There's a line in a Eugene O'Neill play, something about there being no present or future. There's just the past, happening over and over again, now. I learned this not because I read the play-who reads plays?-but rather because I quoted it liberally in college application essays.
On Feb. 15, when Gerald Henderson missed an ill-advised long-range jump shot in the final minute at Boston College to seal Duke's fourth loss in its last six games, I was reminded of that play I never read.
You see, Feb. 17 was the day the Blue Devils' season went south in 2008-a loss at Wake Forest. The first and last days of February in 2007 included defeats that sparked four-game losing streaks for Duke. And in 2006, a slim seven-point win over Georgia Tech on Feb. 22, with J.J. Redick going 5-of-21, was the first sign of the top-ranked Blue Devils' impending fall from grace.
It was the ides (more or less) of February that foreshadowed doom for those Duke teams, and 2009 looked just like the past, happening now.
Fast-forward exactly one month, to March 15. On that Sunday, two days after the Blue Devils exorcised their Boston College demons, Duke claimed its first ACC title since 2006 with a win over Florida State. And the way the Blue Devils did it left me with an odd feeling in the pit of my stomach-a thought that had seldom occurred to me during this time of year before.
Duke is a really good basketball team.
Think about that: Duke is really good. The Blue Devils aren't just pretty good or decent or overachieving; they are really good. Really good enough to merit serious consideration for a No. 1 seed, really good enough to earn early-round games in nearby Greensboro.
And they are really good because after that nightmare on Chestnut Hill, head coach Mike Krzyzewski saw the same thing I did. He saw a team struggling against quick guards, with an offensive hole at point guard to go along with the one at center, and he foresaw a disappointing March past presenting itself as his team's imminent future.
So Krzyzewski, never one for fatalism or resignation, decided to edit the script.
Problem at the point? Who ever said you needed to have a point guard? That's not in Naismith's rules. (Of course, those rules also didn't mention dribbling, free throws or the merits of mid-major versus major conferences.) In the race between Nolan Smith and Greg Paulus, Krzyzewski went with the third-party candidate, freshman Elliot Williams.
While Williams has been good, the move has paid off most for Jon Scheyer, who can perform the basic function of the point guard-bringing the ball upcourt-without incident. He can also shoot over defending point guards, take care of the ball and resist the temptation to take deep, NBA-range, pull-up 3-pointers-of which Paulus had grown increasingly fond.
It hasn't hurt that the lineup switch correlated (or, in direct defiance of Stats 101, caused) Scheyer to regain his stroke from beyond the arc after a six-week slump. Or that Kyle Singler has remembered he, too, can drive to the basket. Or that Gerald Henderson is still, most of the time, Gerald Henderson.
Sunday was one of the rare instances in which the Blue Devils' three best players all brought their A-games, and it's on days like that when Duke looks like a national title contender and when living by the three is living easy.
After all, the program's three championship teams were all headed by a trifecta of stars.
At any rate, the reality is this: For the first time in at least four seasons, Duke is playing its best basketball of the season entering the NCAA Tournament.
And while teams gain entry into the 65-team field on the basis of an overall body of work and season-long accomplishments, teams win it by what they do in their final six games. Because of the brazen lineup shuffle, Krzyzewski and the Blue Devils are as ready for those games as any team in the country, beating three Tournament teams in three days over the weekend-an achievement only Southern California shares.
But even if O'Neill is right, and there is no present or future, Duke has some really good pasts it can relive. Now.
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