Devils take Classic

Duke pulls away from Michigan

NEW YORK -- Duke's 71-56 victory over Michigan at Madison Square Garden on Friday took all the mystery out of the 10th-ranked Blue Devils' upcoming trip to Ann Arbor.

Duke won the 2K Sports Classic benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer title. It next plays Montana on Sunday and Duquesne on Nov. 28.

The Devils then go to Purdue for the ACC-Big Ten Challenge on Dec. 2 before meeting the Wolverines again on Dec. 6.

In the rematch at Crisler Arena, Michigan (3-1) will have real-life experience against Duke's personnel and stories to tell about sophomore forward Kyle Singler, who won the tournament's most valuable player award.

Singler did a little bit of everything, even guarding Michigan's hot-shooting freshman guard Stu Douglass to open the game and Manny Harris in the second half, while scoring 15 points.

Nolan Smith scored 16. Gerald Henderson added 12 and made the all-tournament team.

Duke (5-0) will know that Harris, an all-tournament pick after scoring 25 points, is for real.

"He was good at getting contact and getting to the line," Duke guard Jon Scheyer said. "We need to make him earn his points instead of sending him to the line."

The Devils will also know how to attack Michigan's 1-3-1 zone defense.

A day earlier, Michigan had forced UCLA into a pass, pass, go-nowhere offense with a good mix of man-to-man and 1-3-1 defense, while upsetting the fourth-ranked Bruins on Thursday night.

Duke successfully attacked Michigan's defense in the first half trying to find shooters in the corners. In the second half, the Devils used dribble penetration to get into the key and could dump to players cutting along the baseline, the weak spot of the 1-3-1.

Singler did that while finding Smith for two points to open the half. Then Smith returned the favor, hooking up with Henderson for an alley-oop dunk. When Greg Paulus sliced into the Wolverines defense to find David McClure cutting along the baseline for a slam, the bucket gave Duke a 55-39 lead with 12:55 remaining.

Harris cut Duke's lead to 12 with a 3-pointer with 3:08 left in the game, but that was as close as Michigan could get.

After beating Southern Illinois on Thursday, the Devils went back to their hotel and watched the Michigan-UCLA game and talked about what the Wolverines were doing.

"You know, just being students of the game," Smith said.

The Devils then spent an hour at the Garden on Friday practicing what they talked about.

"We respect Michigan," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "Without that extra preparation we had a good shot at losing. With it, we had a good shot at winning. We got good looks. It was not a good shooting night for us, but it was a good attacking night."

The Wolverines were doing fine in the opening minutes before Krzyzewski shook up his lineup.

With Duke leading 17-15, McClure, Martynas Pocius and Elliott Williams replaced starters Singler, Scheyer and Henderson and joined Smith and Brian Zoubek.

That group put together an efficient 8-0 run over the next two minutes.

Smith hit two jumpers and fed Williams for two others. McClure took a charge. Zoubek blocked one shot. Duke led 25-15 when Michigan coach John Beilein called a timeout at the 8:54 mark to get his team back on track.

Michigan has 14 days to figure out how to beat a deep Duke team that still hasn't shot well from 3-point range.

After Duke's performance, Krzyzewski maintained the upbeat focus he has had since returning from China after guiding the U.S. team to the 2008 Olympic gold medal in Beijing.

Even being asked if he'd like to reclaim the job for the 2012 London Games didn't dampen his spirits. Yahoo! Sports reported Friday that USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo would be asking Krzyzewski to take the job again.

Krzyzewski said he couldn't think about it in the middle of Duke's season.

"I'm open to anything that will help USA Basketball, but that doesn't mean I'll commit to being the coach again," he said. "It's a big commitment. I love Jerry and what they're doing. It's just not the time yet. What I'm doing with these kids, that's my job. After the season is over, I'll [consider it]. But I can't do that right now, give it full attention. That's not right."