ATLANTA - With all due respect to Chicken Little (and some wishful thinkers around the ACC), the sky is not falling on Durham.
Some would have you believe that after two seasons, four first-round NBA picks and a handful of overtimes, Duke's first ACC loss in 32 games meant the Apocalypse was just around the corner.
"It was a reality check; I was like, 'Oh God, we can lose at Cameron,'" Chris Carrawell said.
A wake-up call, yes. But the end of the road for the Blue Devils, whose ACC dominance had begun to draw comparisons to Florida State football?
Try telling that to Bobby Cremins.
"Before the game everyone kept asking me if this was a bad time to play Duke," Cremins said Saturday. "I told them we'd have the answer after the game. I think we have that."
Duke's 85-64 romp was not, as Cremins suggested afterwards, a "statement" game for the No. 3 Blue Devils. Instead, it was a roll-up-the-sleeves-and-get-back-to-basics effort from a team that got downright sloppy somewhere in the midst of all that winning.
"Getting back to Duke defense, that was the key," said Carrawell, who had his own reputation as one of the ACC's top defenders soiled by Juan Dixon's 31 points Wednesday. "That was a reality check for me, too."
Against the Terps, Duke's offense was just fine, thank you. It was the defense that stayed
"I've never seen that [many empty seats]," Mike Krzyzewski said. "Maybe there was some expectation, like, 'Oh, we're supposed to win.'"
The Blue Devils shot 53 percent against the Terps, but allowed 98 points, the highest total an opponent has put up in Cameron since Duke's legendary 102-100 double-overtime loss to North Carolina in February of 1995.
After Krzyzewski ran his team through an intense, defensive-minded practice Friday, you could bet those numbers would change against Tech.
"They were relentless on defense," Cremins said. "We couldn't run our offense. We couldn't get the ball inside."
Duke's 38 points off 21 Tech turnovers were the difference. The Blue Devils took better care of the ball, too, committing just one turnover in the first half and seven total.
That reversal from Wednesday's performance gave Krzyzewski two tangible reasons to be satisfied with a 19-point win against an overmatched opponent.
"If we play hard and well and lose, I have no problem with that," he said. "But if we play poor in any one aspect of the game, I'll be on them for that.
"You become better when excellence is your motivation, not wins and losses."
And if excellence is Duke's goal, Krzyzewski's team still has plenty of room to improve. Matt Christensen's play Saturday was proof of that.
The 6-foot-11 Christensen was one major reason that Tech struggled to get the ball inside, where twin towers Jason Collier and Alvin Jones are the Yellow Jackets' most effective players.
Along with solid defensive support for Shane Battier, who continues to battle a virus, and Carlos Boozer, who continues to battle foul trouble, Christensen came up with five points and four rebounds in 10 minutes.
"Coach has had me playing with the starters a little bit more, so that's an indication of the confidence they have in me," Christensen said. "I feel like I'm doing a better job in practice in general."
If Christensen's development continues, it could mean an expansion of the shallow rotation Krzyzewski has used so far in ACC play. With only six players averaging more than eight minutes per game now, the Blue Devils are clearly vulnerable to fatigue, a fact evident in Wednesday's loss.
Of course, improvement is relative. As far as Cremins and the ACC's other second-tier teams are concerned, Duke is already too good.
"They're going to be tough to beat," Cremins said. "They proved they are beatable, but in the NCAA tournament, it's going to be hard for a team to knock them off.
"They have the capability to make a run for the whole thing."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.