No. 5 Blue Devils play host to unheralded Butler

In last Sunday's Super Bowl, the dominant defense reigned supreme over the prolific offense. Duke hopes that this principle doesn't apply to mens basketball, as its high-scoring offense hosts Butler and the stingy Bulldog defense tonight at 7 p.m. in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

In the first ever matchup between the two teams, Duke's offense - averaging an NCAA-leading 87.2 points per game - will have to crack Butler's defense, which allows a miserly 58.3 points per game, seventh-best in the nation.

This stifling defense has made Butler (16-2) perennially one of the best mid-major teams in the country. And, like Gonzaga, the Bulldogs are a team that nobody wants to face in the NCAA tournament.

Butler competes in the anonymity of the Horizon League playing against unknowns like Wright State and Wisconsin-Green Bay. The showdown with Duke (13-2) on national television provides the chance for exposure and validation against a national powerhouse that the Bulldogs have coveted.

"You always want to go against the best," Butler senior guard Darnell Archey said. "We know that playing against Duke will put us on the map."

Butler has had success in the past against teams from major conferences, and has even joined the nation's elite in the NCAA tournament in four of the past seven years.

In 2001, the Bulldogs upset Wake Forest in the first round of the tournament before losing to Arizona, which went on to lose to Duke in the championship game.

The year before, Butler nearly shocked eventual runner-up Florida in the first round, losing only on a last-second shot in overtime. In the past two regular seasons, Butler has notched victories over Wisconsin, Indiana and Purdue.

If Krzyzewski's Blue Devils want to pick up a victory along with some experience, they will have to avoid letting the deliberate Bulldogs control the pace of the game with their patient offense and stalwart defense.

Butler's offense features its guards - its two leading scorers are 6-foot senior guard Brandon Miller and the 6-1 Archey.

"We know that we're going to have to be guarding guys on the perimeter a lot," senior forward Nick Horvath said. "Even [the 6-foot-10 Cornette] is more of like a point-center for them, and...they can all shoot, so we're going to have to play a lot outside."

The size discrepancy between the teams should allow the Duke big men to build on their solid performance against Georgia Tech.

In that contest, Duke's post players responded to critics that had railed the Blue Devils for not having any offensive threats on the interior.

Pundits were proven correct in consecutive losses to Maryland and N.C. State, in which Duke's big men were hardly noticeable on the offensive end.

Against Georgia Tech, however, the Blue Devil frontcourt was a force to be reckoned with, going 13-for-21 from the field and ripping down 24 rebounds.

The inside effort was headed by Shelden Williams, who established career-best totals of 18 points and 13 rebounds. He looks to continue to emerge as a sorely-needed inside threat for the Blue Devils.

"He's a beast inside, and he's finishing well," Horvath said of Williams. "At times he rushes his shot, but [lately] he's been patient, finding his spots and finishing well."

The rest of the Blue Devils might be well-suited to follow Williams' lead, because if they have trouble finishing on Butler's tight defense, they could quickly find themselves victims of the high-profile upset the Bulldogs have long been dreaming about.