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DURHAM -- With the depth and the versatility Duke has on its basketball team, the Blue Devils should be able to do a lot of things.

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Intimidate isn't one of them, though.

"Obviously, we're not the most physically imposing team," assistant coach Steve Wojciechowski said.

Not when the biggest man on the team, 7-foot-1 sophomore center Brian Zoubek, is short on experience and still recovering from a broken foot he suffered during the summer. And not when the other alternative in the low post, sophomore forward Lance Thomas, is listed on the roster as 6-8, 220 pounds.

No, the Blue Devils won't be able to bang their opponents into submission. But, believe it or not, that's probably a good thing.

"We're a much stronger team," coach Mike Krzyzewski said.

Hold off for a moment on that seemingly contradictory statement and think back to the years when the Blue Devils were in the opposite personnel situation and played two true post players on the floor at the same time. There was the Shelden Williams-Josh McRoberts combination in 2005-06, the Shavlik Randolph-Williams pairing the season before that and the Erik Meek-Cherokee Parks duo in 1994-95.

Not exactly the most memorable Duke basketball seasons, were they?

Compare that with Duke's three national title teams. Grant Hill was the de facto power forward on the 1990-91 team, and Antonio Lang -- with the same lean and lanky body-type -- filled that role in 1991-92. Shane Battier was the less-than-imposing player in the four spot in 2000-01.

There's a theme here. The Blue Devils get along just fine when their second post player is actually someone who's short on beef but long on versatility.

Someone like ... freshman forward Kyle Singler. The jewel of Duke's 2007 recruiting class, Singler isn't a player who will wow you with any one particular skill. Rather, it's what he doesn't have that is most impressive.

"He does not have a weak area," Krzyzewski said. "He's going to be a special player."

There's also fellow freshman Taylor King. Though King is just 6-7 and has made his reputation as a 3-point shooter, he weighs 230 pounds and has shown during the preseason, as evidenced by 16 rebounds in 38 minutes of playing time, that he's comfortable with the physical game underneath.

Still, those title teams for the Blue Devils also had All-Americans underneath in Christian Laettner (1991 and '92) and Carlos Boozer (2001). While it's too early to truly judge the potential of Thomas and Zoubek, don't expect that level of performance from them this season.

But the Blue Devils think they have a way to compensate. As opposed to previous seasons, when Krzyzewski paid lip service to depth, then went about playing six or seven players, there are indications that this season Duke might actually go nine or 10 deep. If so, that would allow the Blue Devils to run a lot more on offense and apply more pressure -- sometimes even the full-court kind -- on defense.

"We started to put in this system last year, but then we weren't even sure if we were going to have a point guard," Krzyzewski said. "We just didn't have the depth to play this. But now we have two point guards. We can keep up that tempo."

If that second point guard, freshman Nolan Smith, had any doubts about whether Krzyzewski was serious about fast-forwarding things, they were removed by the Duke coach early in the Blue Devils' first exhibition, against Barton College.

"He sat me down after I checked in in the first half, after like a minute, and he said, 'You're walking the ball,' " Smith said. "So when I got back in there, I knew he wanted us to run, no matter what."

A running style on offense would seem to suit Thomas in particular, who should be able to beat most of his bigger, slower post counterparts down the floor. And on defense, Krzyzewski envisions Thomas at the point of his press, similar to the role James Mays plays at Clemson.

As for those times when an opponent is able to set up its offense and look to a strong low-post scoring option -- i.e. North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough, N.C. State's J.J. Hickson and Ben McCauley, Georgia Tech's Ra'sean Dickey, to name a few -- the Blue Devils don't think they'll need the reincarnation of "The Landlord" to get by.

"It's five guys playing defense at the same time," said senior swingman DeMarcus Nelson. "It'll be up to our help-side guys to rotate, or if we need to double-down on the post, those are things we'll need to do. But I think that we'll be all right down there."

With everything else Duke has going for it this season, "all right" in the post should be good enough.

Contact Jim Young at 373-7016 or jyoung@news-record.com