Maggette Relishes Trip Home With No. 1 Duke

November 28, 1998|By Ed Sherman, Tribune Staff Writer.

The United Center has been a lonely spot for basketball these days. Since the Bulls might not play until--who knows when?--the place could use some friendly faces.

Welcome home, Mike Krzyzewski and Corey Maggette.

Duke isn't local, but it will have plenty of hometown support Wednesday when the No. 1-ranked Blue Devils face Michigan State in the final game of the Great Eight at the United Center.

Krzyzewski, the pride of Weber High School, has been gone for a long time, but he still calls Chicago home. Maggette, formerly a star at Fenwick, has been gone only a few months and can't wait to get back.

"I'm excited about coming back home," Krzyzewski said. "We have a lot of fans in Chicago. Certainly, Corey had a celebrated high school career. He is a great, great young man."

Maggette looks as if he is going to be a great, great college basketball player, which should make his United Center debut something special.

"I guess it is going to be a great feeling to play in my hometown," Maggette said. "I should have a lot of people rooting me on."

It hasn't taken long for Maggette, a freshman, to live up to his billing at Duke. Coming off the bench, the 6-foot-6-inch forward scored 17 points in his first game, against Fairfield--the most of any Duke freshman since 1989, and that includes Grant Hill. Maggette scored 20 points and hit seven of eight shots in Duke's 111-82 victory Thursday night over Notre Dame in the Great Alaska Shootout.

Impressive, yes. Is Maggette surprised? Not necessarily. He was a big scorer in high school, so why not take it to the next level?

"I'm doing what I have to do, and my teammates have been giving me some great looks," Maggette said. "I'm used to scoring. I should score 17 points."

Still, there's obviously a difference between high school and college, especially a top-level college program such as Duke's. Moreover, the Blue Devils' emphasis is on defense, from which the offense flows.

Duke scores a lot of points off turnovers and transition. Maggette said he played "OK defense" in high school. But "OK defense" doesn't cut it with Krzyzewski.

"The defense is much more intense in college," Maggette said. "You've got to do it right. In high school you just play defense. In college they really teach you."

Maggette has to learn about life away from home. He calls it "a good and different experience."

Duke isn't a place where you can coast in the classroom. He has already learned that those 10-page papers have a way of piling up.

Maggette practices in the afternoon, then studies at night. He often doesn't get to sleep until 2 a.m. It helps that his first classes don't start until 10:30 a.m.

"The biggest thing is staying on task and getting your rest," Maggette said. "If you slip up, you're going to have a hard time."

Maggette acknowledges being "a little" homesick. If he had gone to Illinois, his second choice among the dozens of schools that recruited him, it would have been a bit easier for him to get home on occasion.

But Maggette says he has no regrets about going to Duke, even if it meant being dogged all summer about not going to a local school.

"Some of these people who talk to you never went to college," Maggette said. "About the third or fourth time, you just ignore it."

Maggette calls Duke "the perfect place" for him. He wanted to go to a school that would allow him to take his game and his personal development to the next level. There aren't many better places than Duke, where the academics are great, the competition is the best, and the coaching isn't bad, either.

Maggette is making the most of it. If his start is any indication, he will be playing in games at the United Center for a long time to come.