DURHAM With its painstakingly disciplined offense, commitment to defense and willingness to play at an agonizingly slow pace, there's no doubt that Virginia knows what kind of team it is. The Cavaliers' identity has been set since the day Tony Bennett arrived on campus.
Virginia, which comes to Duke tonight 14-1 and 16th in the AP poll, presents the stiffest home test yet for the Blue Devils - who, unlike the Cavaliers, are still very much trying to figure out exactly who they are.
Duke's program has been built on a foundation of in-your-face, man-to-man defense, but by their own admission, the Blue Devils haven't lived up to those standards this season. No one has stepped forward to claim the impact roles vacated by Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith. Highly touted freshman Austin Rivers' adjustment to college basketball continues, but not at the pace Duke would like or needs.
Meanwhile, with freshman Quinn Cook expected to start his second straight game, Mike Krzyzewski is already on his third point guard of the season.
That all sounds pretty dire, but eighth-ranked Duke is nevertheless 13-2 and 1-0 in the ACC. The Blue Devils aren't exactly shuffling deck chairs. Yet they admit, particularly after road losses to Ohio State and Temple, they're a long way from where they need to be.
"We didn't feel we were in a great place leading up to and going into the Temple game," Duke forward Ryan Kelly said. "Since then, we've made improvements. We're making steps toward becoming the team we want to be."
It all feels a little similar to the 2008-09 season, when the Blue Devils spent most of the year trying to figure out who they were and what they wanted to be.
They started with Greg Paulus at point guard and tried Smith before settling on Jon Scheyer. Elliot Williams was in and out of the starting lineup as Krzyzewski spent much of the season searching for the right backcourt.
That team was inconsistent, able to beat top-10 teams like Georgetown or Purdue on one night and lose at Clemson by 27 on another, but it hit its stride late in the season. The Blue Devils won the ACC tournament before going out of the NCAA tournament in the third round with a 23-point loss to Villanova in Boston.
A year later, with essentially the same team minus Gerald Henderson and with the addition of Mason Plumlee, Duke won the national title.
This year's team has shuffled through three point guards, from Seth Curry to Tyler Thornton to Cook; it is a team in search of an identity, able to beat Michigan State, Michigan and Kansas on neutral floors but 1-2 on the road, with the win coming last weekend in a relative squeaker against a weak Georgia Tech team.
"Specifically with this team, it's a lot of new guys and a lot of older guys who are assuming new roles they didn't have on previous teams," said senior forward Miles Plumlee, a freshman in 2009. "It's a process. Sometimes it takes longer than, say, a team with Jon and (Brian Zoubek) and them, when we knew how people played. We're finding out things about ourselves this year. We just have to keep working at it."
That's not the only similarity to 2009: This year's East Regional is in Boston, on the same floor at TD Garden. It isn't hard to foresee the Blue Devils headed there again. Just like three years ago, Duke is trying to figure out just how good it can be. Just like three years ago, the Blue Devils don't know the answer yet.
