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It was too obvious in the second half that Krzyzewski, sick himself with some sort of cold-flu bug, also was tapping a dry well.

To a man, the Devils denied being tired or sick, but Kyle Singler, a talented inside-outside offensive player who was the ACC Rookie of the Year, faded late in the season after months of guarding the biggest opposing post player.

"Yeah I feel like I could have contributed to the team a lot more," said Singler, who averaged double figures in scoring but shot just three times on Saturday. "That's one of the reasons I feel the way I do [right now]."

Nelson definitively said he was not ill on Saturday. The coughing he's been doing for the past three weeks suggested otherwise, though Paulus said, "he'd never use that as a crutch or an excuse."

Nelson hasn't been the same player since a loss to North Carolina on March 8. He exited the college stage quietly, scoring 10 points in two NCAA games.

As the postgame crowd thinned in the Duke locker room after the loss, Paulus was asked to look ahead to next season.

"I'm not even thinking like that right now," he said. "I'm just trying to share more moments with these guys. It's been a fun year. It's been a good year. I just wish we could do it one more time."

The Devils have held fast to those ideas: Stick together. Make no excuses. So 28 wins, six wins better than a year ago, looked fine to Krzyzewski.

"That's a great season," Krzyzewski said. "I told our kids afterwards, the last game you always have to look at the full body of work. ... This team was a lot of fun and great to work with. ..."

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