After beating three top-10 teams in the last two weeks, now comes the hard part for the men's basketball team: staying focused for everyone else.
While Duke has successfully completed its toughest stretch of games for the regular season, it hopes to avoid letting up when it travels to Atlanta tomorrow to play Georgia Tech. With three wins over nationally ranked teams in the past 11 days, the Blue Devils (22-1, 10-0) will face a Yellow Jacket team (13-9, 4-6) that was trounced in Durham last month by 41 points.
Still, with only one of its last seven games left against a ranked opponent, North Carolina, Duke is careful not to overlook each of its remaining games.
"I think the game Saturday at Georgia Tech is as important a game as we play now," Krzyzewski said after Wednesday's game. "We need to get a lot better. The bench can keep developing. We can get better."
As Krzyzewski said, Corey Maggette and Chris Burgess will have to improve upon their recent sporadic performances. Fortunately for Duke, swingman Nate James has continued to be an effective role player in the recent stretch. James scored 11 points and grabbed five rebounds against Maryland and feels as though he has become very comfortable in his role as a contributor off the bench.
"I've been happy with my performance; I've been playing pretty well, getting more minutes and trying to step up my play," James said. "I know it's really key for a person to really work themselves into the lineup and be there as sixth or seventh man."
While James has played well coming off the bench, it was Shane Battier who stepped up offensively Wednesday with a career-high 27-point effort.
"Shane Battier, [Wednesday] night, had the best game of his career," Carrawell said. "He scored a lot, but he was also everywhere. There's not one guy you can concentrate on. Who can you concentrate on? If you try to take away Elton and Trajan, then Will [Avery] is going to kill you. If you try to take away all three of them, then I'm going to kill you.
"We've got nine guys who are really talented and work hard, so you can't focus on one guy."
Despite the many weapons that the Blue Devils have, they feel that it is important that they do not become complacent simply because their toughest stretch is over. They are quite aware of Maryland's lackluster performance against an undermanned Wake Forest, resulting in a Terrapin loss last Sunday.
The Yellow Jackets, a team decimated by the injury of star Dion Glover before the season, have benefited from the addition of Indiana transfer Jason Collier, who along with returning center Alvin Jones forms a formidable frontcourt which has improved with each performance. Collier leads the team at 16.9 points per game, while Jones provides an intimidating defensive presence as one of the ACC's best shot blockers.
While Tech's frontcourt is very potent, the Blue Devils feel as though they can exploit the Jackets' lack of athletic ability by playing an up-tempo style of basketball, as they did in their previous meeting.
"Their big men don't run the floor that well, and they're not that deep of a team," Avery said. "Hopefully, if we can get some good perimeter rebounding, that will lead to some early baskets."
Although the Jackets' will have difficulty defending Duke's full-court game and handling its pressing defense, they will benefit from a home-court advantage. Their woeful conference road record of 1-4 will not be a factor, as they will be playing at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum, where they have only lost twice all season.
Therefore, the Blue Devils know that they will face a hungry Georgia Tech that would salivate at a chance to defeat a team that could be ranked No. 1 in the nation on Monday.
"Tech is going to really test our maturity as a team, but hopefully we won't have any letdowns," Avery said. "We know that we have a little motivation in the fact that if we win, we'll be ranked the number one team in the country."
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