Duke basketball

The Blue Devils put on one of their most complete performances against the Razorbacks, remaining comfortably in the driver's seat for a vast majority of the ...

Now, though, with a decisive and distinctly Duke regional championship in the rearview, we do know what this season is defined by, and it's the little stories. Last season, the Virginia Beach, Va., native was in and out of the lineup, struggling to find his place on an underperforming roster. After all, in the story of these Blue Devils, this is still the exposition. For a man who has coached five national championships and will have coached 13 Final Fours, it may feel peculiar to single out the regional championship as a coach’s biggest game. Still, after entering the second half with a 12-point lead, the Blue Devils found that lead cut to five in no time at all and desperately needed a breakthrough. “My mom won a state championship as a coach, and she got to go up on the ladder and cut the net, and I remember her swinging the net around and I always wanted to do that,” he said.

The Blue Devils lost by 13 in their regular season finale against North Carolina and then by 15 to Virginia Tech in the ACC title game a week later. But after ...

North Carolina scored 94 on Duke in the Cameron Indoor Stadium finale for Mike Krzyzewski and then the Blue Devils gave up 82 points to Virginia Tech in the ACC title game. Duke waits on its opponent for the Final Four before beginning another push toward a national title. In the Elite Eight against Arkansas, Duke held its opponent under 70 points on just 41.9% shooting, including 30% from the outside. But in the last two games, the Blue Devils have locked down. But after punching their ticket to the Final Four on Saturday night, Duke looks like a team that could cut down the nets in New Orleans. They’ve always had the most weapons, but now those weapons are in total sync on the floor right now.

And there was one camera shot near the end of the game that showed when Duke collected: it was a shot of Eric Musselman staring in disbelief as the game slipped ...

Here is the post-game presser. Not to take away from Arkansas. That’s a tough team and they never quit. And there was one camera shot near the end of the game that showed when Duke collected: it was a shot of Eric Musselman staring in disbelief as the game slipped away.

It has taken on the feel of ritual. Every game begins the same way, with Duke's players taking the court, followed by the assistant coaches and, finally, Mike ...

He wore the look of a man who can take -- at most -- another week of this. He is the oldest of the old school and the purveyor of a brand of goods that has gradually dwindled in popularity over the decades. As much as he laments the changes in the game, the one-and-dones and the transfers, it would mean something to walk off with a net around his neck as the old guy who could evolve and adapt. There was a little bit of a rasp in his voice after the game, and it cracked ever so slightly when he finished a statement by saying, "Let's go to New Orleans." A national title with this team, which starts two freshmen, two sophomores and a junior, would show the world he can win in whatever era you throw at him. The former Army officer's practice is crisp and organized, all sharp angles and functional movement, as it has been since he first hung a whistle around his neck at West Point when he was 28. He usually does this while doing something else, either yelling down the line for a substitute or barking out the kind of expletives that have made him America's leading professor of beginning lip-reading. At the postgame news conference after beating Texas Tech, Krzyzewski's wife, Mickie, sat at the back of the room and his daughter, Debbie Savarino, stood next to her. "I'm not a loose guy, but ... " he said, and everyone laughed at the mere suggestion that he possesses the capacity to prolong even the most generous definition of loose for longer than a self-deprecating quip. Practice folder in hand, whistle on a loop around his neck, he walked onto the court at precisely 2:45, because practice begins at precisely 2:45. He walked with a slight limp, his face -- at ease just minutes before in a news conference -- tightening the moment his feet hit hardwood. The next week in college basketball, like much of the past nine months in college basketball, will be about him. Every game begins the same way, with Duke's players taking the court, followed by the assistant coaches and, finally, Mike Krzyzewski. He walks out of the locker room with a slight limp these days, looking like a man who has left something behind but no longer has time to find it.