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CHAPEL HILL — Duke is a work in progress, and that might not be a good thing for everyone else in the ACC and it might not be a good thing for Duke.

Wednesday night, inside the breezy Dean Dome, it wasn't a good thing for Carolina.

A season not unlike many others in recent years for the Blue Devils has eighth-ranked Duke poised for another run into the postseason, and like last season it has already included a works project that altered the very way the Blue Devils play.

Whether the midseason alterations to a well-aged offense will make Duke better really isn't the question as the Blue Devils get ready for the second half of the ACC season. The question is whether it will carry Duke into April.

The new offense, which hardly looked like a work of art, carried the Blue Devils to a 64-54 win over North Carolina, the third win since Mike Krzyzewski decided to scrap the old ways and open up the floor for his best player — junior Kyle Singler. The new offense became necessary after Krzyzewski watched the old one wash ashore Jan. 30 in a demoralizing loss at Georgetown.

"It's not magic," Krzyzewski said last week.

He was talking about the nuances of the Singler offense, but he was alluding to the basics of the new way. The new way isn't as radical as the last new way, which Duke instituted last season when it became apparent to Krzyzewski that his best point guard wasn't speedy Nolan Smith but slow, sure-handed Jon Scheyer.

That offensive shift carried Duke to an ACC championship. This one is designed to take the Blue Devils deeper into the NCAA tournament. Duke hasn't won a national title since 2001, hasn't been to a Final Four since 2004 and has made the Sweet Sixteen just once in the past three seasons.

Krzyzewski wasn't thinking of all that when he decided to revamp the offense. He was tired of watching his best player struggle to get shots. The new system is really a set that allows Singler to roam for open spots. He can, Krzyzewski said, go anywhere he wants.

"There is no play," he said after the Georgia Tech win.

Duke's recent haul of big men has allowed Krzyzewski to tinker, and he decided their best talent right now is to set screens. In particular, back screens that allow Singler to pop out of the lane for 3-pointers. The new offense still is based on the jumper.

That leads to nightmarish results sometimes, many of them in recent NCAA tournaments going back to the days of Shelden Williams and J.J. Redick. And it led to a nightmare Wednesday night. Duke shot under 32 percent and won anyway. Earlier this season, the Devils shot 28 percent and beat Connecticut.

"I think we're a very good basketball team," Krzyzewski said. "I don't think we're a great team. I know we're not a great team. But we do have pretty good heart."

Heart wins games in February and it wins games in April. It's the games in between that he has to figure out how to win.

"During February, one you have to qualify for the NCAAs," Krzyzewski said. "Now we're qualified. We have eight conference wins. How do we get better? How do we use this time to become a better basketball team? I'm trying to coach this team like I did with my teams in the '80s. Not the early '80s. Like I did in the mid- to like late-'80s. That's really the kind of team we have."

Those teams were a mix of experience and young talent, teams that rode upperclassmen deep into the NCAA tournament as a young coach from Army planned and schemed and tore up plans and schemes and willed his teams to victory.

In the minutes after the current senior class won its 100th game, after Duke finally snapped a three-game losing streak to its archrival, Krzyzewski considered the victory in the bigger picture. If his team got better Wednesday night, only he noticed. If he plans to stick with the new motion offense, only he knows.

Duke lost a key player when Lance Thomas went down with what the coach called a "serious injury." Thomas, a senior, could be lost for the season. That, of course, would mean another new offense, maybe one from the mid-'80s when Johnny Dawkins ran everything, or one from the late '80s, when Quin Snyder and Danny Ferry ran things.

"It's always about the players," Krzyzewski said.

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com