Duke looks good again

DURHAM -- ******

CORRECTION

A column by Caulton Tudor in the Tuesday sports section misstated the year of Duke's latest national championship. Duke defeated Butler this year in Indianapolis.

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When Duke won successive NCAA basketball titles in 1991 and '92 and Florida duplicated the feat in 2006 and '07, both programs basically did it with the same groups of players.

The Blue Devils will begin the 2010-11 season without three starters - Jon Scheyer, Lance Thomas and Brian Zoubek - but don't discount the possibility of another back-to-back stand.

It's obvious Mike Krzyzewski isn't.

The Duke coach didn't predict another championship at his summer news conference Monday, of course. But he didn't come remotely close to forking over the favorite's role to someone else, either.

"In '92, we were the same team, but I actually think this [personnel situation] is maybe a little bit better," Krzyzewski said. "I'm not saying it's going to be easy to win again, but we have a really good mixture - about half and half [veteran and new players]."

With more speed and a deeper cast of perimeter players, Krzyzewski said the playing style will change from the one he used to get Duke past Butler in the 2009 title game in Indianapolis.

"We'll press more. We'll run more," he said. "Every one of our guys can contribute. We just have more depth."

Freshman Kyrie Irving will have an important role in the quicker tempo and will arrive with Krzyzewski's complete confidence.

"He'll be very, very good right away. There's absolutely no question about that. He's that good of a basketball player," Krzyzewski said. "I see a little bit of Chris Paul in him.

"We have a lot of veteran players to help Kyrie make his adjustment. We didn't have a guard who could kind of make things happen for other people. Kyrie can do that. He's really good."

Blend in Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith, plus Andre Dawkins, Miles Plumlee, Mason Plumlee, Seth Curry and a beefed-up Ryan Kelly (232 pounds), and it's easy to see how the Devils could win their fifth title.

Even so, the odds will still be against another Duke repeat, and Krzyzewski understands that fact better than anyone.

It's still fairly rare for defending champs to get back to the Final Four, much less win it. At times this past season, Kansas and Kentucky were deemed by many coaches to be prohibitively better than the rest of the country. Neither made it to Indianapolis.

As much as Singler's versatility, the new perimeter depth and the quickness Irving will deliver, Duke will miss the stability and focus Scheyer, Thomas and Zoubek contributed throughout the season but particularly during the final five weeks.

"We never had a bad practice," Krzyzewski said. "The leadership [was a good as] we've had here in 10 years - since [Shane] Battier. We got beat a few times, but we came to play. So much it was because of those three kids."

In reality, the Devils lost only five times, against 35 wins, and that was in large part because Scheyer had a measly 65 turnovers in 1,470 minutes of court time.

But Krzyzewski and Duke have a history of reaching Final Fours in bunches. Before 2009-10, the last trip was in 2004. There's no reason to think a similar drought is likely to return as long as the coach stays on campus.