TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- If Kermit the Frog were a Blue Devil, right now, he'd probably be singing "It's not easy being Blue." Based on comments from members of the men's basketball team after its 78-75 loss to Florida State, Kermit would be right.
"I think a lot of people want to say, `Well, you don't have any pressure on you'," freshman guard Steve Wojciechowski said. "To me, that's not true.
"I mean, we've grown up watching Duke basketball play. We've grown up watching them win. We don't want to be the ones having people saying, `Wow, Look at Duke now. What happened to them?' We don't want to carry that burden. There's a lot of people that say that shouldn't matter. But the fact is, it does matter. We just want to get Duke back to where it was."
Why is that so hard right now? The absence of head coach Mike Krzyzewski hasn't helped. With Duke struggling, however, all those teams that Krzyzewski-led squads rolled over on the way to seven Final Fours in the last nine years are looking for payback. Even with Krzyzewski gone and no wins in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the amount of importance opposing teams place on beating Duke hasn't diminished much.
"Today was big," FSU head coach Pat Kennedy said after his team became the sixth ACC squad to beat Duke this year in as many games. "You're still playing Duke. For our kids, this is a great win. It makes them feel good when you beat a Duke, with all they've done, with all the greatness. It keeps you up in the elite. So this is a great win for us."
Meanwhile, players who participated in more great wins than they can probably remember during past years at Duke are trying to fight through the mystifying streak.
"I don't think anyone here surrounding our team, or anyone in the country for that matter, felt like Duke would be in a situation like this," sophomore guard Jeff Capel said. "We feel like we're a very talented team. It's just, it seems like we haven't gotten it together yet.
"Sometimes we play in spurts really well. But it seems like there is always a time when we let down, and that's when teams attack us and jump all over us."
"I'm sick of the losing," center Cherokee Parks said. "I wish it would end. We're playing well a lot of games. We just can't come out with wins. I think we just need to get one."
It won't get much easier inside the ACC. Duke plays a non-conference game against Notre Dame this Tuesday, but its next two opponents in the conference are Maryland and North Carolina, the league leaders. That will be the next chance for this Blue Devil team to begin its own positive legacy.
"We're a new team, and we shouldn't be compared to any team of the past," Wojciechowski said. "For our own team goals, we want to win, and we want to be the best team we can possibly be. So far, this year we haven't been the best we can possibly be.
"It's just a learning process for us. It's just the process is taking a little while longer than anybody anticipated. But we're not jumping ship. We're not giving up hope. We're just trying to get better day by day."
The task of winning becomes tougher for Duke when it goes up against teams full of guys like FSU's Corey Louis, who come out to play their best against the Duke Blue Devils, the winningest program in the 90s, owners of the greatest dynasty since UCLA.
"That's the reason I came here -- playing against Duke and North Carolina, and you just can't beat that, going against great players who are supposed to be in the league," said Louis after his 21-point performance. "I feel great. I had a pretty good game, and I'm proud of that."
With such respect for Duke's past comes conviction of a quick turnaround, too. The player who had the most to do with handing the Blue Devils their sixth-straight conference loss believes Duke will bounce back and doesn't have that far to go.
"That team is going to be good," FSU guard Bob Sura said. "They are good right now. They're better than three or four teams we played in the league already. They're going to pull together. It's just a matter of time."
After all, that same belief in the height of the Duke program had something to do with why these current Blue Devil players are here.
"I came here to Duke, with a winning tradition, to try to win and go to the Final Four and do stuff like that," freshman guard Ricky Price said. "And it's real tough for me to understand and to cope with the 0-6 at the beginning of the ACC.
"It's really hard for all of us. But I haven't given up, and I don't think the team has given up either."
Duke didn't give up on Saturday. The team played much harder and earned itself a chance to win, two things it couldn't do against N.C. State in a 77-60 loss in Cameron.
"We got two of our best three-point shooters wide open looks," Wojciechowski said. "You can't ask for more than that. It just wasn't meant to be. The shots didn't drop. That seems to be the story of the season -- the shot just didn't drop.
"Although we didn't come out with a win, if you look at some of our previous games, you can't say that we've given the effort mentally and physically that we gave tonight. In that respect, this game is a positive. But we still have to get to the point where we win."
Until then, individual accomplishments are insufficient, and the joy of playing is not there for the Blue Devils.
"It doesn't matter what you do when . . . What are we now, 9-8?" Parks said. "That's no fun."
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