There's nothing new about Duke being ranked No. 1, as the Blue Devils were crowned Monday by The Associated Press and coaches polls. In fact, it is the 56th week Duke has held that position since the 1997-98 season.
What is new, however, is how the Blue Devils feel about being there. While over the past decade it might have been perceived as a sort of inevitability, Duke won't be taking it for granted this time around.
It has been almost three years since Duke last held the ranking, and after a recent win over Georgetown, Duke guard Jon Scheyer said something quite revealing about how this team sees itself.
"For us, the last couple years, the one thing we've developed is a chip on our shoulder," Scheyer said. "Going into a game like this, or going into any game, we just feel like we have something to prove."
As shocking as it may be to hear a member of one of college basketball's most privileged programs talk about having something to prove, Scheyer's portrayal of this team did not originate in a vacuum.
Rather, it appears to be a logical result of months of work on coach Mike Krzyzewski's part to change the attitude and expectations of not only his team but also its fans in the wake of a four-season Final Four drought.
It started in earnest when Krzyzewski returned from the Olympics, where he may have been inspired by his success reviving the fortunes of a supremely talented but recently underachieving team.
In his first post-Olympics news conference, he talked about savoring the moment and shrugging off expectations, including a blast at a student body he declared had been "very spoiled" by Duke's success.
He complained publicly about student attendance after an exhibition game against Lenoir-Rhyne, and if the denizens of Krzyzewskiville didn't get the message, a few hundred seats that had previously been allocated to Cameron craziness were suddenly being sold to the public.
The result? During the Georgetown win, Krzyzewski got off the bench to encourage and incite the fans in the second half, then complimented them afterward for their effect on the game.
The fans aren't the only outside force to feel Krzyzewski's prodding this season. He has attempted to manage expectations in the media as well, including a woe-is-Duke speech after he felt Duke's ascent to No. 2 in the AP poll went insufficiently recognized.
He blamed the "subtleties of the local media" for the perceived snub, a return to the days when Krzyzewski and then-N.C. State coach Jim Valvano positioned themselves as Davids arrayed against North Carolina coach Dean Smith's Goliath in Chapel Hill.
Both found motivational gold chipping away at that monolith, Valvano leading N.C. State to a national title in 1983 and Krzyzewski molding Duke into a national power to rival North Carolina.
But it has now been four years since Duke went to a Final Four, and the Devils are 13-7 in the tournament since the 2001 national title, despite being a No. 1 or No. 2 seed five times -- far off the pace set by Duke in the preceding years and akin to the struggles Team USA had at the Olympics before Krzyzewski agreed to get involved.
So enter the chip on Scheyer's shoulder, a different kind of burden to replace the expectations Krzyzewski said he would no longer acknowledge. Then again, Duke has had more difficulty meeting them.
"The experience we've had over the last couple years, and the endings we've had, it's created that," Scheyer said.
Many of the 55 weeks Duke spent at No. 1 in the past decade may have passed quietly, and Krzyzewski already started to downplay the top ranking's significance after routing Maryland by 41 on Saturday. But for this team, this season, you can be sure it won't be taken lightly.
(Contact Luke DeCock at luke.decock@newsobserver.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
columnMust credit The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C.
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