<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> RALEIGH, N.C. -- Mike Krzyzewski had yet to establish himself as Coach K the last time he was on Duke's bench and the Blue Devils missed the NCAA tournament. That was in 1983, when he was merely a little-known third-year coach with a tough-to-spell last name. Now, 24 years later, Duke is hurting again. The Blue Devils have lost four straight games -- their longest losing streak in 11 years -- and are out of the Top 25 for the first time since 1996. With Selection Sunday less than four weeks away, these young Blue Devils have some serious work to do to secure their 12th straight NCAA tournament appearance and avoid the shame of tumbling from basketball blueblood to bubble team -- or worse, NIT participant. "You have to concentrate on the job at hand, because if you don't take care of the job at hand, or don't attempt to do as well as you possibly can, then the big picture will always be not as good," Krzyzewski said Monday. "When you're coming off of losses, at times that becomes more difficult." The losses are piling up at an historic rate for the Blue Devils (18-7, 5-6 Atlantic Coast Conference), who expected a mild downturn this year after the graduation of J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams, the top two scorers on a team that spent much of last season ranked No. 1. But even though Duke has just one upperclassman on scholarship -- and its eight-man rotation features four freshmen and three sophomores -- not many experts expected this. The Blue Devils on Sunday absorbed their most lopsided ACC defeat since 2003 when Maryland won 72-60, extending their longest slide since they lost four straight in January 1996. </div> Source
