ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 18, 1997 TAG: 9703180079
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: TUCSON, ARIZ.
SOURCE: N.Y. TIMES NEWS SERVICE
Tim Duncan's spectacular career as a Demon Deacon did not end the way he would have liked.
He came back for this?
Tim Duncan chose the dorms over per diem, but he did not want to hear Sunday that college is the greatest time of your life. He could have had millions of dollars in annuities by now, but instead he spent Sunday afternoon being pushed on his empty wallet - by Stanford econ majors.
Their names are Tim Young, Mark Madson, Peter Sauer, Pete Van Elswyk and Mark Seaton and, while they all could use a student loan from Duncan next season, they were superior to him Sunday in aggregate.
Duncan, college basketball's player of the year, did not have a field goal in the game's final 14 minutes, and he was nowhere to be found when the offensive rebound of Stanford's life fell into the lap of a 6-foot guard.
Arthur Lee's look-what-I-found rebound basket with 29 seconds remaining was the insurance bucket that sixth-seeded Stanford needed, and Duncan's remarkable career at Wake Forest ended in the second round of the NCAA West Regional in a 72-66 upset.
Duncan, a two-time first-team All-American, leaves the Demon Deacons as one of the greatest players in ACC history. He is one of eight players to be named conference player of the year twice and the 18th to be a three-time, first-team all-conference pick.
Duncan is the 10th player in NCAA history to score 2,000 points and grab 1,500 rebounds. His 1,570 rebounds make him the most prolific rebounder in college basketball in the past 25 years.
The ACC's all-time shot-blocker (462) recorded 86 double-doubles in 128 games, including 27 this season. Duncan also became the No.1 all-time rebounder in ACC tournament history and the No.2 scorer.
Duncan is the overwhelming favorite to win all national player of the year honors handed out by various organizations.
It was not supposed to end this soon for Duncan, who was expected to join Utah's Keith Van Horn and Kentucky's Ron Mercer - the probable first three lottery picks - at the West Regional in San Jose, Calif., but Stanford's upset of third-seeded Wake Forest (24-7) means Duncan finally can start talking to agents.
``I couldn't sit here and tell you what I got out of staying,'' said Duncan, who probably would have been the first overall pick in the past two NBA drafts. ``I had a great time. I have no regrets. I'll never look back and say I should've done that or should've done this.''
Duncan's crime Sunday was not finishing what he started. Wake Forest was the nation's No.2-ranked team in late January, but the Deacons' guards stopped shooting like marksmen, and defenses were free to sag back and swallow him. His numbers Sunday were reputable - 18 points, 20 rebounds, three blocks - but he had six turnovers amid all of the Stanford commotion, and his erratic guards not only did not get him the ball, they waited 35 minutes to warm up.
Stanford's center, Tim Young, played only five minutes of the first half because of foul trouble, but the Cardinal still led 25-19, then scored the first seven points of the second half. Knight finished with 19 points and five assists, and he gave all the credit to the bruisers who backed up Young.
Sauer, in particular, drilled two jump shots in the final two minutes to give the Cardinal a 66-59 lead, and Lee's lucky rebound made it 68-62.
``When I got the rebound and put it in,'' Lee said, ``it was like a dream.''
A Utah-Wake Forest matchup would have been a rematch of their New Year's Eve game this season - the night Duncan clinched the player of the year award over Van Horn - but they won't meet again until the next level.
Odom was near tears about it.
``Tim leaves us after four years of absolute great performances - one monster game after another,'' he said. ``More than any other player I've been around, he's exercised the joy of the moment.
``I'm sad to see him go, but it's his time, and he's earned it. And as he walks out that door the last time, there will be no tears. Well, there'll be tears.''
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Duncan KEYWORDS: BASKETBALLby CNB