Duke's defense starts with Smith

by Jeff Goodman

Updated: November 22, 2008, 9:16 PM EST 8 comments

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Wednesday's action

• No. 2 Duke downs Curry, Davidson
• No. 3 Tar Heels crush Charleston
• No. 11 Syracuse dominates DePaul
• Gonzaga outlasts No. 15 Vols in OT
• No. 17 BC falls at home to Harvard
• No. 18 Marquette squeaks by Rutgers
• Clark leads No. 23 Louisville to victory
  

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• 2008 year in college hoops

Smith struggled a year ago as a freshman, battling ankle injuries and limited playing time while backing up Paulus.

Then Blue Devils assistant coach Johnny Dawkins left in the offseason to take the head job at Stanford.

Smith was distraught and thought long and hard about transferring.

"I was young and had high expectations last season," Smith said after scoring a team-high 16 points in Duke's 71-56 victory over Michigan to win the 2K Sports Classic title. "I was looking to point fingers."

"When Johnny left, I was saying to myself, 'What do I do now?'

After a long talk with Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski in the summer, Smith opted to stick around in Durham — and it's paid off.

"He let me know that if I work hard, it's anyone's game," Smith said. "Then I stopped pointing fingers at everyone else and realized it's on me."

Paulus suffered a knee injury in the summer and Smith wasted no time in taking advantage.

Coach K doesn't hide the fact that this team will be built around the offensive talents of Kyle Singler, Jon Scheyer and Gerald Henderson.

But on the other end it starts with Smith.

"We play defense," Krzyzewski said. "And Nolan's presence on the ball is big."

Case in point: The Blue Devils are holding teams to less than 38 percent shooting from the field and also allowing an average of fewer than 60 points per contest. A year ago, Duke's opponents shot 46 percent and averaged nearly 70 points per game.

"It's tough to get to the basket on them," Michigan coach John Beilein said after the game. "They really took us out of our comfort level way too often and much of it was because of Nolan. He's the head of that defense."

Smith, who is averaging 12.4 points per game, has done a solid job running the team thus far — although he admits it'll be a work in progress. He had just five turnovers in the first three games before matching that total in Thursday night's victory over Southern Illinois.

"He's just as athletic and quick as any point guard around," Scheyer said of Smith. "We know we're going to have the advantage — and he's starting to show a lot of poise offensively."

Against Michigan's vaunted 1-3-1 defense, Smith only committed a pair of turnovers while finishing with four assists. He also made a huge baseline jumper late in the game after Michigan cut the deficit to 13.

"I just want to complement our three guys," Smith said. "I know I can score and defend, but my job is to get them in position where they can make shots and make plays. That's what's going to make our team run."

While Scheyer said all the right things about not caring who he played in the championship game on Friday night, Smith smiled and admitted he preferred to go against speedy UCLA point guard Darren Collison.

"The main focus was to win the championship here," Smith said. "But for me personally, I wanted Collison. I wanted that test defensively."

While the No. 10 Blue Devils have jumped out of the gates with five straight victories, it's still difficult to get a feel for them in terms of the national picture since they didn't wind up facing UCLA in Madison Square Garden. They have beaten Presbyterian, Georgia Southern, Jimmy Baron (and Rhode Island), Southern Illinois and Michigan.

There's not a ranked team in the bunch.

That'll change soon, though, as the Blue Devils will travel to Purdue on Dec. 2.

"We played better tonight," Scheyer said. "And we're hoping we continue to get better until late in the year. We've just got to continue to make strides."

A year ago, the Blue Devils peaked at the wrong time. They started the season 22-1, but struggled in the NCAA tournament and bowed out in the second round to West Virginia.

But this team is deeper. That's obvious when 7-footer Brian Zoubek becomes a major factor in the two games in New York City.

"We're still very much a developing team," Krzyzewski said.

Led by his new starting point guard, the one who nearly didn't return.