Duke's down again

Krzyzewski
Krzyzewski
Posted: February 06, 2012

DUKE WON four national championships while being driven by what Hall-of-Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski says was energy, effort and hunger.

Well, the seventh-ranked Blue Devils didn't necessarily have those things yesterday, and they couldn't beat visiting Miami. The Hurricanes stunned Duke, 78-74, in overtime, dropping the Blue Devils out of their three-way tie for first place in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The Blue Devils couldn't handle Miami's 6-10, 284-pound Reggie Johnson, who scored five of his career-high 27 points in the overtime and added a season-high 12 rebounds. But more distressing to Coach K was that once again his Dukies played for too long without the all-out effort that has marked his program's rise among the nation's elite.

"A Duke team should play with energy for 40 minutes, or 45," Krzyzewski said. "Go outside right now and you look at the banners. There are quite a few of them up there. They were not won without energy, without hunger, with complacency, with people really wanting it.

"And we've wanted it a lot, and we've won a lot. We're supposed to play hard and with energy all the time. Those are givens. Those should be givens."

Instead, the Blue Devils (19-4, 6-2 ACC) have lost two of their last three games at Cameron Indoor Stadium and have dropped multiple home games for the first time since going 15-4 there in 2006-07. Krzyzewski compared his team's only home win in the past 2 weeks - a victory over St. John's - to an AAU game because of Duke's occasional lack of intensity.

Seth Curry scored 22 points and freshman Austin Rivers added 20 for Duke, which missed all six of its free throws in overtime and wound up being beaten at home by a Florida-based conference rival for the second time this season. Duke had its 45-game home winning streak snapped 2 weeks ago by No. 21 Florida State.

"To come in here and play with the kind of poise we did, play the kind of defense we did, especially in the first half and in the overtime, was something that we can be very, very proud of," Hurricanes coach Jim Larranaga said.

In other games * 

At Michigan State, Draymond Green had 14 points and 16 rebounds to lead No. 9 Michigan State to a 64-54 win over No. 23 Michigan, backing up his guarantee of a victory. The Spartans (18-5, 7-3 Big Ten) ended a three-game skid in the rivalry and moved into sole possession of second place in the conference behind Ohio State. The Wolverines (17-7, 7-4) haven't won or lost consecutive games in nearly a month. Michigan's Tim Hardaway Jr. missed his first six shots and had a season-low four points.

* At Providence, Darryl Bryant's three-pointer with just over a second left in overtime gave West Virginia (16-8, 6-5 Big East) an 87-84 win over Providence (13-11, 2-9). The teams exchanged leads throughout the extra period, and Providence's Gerard Coleman made one of two free throws to tie it at 84 with 10 seconds left. Bryant then drove down the court and hit the game-winner. Bryant led the Mountaineers with 32 points, and Deniz Kilicli added a career-high 22. Coleman scored 29 points to lead the Friars, who lost their eighth straight to West Virginia.

In women's games * 

At Notre Dame, Natalie Novosel scored 17 of her 21 points in the first half to help No. 2 Notre Dame (23-1, 10-0 Big East) coast to a 90-70 victory over DePaul (17-7, 5-5). The Irish scored 56 points in the first half.

* At Penn State, Mia Nickson scored 20 points and Alex Bentley added 16, including the go-ahead three-pointer with 38.9 seconds to play, to help No. 19 Penn State (18-5, 8-3 Big Ten) rally for a 68-65 victory over Minnesota (12-13, 4-7).

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