Updated 9:34 p.m.

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – Wedged around Duke’s memorable wins over North Carolina and N.C. State, there will be little that will stand out about the Blue Devils’ 75-50 triumph over Boston College when folks are reminiscing about this season.

Duke is good. Boston College isn’t.

The Blue Devils played well. The Eagles didn’t.

And that was pretty much that.

DURHAM -- One of the more important moments in Duke’s comeback against N.C. State on Thursday night came in the first half, just as the Wolfpack was building a commanding early lead. 

Seth Curry went up for a loose ball and came down awkwardly. When he got up, he put weight on his ankle to see if he could continue.The grimace on his face suggested Curry’s return was far from certain.

“When he went out, I thought he was gone,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “Jose (Fonseca), our trainer, was just telling me that Seth said, ‘Man, I don’t know if I can go,’ and Jose said, ‘You have to go.’ Seth said, ‘It hurts,’ and Jose said, ‘I’ll give you a shot.’”

DURHAM – Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski has a sore throat and his voice was more raspy than usual Monday on the ACC teleconference.

Nonetheless, he stressed that a lot has gone right for this year’s Blue Devil team, even if  they are not quite as consistent as he’d like. Heading into Thursday’s home game against N.C. State, Duke is 21-4 and 8-2 in the ACC, balancing perplexing efforts against Miami and St. John's with strong wins over North Carolina and Maryland.

“You’d rather have it more stable,” Krzyzewski said. “But every team in the country is somewhat inconsistent. That’s why every team in the country loses games. Even some of the great players in our country have a bad game.”

No. 10 Duke had a strong second half Saturday afternoon, maintaining its momentum from Wednesday’s win over North Carolina with a 73-55 victory against Maryland at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

From Miles Plumlee’s monster effort on the glass (22 rebounds, an all-time high for a Mike Krzyzewski-coached team) to Seth Curry’s steady offensive performance, there were a lot of things the Blue Devils had to like about the win.

Here are three of the more encouraging things Duke can take from the victory:

Patience has never come as easily to Christian Laettner as, say, intensity.

And so while Laettner loved a lot of things about running his own basketball academy for the past couple of years in Jacksonville, Fla., he never completely had the serenity required to nurture high school players.

As a result, Laettner contacted Chris Lauten, a former Duke manager who now works in the front office of the NBA’s Development League. Lauten eventually put Laettner in touch with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants’ ownership after the Mad Ants fired their head coach and promoted an assistant to replace him in early January.

As Austin Rivers comes down from his adrenaline rush of a Wednesday night, the person who may have the best idea of how Rivers’ one shot will affect his Duke legacy is Jeff Capel.

It’s conceivable that Rivers’ game-winning 3-pointer was the Blue Devils’ most memorable shot in the series with North Carolina since Capel hit a running 30-footer at the end of the first overtime of the teams’ Feb. 2, 1995 game.

There are differences between the two buzzer-beaters, with the most notable being that Capel’s effort didn’t win the game for Duke – North Carolina ended up outlasting Duke 102-100 in double overtime.

Updated 12.25 a.m.

CHAPEL HILL — There have been some wild, crazy endings to North Carolina-Duke games over the 233-game history of the rivalry, and the one that happened here on Wednesday night at the Smith Center will take its place as one of the craziest and most memorable of all – if not the most.

The Tar Heels’ sophomore Harrison Barnes gave his team an 82-72 lead with 2:38 to play, and the game appeared over. Writers on press row went back to the media room to write their stories, most of those in attendance waited for the minutes to melt away, and even the Tar Heels appeared content to hold on and escape.

But it wasn’t over.

After a furious rally that placed the result in doubt, Duke’s Austin Rivers made a long 3 from the right side as the final buzzer sounded. The shot gave the Blue Devils an improbable 85-84 victory, and they spilled from their bench and onto the court as people here – fans, UNC’s players and staff, mostly everybody – stood in a stunned stupor.

Duke’s problems with consistency and intensity were on display in its 78-74 overtime loss to Miami on Sunday, when the Blue Devils fell behind by double digits in the first half against the Hurricanes and couldn’t quite come all the way back for the victory.

It would be a surprise if either was an issue tonight against the Tar Heels.

In a sense, the rivalry game comes at a perfect time for the No. 10 Blue Devils (19-4, 6-2), who have needed multiple shots in the arm this season. With UNC on the docket, motivation shouldn’t be an issue.

As No. 5 North Carolina prepares for Wednesday’s grudge match with No. 10 Duke, it’s undoubtedly noticed in film sessions that the Blue Devils have trouble defending tall, athletic perimeter players.

So a key component of Wednesday night’s game (9 p.m., WRAL) between the Tar Heels (20-3, 7-1 ACC) and the Blue Devils (19-4, 6-2) will be whether Harrison Barnes’ ankle injury compromises his ability to get to the basket or to pull up for jumpers. If the sophomore forward can play effectively, he fits the mold of the type of player Duke has struggled with this season.

“We have a small perimeter,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “We don’t have the versatility – we either have big guys or perimeter guys.”

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.”