Opposing coaches used to marvel at how the Blue Devils of Shane Battier, Jason Williams and Mike Dunleavy ran neither set plays nor a pure motion offense. They broke down defenses with dribble penetration and either finished inside or kicked the ball outside to open shooters. Krzyzewski's most important functions were to forge his gifted players into a cohesive unit and motivate them toward optimum performances.

His 2001 team was rescued famously during a timeout at the Final Four, when the Devils were trailing Maryland and Krzyzewski implored them to "just play." That team was down 22 points and was one win away from the national championship game when it joined its coach in that huddle.

Against Wake Forest, Krzyzewski calls his first timeout 68 seconds into the game, when guard Patrick Davidson is struggling to transport the basketball against the Deacons' full-court pressure. "One possession with our team could lead to multiple negative possessions," Krzyzewski says.

Of course, Davidson's presence in the game during those first few minutes offers an ideal illustration of how differently this Duke team is operating. Davidson is a sophomore walk-on. Before starting against Wake, ranked No. 5 in the nation, he played 20 minutes and scored four points-for the season. But coming off narrow road losses against Maryland and Virginia Tech, Krzyzewski wanted to inspire his regulars to deliver a more intense effort and to set a tone against a physical Deacons team.

Duke coaches now are spending longer hours to devise game plans that will work against specific teams. They have to disguise their team's weaknesses and accentuate its strengths. This is routine at most programs but hasn't been an issue here for nearly a decade.

"It is hard because it seems like every game for us we have to play a different way to put ourselves in a position to win," Redick says. "The way we play against Carolina is not the way we play against Clemson. Against Clemson, we're going to push tempo; against Carolina, we're going to slow things down because we don't have the personnel to run with certain teams.

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"We don't have to change everything, but we have to change enough."

Excluded from the starting lineup for the first time this season, Ewing gets up from the bench with 17:44 left in the first half. At last. As he enters the game, with Wake ahead 8-6, Krzyzewski is embracing Davidson behind him. When Davidson reaches his home at the end of the bench, the other players greet him as though he'd just been rescued from a burning building.

As the game progresses, Ewing finds himself operating less frequently as the point guard. He always longed to play the position, but the job previously belonged to Chris Duhon. Duhon's departure created a vacancy that was to be filled by elite recruit Shaun Livingston. Until it was not. Livingston entered the NBA draft, and the void became immense.

Duke has experimented with both Ewing and junior Sean Dockery doing most of the ballhandling. "I didn't think either one of our guys was dominant as a point guard," Krzyzewski says. "I thought they could play together, which they have, and you might alternate who brings it up. They're both good players; neither is like a court leader."

Operating at that position, though, gradually depreciated Ewing's effectiveness as a scorer. He endured a stretch of eight games in which he hit 38.5 percent of his shots. Against Wake, Dockery initiates the offense more often and Ewing shoots 5-of-9 from the field. It seems like a worthwhile change but lasts only a night. Next time out, in a victory over Georgia Tech, Dockery twists his knee and tears a knee ligament. When he might return is uncertain.

"I don't think we have a point guard position," Krzyzewski says. "Because if we judge somebody just as a point guard, we would judge them sometimes too negatively and not look at the strengths a kid has. If you're saying, 'You're a point guard,' it'd be 'Why aren't you doing this? Why aren't you leading here?' I think you're almost setting yourself up to fail."

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