DURHAM - Duke's basketball team will take lots of luggage -- packed with plenty of warm clothes -- when it shuffles off to Buffalo, N.Y., for the NCAA West Regional this week.

What coach Mike Krzyzewski doesn't want is for his Blue Devils to carry any baggage from a skewed 8-8 ACC season and a first-round loss to N.C. State in last week's conference tournament.

To bury the past, Josh McRoberts and Jon Scheyer didn't watch any tournament games after returning home from Tampa, Fla., on Friday morning. Krzyzewski, whose team had won seven of the previous eight league tournaments, worked in his garden and spent time with his grandchildren.

"This is a new thing,'' Krzyzewski said Monday. "[But] this team has done its best to put the regular season behind them. The main thing [now] is to go in mentally and physically fresh."

That early tournament exit gave the Blue Devils time to refocus, get in a few extra practices and get fresh NCAA legs, although they would have preferred being tired champions again.

To make a March run, the sixth-seeded Blue Devils -- top seeds frequently in past years -- need to rev up a few facets of their game.

No. 1 is to retrieve a defiant defense that was virtually missing in three straight season-ending losses to Maryland, North Carolina and N.C. State, each of which shot 50 percent or better.

State fired a whopping 60.8 percent, which stung like pepper spray to a Blue Devils program for which the cornerstone has long been lock-down defense.

That flaw is correctable. Scheyer says it's a matter of solid positioning, helping when a teammate gets beat and communicating.

"Our defense is based on communication,'' he said. "We were giving up baskets because we were not talking through switches and screens."

In short, Duke wants to become Duke again.

Another objective is for versatile Josh McRoberts to ramp up his production and presence in the post, where his offense is needed most.

In the final 25 minutes against State, the versatile forward was an unstoppable force inside, a trend he aims to carry into Thursday's first-round game against Virginia Commonwealth.

"When you do something well, you always want to do it the next game,'' said McRoberts, who has impressive all-around statistics. "I like to be in the post most of the time, but I want to be where I'm needed."

Overall, Duke is flashing more offensive punch than early in the season.

Greg Paulus has been lighting it up, averaging 19.5 points and shooting better than 50 percent the past four games. That causes Krzyzewski to observe: "Greg is shooting the ball as well as any point guard has shot for me."

Scheyer is displaying a long-range stroke, and DeMarcus Nelson is attacking the basket more judiciously, Krzyzewski said.

Gerald Henderson, flourishing as a shooter, is back after serving a one-game suspension for committing a hard foul on UNC's Tyler Hansbrough in the regular-season finale and is expected to provide a lift.

There isn't a Shane Battier or Johnny Dawkins or Christian Laettner in the bunch. But Duke creating a ripple in the tournament wouldn't be surprising. It's not like the Devils got blown out in those nine losses to league opponents. Three defeats were in overtime and a fourth came down to three missed shots in the last seconds.

Also, there's the K-Factor. Krzyzewski, who owns the second-best NCAA Tournament winning percentage (78.2) behind legendary John Wooden (82.5), is at his best in March.

"We don't have great depth and talent,'' Krzyzewski said. "But we have really good talent and decent depth. We're hoping to play well. I believe we will."