Senior Trajan Langdon runs a curl, attempting to get the slightest separation from his defender. He turns toward the ball-handler, receives a bullet pass, turns and shoots. Swish.
Before the Cameron Crazies can even fully extend their arms to signal a three-point attempt, the points have been added to the Duke side of the scoreboard.
This Langdon moment, along with the leaning bankshot from practically any angle and the two automatic free throws, have been common occurrences at Cameron Indoor Stadium for four years. But tomorrow against Clemson, Langdon, Taymon Domzalski and Justin Caldbeck will be playing in their last home game.
With a win tomorrow, Duke will also be closer to an unprecedented 16-0 conference record. Of course Mike Kryzyewski is quick to deny that he is even thinking about the approaching record.
"Why would I talk about that?" said Kryzyewski. "It's not my goal. My goal is to win the league. We won the league, I'm a happy guy.... I'm going home to play with my dog."
Duke clinched the ACC regular-season title with another easy 85-59 win over Florida State Wednesday.
The Tigers (15-11) come into Cameron with some momentum, having beaten Virginia by 23 and Florida State
Also boding poorly for Clemson is its play on the road, reflected in a 4-9 ACC record. The Tigers have yet to win a conference game on the road this season.
The trick for Clemson will be to slow the game down and not allow Duke many chances to fully utilize its NCAA-leading offense, which averages 94 points per game. The Tigers did this effectively for one half in the January meeting between the two teams, and the halftime score was only 32-29. But Clemson's plan went amuck in the second half, as the Blue Devils used a quicker pace to score 50 points in route to a 82-60 victory.
Brand led all scorers in that game with 22 points to go along with four blocks. This is not surprising, as Duke has been able to exploit a large inside advantage in all of its games-the victory over Florida State being the latest example. Against the Seminoles, Brand took only 25 minutes to collect 23 points and 16 rebounds for his league-leading 13th double-double.
Clemson presents more of a challenge on the glass, with senior Harold Jamison averaging 9.1 rebounds a game to go along with 70-percent shooting, which is tops in the ACC. Another road-block for Brand will be Tom Wideman, whom Tiger coach Larry Shyatt singled out for praise on the defensive end.
For Duke, shutting down Clemson is predictable. Every team in the ACC knows that the key to stopping Clemson is containing senior point guard Terrell McIntyre.
McIntrye is second in the ACC with 17.7 points per game.
If Clemson attempts to pound the ball inside, Brand and Battier will be waiting. Both sophomores are already in the top 10 at Duke in career blocked shots. Brand also averages 9.4 rebounds a game, and Shane Battier is perhaps the only player in the league who has more charges taken (27) than turnovers (21).
No matter what happens, the focus of the game will be on Langdon. His quick delivery and pin-point accuracy have allowed him to become the 12th player in Duke history to score 1800 points.
Langdon also places first in Duke history in everything three-pointers: made (317), attempted (741) and accuracy (42.8). With two more threes this year, Langdon will also take control of the single-season Duke record, held by Bobby Hurley with 88.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.