This Blue Devils team ranks among best in school history.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Just about every year at this time, we start flipping through our memories, trying to figure out where the current Duke team ranks among all of those Blue Devils who have cut down nets and hung banners in the rafters.

That in itself is testimony to the success of this program. It is compared with itself, not with others. Well, there is always a glance down the road to Chapel Hill, where glory glares back. And sometimes mention of John Wooden's run at UCLA, but that was another time. Today, the essence of Blue Devils basketball can be found in Shane Battier's simple but profound exhortation to his teammates:

"The people expect Duke. Let's give `em Duke." …