This team had no villains. Kyle Singler wasn't Christian Laettner, stomping on players and blowing kisses to the crowd. Jon Scheyer wasn't J.J. Redick, flashing the shocker in Chapel Hill. Nolan Smith wasn't Greg Paulus, flopping on a fast break

The Indianapolis Star pulled some editions of its newspaper - and its sports editor apologized to a Blue Devils spokesman - after about 30,000 copies of the paper were delivered with a photo illustration that poked fun at the dislike of the Duke program.

On a photo of coach Mike Krzyzewski, the illustrator drew in blue ink sketch that included a bulls-eye on the forehead, horns, glasses, moles and a mustache. 'LOSE!' is inked in seven times around his neck tie.

Whatever the reason, whether it be image, history, its coach Mike Krzyzewski (long ago, he crossed over to the non-hoops crowd through his appearances in national TV commercials) or successful myth-making, Duke has a huge, loyal national following. The fact that networks covering college basketball - like CBS and ESPN - have put, and kept, Duke on a pedestal, even during lean years, has contributed to its ratings consistency.

Which, apparently, is well worth the magic carpet the selection committee has equipped Duke with.

The experts on CBS and ESPN were not at liberty Sunday night to explain to you why the NCAA Tournament selection committee treated Duke like the No. 1 overall seed rather than Kansas, the nation's best basketball team.

The explanation is simple: Duke is television ratings gold, and the NCAA is in the process of negotiating a new TV contract for its prized tournament.

CBS, the current rights holder, and ESPN, America's 24-hour national sports network - along with several other networks - are currently participating in the contract negotiations. It's a high-stakes affair. CBS paid $6 billion to exclusively broadcast the event for the last 11 years.

In an effort to hoodwink a TV network into again overpaying for the Big Dance, the NCAA is considering expanding the tourney to 96 teams.

So it's only logical that the selection committee provided the Blue Devils - tournament-chokers for most of the last decade - a relative cakewalk to the Final Four. Duke, the alleged third No. 1 seed, is in the bracket with the weakest No. 2 (Villanova) and No. 3 (Baylor) and No. 4 (Purdue).

Meanwhile, the Jayhawks draw No. 2 seed Ohio State, the team many believe deserved a No. 1, and No. 3 Georgetown and No. 4 Maryland. Every expert I heard Sunday stated the obvious: Kansas is in the toughest bracket in the tournament, and Duke is in the easiest.

McLeod played at Duke and in the NBA, and was a lead recruiter for Crean. The timing indicates that there was a major mistake made by McLeod or a personality conflict somewhere.

And so, if you wanted to construct a sequence in which Greivis Vasquez would definitively pass Jon Scheyer as the front-runner for this year's conference honor, it might go like this: The Duke media relations staff leaves a huge pile of glossy brochures pushing Scheyer's candidacy in the Maryland media lounge, the two players both play key roles in a tremendous nationally televised basketball game that's destined to come down to the final few minutes, and when it finally gets to be crunch time, Vasquez hits a truly absurd shot while being defended by Scheyer, who then goes down and misses at the other end

Different season, same story.

Every year, it seems, we're led to believe the Duke Blue Devils have transformed themselves back into a legitimate Final Four contender. Some years, it's because of their tough perimeter defense. This year, it's purportedly because they've finally got some size and a legitimate point guard.

But take them out of the familiar confines of the ACC, put them in a rowdy venue like the grayed-out Verizon Center on Saturday against an elite non-conference foe like seventh-ranked Georgetown, and you find out real quickly that not much has changed about Mike Krzyzewski's team.

They're still not that athletic. They're still limited up front. And, despite what that No. 8 ranking before their name would indicate, they're still not ready for a run to Indianapolis.

We've seen this movie before. Duke blazes impressively out of the gates, is confronted by its limitations (size, depth or athleticism) in the latter third of the regular season, then hits the wall in March. The Devils haven't won more than two games in an NCAA tournament since 2004, despite having No. 1 seeds twice and No. 2 seeds twice as well.

This is yet another good Duke team, with yet another set of apparent flaws. The big men (the young Plumlee brothers, Lance Thomas, Brian Zoubek) are still nothing special. The leading men, Jon Scheyer and Kyle Singler, are still overworked. (Scheyer hasn't played fewer than 36 minutes in a game since December, and Singler has gone the full 40 in each of Duke's last two games.)

The Minutes will believe Duke might have a chance to win it all when it sees the Blue Devils actually advance past the Sweet 16 for the first time since Chris Duhon was in uniform.

The 7-1 Zoubek is making the most of his minutes. Zoubek is Duke's second-leading rebounder after Kyle Singler. The feat is more impressive considering he averages seven rebounds in 16 minutes per game. Alas, he also collects his share of fouls in that short amount of time. He has fouled out or picked up four fouls in 11 games this season. Still, rebounding was a problem going into the season, and Zoubek's performance has been a big surprise.