ESPN was so sure Mike Krzyzewski would be one win away from his 1,000th victory after Tuesday night's game against Miami that it planned a special commemorative show to air immediately after the final buzzer.
Needless to say, the network's timing could have been better.
Krzyzewski remains stuck at 997 after Duke followed up Sunday's surprising road loss at NC State with an even more alarming home setback against the Hurricanes. Guard-oriented Miami exposed many of the same defensive issues the Wolfpack did, scorching the Blue Devils off the dribble and behind the arc en route to a 90-74 rout.
Duke's loss snapped its 41-game winning streak at Cameron Indoor Stadium and marked the first time the Blue Devils have lost consecutive regular season games since Feb. 2009. The back-to-back losses against unranked foes halted the momentum Duke built during a 14-0 start and inspired concern over whether the Blue Devils have improved as much defensively as it seemed in November and December.
Defense was a season-long issue for Duke last year because the Blue Devils lacked perimeter players who could stay in front of their man or a center capable of cleaning up mistakes and protecting the rim. The arrival of center Jahlil Okafor and perimeter stopper Justise Winslow appeared to alleviate some of those problems, but the Blue Devils have regressed in ACC play.*
NC State shot a torrid 55 percent against Duke and scored on seven straight second-half possessions to break open a close game. Miami nearly matched that with 51.8 percent shooting against the Blue Devils two nights later, shooting 18-for-27 in the second half to build a lead as big as 20 points in a game it trailed by one at halftime.
Miami guards Angel Rodriguez (24 points), Manu Lecompte (23 points) and Sheldon McClellan (14 points) were the players who hurt Duke most frequently on Tuesday. They made the Blue Devils pay for playing their trademark aggressive, extended man-to-man defense by blowing by them off the dribble. They also punished Duke by burying threes whenever defenders went under ball screens or by attacking in transition whenever the Blue Devils committed sloppy turnovers or were slow running back.
Keeping pace with an opponent scoring as easily as Miami did is never easy, but it certainly didn't help Duke that the Hurricanes' defensive strategy was effective as well.
Miami mixed up its defense against Okafor, sometimes playing him man-to-man and sometimes sending a double team from various spots on the floor. Okafor scored 15 points and hurt the Hurricanes on the offensive glass, but Duke's guards couldn't exploit the open looks made possible by the double teams, sinking only 6 of 21 attempts from behind the arc.

It won't be easy for Duke to avoid a third straight loss either since the fourth-ranked Blue Devils (14-2, 2-2) visit sixth-ranked Louisville on Saturday.
That was the game that was supposed to be the high-profile forum for Krzyzewsk to take aim at win No. 1,000. Instead it will merely mark his attempt to help Duke avoid its first three-game losing streak in eight years.
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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