KANSAS CITY, Mo. – All the signs have been there that the No.1 Duke Blue Devils are good.
It was just hard to gauge how good the defending national champions are this season with blowout victories against Princeton, Miami of Ohio and Colgate to start. Not exactly the who's who of college basketball.
But finally Monday night, the Blue Devils ran into a respectable Marquette team that was talented enough to challenge them during in the semi-final round of the CBE Classic. After breezing in their first three games, the Blue Devils found themselves tied with the Golden Eagles about midway through the second half.
First it was 53-53, then it was 55-55 and finally it was 57-57 before Duke woke up.
That is when we saw our first real glimpse of the potential toughness of Duke as sophomore post player Mason Plumlee muscled his way inside by scoring 14 of his career-high 25 points to push the Devils back out to a comfortable lead that eventually led to a 82-77 win over Marquette here at the Sprint Center.
Finally, Duke had reason to wipe its collective and untested brow this season.
"It was definitely a test," said Duke senior guard Nolan Smith. "We had been beating teams pretty bad, everything has been sweet. That was a good wake up call for us, knowing that every team wants to come out here and beat us. Marquette is a very good team that's going to play hard. We had a big lead early and was smiling thinking everything was slick.
"We have to know now that we have a big target on our chests and teams are going to be lining up to beat us. We won the national title last year and this year's team is good so we've got to play for 40 minutes."
That the Blue Devils (4-0) certainly didn't do Monday night. And for a moment, the consensus No.1 team in the nation looked like it might just be vulnerable to a smaller but much scrappier Marquette squad that lost for the first time Monday. Stockier big men Jae Crowder and Davante Gardner pounded Duke inside for easy baskets, while the Golden Eagles' quick-handed guards swatted at balls for turnovers that turned into fast-break points.
And just like that, a one-time 14-point, first-half lead by Duke turned into a close game that got closer and closer and eventually was tied three times during the midpoint of the second half. Mike Krzyzewski wanted to be upset, but he also knew this was the kind of tough love his young Blue Devils needed with more challenging opponents to come, beginning Tuesday night when they face the Kansas State-Gonzaga winner in the CBE Finals.
"We were very pleased with the win," Krzyzewski said after his team improved to 4-0. "That is a hard-fought win, and we knew it would be that way.
"I thought we started off well but did not build on it. I thought we got too happy with it."
"I thought we started off well but did not build on it. I thought we got too happy with it."
-- Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski Duke never relinquished the lead, but this was the first challenge where Jon Scheyer wasn't waiting on the perimeter to stave off a rally with a 3 or Brian Zoubek wasn't there to knock down an automatic bucket in the paint.
This team now belongs to seniors Kyle Singler and Smith and just maybe the 6-foot-10 Mason Plumlee. Singler didn't have his best night shooting so Plumlee took over. He led the way with 25 points on 12-of-16 shooting and grabbed 12 rebounds while blocking five shots as he continues to adjust to playing more on the block this season.
"What he did tonight, we are not going to expect that from him every night," said Singler, who had 14 points on 5-of-13 shooting. "But if he can remain consistent and just be that presence in the middle he will be big for us."
What Plumlee showed is he capable taking advantage of mismatches inside and could quite possible taking some scoring pressure off Singler on off nights like Monday. He made a variety of athletic post moves on the offensive side while challenging pretty much every shot coming to the basket on the defensive end to make life difficult for the Golden Eagles (4-1).
"It's going to take pressure off all of us if he can score 25 and get his boards like he did," said Smith, who had 18 points and nine rebounds. "Kyle doesn't have to be our workhorse every single game. This kind of frees up everybody when he has games like that."
The Blue Devils also received impressive defensive performances by sophomore guards Andre Dawkins and Seth Curry, who slowed down Marquette's speedy guards. Freshman point guard Kyrie Irving also did some impressive things, but he will have to cut down on his five turnovers.
The Golden Eagles' fortunes seemed to turn on a couple of Irving turnovers early in the second half as they quickly chipped away at a 40-31 lead. But then Irving settled down and got the ball into the right hands to stretch the lead back out.
"When they came at us, it kind of knocked us back," Smith said. "Coach told us to have good faces. Finally something woke up in us. We have a very talented team where our instincts kick in when guys start coming at us. But we definitely had some wide eyes when they started to come at us."
The overriding feeling, however, was this was the kind of game the Blue Devils needed to have in order to improve and find out more about themselves. Consider Monday night a teachable moment.
"Early on we got off to a good start, but overall we didn't necessarily play a good 40 minutes of basketball," Singler said. "When times got tough, it kind of showed we can go to a tough place."
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