Duke will end a two-game road swing through the ACC today and try to protect its season-long hold on first place.
The Blue Devils will play the Virginia Cavaliers at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville at 7 p.m. (ESPN2 Ch. 32). The regular season is winding down — Duke has six games left before the postseason — but Coach Mike Krzyzewski said he still wants his team to work on its shortcomings.
Krzyzewski said there isn't one aspect of play his team should be satisfied with, even this late in the regular season.
"We're still very much a developing team," he said. "People are going to lose. Everybody loses. You just don't want to lose a lot. And when you do lose, you want to use it as some way to improve, and figure out why you lost and then make corrections."
Duke is 23-2 overall and 10-1 in the ACC. Virginia (12-12, 3-7) is struggling with injuries and has lost 16 of its past 19 ACC regular-season games.
Still, Virginia won't sneak up on Duke. Duke won the first game 76-60 in Durham on Jan. 15 but had to fight into the second half for the victory. Virginia led 31-25 at halftime and 42-33 with 16:14 left, but Duke vaulted in front using a 43-18 run in the final 16:01.
Krzyzewski said he considered the first game against the Cavaliers another learning experience for his team.
"What we're trying to do with our team is develop (dependability) as the season goes along," Krzyzewski said. "This group has had since mid-December now to do it. We're a good team right now, but we hope that we can stay healthy and get better."
Virginia is missing veteran forward Mike Scott, out for the year after ankle surgery, and was down to eight recruited players in its last game — a loss at Florida State — because senior forward Will Sherrill was out with a leg injury.
Coach Tony Bennett of the Cavaliers said that Sherrill's availability is game to game.
Bennett doesn't have as many walk-ons as he had last season, and two Virginia assistants have been pressed into action at times during practice.
Bennett said he's probably adjusting more in practices than at any other time in his career because of a limited number of healthy players. He has tried to not sacrifice the quality of workouts but has made them shorter.
"They've shown a good amount of fight in games," Bennett said. "I think there's a little bit of mental and physical fatigue, and that's where as a staff you've got to be wise with your quantity of time out there.
"You certainly have to work at things, but when your numbers are down and the age of your team is pretty young, that's when you have to be smart with how long you're pounding it and how fresh they are."
bcole@wsjournal.com
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