TO THE GREAT FRONTIER

Game 1 vs. Pacific

11/27, 11:30 p.m.

Game 2 vs. Canisius/Liberty

11/28, 12:30 a.m.

Championship Game

11/29, 12:30 a.m.

But as Saturday's Detroit game made frighteningly clear, mid-majors don't just play Cinderella in March.

"We will always get people's best shots," head coach Mike Krzyzewski said after Duke's opening-night win. "When you're in the position we've been in for a long time, a team hardly is ever afraid to lose against you, where they might be afraid to lose against a team from their own conference. They're armed with something like a free pass. You've got to play a little bit harder than that, and your kids are never going to have that. I'm not complaining; I'd rather be that team. But psychologically, obviously that's true. And I think that's what we'll face in Alaska."

The Blue Devils are guaranteed to face Pacific in the Shootout's first round Thanksgiving Day. The Tigers last saw Krzyzewski 20 years ago in the other far reach of the United States--Hawaii--and only fell to Duke by two points. But this is a much different era, as Pacific just squeaked by with a 75-65 win.

Friday night's potential foe, Canisius, took its opening game as well, but the Golden Griffins do not even stack up that closely to Pacific, let alone the teams Duke could face in Saturday's championship game. Purdue and Seton Hall, both of which received votes in yesterday's updated Associated Press national poll but remain unranked, are the barons of the other bracket in the tournament and could provide the Blue Devils with a healthy tune-up for No. 3 Michigan State, which welcomes Duke to East Lansing next Wednesday. The Blue Devils, though, could use a tune-up on the health front. Injuries, both nagging and new, to his starting lineup gave Krzyzewski room enough to speak about his team's day-to-day business more than usual after the Detroit win.

"There's just a lot of stuff going on with our team, trying to get us all healthy in the end," he said.

Most prevalent among the Blue Devils' health checks is that of point guard Chris Duhon, who injured his right hip flexor while diving for a steal and falling into the press row at the end of the first half Saturday. The senior captain re-aggravated the injury in the final minute of the game for the biggest fright, though, shaking on the floor, limping off the court and stumbling onto a chair on the Duke bench. But Duhon was walking around the locker room after the game and said then that it was "not too big."

"I don't think anybody will be out," Krzyzewski said of the Alaska trip. "Although Chris' hip was--he's in a lot of pain there. But he played real well, so that's incentive to play again."

Three other starters have been playing through pain of late as well. Daniel Ewing missed several practices leading up to opening night with a sore foot, for which the training staff has tried putting orthopedic support in the junior guard's sneaker. Ewing shot 2-for-10 against Detroit, and even though those two baskets were clutch three-pointers, Krzyzewski admits that his tri-captain has been limited.

"He hasn't had time to adjust to what we're doing with his foot--with his shoe and inside," he said. "You can have an orthotic, and if someone puts something inside your shoe today, it's going to feel foreign, and all of a sudden you're asked to play 30-something minutes and guard a quick guy."

Sophomore J.J. Redick has been battling foot problems of his own, with shooting pains under his ankle showing signs of tendonitis that forced him to miss the last two practices leading up to Detroit. Redick was limited to only shooting drills, something that probably did some good, as the sophomore poured in 19 points Saturday. Krzyzewski said that Redick is well on his way back to full health.

Freshman Luol Deng, though, has a more lingering problem. The rangy forward has had a history of cramps, which acted up in the Blue-White pre-season scrimmage and again Saturday, when he led Duke with 21 points on 7-of-15 shooting. But Deng will have plenty of time for a massage or two on Duke's extended trip to the extreme Northwest.

"It's part of us getting more experience," Krzyzewski said of the Alaska Shootout. "I think it'll be a really good trip for us--no matter how many wins and losses--just to be away and come back and depend on one another."