A little over two weeks ago the men's basketball team was reeling, unable to win on the road, despite all its efforts, most recently a double overtime loss to Wake Forest. Duke had been written off by the media as having an off year, and had fallen as low as a fourth seed in many weekly NCAA tournament predictions.
But just as quickly as the snow buried Charlottesville, Va. - and as the Blue Devils simultaneously dumped Virginia 78-59 - Duke snapped out of its road slump.
A game later the Blue Devils had firmly established an inside presence, and now they look primed to catch fire just in time for the postseason.
"All those teams that beat us played great games against us," freshman sharp-shooter J.J. Redick said. "Maybe we had to lose those games to know how to win."
Standing in the way as the Duke flame begins to spark is traditional Big East power St. John's. And while Red Storm head coach Mike Jarvis hopes to toss water on the fire when the No. 6 Blue Devils (20-4) roll into Madison Square Garden Sunday at noon to battle St John's (12-12), Dahntay Jones and Co. are ready to start a full-fledged inferno.
In order to douse the flames, the Red Storm will rely mainly on senior guard Marcus Hatten, who currently averages 21.5 points per game and ranks in the top-20 in the conference in several offensive categories. One
Hatten teams with forward Anthony Glover to form most of the rest of St. John's offense. The senior averages 11.5 points per game, and has been hot recently. In the Red Storm's recent loss to Boston College, Glover racked up 22 points, a season high.
Regardless of their best efforts, however, the pair have been unable to bring their team back to the winning ways it knew when this series started. At this point, the Red Storm have little left to play for the chance of pulling off an upset in the Big East tournament.
On the other side of the spectrum, Duke continues throwing kindling on its fire. It its last game the Blue Devils shot 11-of-17 from behind the arc, while also mixing up play by successfully running a smooth inside and transition game.
"We had connecting plays where somebody drove and kicked out, which is why we had such a good percentage from three-point range," Blue Devils head coach Mike Krzyzewski said after his teams' recent victory over Georgia Tech. "It was penetrate, dish, relocation - where our shooters had their feet set."
Krzyzewski added that he was happy with the way his team played defense, both against the Yellow Jackets and in other recent games. That type of play, he said, has put Duke in a position that allows them to jump out to a lead, therefore making it difficult for opponents to comeback.
It is this same style of play that Duke teams of the past were so famous for - a few quick spurts to blow the game open, followed by tight defense and maintaining a steady lead.
And although it took this year's Blue Devils a decent part of the season to master that style of game, they have been on a tear since doing so, chalking up four straight wins over some of the ACC's toughest competition.
Duke has also removed the last obstacle that had threatened to stand in the way as its trail blazes to New York - its road play. Having beaten a pair of teams with stellar records on their own courts - Virginia and Georgia Tech - Duke appears to have quelled its road demons, at least for the time being.
So as Madison Square Garden starts to heat up Sunday afternoon, the Red Storm will be praying for rain.
"This is one of those times where prayer is about the only thing that's left," Jarvis said after is team's fourth-straight loss. "My guys will no do what a lot of teams have done across the country and this is give up."
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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