The deadline for underclassmen to declare for the NBA draft is a week away, and N.C. State's C.J. Leslie is still weighing his options, his mother Lisa said Tuesday.

Lisa Leslie said C.J. requested a report from the NBA's draft advisory committee, a group of NBA executives who provide players considering turning pro with a non-binding assessment of their draft status. Those reports are due back to players on Friday, and the Leslies plan to sit down with N.C. State coach Mark Gottfried once that information is in hand.

"Once that's in, we will sit down with the coach," Lisa Leslie said. "We'll go over it and play things out, see what the best option is."

DURHAM – A week ago, Duke was starting what it hoped would be an extended stay in the NCAA tournament.

After Friday’s unexpected loss to No. 15 seed Lehigh, the Blue Devils now find themselves beginning to confront an offseason that will feature its fair share of uncertainty.

Most immediately, Austin Rivers and Mason Plumlee will have to decide whether to leave for the NBA. Both are projected as first-round picks on multiple projection websites, although neither seem likely to be top-10 selections.

Duke's Andre Dawkins reacts during the final seconds of play as the Blue Devils fall 75-70 to Lehigh. ROBERT WILLETT - rwillett@newsobserver.com

Updated 11:17 p.m.

GREENSBORO – Duke’s players were the last to see it coming.

All season long, there was a sense that these Blue Devils could do anything in the postseason, from losing their first game to, if the bracket broke right, getting all the way to the Final Four.

The former of those two options came to pass on Friday night.

With C.J. McCollum leading the way with 30 points, the No. 15 seeded Mountain Hawks knocked second-seeded Duke out of the NCAA tournament with a 75-70 win at the Greensboro Coliseum that wasn’t completely as stunning as the seeds may have indicated.

The Blue Devils repeatedly showed their mortality throughout the season, and its offense unraveled in the last week when Ryan Kelly sprained his right foot before the ACC tournament. The junior forward missed his third straight game on Friday.

Even still, the shock of the abrupt ending hit Duke’s players square in the nose.

“I was prepared to win,” said freshman Austin Rivers. “That’s what Duke’s about. This doesn’t happen. We (expletive) lost to a 15 seed.”

As Rivers alluded to, Duke hardly ever loses its first game in the NCAA tournament. Before Friday night, the Blue Devils had won at least one game in every NCAA tournament since 1997 with the exception of the 2007 season.

“For me, my program, you’re on a continuum,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “There are four years that we ended up with a win in my 37 years. It’s not football where you have a bowl game and 35 people end up with a win out of a hundred.

“So when the loss comes and how it’s inflicted, you just take responsibility for it. I think overall my team did a great job this year. But we did not do a really good job this last week and a half, and so that’s upsetting.”

Mason Plumlee made all nine of his field goal attempts, scoring 19 points to lead Duke. Rivers also had 19 points.

After only making 36.3 percent of their shots in the ACC tournament, the Blue Devils’ offense once again struggled against the Mountain Hawks. Duke missed its first nine 3-pointers and only shot 23.1 percent beyond the arc for the game.

“Our offense, which was a real strength of ours the entire season, the last two weeks has not been very good,” Krzyzewski said. “That’s my responsibility.”

Rivers dismissed Krzyzewski’s suggestion it was his fault.

“I don’t know how you prepare for something like this,” he said. “This is the worst day of my life. I don’t know how you look back like, ‘I would have, could have, should have.’ That (expletive) doesn’t mean anything. We just lost.

“Lehigh’s a great team and I tip my hat off to them, but we should have won. They outfought us. They played harder, they wanted it more, they were into it, their bench was into it, their coaches were into it. The only thing we had was our coaches. That was it.

“No one else showed up.”

Even still, the Blue Devils had a chance in the final minutes until McCollum put some distance between the Mountain Hawks and the Blue Devils.

With Lehigh up 56-54, McCollum hit a key 3-pointer with 2:24 left to put the Mountain Hawks up five before John Adams slammed the ball home to give Lehigh a 61-54 lead with 1:52 remaining.

Krzyzewski called timeout, and Seth Curry got a 3-pointer to fall after the ball hit off the front rim and then bounced off the glass before falling through the hoop with 1:31 left.

With the shot clock winding down on Lehigh’s next possession, Tyler Thornton was called for his fifth foul with 1:06 remaining. McCollum made both free throws, and Rivers tried to get to the basket on the other end. His attempt in the lane missed and Gabe Knutson made both free throws on the other end to give Lehigh a 65-57 edge.

The Blue Devils couldn’t overcome that margin in the final seconds, although there were moments it looked like Duke might stage an incredible comeback. After Andre Dawkins hit a 3-pointer from the wing, Rivers was fouled on a 3-point attempt with 28.6 seconds left. He made two of his three free throws to bring the Blue Devils within three, 67-64.

But a Jordan Hamilton dunk on the other end closed the door on the Blue Devils’ comeback hopes.

"I've been part of some amazing teams, and I had some amazing accomplishments," said Miles Plumlee, who saw his Duke career come to a close. "But people remember how you leave, and this isn't how I wanted to leave."

ATLANTA -- Thanks to a late turnover by Virginia Tech, Duke escaped with a narrow win Friday night, but the 60-56 win raised as many questions as it answered for the Blue Devils.

Namely, who knew Ryan Kelly was so important to Duke?

Sure, the 6-foot-10 forward from Raleigh can stretch defenses with his 3-point shooting ability, and he's averaging 11.8 points and 5.4 rebounds, but it turns out his mere presence in Duke’s forward rotation is absolutely and unquestionably essential. The rest of it is a bonus.

Updated 10:54 p.m.

ATLANTA – As Duke moved the ball around the perimeter in the second half of its 60-56 win over Virginia Tech on Friday night, Tyler Thornton saw that Seth Curry was going to catch it with what looked like enough space to get off an open 3-pointer from the wing.

“Shoot it, Seth,” Thornton yelled.

At the last second, a Virginia Tech defender lunged at Curry, forcing him to pass to a wide-open Thornton in the corner. With the Hokies showing little inclination to close out on him, Thornton squared up and let fly with another 3-pointer.

That attempt splashed through the net.

The ACC announced on Monday its annual men’s basketball all-conference, all-defensive and all-freshmen teams. The honors are as follows, with voting point totals in parentheses:

Just about every ACC game Duke has played at Cameron Indoor Stadium has gone down to the wire, and Saturday was no different as the Blue Devils needed overtime to tame Virginia Tech 70-65.

Here are three final thoughts on Duke’s win:

1. Duke finds a way – again

Trailing in the final minutes against a team that barely has a .500 record, the Blue Devils’ performance against Virginia Tech shows why just about anything seems possible for the team once the NCAA Tournament rolls around.

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.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Duke spoiled Maryland’s party – again.

On a night where the Terrapins honored former coach Gary Williams, naming the court at Comcast Center after him, the No. 8 Blue Devils hushed the sold-out crowd and dimmed the celebration with a scrappy, if not pretty 74-61 victory.

The Devils decided to attack the smaller Maryland front court and fed 6-foot-10 junior forward Mason Plumlee, who powered for 23 points, 12 rebounds and four assists. There were few easy buckets for him, but he finished in the paint to help lift the Devils to their fourth straight win over the Terps.

DURHAM -- A few final thoughts and observations after Duke’s 61-58 victory over Virginia late Thursday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium:

1. The Plumlee brothers were critical in Duke’s win

After Virginia’s Mike Scott dominated the Blue Devils in the first half, Duke switched its defense and put Miles and Mason Plumlee on the Cavs’ forward. Both brothers tried to put a body on Scott at all times, and the result was that Scott only had seven points in the second half.

“The Plumlees, I thought, were the key to the game,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “Their physicality and then our defense – we played much better defense on Scott in the second half. That was both Mason and Miles.”