Duke Makes It Four Straight

Just two weeks ago, Duke was coming off a horrible effort at Maryland. The Blue Devils had lost four straight to drop to 5-6 in the conference and some were writing them off. Could Duke be left out of the NCAA tournament? That's what some were thinking. It's not going to happen.

A couple of weeks makes a difference, doesn't it? Mike Krzyzewski and his staff didn't panic and they didn't let their team panic.

Duke has come back from that low point to have won four straight games, three of them league games and on Sunday, they never let a so-so St. John's team have a chance. This is a game Duke could easily not have been ready to play. That was not the case. Duke was ready and they coasted to the 67-50 win.

"We had played three really emotional games in our conference when we were 5-6 and won all three, two of them away,"Krzyzewski said. "With the young team we have, I worried about letting up. We didn't. We were prepared to play."

Duke smoked St. John's in the beginning. The team hit the Red Storm hard and never let them in the game. Duke was aggressive, hawked the Red Storm all over the court and allowed them just 10 first-half points. It was 34-10 at halftime and a team like St. John's just can't come back from something like that.

As the season has gone on, Greg Paulus has improved so much. He's obviously feeling better. He's become Duke's best shooter. On Sunday, his 19 points included five three-pointers. He turned it over just twice. Josh McRoberts scored just nine points but had six rebounds, six blocked shots and four assists. It appears McRoberts won't blossom into the consistent offensive threat they need, but he does a lot things well.

Now, there's no question that Duke is a better basketball team when they're aggressive and attack the basket. They do have trouble when they try to shorten the game, take time off the clock to protect their lead. Duke in protection mode is not a sure thing. It's a work in progress. I'm surprised it hasn't given the coach some gray hair. At least just a little.

But these Devils do have fire and they get that from Krzyzewski.. They will give effort and while they're not a great team, they're good and they're dangerous. Any team that gives effort every time out has a chance and that's what Duke does.

So Duke is now 22-7 overall and with a big week ahead. They have resurging Maryland coming off the upset of Carolina coming to Cameron on Wednesday and then they close the regular season at Carolina.

It's not an easy week to be sure, but this hasn't been an easy season. Duke keeps plugging away and little by little they keep getting better and better.

Not a championship team maybe, but pretty good.