Give the assist to Tim O'Toole.
In the former assistant coach's return to Cameron Saturday evening, O'Toole and his undermatched Fairfield squad taught the men's basketball team a valuable lesson.
If an opponent can surpass the Blue Devils in intensity and hustle, then suddenly the top-ranked team in the country is rather vulnerable. Against Fairfield, it didn't make a big difference; that was a game where talent alone told the story.
But in comparison to Duke's two exhibition games, when the Blue Devils clearly outhustled their opposition, they met a team Saturday that was intent on not being blown out by the first TV timeout.
"That was a really good game for us," coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "To have a team play against us like that for 40 minutes is terrific. I wish we had that in our two exhibition games. It was the first time we met resistance from a team."
The Blue Devils met enough resistance to be trailing 16-14 almost midway through the first half. By that point, the Stags had already caused three held-ball situations and forced point guard Will Avery to adjust his style on offense.
Avery is used to penetrating deeper toward the basket, and tried to do so early against Fairfield,
"I knew it was a big game for them; kind of like the game of their life," Avery said. "We knew they'd come out hard. They were using a sagging defense, and I was having trouble with it early, so it was an adjustment I had to make."
Avery wasn't the only one who had to adjust. Despite a 16-4 run that turned a 16-14 deficit into a 10-point lead, the Blue Devils still struggled getting the ball to their star players, Elton Brand and Trajan Langdon.
Langdon managed just one shot in the first 15 minutes, and Fairfield was denying the entry pass to Brand.
"It's hard to get looks when you're making one or no passes on offense, and I think that's what was happening," Langdon said. "If you're not touching the ball, you're not going to get any shots."
Leading 33-22, Duke finally started moving the ball on offense and found Brand and Langdon. The Wooden Award candidates combined to score the Blue Devils' final 15 points of the first half, and Duke stretched its lead out to 21.
Langdon hit two jumpers off effective screens and Brand started taking over on the inside post, which led to five of Duke's record-setting 42 free throws for the game.
"I think we just did a better job getting touches in the offense," Langdon said. "Against a team like Fairfield, you have to break the defense down. When we made good passes, we got better looks, but give credit to Fairfield because they put a lot of pressure on us."
Indeed, Duke's early three-game stretch against Fairfield, Davidson and South Carolina State isn't supposed to offer the Blue Devils much of a challenge in terms of wins and losses.
It won't, yet that doesn't mean the games don't serve a purpose. Duke made it look so easy during the preseason that it is easy to forget why the Blue Devils got where they are.
Sure, talent is an overriding factor, but Duke thrives on the intangibles. O'Toole learned that lesson during his two seasons with the Blue Devils, and it allowed his team to throw a small and unexpected scare into Duke in its season opener.
"We were just not as prepared as we could've been," Brand said. "It wasn't a terrible game, we still won by a healthy amount, but they were just very physical and they just really wanted to win today.
"Give them a lot of credit for playing so hard. It makes you want to play stronger and with more intensity."
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