DURHAM, N.C. _ On the surface, No. 8 Duke's romp over Miami appeared, well, transactional on Tuesday night.
The Blue Devils were desperate for a win. They already owned a 95-62 knockout over the Hurricanes on Jan. 4 in south Florida.
Miami missed 18 of their first 21 shots Tuesday night and once Duke pushed its lead to double-digits, which was quickly, the beat-up Hurricanes had no fight.
The resulting 89-59 win halted Duke's two-game losing streak and left the Blue Devils looking, once again, like one of the nation's top teams.
Good morning. Good afternoon. Good night.
But maybe, just maybe, this win was more than that.
The Blue Devils (16-3, 6-2 ACC) had to face some of their own demons following Saturday night's 79-73 loss to Louisville. It was the first big game at Cameron Indoor this season, the first match-up of ranked teams with the Cameron Crazies at their full-throated best.
And the Blue Devils came up short, just as they had in a 79-72 loss at Clemson five nights earlier.
Monday's team work began at 7 a.m. and didn't end until 10 p.m. Through meetings, practices and film sessions _ the works _ Duke had to get things right.
"They really responded to the two losses in a positive way," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said following the win over Miami. "Our practices were excellent. Our team meetings. I think we grew a lot as a team yesterday. And it showed tonight."
It sure did.
Duke's 10 turnovers were a sign of cleaner play on offense. The Blue Devils had that many in the first half alone against Louisville, on the way to finishing with 16.
The Blue Devils turned the ball over on just 14.1% of their possessions against the Hurricanes. Against Louisville that figure was 20.8 percent. Against Clemson it was 20.5 percent.
See a pattern?
Duke also jumped on top of Miami early to bury the Hurricanes. This after trailing at halftime in losses to Clemson and Louisville.
After their solid work on Monday, the Blue Devils were eager to get on the court and put the that Louisville loss, in particular, behind them.
"If we sat on that for too long I feel like we would have lost our minds," Duke senior forward Jack White said. "Happy to come back tonight and get a win and do that in front of our fans in Cameron. We are trying to get better every game."
Though Duke's 3-point shooting was scorching enough to draw the attention early, the Blue Devils know their defense helped make that happen.
With all those missed shots, Miami trailed 24-6 with the game barely nine minutes old.
Those empty possessions allowed Duke to get in a rhythm offensively because they could run their offense at a faster pace, mainly in transition. After hitting only 6 of 25 3-pointers against Louisville, Duke drilled 11 of 25 against Miami.
The Blue Devils made six of them in the first nine minutes with five different players sinking them. Matthew Hurt made the first two on the way to a 22-point night.
It all started, Krzyzewski said, with defense.
"We just concentrated more on it," Krzyzewski said. "For us to win, we have to play good defense. If we are playing that hard on defense it translates to offense because we are pushing the ball. We started the game with a lot of energy."
Duke didn't finish it that way but it didn't need to. After leading 48-24 at halftime, the Blue Devils and Hurricanes stumbled through a rocky second half and the game ended around 11 p.m. with the easy Duke win.
How the Blue Devils play over the next few weeks will tell us if Monday was truly a turning point.
Wins over Kansas, Georgetown, Michigan State and Virginia Tech prior to the holidays showed Duke is capable of running off a March winning streak and winning big prizes.
Last week's play against Clemson and Louisville, and the November loss to Stephen F. Austin, showed the Blue Devils could exit in the NCAA tournament's first weekend.
That first version is what Krzyzewski is trying to form for the long run and it was on display as the Blue Devils became winners again on Tuesday night.
