Resilient Duke Reaffirms Contender Status with Big Win over Virginia

Three of five. Three in a row. Four of five. Three of seven. Two of three. Two of three. Three of four. Three in a row.

Those are the losing skids of eight of the last nine national champions, going backward in chronological order. The 2012 Kentucky squad is the one champ missing from the list, because that team was dominant from start to finish. But most champs are not, and that's important to remember, because...

Duke had lost three of its last six games going into Saturday night's game at Virginia. It's easy to write off a team this time of season when it's struggling. The Blue Devils' validity has been in question.

And for 30 minutes on Saturday night, it looked like the Blue Devils were about to be a .500 team in the ACC.

Then, this happened...

The Blue Devils, against the second-best defense in the country on its home court, scored on 13 of its final 14 possessions. Trailing by 11 points to a team that had not lost all season, Duke put up 35 points in 10 minutes.

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Duke 69, Virginia 63.

The Blue Devils still have their demons—those issues led to the recent three losses—but they also have one of the greatest coaches ever and a pretty darn good collection of talent that we should not write off.

This team, even with all of its defensive warts, is capable of going on a deep run in March.

Because, great googly moogly, can they score.

This is the second straight weekend that Duke looked to be headed for a loss when it unleashed an offensive onslaught that was like a Mike Tyson-in-his-prime knockout punch.

"These guys fight," Quinn Cook said on the ESPN telecast after Saturday's win. "We got down nine, got down 11 in a hostile environment against one of the best teams in the country and guys responded. It's been an emotional week all week, and I'm just proud of our guys. Coach, he really believed in us, and we got it done."

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And if you look closely, Mike Krzyzewski is in the background pulling the strings.

Last Sunday, Duke rallied from a 10-point deficit against St. John's in a little over eight minutes. It scored 26 points over its final 15 possessions. But that win was more about Duke's defense down the stretch when Coach K inserted Marshall Plumlee into the game and went zone.

Paired with Jahlil Okafor, the two towers in the middle of the zone took the paint away from St. John's.

Krzyzewski also went zone against Virginia; it didn't work as well, but it allowed him to go small and play the same lineup over the final 9:56 of the game. In fact, Coach K played a small lineup with Justise Winslow at the 4 for the final 15:09 against Virginia.

The Cavaliers had been doubling Okafor with the other big man, but by moving Winslow to that spot, the Blue Devils were able to play with four players spaced out on the perimeter and finally got some good perimeter looks.

Five of their final seven baskets were three-pointers. Several of those shots were there because of the attention Okafor demands.

This is why the Blue Devils are so dangerous. You can try to guard the best low-post scorer in college basketball one-on-one—Notre Dame tried that, and he went for 22 points and 17 rebounds—or double-team him and risk getting burned by the three-ball.

The best thing to come out of this comeback for Duke is that Coach K may have found a go-to lineup with Winslow at the 4.

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Playing small ball is not all that unusual for the Blue Devils—they did it all last year with Jabari Parker at the 4—and Winslow can hold his own against opposing big men. If sophomore wing Matt Jones can be a threat like he was against Virginia—nine points in a solid 24 minutes—that takes away some of the sting of losing Rasheed Sulaimon.

What wasn't fixed against Virginia was Duke's defensive troubles. The Blue Devils still give up too many easy buckets and struggle containing penetration.

But what Coach K has figured out is that he needs to mix and match defenses game-to-game to compensate. He's accepted the zone as his curve ball.

This team is not and never will be dominant on the defensive end, and sure, defense is pretty important to winning championships. None of those aforementioned eight champs finished below 21st in adjusted defensive efficiency, per KenPom.com. Duke ranks 44th.

Lucky for the Blue Devils, they've got the guy with 1,001 wins on their side. He's pretty darn good at in-game and in-season adjustments.

And, that offense.

C.J. Moore covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @CJMooreBR.