Duke thinks freshness, experience will make for better tourney run

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Duke thinks freshness, experience will make for better tourney run

By Ryan Craig
Mar 18, 2009

Tags: ACC

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Duke has spent the last two seasons watching the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament from home, a position relatively unfamiliar to a program that had made the previous nine Sweet 16’s.

This year, after a loss to Boston College in Chestnut Hill, the Devils seemed to be on their way to a similar late-season swoon.

It was then that Mike Krzyzewski made his well known lineup switch, introducing Elliot Williams as a starter and shifting Jon Scheyer to the point. The changes have improved Duke’s on-ball defense and led to a decrease in turnovers.

But if you ask the Duke players, it’s been two behind-the-scenes improvements that lead them to believe that this year’s run in March will last longer than the previous two - freshness and experience.

The past two campaigns it seems as though Duke’s teams have worn down late in the year, but this season the players don’t think that will be an issue.

“The way we’ve prepared this whole entire year has been designed so we’re our freshest right now,” said Scheyer. “All of us feel really good. I think having Nolan [Smith] back has been a big boost and we feel confident – we know what it takes.”

“We’re definitely more fresh this year,” said David McClure, a player Duke will count on for depth in the post. “We’ve been trying to be very aware of our bodies and our minds and things like that.”

Experience is one of the crutches you can lean on when trying to determine what your mind and body are capable of. It can also assist in improving talent, and perhaps most importantly, in dealing with the peaks and valleys that can occur within a season or even within a singular game.

“We’ve [done well] in some game situations that we probably wouldn’t have won the last two years,” Brian Zoubek said. “That gives us confidence and the know-how to know what to do with those situations since they’re probably going to come up in the NCAA Tournament.

While it remains to be seen whether the Blue Devils will get the early round NCAA Tournament monkey off their back this year, it certainly seems that Duke is in better position to do so this year than in the previous two.

“I feel we’re more together than we’ve ever been since I’ve been here,” said Gerald Henderson. “I think all the guys feel that.”