There's going to be a lot of concern over Duke's losing two games. Our
feeling? We'd be more worried if they didn't play hard or if there were
secondary issues. Fortunately, that's not the case.
What is the
case is that this is a banged-up team right now, and they need a break. What's
also evident over time is that Coach
K is pretty masterful at marshalling his troops for March. Even if
Duke struggled the rest of the ACC race, they get almost a week between the end of the
regular season and the ACC Tournament, and then either four or five days until
the first weekend's games in the NCAA Tournament.
Plenty of time, in other
words, to recuperate.
Besides, a tough February at Duke is
not exactly unheard of.