw him take the Wilcats within five minutes of back-to-back titles. After winning it all in 1986, Kentucky wasn't ranked No. 1 in the preseason polls, but the Wildcats came the closest to duplicating Duke's feat -- losing to Arizona 84-79 in OT in the title game.

And what about Arizona, fresh off its '97 national title, which came perhaps a year earlier than most thought the Wildcats would win it all. Sure, they was more experienced in 1998, but Arizona couldn't even get back to the Final Four, losing to Utah 76-51 in the West Regional final.

And just last season, the talk of repeating could be heard around in East Lansing, Mich. Sure, Michigan State may have won the 2000 title with a senior-laden team, but the Spartans were still a legit title contender in 2001. And sure enough, MSU got back to the Final Four, only to see turnovers cost them dearly against Arizona in their national semifinal loss.

What happened, prevented or went wrong in each case? Here are the thoughts on the difficulty of repeating from the head coaches of three of the five teams that tried and failed. Oh, and in case you're interested, each says Duke can win it all again this season.

	Jerry Tarkanian

Jerry Tarkanian
UNLV head coach (1973-1992)
Fresno State head coach (1995-present)
"We won 34 straight. We were blowing everybody out. Duke had a great ('91 national semifinal) game, but we never got a call the whole game. We were like Duke is now. We were better than everybody. I don't picture anybody playing with Duke (this season). You've got to get share of the breaks, but that was our only close game of the year. Duke wasn't a great team. They had seven losses at the end and everything went right for them (that night). You've got to be lucky and get the key calls. When you're really good, you think you can turn it on and off. But everyone takes the best shot at you. It's easier the second time because we were so damn good. We blew everybody away. We talked about everything: 'One game at a time,' and 'Doing the best we can in each ball game.' But when you get to the point where you're playing so well, everybody expects you to play great. All year long we were telling the kids how tough the next game would be, and then we would win by 30. We played Louisville, Arkansas and Michigan State ... after a while the kids thought they could turn it on and off. That Duke game was a nightmare game. I still have a hard time getting over that one. We went into the '91 season with four starters back. Right away Tim Grgurich, my assistant then, said let's fullcourt press right before the season started. But we decided to stick to halfcourt and break it down and drill on it and be the best halfcourt team. We wanted to play the game the way we knew rather than add a new dimension. We went back to our stance and footwork and tried to do everything perfect. Our goal was trying to be perfect what we were doing. I think Duke is in a situation like that. Mike doesn't add a lot of new things. He's got everybody back and you can go back and really try to perfect what you're doing. Duke has the best shot (this season). They're the best team. Their backcourt might be the best one ever. They could have the first and second best guards in the country. (But) somebody can beat Duke on a given night."

	Lute Olson

Lute Olson
Arizona head coach (1983-present)
"All you have to do is look at how many teams were rated No. 1 in the preseason and then won the national championship. Not many. The biggest thing is that every team you play it becomes a huge game. You always get everybody's best shot. Duke's program is a program, which is always going to get someone's best shot. Shane Battier was not only a great player, he was there leader and the guy that puts the most emotion into the team into the floor and very much an extension of Coach K from the bench. I would say that's going to be the biggest thing. The other guys are a year older and they've still got Jason Williams and really outstanding players returning. The biggest thing is going to be getting someone to do all the different things that Shane Battier did for Duke last season. There's no question that going into the season they're going to be most everyone's preseason pick. For us in '97-98, we made our foreign trip after school ended that year and we got brought down to earth in a hurry there. We played some of their top NBDL teams and got some losses there, and that got our guys feet back on the ground again. The defending national champion wasn't going to give you any advantage. If anything it could be a disadvantage at the way they came at that team. I know Connecticut won it and opened up by getting upset right away to Iowa. There is so much hype after the season is over, not only locally and nationally, but the trip to White House and everything you do, that I think it tends to have a team think they're maybe better than what they are. There's always tremendous pressure when a team goes into the NCAA Tournament and even greater when you're the defending champ because anyone that you meet at that point, not only look at winning a game for themselves, it's also having opportunity to knock the defending champ out of the tournament. That always makes it real tough."

	Tom Izzo

Tom Izzo
Michigan State head coach (1983-present)
"I think it's extremely hard. We lost a great leader. I think the hardest part for Duke (this season) is to lose their leader (Shane Battier). People will realize how good Shane Battier is. He's one of those guys who can wins games in the locker room, hotel and airplane and charge and all the things that aren't glorious. That's what Mateen (Cleaves) did for us. We got back there (in 2000) because we had an incredible group of seniors with very talented freshman, but we had seniors to bring them along. That experience is a key, and if you look at this year, Duke has experience back. Maryland and Illinois has everyone back, Kentucky, too. I think that becomes a factor in this day in age with so many players leaving (early). When you lose a leader it makes it more difficult, especially if you don't have a veteran crew. I don't think we had a true leader last year. We did it by committee, as you noticed in the Final Four when we started throwing the ball to the wrong team. We had no one in the huddle at halftime to get us going. I remember when we had Antonio Smith (in 2000) and were down to Kentucky something like 20-5, he just came into a huddle and went nuts on everybody. There comes a time when that's needed. That's what makes the leader so important."