I just thought it useful to point out two specific examples from tonight that might help provide a little perspective about our team and season so far.
Missouri (#3) lost at home by 10 to a decent but unranked K-State team. G-Town (#9) lost to an unranked Seton Hall team on the road by almost 20. (Also, as I write this Michigan (#11) is losing to a very mediocre Northwestern team at the half by 7).
What I've often noticed in discussions about Duke (and not just this year, but over the past several) is that we fans, particularly after a loss, tend to magnify the flaws of our team while simultaneously magnifying the perceived dominance of other teams in comparison. "We'll never be able to compete with teams a,b,c becasue of fatal flaws x,y,z with our team." However, what we're really comparing our team against is, for the most part, some mythical dominant team that doesn't really exist. Many assume that there are 10 UNLV circa-1990 teams out there just waiting to eat our lunch in the tourney if we don't somehow fix all the things perceived as hopelessly wrong.
Syracuse and Kentucky this year notwithstanding, I don't see any teams that are better than Duke. The field is pretty much open for teams 3-15 or even 20. And even Syracuse and Kentucky have flaws (rebounding and youth respectively) that can be exploited in the right circumstances and match-ups.
All of this is to say that, whatever happens on Thursday, some perspective is in order as tonight's examples show. This team may (or may not) make a great run in the Touney. As it often does, it will depend greatly on match-ups and even a little luck. In the meantime, let's enjoy the ride! Go Duke!