Despite a fast start to the season and a high-paced offense, the Blue Devils have struggled from the field over their last three contests and are not quite where they want to be heading into ACC play.
But No. 9 Duke (12-1) is still confident in its position as it heads into its conference slate, squaring off against Virginia (10-3) Sunday at 8 p.m. in Cameron Indoor Stadium in its ACC opener.
"We can always get better at some things," sophomore Gerald Henderson said. "We feel like we're a good defensive team, but we feel like we can be a lot better. That's just something we do here."
Improved defensive play will be even more important if Duke continues to struggle offensively, as it has in recent games. In its last three games, the team's production has dipped, averaging 73 points while shooting 40.3 percent from the field and 28.6 percent from long range.
This stands in stark contrast to their first 10 contests of the season, when the Blue Devils scored 89.1 points per game, shooting 51 percent from the field thanks to the implementation of a more uptempo offense. The team was also hot from beyond the arc, sinking 44.1 percent of its 3-point attempts.
In their most recent contest Wednesday night against Temple, Duke's shooters went cold in the second half but they still managed to fight past the Owls to come away with a 74-64 win in Philadelphia. It was Duke's stingy defense that prevented the Owls from mounting a comeback.
"I think our defense was the constant [against Temple]," senior captain DeMarcus Nelson said. "It's great that we've been 12-1 through that. Now it's time to put that behind us. The next phase of our season, conference play, is only going to get tougher."
But as well as the defense played against the Owls, the Blue Devils know they have room for improvement and the squad will be tested Sunday night. The Cavaliers are fourth in the ACC in scoring at 80.4 points per game.
The Blue Devils must try to avoid the kinds of scoring draughts that prevented them from dominating the Owls.
"We really stopped hitting shots at a point in the second half. We couldn't really expand our lead much," Henderson said. "We're a team that's hungry to blow teams out. We haven't had wins like that in awhile here, [but] we feel like we have the talent to really open games up on the offensive end pushing the ball."
Duke will be looking to rediscover its shooting stroke against the Cavaliers, who have allowed 69 points per game this year-third-worst in the ACC. The Blue Devils will have do so without Brian Zoubek, who is shooting a team-best 59.5 percent from the field. Zoubek will sit out indefinitely with a small fracture in his foot, but "it's not a long time," head coach Mike Krzyzewski said of the injury.
But with their only true post player out for up to a couple of weeks, the rest of the Blue Devils will need to improve their shooting to start ACC play on the right note.
"We're hoping [the drought] is a one-time thing," Nolan Smith said. "We have so many great scorers and shooters, but we just went cold, like there was a lid on the rim."
In addition to the challenge of getting back into its pre-break offensive rhythm, against the Cavaliers, Duke will be faced with the task of shutting down senior guard Sean Singletary. Singletary is fourth in the ACC with 17.8 points per game, and he leads the league in assists with 6.8 per game.
But after holding off Temple, no matter who it may play, Duke is confident entering its conference schedule.
"I don't know where people should be at any time, really," Krzyzewski said. "I'd like to be healthier going into the ACC. Our kids are in shape and they want to play well. We're a real together group, but we're not a real strong physical team, so we've got to shoot the ball, play collective defense."
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