In any other year, admonishing a Krzyzewski-coached team to stay focused on the game at hand would most likely be unnecessary. However, the 2011-2012 season has proved to be rather unique for the Duke men.
Routinely frittering away large leads, or else beginning games with large deficits has been the M.O. for this team all year. Which is not to say that they have not been successful - losing only four games so far this year with one of the toughest schedules in the country - but that they've gone about getting their wins in a rather un-Duke-like manner.
Personally, I was worried about the year coming in. Austin Rivers, while confident - and rightly so - had already seemed to develop an NBA-sized ego, running his mouth quite a bit before the season began. Further, and more importantly, it was yet to be seen if anyone would step into the leadership gap that Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith had left.
On the first count, Rivers seems to have responded well to the team-oriented focus of the Blue Devils. His defense has improved, his encouragement of others has increased, and he makes fewer bad decisions with the ball than he did with his superstar mentality at the beginning of the year. And of course, he's been the superstar on more than one occasion, not least with his game-winning three-ball to beat the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill.
On the other count, our fears have been confirmed. The likely candidates for leadership - Seth Curry, Miles Plumlee, and...err....yeah that's it - have not stepped up. Miles has had a solid last couple of games, but still lacks that killer instinct, confidence, and poise that a team needs to see in its upperclassmen. And Seth Curry, well, just hasn't taken the reigns.
The team is good. Very good. But it's de-centralized, not looking to the same people to come through each night, though Austin Rivers has flirted with becoming the guaranteed playmaker. As such, and as a team that still cannot pound the ball inside and get points when they have to, they're at the mercy of the hot hand. Fortunately, they have a lot of potential hot hands - be they Rivers, Dawkins, Curry or Kelly - but come crunch time, teams with an inside offensive presence are the teams that can consistently get the job done. And as much as the Plumlees are great guys, watching them try to maneuver with the ball in the post can be a pretty uncomfortable experience.
For now, let's not even talk about free throws. Oy.
All of that, and they're still tied for the ACC title with the Tar Heels, with one more game to go before the likely showdown for the conference championship in Durham. And that game happens to be against a weak Wake Forest team. Which is why the game is so dangerous. Looking past the Demon Deacons in their home finale to a championship bout with UNC could be disastrous. The Deacons can save a lot of face with a win over the Blue Devils to close up their home season. They'll be hungry and focused. After an 18 point win earlier this year over Wake, and with the game of the season coming up next, the Devils might not have their head in the game. That's a recipe for an upset.
We'll see how prepared and how present Coach K has his Blue Devils tonight at 9 PM Eastern.
Go Duke.
