The disappointment that surrounded Duke's 2007-08 season is a testament to the basketball juggernaut that Mike Krzyzewski has built in Durham.

In just over a quarter-century as the Blue Devils' head coach, Coach K has raised expectations for his program to the point where last year's 22-11 season - including an 8-8 ACC mark and quick exits from the ACC and NCAA tournaments - is viewed as something closer to mediocrity than Duke's normal excellence.

"That's not the reason guys come to Duke," senior DeMarcus Nelson said. "I didn't come to Duke to be mediocre - or to play on a good, but not great team. We all want to be champions. A 22-11 season is not acceptable."

Senior Guard
DeMarcus Nelson

The middle-of-the-pack year comes after a 10-season run that's unprecedented in ACC history. Between 1997 and 2006, the Blue Devils won either an ACC regular season or tournament title every year - often winning both. Krzyzewski's string of nine straight NCAA Sweet 16 appearances between 1998 and 2006 is the second-longest in NCAA history, trailing only Dean Smith's 13-year run at UNC between 1981 and 1993.

Krzyzewski is determined to restore the Blue Devils to their accustomed place in the basketball universe.

"We've won a lot of ballgames here and a lot of championships," Krzyzewski said. "I would not be coaching here if I didn't feel like we could still do that. But we need to earn it every year."

The Duke coach would be the first to admit that the Blue Devils didn't earn greater success last season. That's why he could accept last season's abrupt ending - with Duke bounced from the first round of the NCAA Tournament on a game-winning jumper by VCU's Eric Maynor - with such composure.

"We didn't deserve to win," Coach K said of that early exit. "I've been that way my entire career. I know when we deserve to win. If we had been deserving, I would have been more emotional about losing. Shake their hands - they deserved to win.

"Then you look at, why did they deserve to win and we didn't? That's the process of how you get better."

If nothing else, experience should help Duke improve in 2007-08. A year ago, the Blue Devils played without a senior and with just one junior on the roster. It was the youngest Duke team since World War II.

There's still just one senior - Nelson, the wing guard from California - but the freshmen and sophomores who saw so much action a year ago are back to provide a much more experienced core group than their class ranks would suggest.

"I think we have a lot of veterans," Krzyzewski said. "I think we're a lot more veteran than you would normally say a predominately sophomore-junior team would be."

However, it's going to be a very small team unless 7-1, 260-pound sophomore Brian Zoubek - the biggest individual player in the ACC - makes a major jump from last season, when he played just 86 minutes in ACC play.

The New Jersey giant is the only true big man on the roster. Duke's most likely lineups will be anchored down low by inside-outside forwards Lance Thomas, Kyle Singler and Taylor King.

Junior Guard
Greg Paulus

That potential lack of size doesn't scare Krzyzewski.

"My first Final Four team didn't have a center and we had two of the smallest guards in the league," Coach K pointed out. "We haven't really had huge teams. I'm alright with who we are."

Last summer, Krzyzewski coached a team of NBA stars to a gold medal in the Tournament of the Americas, using a lineup that depended more on talented wing players than post power. While there's nobody on this Duke roster as good as Kobe Bryant, LeBron James or Camelo Anthony, the stars of that team, there's some evidence that the Devils may try to play a similar style.

"He keeps saying, 'If Kobe can do this, we can do this,'" junior point guard Greg Paulus said with a laugh. "I think we're going to try and do what that team did - play pressure defense, get up and down the court and shoot a lot of 3s."

That should be easier with the addition of three talented freshmen and the return to good health of two veterans who played under trying offensive conditions a year ago.

One of those is Paulus, who missed all of the preseason after suffering a foot injury on the second day of practice, then was hobbled throughout the season. The ACC's 2006 assists leader had off-season surgery to fix the problem.

"It's 100 percent; the surgery was definitely a real positive," the junior guard said. "It was frustrating sitting out a couple of months, but I feel great. It's been feeling great for the last couple of months. No pain. Cutting is not a problem. Strength is not an issue any more."

The other player enjoying good health is sophomore wing Gerald Henderson. Perhaps the most athletic player on the Duke roster, Henderson also suffered a pre-season injury a year ago that prevented him from getting into shape. His endurance suffered all last season, although he started to come out of it late in the season.

Now Henderson - like Paulus - is ready to run.

"I like to play up and down," Paulus said. "We're going to play more pressure and push the ball like [Team USA] did this summer."

Krzyzewski also envisions major roles for all three of his newcomers, especially 6-8 Kyle Singler - a multi-talented forward from Oregon.

"He's going to be a special player," Krzyzewski said on the first day of pre-season practice. "If we had to play tonight, he'd be in the starting lineup and all the other guys would say, 'Good!'"

The Blue Devils are also counting on a major contribution from 6-6 Taylor King from Santa Ana, Calif., who is one of the most celebrated long-range shooters in this recruiting class, and 6-2 Nolan Smith, the son of former Louisville and NBA standout Derek Smith and the two-time captain of the powerful Oak Hill Academy prep national championship teams.

Smith, who played in the same backcourt with UNC point guard Ty Lawson in 2006, is already Duke's best on-the-ball defender and should be a key to Krzyzewski's attempts to turn up the defensive pressure.

Krzyzewski points out that for all the moaning about last season, the Blue Devils weren't that far from success. His team missed potential game-winning shots against Florida State and Virginia, plus the Devils lost overtime games to Virginia Tech and NC State (in the ACC Tournament). Throw in the last-second loss to VCU and it's easy to see that Duke would only need to be a little better this season to return to the contending status that the Blue Devils see as their legacy.

"We're going to be a better basketball team," Krzyzewski said. "We'll have more players and better competition. They're older. I think we have a better chance to be better now than at any time last year ... at any time! How do we do that? We'll have more depth. We have the makings of a very good basketball team, I think."

STRENGTH: The depth of talent and experience on the wing is impressive, starting with Nelson and including Henderson, Jon Scheyer, defensive ace David McClure and newcomer King. Krzyzewski believes he has eight viable 3-point threats on his roster.

CONCERNS: Post play - aside from Zoubek, who remains unproven, Duke will go with the ACC's smallest group of post players.

NEWCOMER TO WATCH: On paper, Singler is the top-rated recruit to enter the ACC this season. On the court, he's displayed a well-balanced game early, evoking comparisons to former Duke combo forwards such as Luol Deng, Mark Alarie and Shane Battier.

EARLY TESTS: Duke travels to Maui for a tournament Nov. 19-21 that includes an opening match-up with Princeton and potential games with the likes of Illinois, LSU, Arizona State and/or Marquette. Wisconsin visits Cameron on Nov. 27 for the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. The Devils renew their rivalry with Michigan in Durham on Dec. 8 and meet Big East power Pitt in New York on Dec. 20.

Player Notes
DeMarcus Nelson scored 10 or more points in all but five games a year ago and led the team in scoring (14.1) and steals (1.4) ... was second on the team in rebounding (5.4) and third in blocked shots (17) ... one of only two guards in the ACC to average more than five rebounds per game ... earned honorable mention All-ACC Defensive team honors.

Greg Paulus finished the season by scoring 10 or more points 12 games in a row and in 16 of his last 17 ... hit on 68-of-151 (.450) from three-point range and over his last four games of the season averaged 21.0 points and 3.0 assists ... had 20 or more points in three of the last four games of the season ... led the ACC in assists (5.2) as a freshman in 2005-06.

Jon Scheyer earned All-ACC Freshmen team honors a year ago starting 32 games and averaging 12.2 points and 3.3 rebounds per game ... averaged 13.9 points per game in ACC play ... tallied 10 or more points 23 times in 2006-07 ... finished third in the ACC in free throw percentage (.846) ... named ACC Rookie of the Week three times.

Gerald Henderson started 10 games and finished fifth on the team in scoring (6.8) ... averaged 7.9 points per contest in conference action, shooting an even 50 percent from the floor ... averaged 13.0 points and 5.0 rebounds over his last three games.

David McClure started 11 games as a sophomore in 2006-07, averaging 4.2 points and 4.9 rebounds per game ... had five or more rebounds 19 times last season.