But now there's court intrigue. After a record five consecutive tournament championships, Duke is vulnerable to a coup.

Who will do it is not yet known. What matters is Duke is not as dominating as it was and the tournament's field is stronger. These Blue Devils will be hard-pressed to continue what earlier Duke teams made look inevitable.

Friday's game against Virginia was evidence of that. Virginia was weary from an overtime win over Clemson less than 15 hours earlier. And the UVa program is struggling with too many players who are new and a coach some fans think has been there too long.

Yet, the worn-out Cavaliers gave the Blue Devils a fight. Virginia was down by six points at the half. With 1:35 to go in the game, Virginia trailed by only five.

Duke pulled away at the free-throw line to win 84-74, but the game revealed a defending champion that can be threatened by a less-than-perfect game from a team in the bottom half of the ACC.

When a better team, Georgia Tech, played Duke aggressively March 3, the Yellow Jackets won 76-68 at Cameron Indoor Stadium, ending Duke's 41-game home winning streak. It was the Blue Devils' third loss in six games.

Virginia's J.R. Reynolds, a freshman who scored 20 points Friday, left the court feeling his team could have won with more rest.

"That Duke team, they're beatable," Reynolds said. "We were right there in the game. A couple of turnovers kind of hurt us. Fatigue kind of hurt us down the stretch."

Teams are figuring out how to stop Duke's biggest weapon, J.J. Redick's 3-point shot. The rest of the team offers a balanced attack but lacks a player who can dominate at both ends.

Shelden Williams can be a defensive force but also can disappear when defending mobile big men. Chris Duhon handles the ball well, but his scoring is spotty. Luol Deng is an outstanding freshman who will dominate, but for now he's vulnerable to an athletic team like Georgia Tech. Daniel Ewing can score in streaks, but a stress fracture kept him from developing momentum this season.

Duhon, a senior, has been part of Duke's past three ACC Tournament championships. He's trying to repeat with a team that needs every player to be strong.

"This team depends more on each other than any other team I've been on," Duhon said. "Other teams, we had guys who could take over a game by themselves like a Jason Williams or a Shane [Battier] or Mike Dunleavy or Carlos Boozer. This team, we don't have that kind of talent. We're good when we work with each other and we play team defense and we play offense together."

Duke is vulnerable in the area where it's typically strongest, defense. That means trouble for a Duke offense that feeds off stops and turnovers.

"The last month our defense hasn't been where it's capable of being, but we can turn that around," Duhon said.

But it was still a problem against Virginia.

"We struggled some in the first half just defending them, especially defending the 3," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said.

Georgia Tech showed one way to beat this Duke team. Go hard, don't let up and hope the officials let them play.

"They just played real physical with us," Ewing said of Duke's last meeting with the Yellow Jackets. "I think we were kind of stunned by the way the refs let the game go. [Tech] was just attacking us. They just kept attacking us on both ends. Once we got down, we never could get back in the game."

There is one thing that hasn't changed with the Duke teams that won five in a row and the one that's seeking a sixth tournament championship. That's Krzyzewski. He welcomes adversity. He likes having doubters. It helps motivate a team that could go soft with too much winning.

"I think this team is better than last year's team," he said. "It's not as good as some of the others as far as talent, but it's a very good basketball team."

Today will tell how good. Sunday may tell whether, in a tougher ACC, Duke's good is still good enough.