DURHAM, N.C. -- So, Kentucky plays Duke. It's about time those bluebloods played somebody. Since getting rocked in their first game, they've waded through a procession of overmatched teams capped by a blowout of a stumbling giant.

You may be thinking of Kentucky.

We're thinking of Duke.

	Carlos Boozer has dominated in the paint. But can he carry Duke during a night when its perimeter shots aren't falling?

Will the Blue Devils lose this season? Maybe yes, maybe no -- maybe Tuesday at the Meadowlands. Only now, in this game, does the Duke schedule spit out a team that just might have the talent, depth and experience to do it.

Iowa probably wasn't that team. A highly touted game became another Duke tidal wave, 80-62, and since then the Hawkeyes have proven impossible to decipher, beating Missouri but only after losing to Northern Iowa and then trailing Alabama -- sorry, Alabama State -- by 10 at the half. So Iowa likely wasn't the anti-Duke barometer.

Seton Hall wasn't that team, either, though the Pirates stunned Duke for 39 minutes of the season opener before unraveling in the 40th, 80-79, at the Maui Invitational.

Kansas might have been that team. UCLA (before Cedric Bozeman's injury) might have been that team. But the No. 5 Jayhawks and No. 17 Bruins tripped over Ball State in the preliminary rounds at Maui and weren't there to greet Duke in the championship game.

Temple wasn't that team, not with starting center Kevin Lyde out with an ankle sprain and starting guard David Hawkins academically ineligible. Temple, come back in March when your team is whole. In December, when your team was not, the score was 82-57.

Michigan, the most recent "name" team on Duke's schedule, certainly wasn't that team. Good grief, after opening leads of 34-2 last season and 29-4 this season, Duke gives new meaning to Fab Five when it plays the Wolverines, doesn't it? As in, Michigan has scored five -- fabulous!

Which brings us, and Duke, to Kentucky. The Wildcats haven't quite demonstrated the ability to hand Duke its first loss of the season, but then, the Wildcats haven't had much of a chance. After losing its opener to Western Kentucky, Kentucky beat Marshall, Morehead State, Kent State and VMI. A struggling North Carolina team (see: Binghamton) was then mauled 79-59 by the 'Cats 10 days ago, and Kentucky took care of some in-state Division II fodder (Kentucky State) by 55 on Saturday.

Not exactly a giant-killing pedigree.

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski fully expects someone to hand his team a loss. Publicly, anyway. To say anything else would be to laugh at history, which shows Indiana as the last team to go through a season undefeated. That was 1976.

"We don't ever talk about going undefeated," Krzyzewski said. "How stupid is that?"

Pretty stupid for a team that must play No. 2 Maryland twice and No. 6 Virginia twice, as Duke must. Maryland beat Duke last season at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Virginia beat Duke in Charlottesville.

Pretty stupid for a team that must play Jan. 24 at Boston College, which in Troy Bell and Ryan Sidney has a backcourt that can rival Duke's Jason Williams and Chris Duhon. And pretty stupid for a team that still must play Kentucky.

"They're a great team, and we usually play great games with them," said Duke junior Mike Dunleavy. "We'll have to play our best."

More unlikely things have happened than Duke going undefeated this season, with a Hall of Fame coach guiding a roster with five or six future NBA players, including the likely No. 1 overall pick next year (Williams). Things like Kentucky's Tayshaun Prince's opening salvo against North Carolina. Prince hit five 3-pointers on five consecutive possessions for the Wildcats' first 15 points. Teams definitely have gone undefeated in college basketball. Nobody has ever done what Prince did to UNC, to the best of our knowledge.

"What he did in those first five or six minutes was remarkable," Krzyzewski said, "but then that's why he's an All-American."

	“	This is a good-shooting basketball team, so I don't care what the numbers say. I think when all is said and done, at the end of the year you'll see this is a team that can shoot the basketball. ”
		— Jason Williams, Duke junior guard

Duke has one or two of those, too, but still, Duke could lose Tuesday at the Meadowlands. College teams with cozy gyms -- like Cameron Indoor Stadium -- generally don't shoot all that well in the massive Meadowlands, where the rims seem to hang in the middle of nowhere and look about as small as drink coasters. And the fact is, while Duke has dominated almost every game it has played this season, it has been least dominant when the 3-pointers aren't falling.

Not counting a 104-62 romp against hopelessly outmatched Portland, Duke's margin of victory has had a correlation to its proficiency from 3-point range. Three times in their first seven victories, the Blue Devils shot at least 39.4 percent on 3-pointers -- and those were the three non-Portland games they won by 20 or more points. In their other four victories, the Blue Devils shot 34.8 percent or worse from behind the arc and won by an average margin of 11.8 points. On the season, the Blue Devils are shooting worse from 3-point range (34.2 percent) than their opponents (35 percent).

"This is a good-shooting basketball team, so I don't care what the numbers say," said guard Jason Williams. "I think when all is said and done, at the end of the year you'll see this is a team that can shoot the basketball."

But is this a team that can survive on the nights it doesn't shoot well against a good opponent with a deep inside presence? Kentucky has that kind of presence, with 6-foot-10 Marvin Stone, 6-9 Marquis Estill and 6-11 Jules Camara. Duke does not.

Junior center Carlos Boozer is shooting 58.8 percent from the field and 82.7 percent from the line, and is averaging 17.1 points per game. But after him, the trio of 6-10 Nick Horvath, 6-11 Casey Sanders and 6-10 Matt Christensen averages a scant 4.9 points in 25.8 minutes.

"We've got to get our big guys moving to the level of the other guys," Krzyzewski said.

But if they don't? Imagine Duke having to play with Boozer in foul trouble and its 3-pointers rattling all over the cavernous Meadowlands. Imagine Kentucky getting something special from Prince and something vengeful from junior forward Keith Bogans, who scored just two points against North Carolina. Imagine Kentucky winning.

Otherwise, imagine Duke entering the new year undefeated -- as it did in 1992, '93 and '94. Ah, and entering the new year undefeated has agreed with the Blue Devils, who reached the NCAA championship game in two of those three years and won it all in 1992.

Krzyzewski doesn't sound so optimistic. "I think we're good," he said. "I don't think we're terrific."

That's OK. When you're Duke, good usually is good enough.

Gregg Doyel covers college basketball for The Charlotte Observer and is a regular contributor for ESPN.com. He can be reached at gdoyel@charlotteobserver.com.