By By JOEDY McCREARY, AP Sports Writer
DURHAM — Jon Scheyer isn’t letting himself get caught up in No. 4 Duke’s latest hot start. The Blue Devils’ record halfway through this season is similar to last year’s — and they know how badly that turned out.
Still, there’s a familiar sight on Tobacco Road— the Blue Devils, love them or hate them, are back atop the Atlantic Coast Conference. The only team without a conference loss, Duke (15-1, 3-0) is the league’s highest-ranked team, one spot ahead of rival North Carolina.
Winners of five straight, the Blue Devils seem to have taken another step forward after last season’s 13-1 start disintegrated into a 22-11 finish that included two four-game losing streaks and its first first-round NCAA tournament exit in a decade. That was a tough-to-swallow season for a program that under coach Mike Krzyzewski has won three national championships and reached 10 Final Fours.
Plenty has changed for these Blue Devils — most notably, the addition of three freshmen to a deeper rotation that has allowed Krzyzewski to incorporate a faster-paced, transition-rooted system in which Duke overcomes a significant lack of low-post bulk with quickness. The Blue Devils lead the ACC and rank third nationally with an average scoring margin of 20.9 points.
The arrival of talented newcomers Kyle Singler, Nolan Smith and Taylor King meant some role shifting. Henderson moved into the lineup as a full-time starter while Scheyer, who averaged 12.2 points while starting all but one game last season, is putting up similar numbers as one of the ACC’s top sixth men.
That deeper bench has led to balance: six players average at least nine points, with captain DeMarcus Nelson (14.1 ppg) leading the way, and five players have two or more 20-point games.
It has all added up to a different feel at venerable Cameron Indoor Stadium, where players say those fresh memories of last season’s struggles have made this current run of success even sweeter.