ATLANTA, Ga. - As the buzzer sounded on Georgia Tech's 74-63 victory over the Blue Devils Wednesday, a few students and fans stormed center court.
None of the Yellow Jacket players, however, joined in the celebration. They simply shook hands with the Blue Devils and gave a few high fives on their way to the locker room. It seemed the win was nothing more than simply protecting their home court in conference play.
Indeed, the word is out in the ACC-this is the year to get Duke.
The Blue Devils began conference play 0-2 for the first time since the 1995-1996 season, thanks in large part to an offense that just can't seem to hit its stride.
After one of the worst games of his career against Virginia Tech, Greg Paulus, who has been hampered by injuries and illness much of the season, came off the bench and often looked shaky at the point, forcing Jon Scheyer and DeMarcus Nelson to handle the ball more than Duke would like.
The Yellow Jackets exposed this weakness by pestering the Duke guards with their length-using 6-foot-10 Mouhammad Faye and 6-foot-8 Thaddeus Young to pressure the Blue Devil wings. Georgia Tech racked up 11 steals and forced Duke into a horrendous 4-for-20 performance from beyond the arc.
"We had as many open looks as they did in the first half, but they hit theirs," head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "We just had a hard time scoring."
And unlike so many times this season, Duke's stingy defense was unable to mask its ineffective offense. In the Blue Devils' previous two losses, quick guards had been their undoing, but Ra'Sean Dickey showed that the Duke defense is susceptible to a solid post threat as well. Dickey dominated inside early, scoring 10 points in the first six minutes.
In the past, the Blue Devils were able to rely on Shelden Williams to guard his counterpart on his own. But Wednesday neither Josh McRoberts nor Brian Zoubek was able to slow Dickey one-on-one, forcing Duke to double Dickey whenever he received the ball inside. The Yellow Jackets took advantage of the collapsing defense and knocked down 7-of-12 shots from behind the three-point line.
"Our defense wasn't bad throughout the game, except that we left more guys open today than we normally do, and they punished us for it," Krzyzewski said.
Despite all their deficiencies, the Blue Devils did have their chances to pull out a road victory, largely because they were able to pressure the equally young Yellow Jackets into 28 turnovers. But Duke could not convert those opportunities often enough to overcome their sluggish half-court offense.
The most glaring of these opportunities was a two-minute stretch in which Duke trailed by just two after mounting an 8-0 run. The Blue Devils were unable to capitalize on either of their possessions during the stretch to tie or take the lead, and Georgia Tech's freshman point guard made the game-changing play to seal the win.
After McRoberts blocked Anthony Morrow's three-point attempt from the corner, Javaris Crittenton ripped the ball away from Lance Thomas and finished the open dunk to spark a 7-0 that effectively ended the game.
"Young teams have to learn how to win. Just because they're at Duke doesn't mean that they inherited winning," Krzyzewski said. "You inherit money-well, some people do-but you don't inherit how to win. You have to learn that. And our young guys have to do that, with the fact that we are Duke University and have won."
The Blue Devils must speed along that learning curve, because the competitive ACC is full of sharks, and Duke's stale offense is tantamount to blood in the water.
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