DURHAM - After Duke junior guard Greg Paulus missed a long 3-pointer at the end of the Blue Devils' 79-77 loss to Virginia Commonwealth in the first round of the 2007 NCAA Tournament, he lost his taste for the rest of it.

Paulus, who had scored 25 points in the game, said he stopped paying attention to the tournament after that.

Teammate Jon Scheyer, who was defending VCU guard Eric Maynor when he hit the winner seconds earlier, thought about the loss for months afterward.

"That opportunity kind of slipped away from us last year before we knew it," Scheyer said.

Thinking about all of the single possessions here or there that cost Duke six close games a year ago -- it's what the Devils have allowed to filter through from 2007 to 2008.

"Last year's [NCAA Tournament] was not the type of outcome we were hoping for or expected," Paulus said. "It's been there all summer and winter. Now we have an opportunity to do something else."

No. 2 seed Duke plays No. 15 seed Belmont in the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., at 7:10 p.m. Thursday.

In many ways, the Blue Devils have been addressing the idea of "one possession" -- so vivid in the VCU loss -- all season long.

Paulus said that's why finishing games has been so important to this 2008 team. They've practiced specific things like finishing plays, grabbing rebounds and steals, and making free throws.

"Something we've done a lot this year is we've worked on game situations," Duke senior DeMarcus Nelson said.

More this season and even more the past week, the Devils will end practices with certain scenarios. For example, 78-78 tie with a minute left, how do you close? Or down four with 45 seconds left, how do you come back?

"We've closed out some pretty big games this year," Nelson said, agreeing that the preparation has paid off. "That's been the key to our success this year and will be the key to success in the NCAA Tournament."

Duke beat Maryland and UNC that way in the regular season. But the Devils also enter the tournament having lost two of three games, UNC and Clemson, by failing to do those things at the end.

Duke's coaching staff started preparing for the 2007-08 season after the VCU game, with the pain of a two-point loss that could have turned on one possession.

What did they get out of evaluating that season-ending loss?

"That would be a long answer," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "A short answer is that we were one possession away from advancing. And therefore, [let's] take a look at everything that could have impacted that one possession. In other words, nothing is too little."

They changed some things -- working out less but conditioning by playing more basketball in the summer, working out more in the fall and cutting down practice time once the season began -- and left other things alone.

"You don't change everything because a lot of it was good," Krzyzewski said. "It just wasn't all good."

Nelson said he and Paulus have to provide the poise against Belmont while the younger Devils, who have yet to win an NCAA Tournament game, have to bring the enthusiasm.

"I've always dreamed of winning in the NCAA Tournament and going to Final Fours," Scheyer said.

"For me, Lance [Thomas], Brian [Zoubek], and Gerald [Henderson], we're definitely really excited to be playing this year."