The top-ranked men's basketball team opened its Atlantic Coast Conference season Saturday by slamming the door on the Virginia Cavaliers in rather lopsided fashion.
Duke (8-0, 1-0 in the ACC) feasted on Virginia (4-2, 0-1) all game long, employing a stifling man-to-man defense that produced 28 Cavalier turnovers and a relentless barrage of easy Blue Devil baskets, en route to a 103-59 rout in Cameron Indoor Stadium. The 44-point margin of victory was the largest for the Blue Devils in an ACC contest since 1965, when they trounced Virginia, 136-72.
The Cavaliers enjoyed their only lead of the game when forward Norman Nolan, who led all Virginia scorers with 19 points, opened the game's scoring with a dunk. But over the next three minutes, the Blue Devils peeled off a 13-0 run-paced by Trajan Langdon's eight-point outburst-to vault ahead, 13-2. With six minutes remaining in the half, Duke's lead had swelled to 17. The Blue Devils would never look back.
"I was proud of our team. I was concerned with us being a little bit nervous coming into the first ACC game," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "Virginia, if you play a little bit slower tempo, it's a tough team to score against.... I thought we got tempo going in our direction early, and it just stayed there the whole game. It was a game that lent itself to our strengths. We took advantage of it."
The tempo was furious, sustained and one the Blue Devils relished. Duke poured in 34 points-nearly one-third its total for the game-off the 28 turnovers it generated. The Cavaliers shot at a 58-percent clip for the first half and outrebounded Duke, but they found themselves down 28 points at halftime, no thanks to the fact that the Blue Devils sunk more shots (21) than the Cavaliers even attempted (19). The Blue Devils' full-court intensity left the Cavaliers scratching their heads and gasping for breath.
"I guess it's safe to say you can certainly count on me being one of the believers-they are a very, very, very good basketball team," Virginia coach Jeff Jones said. "They're very, very hungry. They come at you so hard right out of the gate. We got knocked off our feet, and they didn't let up until it was a 20-plus point lead.... At this point of the year, I'd hate to think that there's anybody better than them. If there is, I don't want to play them."
Paced by Langdon's 22-point effort-17 coming in the first half-the Blue Devils used a balanced and sustained attack to keep the Cavaliers against the ropes. Roshown McLeod chipped in 15 points, while Mike Chappell, who was also battling sickness, added 11. But despite their offensive outpouring, the Blue Devils reserved praise for their defense, which continually hounded Virginia the entire game.
"We want defense to be our identity-I think our defense sparks our offense," McLeod said. "The defense is always there. We want to make it an adventure for our opponents to make passes and, as a result, you get a nice outcome like today. I was in the flow today. Being comfortable on defense made me relaxed on offense."
The Blue Devils used a 27-11 run over the final eight minutes of the first stanza to stretch their lead to 53-25 and help seal their first conference victory of the season. The Cavaliers rattled off a 6-0 run to begin the second half, cutting the lead to 22, but that was as close as they would get. The Blue Devils roared back, continuing to apply tenacious pressure and steadily building the already comfortable lead. Freshman Chris Burgess, playing in his first conference game, highlighted Duke's romp in the second half with two spectacular plays-an emphatic follow-up dunk off a Langdon miss and a swat of a Curtis Staples breakaway layup attempt-that brought the Cameron crowd to a feverish pitch.
"Getting a dunk and block like that ignites not only myself but the team as well-it's a spark," said Burgess, who finished with nine points and five rebounds. "But like Coach K said, we're running a mile and we're ahead for the first 100 yards. We're not going to lose our intensity or frame of mind."
The Blue Devils do not return to conference play until next month. In the meantime, they will devote their attention to upcoming non-conference opponents, Villanova and Michigan. But encountering ACC opposition this early in the season, the Blue Devils believe, can only benefit them down the line.
"This was our first ACC game and a valuable experience-the guys see the intensity level and know what it takes to win," said Steve Wojciechowski, who led Duke with four steals Saturday. "But we're even going to have to step up the level.... We were just hitting on a lot of cylinders today and it's hard to beat us when we're doing that."
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