Food For Thought From Friday's Win

One aspect of the Blue Devils' contest last night in Atlanta may have been lost in the relief over moving on to the semifinals of the ACC Tournament: The win over Boston College marked Duke's 287th win this decade. That sets an NCAA record for the most wins by any program, in any decade. The previous record was held by Kansas, which tallied 286 wins from 1990-1999.

Jon Scheyer sat out for a staggering one minute in Friday's game, totaling 39 minutes on the court. Not to be outdone, Kyle Singler played all 40 minutes. As the player head coach Mike Krzyzewski described as worn down during last year's postseason, Singler was naturally asked about the effect of playing so many minutes."I feel great," Singler said. "I'm happy with the win. As long as you win, you get somewhat of a recharge."

With 16 points, Gerald Henderson pushed his streak of double-figure scoring games to 24, the second-longest streak in the ACC. Henderson trails only Wake Forest guard Jeff Teague, who kept his streak alive by scoring 11 points in the Demon Deacons' loss to Maryland yesterday.

Less than a week after dropping their regular-season finale at North Carolina in which the Blue Devils received a 0-point contribution from their bench, non-starters again added a less-than-stellar total. They generously chipped in with three points, thanks to a trey from Nolan Smith with 15:32 to play.

Duke held the Eagles to a 38.3 percent field-goal percentage. In their last 12 games, the Blue Devils had somewhat fallen off on their defensive field-goal percentage standards, giving up 50% or more five times and 61% to Wake Forest. You have to go back to January to find the last time Duke held its opponent to under 40% from the field. In Cameron Indoor Stadium Jan. 24, Maryland shot an abysmal 28.1% in an 85-44 pounding. Greivis Vasquez managed only four points in the humiliating loss. It bodes well for Duke if it can carry its defensive intensity over to this afternoon's contest.

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