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.”

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:

BLACKSBURG, Va. – While Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg lamented Austin Rivers’ four 3-pointers, it was a different play that Rivers made that caught Mike Krzyzewski’s eye Thursday night.

The Blue Devils’ freshman guard fed Josh Hairston for an alley-oop midway through the second half when Virginia Tech pressed Duke for the first time.

“We broke it at half court,” Krzyzewski said. “Austin had confidence and gave (Josh) a great pass – it’s not like he’s been throwing a lot of lobs to Josh – and Josh finished it. They’re reluctant to press again after that because of that play.”