A lot of people will call  Duke's 67-55 win over Virginia Tech ugly, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  Shooting just 29% Duke had their second worst game from the field this season and still won.   Of course, they beat UConn as well shooting 28%.  So, you can't hit your shots and win.  That's a beautiful thing for a Duke fan.  The Duke defense held Virginia Tech to 55 points.  That's a beautiful thing to Mike Krzyzewski.

Duke won the battle of the boards - again.  History shows this is a rarity which means this is the best rebounding team Krzyzewski has coached at Duke. In fact, this team is 20-2  when they win the battle of the boards this season

Have you heard that Brian Zoubek had 16 boards last evening?  Yeah, I figured you had.  Amazing effort, huh?  You'll hear from the "Zoubinator" shortly for we caught up with him to get some post game comments last evening.

At 11-2 in conference, Duke is in complete control of their destiny in a bid to claim the ACC regular season title.  Duke goes on the road to Virginia and then Maryland before closing the season out at home against North Carolina.  A split on the road and a win over UNC  would almost assuredly lock it up for Duke.  Maybe they'll win them all, but then again, Duke cannot overlook anyone down the stretch.  Maryland is right there with Duke in the standings, while Virginia needs a win to boost their NCAA hopes and UNC just needs wins and are playing for their tournament life, even if it is the NIT.

There goes that Conner Vernon again!  After making a splash as a true freshman, the wide receiver caught the only touchdown pass during this weekends closed scrimmage.  A lot of kids fall prey to the sophomore jinx, but if his performance this past Saturday was any indication, he can avoid that.

So, I am watching the scrimmage and something seems a bit weird and then it comes to me, via seeing Thaddeus Lewis on the sidelines.  Duke is breaking in two new quarterbacks and both are green as grass at this time.  FWIW, Lewis told me he'd be heading to the NFL Combine and we wish him luck.  We wish Duke's two new quarterbacks well too.

Speaking of Sean Schroeder and Brandon Connette, both had their moments.  Schroeder ran the scout team last year while Connette was still in high school.  Connette seems to be the better runner to go with good size but Schroeder was comfortable and threw the ball well.  We'll have an interview with Schroeder up shortly.

There were sixty prospects on campus on Junior Day for Duke Football and Duke got a good one to verbal in Jalen "Scoot" Simmons, a running back with 4.5 speed out of Charlotte.  He picked the Blue Devils over UNC, NCSU, Clemson and a couple of SEC schools.

Props to the women's basketball team for almost clinching the ACC title with a win over Maryland.  The Terp's disrespected the women, walking through them as they got into position for the nation anthem and so Duke gave them a Christmas present.  No, not a real present.  They unleashed Karima Christmas

Finally, the prospects attending last nights Duke-Virginia Tech basketball game were Marshall Plumlee and Michael Haynes.  For more on that, might I suggest you join Blue Devil Nation Premium for full site access?  That's where we talk about the other sport known as recruiting.

-