The last time we saw Chris Duhon, he slipped away a Duke lead to Florida State with six seconds remaining and fell to the court almost as hard as the Blue Devils dropped in the ACC standings and the polls the next day. When Raymond Felton was last in action, he bricked a three-pointer with nine ticks on the clock that would have brought North Carolina within a point in an eventual loss to Wake Forest.
But for these two heralded point guards, that sloppy play has only been regularity for one of them. For these two sinewy, small-town floor generals, most of the snapshots have been surprisingly different. Just over a week ago, Felton was busy hitting a school-record eight threes. Meanwhile, Duhon hasn't been busy with much else but missing; the junior has only hit double figures once since Dec. 7.
"He hasn't played well, there's no question about that," head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "Just look at the stats. He just hasn't played well, and we have to help him play well. With that happening, our team has done overall pretty well. I just think that we can take a big jump if we can get him to play."
Despite making the list of 30 when the midseason Wooden Awards were announced Monday, Duhon has certainly not played up to the level he was expected to when Jay Williams headed for Chicago last spring. And while he remains the ACC's assist leader at 7.47 per game, the new Duke captain has shot just 23 percent from the field in his team's three recent losses, a rough skid that left his teammates to offer only words of comfort yesterday.
"It's been a battle, but today was really good for him," junior Nick Horvath said.
"He's not down, he's just--focused," senior Casey Sanders echoed, with a distinct air of concern for his captain, teammate and friend gone uncharacteristically defunct.
Down 15-501, though, Felton has been part of the eye-popping freshman squad of saviors the UNC faithful hoped he would be. With 11.6 points to go with his 6.45 assists per game, the Latta, S.C. native has outshone his Slidell, La. counterpart for tonight's matchup. With an air of confidence, Felton has had no trouble looking for his shot and grabbing the spotlight early in his career, something Duhon was widely expected to do after being groomed for two years.
"He's terrific," Krzyzewski said of Felton. "He makes everybody on their team better, but he does it in two ways. In the offense, he does it obviously with his penetrating, and so he makes other people play him, and then dishes off. But the other way is because he's such a good shooter, so he stretches the defense."
And though his coach also maligned Duhon's ball pressure of late, it's on that defensive end where the veteran has an edge. Felton tends to put his head down after checking his first and second looks, whereas if Duhon is known for anything, it's for always being heads-up. No matter the missed shots, the bad moods or the big losses, he has walked the roads of Carolina-Duke, of the ups and downs, of the learning curve.
And that's a permanent edge, flashy frosh in the way or not.
"Raymond's really becoming more comfortable, and that process takes time," UNC coach Matt Doherty said, knowing that experience like Duhon's is what pays at the ACC's most important position. "It's not just going to be, 'Okay, he's arrived.' That's a thing that evolves, and you talk to other players, especially point guards, and to understand what you need to do to run a team, that takes time."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.