Observations

It was natural to doubt whether Duke belonged in the top 10 after the Blue Devils were hammered 89-77 at Georgetown on Jan. 30 in a game that wasn't as close as the score suggested.

Georgetown's 72-64 loss to South Florida on Wednesday enhanced those doubts. But after the Hoyas crushed No. 2 Villanova 103-90 on Saturday, Duke's loss in Washington, D.C., the previous week didn't look nearly as bad.

The Conte Forum staff couldn't get the clock and shot clock above one of the baskets to work. So the clocks above both baskets were shut down, and shot clocks were installed on the baseline. Later, Duke's assistant coaches were upset when arena personnel on a ladder trying to fix the clocks couldn't get out of the way quickly at halftime and delayed the Blue Devils' warm-ups.

Jon Scheyer has made a lot of good passes this season, but the lob he threw ahead to Lance Thomas off a first-half steal might have been his best.

Thomas broke out ahead of the defense on the turnover. Instead of throwing a pass that would force Thomas to catch and dribble, Scheyer bounced the ball out ahead of Thomas. He caught it, took one step and dunked because Scheyer made the play easy for him.

As coach Mike Krzyzewski had promised, Duke freshman forward Ryan Kelly of Raleigh played more in a reserve role for a second straight game.

Kelly, who apparently has been performing well in practice, played eight minutes and grabbed one rebound. He made the second of two free throws with 51 seconds remaining and Duke protecting a lead.

Fellow freshman Andre Dawkins also made one of two free throws in the final minute.

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