Against Wake, Duke Faces No. 1 Test

There's not much novel about the Blue Devils being No. 1.

In fact, they've done it more times than Tiger Woods has won golf tournaments, than Detroit Lion fans have brown-bagged it to Ford Field and almost as many times as Mike Krzyzewski advised you on your choice of credit card, insurance or any of the other products endorsed with a smile by college basketball's top coach.

But whether the three-time national championship coach and his team admits it, there is something different this time around. This No. 1 comes with a question mark. At least, until Wednesday night's road game against Wake Forest.

The pulpit is now yours, Mr. Krzyzewski. Make us believe.

Even in lean years, Duke's dominance in January is just part of the New Year's tradition, up there with white sales and Super Bowl arrests. Over the past four seasons, Duke has won its last 20 January games in a row and is 28-3 in the year's opening month.

But when the calendar flips to February then March, each of these Blue Devil teams have told a different tale.

You thought Visanthe Shiancoe got exposed? You ain't seen nothing until you've watched Duke in March.

These Blue Devils could've fallen out of a ski-lift and been photographed upside down and pantless and it would've only been slightly less embarrassing.

Duke is 10-8 in March, a record that might be fine somewhere without rafters full of banners, but hardly befits the bluest of college basketball's blue bloods.

So as Duke travels to former No. 1 Wake Forest, it isn't so much game as referendum.

"We know Wake Forest will be a huge test," Krzyzewski said. "They've done such a good job this year. Their starting five is big and talented. Teague is playing like a conference player of the year and a national player of the year. ... We know in for a tough game."

Tough in part because the opponent has already beaten North Carolina, owned the No. 1 ranking and, after stewing on a loss to Wake Forest for a week, is probably angrier than their Deacon logo.

But more importantly the Deacs are tough because they're the perfect storm of opponent for the Blue Devil teams that have faltered over the past three seasons. They couldn't be better built to frustrate Duke if they were cobbled together with bits of LSU's Tyrus Thomas, Virginia Commonwealth's Eric Maynor, West Virginia's Joe Alexander with a ram's head on top for good measure.

They have the length that bedeviled Duke in the 2006 Sweet 16 loss to the Tigers, the slick point guard that dropped Duke in 2007 and the athleticism that carried West Virginia into the Sweet 16 last season.

And it all starts with Teague, who's speedy, elusive and as a shooter, and plays with more angles in his game than a Picasso.

"He reminds me, in his attitude ... of Randolph Childress," Krzyzewski said, referring to the the Deacon star with the dead-eye and deadlier killer instinct that lifted Wake to back-to-back ACC titles in the mid-90s. (If you need a refersher on Childress, please let Mr. McInnis provide it.) "He just gave his team tremendous confidence. They knew he was going to hit a big bucket and always felt like have chance to win with him on the court. That's what Teague gives them. And he does that as well as anyone in the country."

Then there's the not-so-small matter of the Demon Deacons front-line, a long, scrappy bunch that could probably clean Paul Bunyan's gutters without a ladder.



James Johnson, Al-Farouq Aminu and Chas McFarland, who run 6-foot-9, 6-9 and 7-0, could cause the same sorts of problems Thomas and the LSU front court caused in 2006 when they bounced the nation's No. 1 team in the Sweet 16.

"They're not only big, they're good athletes," Krzyzewski said. "They're talented. ... They're good basketball players who happen to be big and that's a good combination for the home team."

And should the Blue Devils find a way to handle those issues, they've still got to score themselves. After all, these aren't Chris Paul's Deacons allegedly playing defense anymore. Second-year coach Dino Gaudio's team hounds opposing perimeter players and stifles penetration with its pack-line defense.

What's the difference between this team and Skip Prosser's best defenses? Think of the level of the Providence security team versus the Beijing police.

"The staple for our season and how we get off to a great start is our defense," Gaudio said. "Any future success we have, that's where it's going to have its foundation."

But this has been a season of exorcising ghosts for Duke. Saturday, there was a bit of a deed dispute at Cameron Indoor Stadium, after Grievis Vasquez, who finished one rebound short of a triple-double his freshman year, and followed up with a 25-point performance as a sophomore, said it was, in fact, his house.

Four points, 40 minutes and an 85-44 fire-and-brimstone leveling later, Duke did its part to keep the foreclosure crisis going.

Against Florida State, the Devils went up against the nation's tallest team, grinding out a 19-14 halftime advantage against a team whose two-guard could change light bulbs in a cathedral ceiling, they held on for an eight-point win.

They've developed Brian Zoubek and Lance Thomas as legitimate interior players on both sides of the ball, installed point guard Nolan Smith as a starter and defensive stopper, and, aside from one forgettable afternoon in Ann Arbor, have harped on the driving element of Krzyzewski's offense, rather than passing around the perimeter.

And against Rhode Island, the Blue Devils stopped a hot-shooting guard hellbent on having a career night. Jimmy Baron hit 8-of-10 3-pointers, but versatile forward Kyle Singler managed a defensive stop in the waning seconds and the Blue Devils held on.

That day, Duke started its march toward No. 1 with a signal that this team might be different from the last three.

Now it's time to prove it against the team that sent the Blue Devils spiraling to a 4-4 finish in ACC games after a 10-0 start last year.

You're No. 1 again, Mike Krzyzewski. Now it's time to make us believers.