This time, was different. There was no craziness. No celebration. Not even Jim Larrañaga mentioning he took the Miami job for fun nights like this, against great programs like Duke, with magic filling the air.
This time after Miami beat Duke, 80-69, coach Mike Krzyzewski said simply, "They're better than we are. They're one of the best teams."
Then he repeated that, as if to underline the idea, "They're one of the best teams."
This time, you see, Miami expected to beat Duke in the way age expects to beat youth, and a team that's all grown up expects to beat a team still on training wheels.