In 2007, Duke fell to North Carolina both times they met. In 2010, the Blue Devils won both meetings.
The difference between these two teams is captured in a word head coach Mike Krzyzewski continually returned to in his press conference Monday, less than 24 hours after he had sat at the same podium following Duke’s 78-74 loss to Miami at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
The word: exceptional.
Entering tonight’s game against the Tar Heels, Krzyzewski’s team stands at a crossroads. Will they be talented but fall short of that potential like the 2007 Blue Devils, who fizzled in the first round of the big dance? Or will they turn their talent into exceptionality like the national championship winning 2010 squad?
“Overall they’ve done a good job—otherwise we wouldn’t be 19-4,” Krzyzewski said. “We’ve done enough to win that many games, but I don’t think anybody has had an exceptional year all year.”
The winningest coach in Division I men’s basketball has tried everything with this year’s team. The Blue Devils enter action tonight having used seven different starting lineups, none for more than six consecutive games. Players have sat on the bench for entire games and then started others. They’ve driven to games, they’ve flown to games and they’ve even—gasp—taken a hiatus from Twitter.
But, depending on how they handle the adversity that comes with losing two consecutive ACC home games, they are poised to head in two different directions.
The 2007 squad was a young one, dealing with an identity crisis following the graduation of two players whose jerseys now hang from Cameron’s rafters, J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams. The team had just one senior, walk-on Joe Pagliuca.
Similarly, this year’s team has just one senior, Miles Plumlee, and has struggled to find its leadership since the graduation of Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler.
It is not as if the 2007 team lacked talent. Future NBA starters Gerald Henderson and Josh McRoberts were freshmen and sophomores on the team while Jon Scheyer, Brian Zoubek and Lance Thomas were first years on the squad. Sophomore Greg Paulus manned the point as junior DeMarcus Nelson was the only upperclassman to receive playing time.
The team had scoring depth but nobody to step up as its leader. Nelson, McRoberts, Scheyer and Paulus all averaged more than 10 points per game, but nobody averaged more than Nelson at 14.1.
Four Blue Devils average double-digit points on the current squad, led by Austin Rivers at 14.5. This balance is atypical for Duke squads, which have typically been paced by at least one scorer whose ability takes the team over the top.
“We usually have one or two guys who are all-ACC candidates,” Krzyzewski said. “Nolan [Smith] and Kyle [Singler] obviously were two of them. Scheyer, you go down the list of teams we’ve had. So, it’s been different, and we’ve had to adjust accordingly.”
Smith, Singler and Scheyer were integral to the 2010 national championship squad. Each member of the trio averaged more than 17 points per contest and rarely stepped off the court, all playing more than 35 minutes per game.
Is junior Seth Curry, who scored 22 points in a taxing 39 minutes Sunday beginning to follow in their footsteps? What about Rivers, who scored 20 while grinding out 43 minutes on the hardwood in the loss? And will Mason Plumlee, the only Blue Devil to start every game, assert himself consistently on the offensive end?
Curry, Rivers and Plumlee may be on their way to becoming those types of players, but they have yet to solidify that. Stepping up against the Tar Heels would be an awfully good start.
“I think any coach would rather have two or three guys that are just there all the time because then you can build better,” Krzyzewski said. “We’re constantly trying to add and delete things as a result of whose strength we’re going towards in that specific short period of time.”
As the 2010 squad shows, though, it is never too late for players, and the whole team, to find that elusive sense of identity. A quick look at Brian Zoubek’s statistics from that season show him averaging 5.6 points and 7.7 rebounds per game. But, the senior broke through with a 16-point, 17-rebound performance in the middle of February and never looked back, averaging double-digit boards the rest of the way.
Miles Plumlee, do you hear your calling?
Like this year’s team, the 2010 title-winning squad suffered some crushing losses during the regular season, such as the 88-74 defeat at the hands of an unranked North Carolina State squad. Their last-second loss to Maryland after coming back from a 14-point deficit to lead in the second half stirs up eerily similar feelings to Sunday’s Miami game.
The truth is that this year’s team may fall short of winning a title but surpass the first round disappointment of 2007. Yet the Blue Devils stand at this crossroads because they share the same flaws of that team five years ago with the same potential of the 2010 squad to become… exceptional, as rare as that may be.
“I think you become exceptional by what you accomplish,” Krzyzewski said. “There are very few exceptional teams.”
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