Laettner Is Life of Blue Devils’ Party : Duke: Spirited sophomore forward has emerged as leader of team’s drive to the championship game.

DENVER —  After Duke lost to Seton Hall in the semifinals of the NCAA tournament last season, seniors Danny Ferry, Quin Snyder and John Smith implored their underclass teammates to bring the Blue Devils back to the Final Four for another shot at a national championship.

Christian Laettner looked up and said, “OK, I’ll try.”

Thanks in large part to Laettner’s efforts--and his ability to keep things simple--the Blue Devils returned to the Final Four and will play Nevada Las Vegas in the championship game tonight at McNichols Arena.

The 6-foot-11 sophomore from Angola, N.Y., is Duke’s best all-around player, its leading rebounder and No. 2 scorer.

The Blue Devils’ very life source, some have suggested.

In fact, another group of Duke seniors--teammates Alaa Abdelnaby, Robert Brickey and Phil Henderson--made that very suggestion to Laettner only a few weeks ago, letting him know that he was letting them down.

They told him that he wasn’t playing with his usual panache and that his lack of verve was dragging them down.

“When he’s playing as well as he can play, a lot of enthusiasm comes out,” Abdelnaby said. “We’re used to that. We’re accustomed to him, after a big play, waving his fist or yelling--giving us the kind of intensity he’s given us for two years. So, we’re very aware of when it’s not there.

“It’s to the point now where we’re so reliant on it that when it’s not there, it’s draining for the rest of the guys because we’re thinking in the backs of our minds, ‘What’s wrong with Christian?’ ”

Laettner was unaware that he was causing such havoc.

“I knew what was expected of me in terms of scoring, rebounding and defense,” said Laettner, who averages 16.3 points and 9.6 rebounds and tonight will guard Larry Johnson, UNLV’s All-American forward. “One thing I didn’t know was how I affect my teammates by the way I act.

“My teammates told me, ‘Christian, we need you to act a certain way, and that way is emotional and upbeat and having a lot of fun.’ (Toward) the end of the regular season, I wasn’t acting like that. I was quiet and kind of mean to my teammates on the court, and they didn’t appreciate that at all.”

Mean?

“I was being selfish,” he said. “I wasn’t giving my teammates what I can give them. What they need from me, what they want from me, is life.”

Laettner has provided it in Duke’s past three games.

After making only one of 11 shots in the Blue Devils’ victories over Richmond and St. John’s in the first two rounds of the tournament, he hammered UCLA inside and out for 24 points and 14 rebounds.

Against Connecticut in the East Regional final, he scored 23 points, including two at the buzzer on a double-pumping shot from the left of the free throw line that gave the Blue Devils a 79-78 victory.

His teammates promptly dog-piled the giddy Laettner.

“But I pushed them off,” said the East Regional’s most valuable player. “I wanted to get that feeling of them jumping on me again.”

Against Arkansas Saturday in the semifinals, Laettner provided 19 points, 14 rebounds and a few anxious moments for Coach Mike Krzyzewski, who sensed the game slipping away from the Blue Devils when Laettner picked up his fourth foul with 13:25 left.

But Laettner returned after only three minutes on the bench and helped the Blue Devils overcome a seven-point deficit to win, 97-83.

“He’s a special player,” Krzyzewski said. “His ability to think on the court is outstanding and when he’s in a situation like that, I have confidence that if he does get his fifth, it will be an unusual situation.”

The graceful Laettner was heavily recruited out of The Nichols School in Buffalo, N.Y., narrowing his college choices to North Carolina, Virginia and Duke, but not even Krzyzewski expected so much so soon.

Laettner emerged as an impact player late last season, although he gained probably his greatest notoriety by missing a free throw with one second left in a 77-75 loss to Arizona at East Rutherford, N.J.

It was widely reported that the freshman was consoled afterward by former President Richard Nixon, an alumnus of the Duke law school.

But Laettner seemed to get more of a kick out of the response from a fan in South Carolina, who declared in a letter mailed to Laettner that Feb. 26 would henceforth be known as National Brick Day in honor of Laettner’s missed free throw and also wrote of Laettner, “You’re the sorriest excuse for a basketball player I’ve ever seen.”

Laettner was so amused that he pinned the letter to his door for several weeks so that his friends could come by and read it.

“It was very funny and very ridiculous,” he said.

In Laettner’s mind, he had played well against Arizona, scoring 12 points, grabbing 10 rebounds and making all six of his shots from the field. Laettner continued his strong play through eight postseason games, averaging 13.1 points and 5.8 rebounds and making 74.5% of his shots in the Atlantic Coast Conference and NCAA tournaments.

He was especially productive against Georgetown in the East Regional final, scoring 24 points on nine-of-10 shooting and taking nine rebounds.

“It gave me a lot of confidence because it showed me that if I play more than 15 minutes a game, I can give the team a lot,” Laettner said of his emergence last season.

In Ferry’s absence, Laettner has continued to blossom this season, but his role has changed dramatically. “Last year,” he said, “my role was to play real good defense, rebound, give some life to the team and help Danny get open. Then, once we got the ball to him, it was my job to get myself open so that, if he had two or three guys on him, he could pass to me under the basket.”

Taking mostly layups, Laettner made 72.3% of his shots.

More of a focal point this season, he has made only 51.3% of his shots, but as he showed against Connecticut, he has increased his range. He also has been fouled more often and has made 83.6% of his free throws.

But Laettner is his own worst critic, according to his teammates, and when he got down on himself this season, his enthusiasm waned.

It took their criticism to bring him out of his funk.

“I wasn’t having fun on the court,” Laettner said of a February slump in which he scored only 18 points in three games. “It might have been (a lack of) self-confidence, but I might have just been tired. And maybe now I’ve caught my second wind.”

It has blown Duke all the way through the NCAA tournament.