By BRYAN STRICKLAND

bstrickland@heraldsun.com; 419-6671

DURHAM -- Duke senior Jon Scheyer said he noticed more improvement from the Blue Devils over this offseason than any other offseason in his career.

Rather than the improvement coming from some revolutionary change in the team's offseason approach, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski simply credited a change in luck.

His Blue Devils have gotten better because they've felt better.

"Throughout Jon's career, almost every summer, his teammates were not about just getting better; they were getting healthy," Krzyzewski said. "This year they haven't been rehabilitating; they've been working on their games.

"That's a huge thing."

This time last year, guard Greg Paulus was seriously slowed by a knee injury, while Gerald Henderson was recovering from wrist surgery and Martynas Pocius from ankle surgery.

Believe it or not, that was actually better than Duke's lot the year before, when five players spent much of their summer and fall recovering from various surgeries, making it impossible for the team to play five-on-five pick-up games without recruiting a couple of student stand-ins.

But this season, as the Blue Devils embark on their first full week of practice leading up to their exhibition opener Saturday at 6:30 p.m. against Pfeiffer, the only player who's been worried about rehab is guard Jordan Davidson, a walk-on now on scholarship who's coming off back surgery.

"Having everybody healthy in the summer definitely helps," junior guard Nolan Smith said. "The chemistry is there, and we didn't have to wait until the first practice to start getting that chemistry.

"We're ready to roll."

As important as offseason health is to the growth of a team, in-season health obviously is even more important. That will especially be the case this season when it comes to Duke's perimeter.

Krzyzewski said that freshman Andre Dawkins will be Duke's first perimeter player off the bench; the reality is that he'll often be Duke's only perimeter player off the bench. Smith and Scheyer will start at the guard spots with Kyle Singler on the wing, with Dawkins, Davidson and former team manager Casey Peters representing the only guards on the bench.

"On our perimeter we don't have as much depth, but we have three guys who are going to play a lot of minutes," Krzyzewski said. "Those guys want to play every minute. We've got to make sure that we train them along the way and keep them fresh so they can do that, and then hopefully you don't get any injuries."

The perimeter would be even thinner if not for the late arrival of Dawkins, who was supposed to be a year away from playing college basketball but decided to work toward enrolling a year early when guard Elliot Williams transferred to Memphis.

Dawkins was a bit behind the learning curve in the offseason, finishing his high school requirements just before fall semester began. By contrast, fellow freshmen Mason Plumlee and Ryan Kelly were getting up to speed by spending a summer session on campus.

"For the first couple of weeks, I was kind of like a deer in headlights," Dawkins admitted. "They're throwing so much at you, and it's a lot to pick up.

"But I started buckling down and getting the hang of things. I'm definitely getting better at it."

Now that Dawkins is up to speed and all of his teammates were at full speed over the summer, the Blue Devils hope to start their schedule ahead of schedule.

"Getting a chance to have everybody together, playing with each other, going through workouts, nobody feels like they have to catch up," senior captain Lance Thomas said. "Everybody is pretty much on the same level. There's nobody lagging behind."