FanHouse GregMonroe

For the better part of three seasons, Notre Dame's ability to handle business at home was less a statistical trend and more a law of physics.

The Irish would rack up a score higher than a Saturday golfer at Augusta, mix in a pinch of defense and march on to the next game.

Expecting otherwise would be like biting into a popsicle only to scald your tongue. It simply didn't make sense. Forty-five times in a row it worked to perfection.

Despite Georgetown outshooting Duke from the floor (in terms of percentages anyway), Duke's defense managed to stifle the Hoyas just enough for Gerald Henderson's 23 points and Kyle Singler's double-double to be the difference in a top-15, Saturday afternoon matchup that resulted in a 76-67 Blue Devil win.

The box score doesn't necessarily indicate that Duke's defense was draped all over the Hoyas, but if you watched the game, you realize they were; particularly late in the first half -- and early in the second -- where Georgetown failed to score for over 8.5 minutes at one point.

A run by Georgetown brought them back within striking distance, but a pivotal technical foul on freshman Greg Monroe -- a highly contested recruit whose decision came down to spurning Mike Krzyzewski for the Hoyas -- gave Duke enough momentum to surge back to a large lead and finish off the game.

Georgetown freshman Greg Monroe couldn't have been more of a Duke guy if he'd been born with a birthmark shaped like the Blue Devil and given the middle name Krzyzewski.

He's pocket-protector smart, graduating with a 3.75 GPA from Louisiana's Helen Cox High School, so composed you could yell fire in a theater and he'd tell you to get of the way of the Paul Blart trailer, and grew up among that percentage of the population dwindling faster than an analog television set, those who like Duke basketball.

Heck, the guy probably helps old ladies to their seat during television breaks.