The Blue Devils had some extra time on their hands Wednesday with a three-and-a-half hour bus ride to Virginia Tech ahead.  To pass the time, the Duke coaching staff decided to provide a history lesson to everyone on board, playing highlights from Duke games of the past along with other videos shown to Blue Devil teams throughout the years.

As the videos played, Coach K discussed some of the stories behind them, from the 2001 team’s resilience after Carlos Boozer went down with a foot injury to freshman Luol Deng’s willingness to do the dirty work in 2003-04 to the 2010 seniors finishing their career with a national title after losing in the first round of the 2007 NCAA Tournament as freshmen, to Shane Battier, Nate James and Chris Carrawell taking ownership of their team in 1999-00 after four players left for the NBA, and more.

The clips and stories told weren’t about winning as much as an emphasis on the shared enthusiasm, pride and toughness that have defined Duke’s great teams and the program overall.  Coach K talked about taking ownership, paying a price and sharing the journey.  With the ride falling on what would have been the 100th birthday of his late mother Emily, Coach K also talked about his mom and her unwavering spirit and pride.  The Hall of Famer said his biggest hope for his former players is that they leave Duke as men with a great understanding and appreciation of those values.

The history lesson seemed to help, as the Blue Devils played one of their most complete games of the year and won as a team at Virginia Tech.  “It was a long bus ride up here,” Austin Rivers said after the win.  ”Ten years from now, we want teams to watch videos of us.”

To celebrate its 35 years as one of the marquee high school basketball events, the McDonald’s All-American game announced it’s top 35 players all-time.  Four Blue Devils made the list — Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley, Grant Hill and Jason Williams.

Duke has had 52 McDonald’s All-Americans all-time, including an NCAA-best 25 since 2000.  The ACC dominated the group announced as the greatest ever, with 13 selections (eight more than any conference).

One game after scoring a career-high 32 points, Kyrie Irving scored the game-winning bucket at the Boston Garden with 2.6 seconds left to give his Cleveland Cavaliers an 88-87 win.  Kyrie scored 23 points in the game on 1o-of-14 shooting, leading the Cavs to a big-time comeback win.

“I told him to run a high pick and roll and just see what you can get,” said Cavs coach Byron Scott about Kyrie’s game-winning play.  “He had the look in his eyes like he wanted it anyway.  At that particular time, I wasn’t thinking about his age.  I was just thinking about how pretty damn good he is with the ball in his hands.”

Kyrie led the Cavs back in the fourth quarter, capping an impressive comeback with the drive and layup.  Cleveland was down by as many as 11 in the fourth quarter and scored the final 12 points of the game.  Kyrie scored eight of Cleveland’s 26 fourth-quarter points, missing just one field-goal attempt.

I thought he dominated the fourth quarter,” said Celtics coach Doc Rivers (father of Austin!) of Kyrie.  ”He single-handily in my opinion willed that win for them.”

Here’s Kyrie’s game winner:

After practice on Friday, Austin Rivers sat down with DukeBluePlanet and shared his thoughts on the season so far, his progression at Duke, the hype that has surrounded his high school/college career and more. Here’s Austin in his words:

It is such a simple statement and kind of vague: “You only live once.” But I have a lot of expectations and dreams. I’d die to achieve them and want to do anything to achieve them. I want to get better and basketball is my life. How can I get better? How I can achieve everything I want to achieve in college and so forth? I just like to go to the gym. It’s what I love to do. It’s how I’ve been raised. My family has always been spread out and I’ve had times where I’ve been alone so I just played basketball. That’s why you’ll see me in there at 2 AM. I don’t sleep that much, I just like to play basketball. It’s what I love to do and I think that love for the game helps me.

I am always doing something with or around the game. I work out constantly, late night and early morning, whatever the case is. When I am away from basketball, I am a totally different guy. On the court, I am a cocky guy and I know I come off like that to a lot of people but that’s just how I am. I like to be aggressive and play my game whether shots are falling or not. I want to keep attacking and having fun and playing with my teammates and loving to win. Off the court, I am pretty quiet and like to settle down. I have a really small circle outside of basketball that I like to be with. And I am a movie buff. That’s what I do in my free time. I watch movies. I have seen thousands of movies. When I am not in the gym working, I like to watch movies and relax.

Growing up around the game has driven me and I have always had a chip on my shoulder just because I’ve been known as my dad’s son. That always propelled me to work harder. Now that I have my own name, I want to keep that going and keep working and not be known just as a great high school or college player. That’s where I get my edge to prove people wrong. I’ll keep working until I do that.

I don’t even really think or care about the hype and expectations though. I look at it like this. I was in high school. I worked hard. I played my game. My team won. Everything has come with that. That’s how I look at it. I am at Duke now. I am trying to play hard and help the team win. Whatever hype comes with that… comes with that. I don’t even worry about the expectations or meeting them. No one can ever meet everyone’s expectations. The only expectations I want to meet are my own which at the end of the day are higher than most people’s anyway, and the expectations of my teammates and team.

I think our team has come along great. We had a totally new team to start the year. Guys were in new positions. People didn’t know each other. In the beginning, we did not want to know each other as much as we do now. We could beat teams on talent. Now, we’ve grown more into a team. When we play together, we actually look pretty scary. I think that’s the biggest thing we’ve accomplished. Looking ahead, we need to keep growing as a team and things will come along for us. Guys are starting to establish themselves. Our bigs are starting to establish themselves down in the paint. Our perimeter is coming along. If we keep doing that, we have a chance to make a run and do big things the rest of the season.

I think I’ve played well all year. I had a stretch of two games where I struggled a little bit and I had to get myself together. I think that happens to every freshman. That’s part of basketball. The biggest thing this season that I’ve been proud for me is bouncing back. That’s what you have to do. I’ve been playing well lately and I have to keep that going.

If you let the game come to you and work hard and give people a chance to help you, I think college can be an easier transition. If you come in and try to do everything yourself and be stubborn, that can make things hard. When you come to college, you should be open to new ideas and ready to learn a lot and be willing to accept failure. I learned pretty quickly you need to come in with an open mind and it helped with the coaches that I have here.

The biggest challenge for me has been adjusting to a whole different game. High school and the NBA are more similar. College is totally different. I am definitely not saying high school and the NBA are alike. But as far as defense goes, it is more of a breakdown game in high school and the NBA. You can break down guys maybe differently than in college where defenses are more packed in and you have zones and the help side and the charge. College is a totally different game than high school.

I am really looking forward to the rest of the season. It is big time now. We are starting to really get into the ACC and we are tied for first. We have the ACC Tournament. That’s what I look forward to – just elevating my game along with that. I need to keep being intense. And when I talk more on the defensive end, I play better on both ends. Every game for the rest of the season is a big game. I just want to elevate my game and try to be even better and help our team win big games. That’s what I look forward to most.

Well, that’s it for now. Hope all is well with our fans out there and thanks for reading.

Follow Austin on Twitter: @austinrivers25

Kyrie Irving stars in an entertaining new commercial for ESPN’s NBA coverage.  Glad they found the young phenom so he can continue his impressive rookie campaign…

After the team’s shoot-around at Maryland, Duke players were excited to see the new Hyper Elite Platinum jerseys for the first time.  Nike had just unveiled new uniform sets for seven men’s teams including the Blue Devils’ new blue and grey warmups, jerseys, shorts and shoes.  The team will wear the uniforms one time, on February 11th, when Maryland visits Cameron.

Here’s more info:

“Specially designed for Duke men’s basketball and eight other NCAA Championship teams, Nike unveiled its new Nike Hyper Elite Platinum uniforms that the Blue Devils will wear during their Feb. 11 showdown against Maryland in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Duke will be one of seven men’s teams in the nation to wear the high-performance, low-environmental impact gear. As the latest and most innovative fit system, the Nike Hyper Elite Platinum uniform is designed at the intersection of sustainability and performance. The uniforms are specially designed for nine NCAA Championship teams that won their national titles wearing Nike footwear and apparel.

The fabric of the Nike Hyper Elite Platinum shorts is made from 100 percent recycled polyester while the jersey’s fabric is made from at least 96 percent recycled polyester. Both short and jersey are tailored for the optimal efficiency of movement and are five percent lighter than the previous Nike Hyper Elite uniform. Featuring laser-cut bonded logos, a sharp platinum design as well as prominent accent colors, the Nike Hyper Elite Platinum uniforms are sure to shine on the court.

“Nike is committed to producing top-of-the-line performance attire with reduced sacrifice to the environment,” said Phil Cook, Nike’s Brand Manager for Basketball. “With our Nike Hyper Elite Platinum design, Nike is maintaining its long-standing obligations to our fans to not only produce the best on-court looks but also a design that makes use of the resources we already have.”

Other teams scheduled to wear the uniforms include The University of Arizona, Baylor University (women’s), University of Florida, University of Kentucky, Syracuse University, The University of Connecticut (men’s and women’s) and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In 2011, Nike affirmed its commitment to increasing its use of more sustainable materials by doubling its use of recycled polyester, using approximately 440 million PET plastic bottles, enough to cover over 12,000 basketball courts, and 2012 will build off of those successes.

The short includes laser perforations in side panels for increased breathability while featuring a lightweight 4-way stretch woven design. The bonded hem detailing found on the short and the bonded back seam near the neckline on the jersey enhances both comfort and style. Additionally, the front of the jersey features a lightweight Nike Sphere fabric, while the back includes a full Nike Aerographics back panel.

The uniforms will hit the hardwood beginning late-January for some of oldest and strongest rivalries in college basketball.”

Coach K shared thoughtful remarks on the late Coach Joe Paterno in an ESPN interview yesterday, discussing Coach Paterno’s life, legacy and time they shared this summer during their TV special.