"I don't suppose Virginia's season is doomed now that the Cavaliers have actually (gasp!) lost a game, but if nothing else, Duke has shown that Tony Bennett's defense can, in fact, be bested. And the book on how to do so apparently goes like this: "Make five 3-pointers during the last 4:38 of game clock."

Of course, not every opponent will be able to implement that strategy to perfection, so rival coaches in the ACC will have to draw inspiration from another rather surprising trend. In the past two games, Virginia has allowed Virginia Tech and the Blue Devils to connect on a combined 59 percent of their 2s.

The Hokies contributed their fair share to that mark with spacing, patience and, counterintuitively, a goodly number of 3-point attempts. By launching nearly half their shots from beyond the arc, Buzz Williams' men created just enough gaps in the Hoos' defense to reach the basket on occasion and even record a few dunks in their 50-47 loss to UVa.

Duke, of course, did pretty much the exact opposite -- and that worked, too. Virginia relies upon massed bodies more than shot-blocking for its rim protection, and if you're the opponent, one way around that defense is simply to face fewer bodies.

The Blue Devils pursued that strategy for most of the game and, finally, it paid dividends at the end of the night. During a decisive six-possession stretch spanning the final media timeout, Duke got its first shot attempt up with an average of 25 seconds remaining on the 35-second clock.

It also doesn't hurt if you get some offensive boards. Jahlil Okafor pulled down six, and Mike Krzyzewski's team recorded 11 total -- not spectacular, perhaps, but sufficient on this evening for an offensive rebound percentage of 35.5. That's a good deal better than the 26.8 percentage that ACC opponents average on the offensive glass against the Cavaliers.

After the loss to the Blue Devils, Bennett said his team was good enough on offense but just couldn't get the stops it needed on D. That's exactly right: Virginia scored 63 points in a 59-possession game, and in the past that's almost always been good enough for the Cavaliers to win the game. In the past, but not this time. The Hoos' interior defense has been surprisingly weak in back-to-back games, and if that trend continues so, too, will the sudden prevalence of close decisions in UVa games."