Duke-Virginia: Blue Devils Handle Cavaliers, Lock Up Final No. 1 Seed?

When Tony Bennett left Washington State to coach Virginia, he must have felt like he was traveling to another country.

After watching his defense get dismantled by the Duke Blue Devils Sunday night, he had to feel like he was on another planet.

The precise, disciplined offense the Blue Devils run makes it seem like they’re a team full of basketball aliens—not the kind that burst out of your abdomen and scare Sigourney Weaver. But the kind that are so perfectly spaced on the floor, so disciplined in their cuts, and to a man, so flawless in their decision-making that they have to be the first proof that there is intelligent life on another planet—unless you believe Pete Carril is Yoda.

Duke’s motion offense—led by the three-headed, play-making monster of Nolan Smith, Kyle Singler, and Jon Scheyer—thoroughly confused and exploited a pretty decent Wahoo defense coached by one of the game's best defensive minds.

Just as we described in the post about how Duke gets away without having a truly elite point guard , the Duke motion game screened, cut, passed, and then exploited its way to 48 percent from the field, 7-of-18 from behind the arc, and an offensively efficient 67-49 win that could have been 87-49 if Coach Mike Krzyzewski wanted to name his score.

In a testament to their versatility on offense, the Blue Devils dominated the game even though Smith, their point guard in name only, was a woeful 1-of-8 from the field with just two assists.

Duke has the kind of diversity that would make a hedge fund manager envious.

On defense, the Blue Devils simply confounded a punchless Virginia offense missing its best player, Sylven Landesburg. They held the Cavaliers to just 31 percent from the field with a smothering man-to-man defense reminiscent of early '90s Duke teams.

Krzyzewski even decided to unveil a three-quarter-court trapping press to give Gary Williams and the Maryland Terrapins something else to prepare for this coming Wednesday in an ultra-important ACC tilt. (A win gives the Blue Devils the inside track to grabbing the final No. 1 seed.)

The press helped force 14 Virginia turnovers and enabled the Blue Devils to jump out to a 14-point first-half lead in a big win that could have been a look-ahead spot for Duke with Maryland on the horizon.

Krzyzewski would have none of this looking-ahead business, and I believe the full-court pressure was purposely put in for this game to set an attacking tone with his players right off the bat. Aside from the turnovers, the press helped manufacture some intensity against an outmanned opponent looking for a huge upset.

Coach K’s a tricky one.

Extra-terrestrial perhaps? No, he’s from Chicago.

This article was written by Kevin Berger of March To March.

Follow Kevin on Twitter: @MarchToMarch.