Duke welcomed Nolan Smith back to the lineup Tuesday night and celebrated by rolling over Charlotte from beginning to end.

Duke forced seven turnovers in the first 4:25 and held Charlotte to four points in the span while scoring 14 themselves.

It wasn’t a perfect game by any means, but Duke had enough to put Coastal Carolina away relatively early and to keep them from mounting a comeback.

Faced with the absence of Nolan Smith, Mason Plumlee, and Jordan Davidson, and down to eight scholarship players, Duke was in a worse situation than they might have expected against Greensboro. So why not do the unexpected?

In the first half against Findlay, Duke got an idea of what the team would be like without Nolan Smith, who didn’t play until after halftime.  They’ll get a better idea of life without Nolan for the next two games which he’ll be forced to sit out.

It wasn’t a work or art or anything, but there were some very interesting things to discuss. More soon.

The problem with exhibition games is that the opponents are so much less talented that you can’t really see what your teams weaknesses are. So when you look at Duke’s 128-70 destruction of Pfeiffer you have to factor that in. Even so, there were some really good things in this game.

Pretty much what was expected scorewise. More to come.

Get ‘em while they last!  There’s a pretty cool shirt Paulus shirt out of Syracuse now. You can check it out here.

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What do you say when you took a major whipping? Well, that should about cover it really. Duke took a big whipping from Villanova.

It had the feel, didn’t it? In the last seven minutes, it had the feel of a big-time Duke game as the Devils and Longhorns, each team limited in their own way, dug down deep and battled down to the closing seconds before Duke won 74-69 to advance to the Sweet 16.