The Devils Made Themselves Do It

Closing out the regular season with a home victory inherently means Duke beat North Carolina to finish its ACC schedule. The two annually visit each other's home courts, their second meeting a traditional finale. This is a TV godsend that won't be disrupted even if the ACC abandons all formal pairings in scheduling, a possibility that's anything but certain.

Saturday night's 93-81 Blue Devil win also meant another undefeated season for the home team at Cameron Indoor Stadium, the 18th in the 75 years the building has been open. That's essentially once every four seasons.

Eleven of those unblemished records came since 1986 under coach Mike Krzyzewski. That's nearly every other year over the past 24 seasons.

Duke ended four of the past five years without a home loss, adding to the sense the Devils have a pronounced advantage in the hot little stone and steel arena that cooked with noise and intensity the other night when the Tar Heels came calling. Over the past decade, Duke lost a total of 11 times at home.

The Blue Devils have now won 33 straight at Cameron, the longest streak in Division I.

Impressive as that run may be, it's only the fifth-longest by Duke, all under Krzyzewski. His squads set the school mark with 46 straight home wins from January 13, 1997 through February 9, 2000. That was also the longest home winning streak in ACC history.

The current run, seventh-best ever in the conference, stands one short of Virginia's 34 straight from 1980-83, achieved during the playing career of center Ralph Sampson, a three-time national player of the year.

All was not glory and triumph for the 2014 Blue Devils, however.

This is the first Duke squad to post a losing ACC road record since 2003, when the Blue Devils were 3-5 away from Cameron and 11-5 overall in league play. This group, which entirely avoided hostile floors outside the conference, was 4-5 on the road in the ACC.

Just two seasons ago Duke was undefeated away from Cameron in conference competition, a feat unduplicated by anyone in the ACC in 2013 or 2014.