The Mountaineers kept it close in the first half, but a 18-3 run in the second gave the team a lead it never let go of and a berth in the Sweet 16. Duke, on the other hand, missed the round of 16 for a second year in a row, something that never happened to the them from 1997 mto 2006. FIRST ROUND
Duke 71, Belmont 70: It took a late Gerald Henderson layup, and a missed last-second half-court short from Belmont, but Duke was able to win their first round contest as expected — albeit only by one point.

Henderson scored the last two of his game-high 21 points with less than 15 seconds remaining. That move gave the Blue Devils (28-5) the lead for good against the Bruins, the conference champions from the tiny Atlantic Sun conference.
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How they got in: At-large bid

Basically: After spending last year reloading with young talent and paying the price with an also-ran season, the Blue Devils came back with a veteran but still young team with tremendous offensive scoring punch and more confidence in big games. The 2007 team lost a slew of close games, mainly because it didn't have the maturity to close, or the know-how to come up with the big plays in the clutch. That's not the case this year, and even though there were one-point losses to Pitt and Miami, this is a much tighter, much more complete offensive team. However, a loss to Clemson in the ACC tournament made it two losses in the final three games ... the young Blue Devils still might not quite be ready for primetime.

Strengths: Balanced scoring. The high-powered guard-oriented offense has five players averaging in double figures with two or three different options at any one time to get hot and take over a game. Teams without much firepower won't have much of a shot; holding this group under 80 is next to impossible. With so many three-point weapons able to lead the way to big runs, no lead is ever safe.

Weaknesses: Pillow soft. While this isn't an awful rebounding team, it's not a great one and anyone with a steady inside presence can dominate. The ultimate finesse team that will live and die by the three-point shot all tournament, it'll be interesting to see what happens if it has to face a team full of bangers. This might be one of the most talented squads Coach K has put together in a while, but it's young and not tournament tested after going one-n-done last year (losing to VCU 79-77).

Players you should care about: Duke can't make a big run without a huge tournament from freshman Kyle Singler. One of the only consistent inside scorers, the 6-8, 220-pounder has to get used to being bounced around even more than he was in conference play, and he has to keep the fouls in the big games to a minimum, like he was able to do most of the time in the ACC. Even though he's the team's top rebounder, that's mainly because of his height and position; he's not a space-eater by any stretch.

Best wins: Wisconsin 82-58; at North Carolina 89-78

Worst losses: at Wake Forest 86-73; at Miami 96-95