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GREENSBORO — It’s fitting, somehow, that on the night Mike Krzyzewski passed a man named Smith in the record books it was on the strength of a group of guards led by a player named Smith.

Nolan Smith, Duke’s on-again-off-again point guard, was definitely on again Wednesday night at the sold-out Greensboro Coliseum.

Smith scored a season-high 26 points on 8-for-12 shooting, dished out nine assists against no turnovers and made three of Duke’s 13 steals as the Blue Devils crushed UNCG 108-62 in their final tune-up before ACC play.

The victory was No. 880 for Krzyzewski, moving him past North Carolina legend Dean Smith for second place on the all-time list. Krzyzewski’s mentor, Bobby Knight, retired with 902.

“Coach K hadn’t talked about it at all,” Nolan Smith said. “Even going into tonight he didn’t mention anything. His focus is always this team and the next play. Tonight he finally let us embrace him a little bit for his accomplishment, but the last thing he said was, 'All right, let’s get back to Durham and the next play.’ He’s already ready to move on.”

Lost in the hub-bub surrounding the coaching milestone was the play of Duke’s guards, who are still adjusting to new roles since the injury to star freshman — and leading scorer — Kyrie Irving.

On this night, in front of 22,178 mostly Duke fans, Irving was a no show, given an extended holiday break to stay home and rest the toe injury on his right foot. He missed his fourth consecutive game.

Duke hasn’t missed a beat. 

Smith has moved back to the point, the primary ball-handler for the first time since Krzyzewski blew up his offense after a horrendous loss at Clemson two seasons ago. Jon Scheyer took the reins then, and Irving took them from Scheyer.

But Smith is a senior now, older, wiser, better. And around him are talented guards who know their roles: Seth Curry, Andre Dawkins and Tyler Thornton.

All four were too much for UNCG. They combined for 17 assists and just two turnovers against the Spartans. They scored 54 points.

“We’re very comfortable together,” Smith said. “It hasn’t been very long that we’ve been without (Irving), and we’re still trying to figure out what we have to do to be even sharper. Definitely taking care of the ball is our main thing. We want to get a good shot every possession.”

They got them against overmatched UNCG. Open jumpers. Fast-break dunks. Drives to the basket. All of it added up to a 61 percent shooting night.

“You could tell it was something special to their players,” UNCG coach Mike Dement said of Duke. “They played really well. They played really hard. And, boy, did they shoot it well. Anything we gave them, they knocked down. And we had some turnovers out front I’m sure led to some TV highlights.”

They were guard-driven highlights for a group that is very much still a work in progress.

“We’re still getting ready,” said Curry, who scored 15 points on 5-for-10 shooting. “It’s really a new team with Kyrie out, so we’ve got kind of a new offensive style. These few games have helped us a lot getting ready for the ACC. Now it’s just a few days of practice to get ready for Miami.”

Contact Jeff Mills at 373-7024 or jeff.mills@news-record.com