AP Ballot, etc

The Associated Press top 25 experienced a shakeup at the top this week because No. 1 Syracuse, No. 3 Baylor and No. 4 Duke all lost on Saturday. Baylor actually suffered a pair of losses.

For the second season in a row, I'm honored to be one of 65 voters nationwide allowed to participate in the process. Thankfully, this is just for fun. Our votes have nothing to do with who wins or loses the national championship. No sport should decide a champion that way (looking at you, college football).

That said, here's the ballot I turned on late Sunday night:

1. Kentucky
2. Missouri
3. Syracuse
4. Ohio State
5. Kansas
6. Baylor
7. North Carolina
8. Georgetown
9. Duke
10. Michigan State
11. San Diego State
12. Creighton
13. Murray State
14. Michigan
15. Florida
16. Indiana
17. Mississippi State
18. UNLV
19. Kansas State
20. Harvard
21. Virginia
22. St. Mary’s
23. Marquette
24. Gonzaga
25. Florida State

Quick thoughts: I believe Kentucky is a more talented team than Missouri, even though the Tigers have only one loss and Kentucky has lost twice. Most of the rest of the panel agreed with me as UK took over the No. 1  spot and Mizzou is No. 2.

I know UNC lost by 33 points to Florida State, but the Seminoles proved more by winning at Duke on Saturday. Road wins always trump home wins against comparable competition. That's why I have UNC two spots ahead of Duke this week.

I included FSU in the top 25 even though it has lost six games, including setbacks to Harvard and Princeton. The Seminoles are a better team now than in December. I'll give them that level of credit.

The Aftermath -- Florida State

Every Duke player but Miles Plumlee experienced something new on Saturday. None had lost a game in Cameron Indoor Stadium as an active player.

But Florida State, with its 76-73 win on Michael Snaer's buzzer-beating 3-pointer, changed that by halting Duke's 45-game home winning streak.

Here are links to my game story from the Herald-Sun as well as a story written by my colleague, Harold Gutmann, with reaction from the happy Seminoles.

The big question now, of course, is where Duke heads from here. The Blue Devils played tough basketball on Saturday. They built leads of nine and eight points only to see FSU claw its way back.

While the final shot has already and will continue to be dissected, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski refused to find fault with his developing team.

"You execute and they execute," Krzyzewski said. "Sometimes there's not a lot of explanation. That's the way the game is played. I don't find any fault in our guys for trying to stop them and for what we did."

Duke displayed toughness throughout the game. Austin Rivers' drive to score with 4.9 seconds left and tie the game at 73 was a big-time play. But Florida State found a way to score 50 points in the second half by shooting 67 percent.

Duke has been among the ACC's worst teams in both those categories this season. Obviously, work remains to be done to fix the issues.

Game Day -- Wake Forest

The ACC schedule dictates Duke play two games over the next three days. It helps that the Blue Devils play both of them at Cameron Indoor Stadium, where they've won 44 consecutive games.

The first of the two comes tonight against Wake Forest. While the Deacs are better than the team that went 1-15 in the ACC last season, they are still far from the kind of team that should be able to beat Duke at Cameron. Travis McKie and CJ Harris are legitimate players, but Wake has no consistent threats around them.

Still, expect Wake Forest to attempt to slow the game's pace to keep Duke's point total in the low 70s. This game could be another grinder, which Duke has proven it can handle with wins over Virginia and Clemson.

Everyone around the Duke program will be curious to see how Andre Dawkins plays tonight. He's played two solid games back to back, including the 24-point night at Clemson on Sunday. Consistency, or lack of it, as held him back. Here's a link to my story in today's Herald-Sun looking at his issues.

Game Day -- Clemson

Duke didn't get the luxury of enjoying its important win over No 16 Virginia Thursday night. The Blue Devils traveled to South Carolina's Upstate region on Saturday and will face Clemson tonight at 6 p.m.

The No. 8 Blue Devils (14-2, 2-0 in ACC)  seek their second consecutive ACC road win. That's no small accomplishment considering Duke lost three ACC road games last season, including their final two against Virginia Tech and North Carolina.

Here's the preview story from today's Herald-Sun.

After another wacky Saturday in college basketball, the Blue Devils find themselves all alone atop the ACC standings. Every other league member has at least one ACC loss, including No. 3 UNC's epic fail at Florida State on Saturday.

Duke is also set up to move higher in the AP Top 25 rankings. In addition to UNC's loss, No.6 Michigan State saw its 15-game winning streak end with an 81-74  loss at Northwestern on Saturday. All told, ranked teams went 5-6 Friday and Saturday.

Yes, Virginia, these are the Blue Devils

Duke's 61-58 win over Virginia Thursday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium came with a healthy dose of grit.
The Blue Devils grew weary of hearing their defensive prowess questioned. They did the only thing necessary to stifle such talk by turning in a lock-down performance.
Virginia shot 51 percent in the first half and led 32-28 at halftime. In the second half, Duke began physically challenging the Cavaliers on the defensive end. Virginia responded by shooting 29.4 percent (10 of 34) in the second half as the Blue Devils rallied to win.
It's a statement win for Duke, as much as any other the Blue Devils have posted this season.
Freshman Austin Rivers, meeting with us reporters late Thursday night, said Duke's coaches stressed that this game was their biggest of the year so far.
"Bigger than Kansas. Bigger than Ohio State," Rivers said.
He, and his coaches, are right.
Duke plays its best when it runs up and down the court this season. It had to show it could win a game played a slower pace. The Blue Devils passed the test against Virginia.

Game Day -- Virginia

Given the state of the ACC, Duke should really only face two serious tests on its home court this season. The first comes tonight against No. 16 Virginia (14-1) which has positioned itself as the league's third-best team behind UNC and Duke.
Should the Blue Devils defeat UVa tonight, the home-court winning streak that dates back to 2009 (currently at 43 in a row) should continue until the regular-season finale against the Tar Heels on March 3.
Virginia has not won in Cameron since 1995, the season that Coach K had his back issues. But, make no mistake, tonight's game is no gimme. The Cavaliers are a tough defensive team. Here's my preview from today's Herald-Sun.
For the view from the Virginia side, check out what the Washington Post has to say about the game.
From a national perspective, Duke isn't yet considered a challenger for the national title despite its sterling record. Here are some thoughts from Seth Davis and Jeff Goodman of CBS Sports.

About Georgia Tech....

Just watched the Yellow Jackets finish off an impressive 82-71 win over N.C. State at the RBC Center. Tech's 8-8 record may be middling, but Brian Gregory's team appears to be turning a corner.
And that means revisiting last Saturday's 81-74 Duke win over Georgia Tech at Philips Arena which caused many observers (me included) to wonder why the Blue Devils had trouble putting the Jackets away.
Georgia Tech entered ACC play shooting a woeful 29 percent from behind the 3-point line. Glen Rice, Jr., had scored five points over Georgia Tech's two previous games combined. 
Against Duke, Georgia Tech made 46 percent of its 3-pointers while Rice went off for 28 points. Since Duke is 11th in the ACC in scoring defense (69.4 points per game) and 12th in opponent's field-goal percentage (44.3), it appeared the Tech game was another example of Duke still working out its defensive problems.
But, Wednesday night in Raleigh, the Yellow Jackets made 60 percent (9 of 15) of their 3-pointers. Rice had another strong game with 22 points.
There's no doubt Duke has problems to address defensively. But, perhaps, the Devils made more progress than some of us thought in Atlanta last Saturday.

Around the ACC -- Day One

The first five games of ACC men's basketball are done and we already have plenty to talk about.

At the top, North Carolina and Duke passed their first tests. The Tar Heels dominated Boston College 83-60 in Chapel Hill, while Duke fought off Georgia Tech 81-74 in Atlanta. 

The surprise came in Winston-Salem, where Wake Forest matched last year's league win total. The Demon Deacons edged Virginia Tech 58-55 on a C.J. Harris 3-pointer with 16.9 seconds to play. That's great for the improving Deacs, who went 1-15 in ACC play last season. But it probably doomed Virginia Tech to another year of watching the NCAA Tournament on TV.

Speaking of hits to the NCAA Tournament resume, Florida State absorbed a body blow. Clemson blew out the Seminoles  79-59. A 20-0 Tigers run did in FSU. How could Clemson score 20 points in a row on anybody?

Virginia staked its claim to the No. 3 spot in the league behind UNC and Duke by winning its 12th  consecutive game. The Cavaliers took care of Miami 52-51 in Charlottesville.

Duke will carry a 43-game home court winning streak into Thursday's game with Virginia at Cameron Indoor Stadium. It appears getting No. 44 in a row won't be easy.

High noon in ATL

Duke gets its earliest tip-off of the season today as it attempts to flush Wednesday's tough loss at Temple out of its system.

Here's a preview that appeared in this morning's Herald-Sun.

The Blue Devils need to develop a toughness that seemed to come naturally to past Mike Krzyzewski teams. Duke had it in earlier wins this season against Michigan State, Michigan and Kansas. It's been missing lately, such as in losses to Ohio State and Temple. 

Looking at the ACC

Herald-Sun colleague Harold Gutmann and I teamed up for a look at all 12 ACC teams as we enter conference play on Saturday.

Just click here to find it.

Harold covers UNC for the paper. He took six teams and I took the other six. It's not a pretty sight.

Road Kill

Losing 85-63 at Ohio State on Nov. 29 was one thing for Duke. The Buckeyes are legitimate NCAA title contenders and have multiple players with NBA futures.
That game also fell on the heels of a trip to Maui, where Duke played and beat Tennessee, Michigan and Kansas. So a loss in Columbus wasn't a surprise. The margin, though, was troubling. 
Wednesday night's 78-73 loss at Temple is an entirely different matter. Duke was healthy, coming off two easy home wins and had only played five games over the previous 30 days.
Getting outrebounded by a smaller Temple team and struggling with sloppy turnovers should serve as a wake-up call for several Duke players.
During a break in between two Duke practices Thursday, Blue Devils associate head coach Chris Collins said it's up to the players to change their attitudes about such hustle plays.

"The feeling from us is anger," Collins said. "You want to win. Hopefully our guys share that same emotion. Not to be down in the dumps about it but to be angry and be more focused going into the next game. We want them to be angry about it and to want to be better in a lot of those areas.”

Duke opens ACC play at Georgia Tech in Atlanta on Saturday. Technically the Temple game wasn't on the Owls home court at the Liacouras Center. But the larger Wells Fargo Center did have the Owls logos and there were plenty of Temple supporters among the 20,420 in the stands.

So let's call it a road loss for Duke. That means, counting Ohio State and losses at Virginia Tech and North Carolina at the end of last season, the Blue Devils have lost four true road games in a row. 

A struggling Georgia Tech (7-7) team appears to be the perfect antidote. But, don't forget, UNC was drilled 78-58 by an equally bad Yellow Jackets team last January in Atlanta.

Duke's getting a chance to improve its attitude and approach today with two practices and a weight-lifting session. It appears to need such work.

Philadelphia Freedom

Duke’s appearance in Philadelphia for tonight’s game with Temple is stoking memory banks and spawning retrospectives from Independence Hall to the Triangle.

Last Sunday night, prompted by a question from a reporter from Penn’s student newspaper, Mike Krzyzewski spoke glowingly about the city’s rich history of college basketball.

The Big Five schools – Penn, Temple, Villanova, St. Joseph’s and LaSalle – all play Division I, all take the game seriously and all used to gather for games at the Palestra. At least one of the Big Five teams has made the NCAA Tournament for 34 consecutive years.

While Duke will play Temple at the Wells Fargo Center, which the 76ers and Flyers call home, Krzyzewski appreciates the Palestra from his playing and coaching days at Army in the 1960s and 70s.

“It’s a place where when you walk in and there’s nobody in it, you feel like something good has happened here,” Krzyzewski said. “Kind of like our place. There have been a lot of great, great games in that arena.”

Of course, Krzyzewski and Duke have special memories from another Philadelphia basketball venue, even though that building no longer exists. We’re approaching the 20-year anniversary of the Duke-Kentucky NCAA Tournament East Regional final in March 1992 that was decided in overtime by Grant Hill’s pass and Christian Laettner’s famous shot.

A book written by ESPN’s Gene Wojciechowski, The Last GreatGame, is available for sale tomorrow. It chronicles the years leading up to Duke-Kentucky to add perspective and breaks down the game in-depth. I was fortunate enough to receive an advance copy. It’s a terrific read.

Meanwhile, in Philly, Daily News columnist Dick Jerardi takes the opportunity of Duke’s presence to pay tribute to the career leader in Division I men's basketball coaching wins.

As for tonight's game with Temple, it's a chance for Duke point guard Quinn Cook to continue his fine play against a higher level of competition.

Welcome

If you've found your way to this post, you are either a relative, a serious sports fan or both.

The bulk of my work appears at www.heraldsun.com, the Durham Herald-Sun's website. That's where my coverage of Duke athletics, primarily the acclaimed men's basketball program, can be found. In this corner of cyberspace, I'll provide links to that work plus a little more.

In New Orleans, where I worked covering some, um, interesting Saints' teams under Mike Ditka and Jim Haslett, this would be called lagniappe -- a Cajun term meaning "a little something extra." If you buy a dozen muffins, the baker may throw in a free cookie. If you read the Herald-Sun, you can pop over here for more Duke coverage.

I'll offer as much insight as I can and share some other behind-the-scenes stories that don't fit in the newspaper. I also throw some tidbits on Twitter. Check out @stevewisemanNC.

Drop me an email at swiseman@heraldsun.com with any comments. If you like what I wrote, say so. If you don't, share that as well. I'm a big boy. I can handle it.

Enjoy.