DURHAM – This one was one-sided.

Early in the first half on Monday night, the Duke women’s basketball team decided to attack North Carolina – in the paint with strong-armed defense, on the boards with hustle, in the lane with well-timed passes and from the 3-point arc with accurate shooting. The No. 5 Blue Devils (19-3, 10-0 ACC) succeed on every front.

They railroaded No. 24 North Carolina (17-6, 7-3) – their heated rivals – and rode the energy inside Cameron Indoor Stadium to a thoroughly impressive 96-56 victory before a national television audience and an announced crowd of 8,595.

The watchword at Duke on Monday was “consistency,” and no one -- not the players, not coach Mike Krzyzewski -- had an explanation why the Blue Devils have been so inconsistent this year. At least, they were consistent in that respect.

“I don’t know, but we have to figure it out,” Duke forward Mason Plumlee said, two days before Duke visits North Carolina in the first meeting between the teams.

While many Triangle fans will spend most of this week immersed in the build up for the first UNC vs. Duke game of the basketball season, N.C. State is in more of a must-win situation.

From the state of his current Duke team to the Blue Devils' rivalry with Maryland, Mike Krzyzewski touched on a couple of different topics on Monday’s ACC teleconference.

Here are some of the highlights of what he had to say.

On his team: “Overall, our team has done a good job, being 19-4. In our league, we’re two possessions from being undefeated and we’re two possessions from being 4-4, on the other side. These games, especially in conference, turn out to be attention to detail where you have to make a play. Yesterday’s game still boiled down to you have to hit a free throw. When you win a number of games, sometimes your attention to detail is not where it needs to be. The games where we’re involved in now it will be for the rest of the year.”

DURHAM -- Over the last week or two, one can tell how frustrated Mike Krzyzewski is with his team by the number of times he raps his knuckles against the table during his post-game press conference.

After Miami surprised Duke 78-74 in overtime on Sunday afternoon for the Blue Devils' second straight ACC loss at home, it was suggested Duke takes winning at Cameron Indoor Stadium for granted. Krzyzewski didn’t disagree with the assessment, although he wondered how that could be the case since he regularly implores his team to guard against complacency.

“I’m with them all the time," Krzyzewski said. "They should listen, and they did not. That’s not good.”

DURHAM -- In the game before the big game, the Duke Blue Devils ran into a feisty Miami team that showed no fear inside Cameron Indoor Stadium.

The Blue Devils did rally as they usually do at home – only this time the Hurricanes were ready to respond.

Even when Duke forced overtime, the Hurricanes never wavered.

Center Reggie Johnson led Miami with a career-high 27 points, and the Hurricanes never trailed in overtime to pull a 78-74 upset of the seventh-ranked Blue Devils.

Three Points from N.C. State's 87-76 win over Wake Forest on Saturday:

1) Brown back on track

State guard Lorenzo Brown had 15 points with eight assists in a season-high 38 minutes on Saturday. He even gave a half-smile as he left the locker room after putting an end to his mini-slump.

"It was a little better," Brown said.

Brown, who is his own biggest critic, was pleased with his turnovers, only two — a low in ACC play for him. He was more aggressive against the Deacs with 11 shots (making six) after only taking five against Boston College on Wednesday, despite an obvious mismatch with Jordan Daniels.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Before his team’s 83-74 victory against Maryland on Saturday, North Carolina sophomore forward Harrison Barnes wasn’t sure if he’d be able to play three minutes or 30 minutes, and he wasn’t sure of how good he could be regardless of how much he played.

All he knew, he said later, is that he wouldn’t let the sprained left ankle he’d suffered earlier in the week keep him on the bench. As it turned out, Barnes didn’t stop playing even after he sprained it again.

The ACC announced on Friday new scheduling formats that will take effect when Pittsburgh and Syracuse begin league play, officially making the ACC a 14-team conference. Among the changes:

-A nine-game conference schedule in football.
-And an 18-game conference schedule in basketball, in which each of the 14 teams will play twice a year against one permanent partner. Games between permanent partners are only ones that will be guaranteed to happen twice per season. Given that North Carolina’s permanent partner is Duke, that means that in two out of every three seasons North Carolina and N.C. State will play just once during the regular season.

John Swofford, ACC Commissioner, spoke on Friday with The News & Observer about several issues related to the announcement of the new scheduling formats. Here’s the Q-and-A:

Updated 7:30 p.m.

RALEIGH — N.C. State will always have Wake Forest.

The ACC will regularly take a game against North Carolina away from the Wolfpack when the league expands to 14 teams but State and Wake will continue to play twice a season.

Since 2006, that has been a good thing for State. The Pack beat the Demon Deacons 87-76 on Saturday for the fifth straight time and the ninth time in the past 12 games.

Scott Wood's 23 points lifted the Pack in a closer call than the earlier meeting this season, a 76-40 wipeout in Winston-Salem, and the two lopsided State wins from last season (by 25 and 21 points).