Don't be surprised if Duke's Irving plays soon

3-D Duke and other notes:

The crystal ball is easier to watch than some of these late-season games. Maybe that's because Kyrie Irving plays in the crystal ball.

Sometime soon, perhaps next week, Irving — Duke's freshman point guard — might accelerate his return and test the recovering big toe in ACC action.

This pure prediction is based on two hard facts (Duke stands a much better NCAA title chance with Irving, who evidently wants to play if at all possible) and the soft news that Irving routinely announces his progress the new-fashioned way.

Tweeting last week, Irving reported that he was "getting that feeling back!!! Yessir." On Tuesday, he revealed: "I'm definitely op(toe)mistic!!"

Ah, the exclamatory enthusiasm of youth.

His standard reply to reporters: "We'll see."

Coach Mike Krzyzewski periodically sits on the public side of the dark blue curtain and cautions that Irving probably will not play at all. Coach K emphasizes a healthy personal recovery, not a contender made healthier by having Irving break down defenses for scorers Nolan Smith, Kyle Singler, Andre Dawkins and Seth Curry.

Krzyzewski considered Duke a great team with Irving. Shortly after the injury on Dec. 4, the coach recast his remaining cast as a good team getting better during a remodeling transition that gave Smith a version of Irving's role as the primary guard.

"I never felt we were the No. 1 team in the country after that," Krzyzewski said Sunday. "I did when he was with us."

Duke is No. 1 in the polls again, this time with an asterisk and the general understanding that the asterisk (*if healthy) could separate the Blue Devils from a muddled contending class.

That's not automatic, of course. A similar scenario defined the 1984 season far more than Michael Jordan's foul-plagued regional letdown against Indiana. Kenny Smith, North Carolina's freshman point guard, was hammered flying toward the rim against LSU in late January and broke a wrist while landing. When Smith returned, he was never quite the same, nor was top-ranked Carolina.

You never know, but Irving and his mates probably wouldn't mind finding out how a third Duke edition would look.

Odds and ends

Racing fans became accustomed to the buddy-buddy tenor of NASCAR telecasts long ago.

Like many characters in the business, some of the former drivers and crew chiefs reinventing themselves as announcers have their fingers in several racing pies. They might have investments in a team at a lower NASCAR level or undisclosed alliances here and there.

This overlap does not promote candor. Take Darrell Waltrip. He makes no bones about pulling for brother Mike (or "Mikey"). That seems natural enough, but when D.W. glosses over the fact that Mikey was a central antagonist in two needless pileups at the Daytona 500, literally moaning over Mikey's damage, he misleads the audience that he's supposedly paid to inform. His credibility suffers, along with the Fox network.

Just wondering: If Carmelo Anthony joining the New York Knicks' Amare Stoudemire means an automatic NBA championship or two, and if the LeBron James-Dwyane Wade marriage means up to seven titles in Miami, why do the Celtics, Spurs and Lakers still show up for practice?

The NCAA concluded that Coach Jim Calhoun lost control of the Connecticut basketball program, which seems reasonable given that a prospect received $6,000 in improper benefits (including money for surgery and training) from a former UConn student manager-turned-agent.

Calhoun staff members made 2,000 calls (or texts) to the agent, Josh Nochimson, during this recruitment of a player who never appeared in a UConn game. The NCAA levied three years of probation, cut three scholarships over three years and imposed restrictions on recruiting contacts.

Calhoun isn't happy — which seems his general nature, bordering on surliness — and can't handle anyone questioning his conduct or suspending him three measly games next season. He'll fight back.

Off to the side, away from the tempest, resides the real story: The NCAA doesn't have the guts to knock UConn out of the tournament, perhaps because the NCAA relies on the tournament for virtually all its income and will do nothing to interrupt The Show.

lrawlings@wsjournal.com