His angry stare from the bench seems to sear referees. A snarl of disgust from the Duke leader gets his team back in line, and fast.

But on a spring day when the Blue Devil empire threatened to crumble around him, Krzyzewski showed a softer side.

He cried.

From those tears sprang a new beginning. Duke’s loss to Connecticut in the NCAAchampionship game no longer mattered. The stunning departure of five players, three of those leaving early for the NBAdraft, became distant memories. His physical pain became an afterthought on that April day when, recovering from hip-replacement surgery, ChrisCarrawell, Shane Battier and Nate James paid a visit to his home.

“With all the stuff that was happening, they just came out and said, ‘Coach, we just want to know how you’re doing,’”Krzyzewski says. “It made me cry. It was like, ‘You care.’ We talked for a long time that afternoon, and we talked about next year. That was the start of this year’s team.”

This year’s Duke team was minutes removed from cutting down the nets Sunday at the ACCTournament when Krzyzewski opened up about his team’s emotional journey this season. Acursory glance shows few changes from last year: Duke stormed to the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season and tournament titles in 2000, finishing 18-1 in the league; the 1999 squad did the same, only without the one loss. Both Duke teams stood No. 1 in the final AP Top 25 polls and had No. 1 seeds in the NCAATournament.

Even the talent level and sky-high expectations heaped on both teams are remarkably similar. And that may be the root of the biggest emotion of all at Duke these days.

Surprise.

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A decade of Duke dominance ended with a thud last March. The Huskies stunned the nation with a 77-74 win in the NCAAchampionship game, and the bad news kept flowing out of Durham.

Sophomore Elton Brand, the national Player of the Year, announced his intention to enter the NBADraft. He made history as the first player in Krzyzewski’s 19-year reign at Duke to leave school early for the pros.

Then, in rapid-fire succession, sophomore point guard William Avery and freshman sensation Corey Maggette also declared for the draft. Junior forward ChrisBurgess, disappointed with a lack of playing time, decided to transfer. The team’s rock, five-year star Trajan Langdon, graduated in May and also headed for the NBA.

“Everybody was leaving us,” Carrawell says. “Quin Snyder left (to take over the head coaching job at Missouri). We lost a couple people off sports information!

“We went over and saw coach. I was like, ‘Are you going to be ready to coach us this year?’” Carrawell says. “He was like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to be ready,’ and I said, ‘Look, if you’re ready to coach us, then we’re going to have a great year.’”

Even after the long heart-to-heart talk, Krzyzewski needed to be sure. He had to be certain the Blue Devils had a senior leader in place for the arduous task ahead.

“I asked them, ‘Do you believe what I’m saying?’ Krzyzewski says. “AndCarrawell — this was where Carrawell took over the leadership of this basketball team — he leaned forward in his chair and he said, ‘Coach, if you say it, I believe it.’

“This has been a team where, when we say stuff, they believe it, and it started on that day.”

“That was definitely the start,” Carrawell agrees.

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Five months later, some of the optimism had faded. When Carrawell, Battier and James looked around the practice court in October, they saw seven new faces.

When those newcomers took stock in the 1999-2000 BlueDevils, they saw just three upperclassmen — all role players lost in a galaxy of stars.

“It’s easy when you can play off Elton Brand, Trajan Langdon. Icould sneak in, get a couple baskets and that’s cool,”Carrawell says. “Myself and Shane, now we’re the guys. You got some young freshmen coming in that don’t know nothing. You lose all that talent, it’s tough.”

Duke did catch one break. Those young freshmen Carrawell worried over came highly touted, and with good reason. Jason Williams, the prep player of the year, stepped in at point guard. Mike Dunleavy Jr. boasted a silky-smooth shot worthy of a coach’s son. And Carlos Boozer became the latest Alaskan Assassin, making the long journey to North Carolina with a devastating low-post game instead of Langdon’s deadly outside touch.

“Each year is its own entity. Although there were losses, there were great things that happened to our players,”Krzyzewski says. “We’ve never talked about last year. When you get additions like Jason Williams, Carlos Boozer, Mike Dunleavy, Nick Horvath, Casey (Sanders), then the new roles that the upper class had, that’s what makes college coaching so interesting, because there’s a newness about it every year.”

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New didn’t sit well at first. Duke opened the season Nov. 11 with an 80-79 loss to Stanford in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic in New York. The next night, UConn dealt the Blue Devils another defeat, 71-66. For the first time since the 1958-59 season, a Duke team opened its schedule with consecutive losses.

“You really don’t know if things are going to pay off because we opened the year 0-2,”Carrawell says. “We were like, ‘Man, maybe we do suck, we lost all these guys, I wish they were back!’ But we got on a little roll and good things can happen.”

Eighteen straight wins later, doubts about Duke vanished. The Blue Devils set an ACCrecord for consecutive league wins at 31, a streak Maryland broke Feb. 9 before a shocked crowd at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

But it would be the only blemish on Duke’s league record. Carrawell, the only senior, averages 17.4 points a game and earned ACCPlayer of the Year honors. Battier also scores 17 points a game, while James emerged as the team’s clutch shooter and averages 11 points a game.

The freshmen, meanwhile, grew up in a hurry. Boozer scores 13 points and grabs six rebounds a game. Williams dishes out six assists a game and scores 14 points. The crucial sixth man is Dunleavy, in double figures at 10 points a game.

The Blue Devils completed the first step of their emotional journey Sunday in Charlotte. Against the sameTerrapin team that rattled Duke in the regular season, the BlueDevils exacted revenge with an 81-68 win in the championship game.

After the nets came down and trophies passed out, Williams reveled in an MVPperformance. A more contemplative Carrawell pondered the accomplishment of winning back-to-back championships. Especially under the circumstances.

“I thought, ‘Well, if we come in second that’d be good,’”Carrawell says of preseason expectations. “For us to come back and win, finish the year the No. 1 team …”

All that remains is the NCAATournament, March Madness, the most emotional time of the year for most teams.

Except this one.

“I like our team,”Krzyzewski says. “Our team’s really good. It’s not a great team, but it’s really good. It’s got a chance.”

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