Florida State Drops No. 1 Duke Again

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Nolan Smith leaned forward and exhaled. It has been 10 months since Duke's locker room had been this quiet, this somber. Players undressed in silence, while Florida State's celebrating fans remained at center court in a repeat of history against the Blue Devils.

The Seminoles pulled off their latest upset of No. 1 Duke, snapping the Blue Devils' 25-game winning streak with a 66-61 victory here Wednesday night before a sold-out crowd of 12,100 and a national television audience.

It was the third time since 2002 that the Seminoles beat a top-ranked Duke team at home. The Blue Devils (15-1, 2-1), who hadn't lost since a 79-72 setback on March 3, 2010, at Maryland, didn't have to look very far for an explanation. They were stymied by the Seminoles' rangy and physical defense that made life miserable nearly every possession.

Duke missed its first 10 3-point attempts and shot 31.1 percent overall, ending their dreams of a perfect season.

"It always hurts because we don't like to lose."
-- Nolan Smith "It always hurts because we don't like to lose," Smith told FanHouse.

"This now gives us a chance to get back to the drawing board to see what we have to do. You can try to learn from wins but it's not the same. Everyone is still happy about a win even if you played bad. Now, with the loss we can get mad, put our heads down. Or we can say, hey, let's learn from this and get better. We will be a better team come Saturday."

Duke came into the game averaging nearly 88 points, having outscored its opponents by just under 25 points per game this season. However, the Blue Devils didn't play very well in Sunday's home victory over Maryland, shooting 40 percent suffering 17 turnovers.

Yet, the Terps weren't the Seminoles (12-5, 2-1).

"How do you prepare for something that you haven't seen?," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said

"They (Seminoles) were that good. Tonight wasn't about us being bad. We were good enough to almost win the game. Tonight was about how good they were. They were really good. They were really determined. They played with a verve and an intensity on defense that was impressive. That was an impressive statement by their team."

Kyle Singler led Duke with 20 points and Smith had 19, but they combined to shoot 12-for-33. The rest of the team had 22 points combined.

The Seminoles led by as many as 11 points (40-29) early in the second half. While the Blue Devils rallied to tie it at 45-45 at the 9:22 mark, they didn't have an answer for FSU guard Derwin Kitchen.

Kitchen, who was held scoreless in FSU's second-consecutive defeat last weekend at Virginia Tech, answered with two consecutive baskets in traffic and a free throw. He finished with a team-high 22 points and 10 rebounds.

Singler blamed the Blue Devils' struggles on their slow start. Duke's biggest lead was three points, 16-13 and 24-21 in the first half.

"The first 20 minutes we didn't play very well, and that gave them confidence," Singler told FanHouse.

"I think coming out of the game we didn't play to the level we needed to. One, we just didn't come ready. We didn't get into a flow offensively and they were able to play good defense and make things hard for us. They are a good team. Ever since I've been here, we've had tough games with them. We have to come ready to play for 40 minutes.

"We are a good team but we can get beat if we don't play well."

Krzyzewski echoed that same thought, repeating that Duke hasn't been the same team since freshman guard Kyrie Irving was lost indefinitely after injuring a toe in a Dec. 4 win over Butler. The Blue Devils had won 14 straight games away from Cameron Indoor Stadium and had won 27 consecutive games against unranked opponents. The 25-game winning streak was the second-longest in Duke history.

"Each team has to learn from going through tough experiences," Krzyzewski explained. "That's why playing conference games makes you get better. We had not been in a game like that. We haven't been in a game like that all year. They knocked us back. You can try to practice that but you don't practice against (Chris) Singleton and (Derwin) Kitchen and (Bernard) James and those guys. So, when they are doing it against you it's different. You learn from the experience.

"It's not even the middle of January and we have a long way to go. We just have to keep trying to get better from these experiences. I've said all along we are not a great team since Kyrie's injury but we have a chance to be a good team. We have to learn what this game can do."

Singleton's two free throws with 33 seconds left gave the Seminoles a 63-58 lead, but Smith's 3-pointer chopped the Duke deficit to two with 26.9 seconds remaining.

That was as close as the Blue Devils got. Michael Snaer hit a pair of free throws and Okaro White added another to seal it after Duke misfired at the other end. When the final buzzer sounded, FSU fans rushed the court in celebration. Just like they did Jan. 6, 2002, and March 1, 2006, against Duke.

"They are a big athletic team and they came out with a lot of strength and we didn't respond to it," Duke forward Miles Plumlee, who struggled and played just six minutes, told FanHouse.

"We didn't match their level of intensity from the get-go. When you are playing someone on their court, they are going to have a huge boost of energy and we didn't make up for that. We just didn't bring it (intensity). When a team comes out that strong on defense, if you don't play that strong on offense, you are going to get stood up. And I thought we really got stood up. We couldn't run anything and that affected our defense, so it was just a slow start."

Jim Henry co-authored "Tarnished Heisman" and was a contributing writer on five other books, including the New York Times best-seller on Duke lacrosse and the Rex Ryan autobiography, scheduled for release in 2011. Contact Jim at jim.henry@teamaol.com.