Cook warming up with Duke

Before Quinn Cook made his first collegiate start Saturday in Duke's ACC opener against Georgia Tech, coach Mike Krzyzewski spent some time taking stock of his freshman point guard.

Krzyzewski was once a collegiate point guard and he tried to imagine how he would have reacted if he were in Cook's situation.

"I think I'd be really nervous," Krzyzewski said. "I didn't see that in him. When guys do things that I know I wouldn't have been able to do, I'm impressed by it."

Finally recovered from a high school knee injury, Cook has been impressing just about everyone with his recent play and poise. He'll look to continue that tonight when the eighth-ranked Blue Devils (13-2, 1-0) host No. 16 Virginia (14-1, 1-0) at Cameron Indoor Stadium at 9 (ESPN).

Over Duke's past five games, Cook has averaged 10.2 points and 5.2 assists. A native of Bowie, Md., he leads the NCAA in assist-to-turnover ratio and has eight turnovers in 189 minutes on the court. During one stretch from late December to early January, Cook handed out 21 assists in between turnovers, the second-longest stretch in Duke history.

As a result, he has seen a dramatic escalation in his role, culminating with his start against the Yellow Jackets.

"He's a natural point guard, a good leader and the best passer on the perimeter," Krzyzewski said. "He has a really good personality and can also shoot the ball.

"Since the Christmas break - he was playing fairly well before Christmas, but after Christmas, it just seemed like his body and mind (were) ready to make this step."

Injured from the start

Krzyzewski has stressed for a while that Cook wasn't completely healthy when Duke began its season.

Cook first hurt his knee before his senior year of high school and then compounded the injury by returning too soon. By the time Cook got to Duke last summer, his knee was constantly sore.

Duke's coaches and medical staff shut Cook down, preventing him from playing in the Blue Devils' summer tour of Dubai and China. It was still an invaluable experience for Cook.

"It was fun, building my relationship with my teammates off the court and just seeing how the intensity level is before games," Cook said. "They treated those games over there as seriously as we treat games now."

He was cleared by team doctors in October, but it took a while to get up to speed, and he played somewhat sparingly over Duke's first six games.

Even though he was on the court for only two minutes, Cook still counts the Blue Devils' win against over Michigan State as his career highlight thus far - he reveled in the atmosphere surrounding Krzyzewski's 903rd career win and was impressed by all the former players who returned for the occasion.

Working his way in

It wasn't until the Blue Devils' lifeless loss to Ohio State at the end of November that Cook's role began to increase.

Duke moved Seth Curry from point to his more natural shooting guard position and inserted Tyler Thornton in the starting lineup as the point guard. Cook would then rotate in for Thornton, and the two played comparable minutes.

"The two of them, Tyler and Quinn, have been doing a tremendous job for us in the last few weeks," forward Ryan Kelly said. "They've improved every day. They bring different things to the table. Quinn can really push the ball and he's a really good passer. Tyler, we need him to be a leader on the floor.

"That new 1-2 punch has brought a new angle to our team."