By JACK DALY

Special to the Herald-Sun

DURHAM -- Already thin on the perimeter, Duke got a sense of what life would be like if one of its guards misses time this season by sitting Nolan Smith for the first half of Tuesday's exhibition against Findlay.

It was an apt exercise.

Smith will miss the first two games of the regular season for partaking in an unsanctioned summer league event near his home in Washington, D.C. Duke's junior guard forgot to clear his participation in the games with the school's compliance department, which caused a problem when Smith told the Blue Devils' coaching staff upon his return to campus for the second summer school session.

Duke's coaches alerted compliance, and the NCAA's verdict came down a couple of weeks ago: Smith was suspended for Duke's first two games, which are against UNC Greensboro (Nov. 13) and Coastal Carolina (Nov. 16).

"It was basically a mess-up on my part," Smith said after No. 9 Duke beat Division II Findlay 84-48 at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

"Before anything, they ask us to get permission. I just went out there not thinking just playing a pick-up game with my friends. I didn't get permission, so now I'm going to have to face the punishment."

Duke was not sure if Smith played in one or two unsanctioned games -- Smith said one, but Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski said it may have been two -- so they self-reported two to the NCAA.

That is the reason Smith has to sit out two games instead of one.

When former North Carolina point guard Raymond Felton played in an unsanctioned summer event in 2004, he only had to miss one game, which the 2004-05 Tar Heels ended up losing to Santa Clara.

"It's a very common occurrence," Krzyzew- ski said. "It's a common occurrence. Actually, it's something that I'm not a big -- I think kids should be able to play wherever the hell they want to play. But that wasn't protesting or anything for me. He shouldn't have done it.

"This is what every college basketball player has to know -- don't play in a game that has time and score unless it's a sanctioned game."

With Smith sitting out the first half in what Krzyzewski called a "dry run" for the first two games, Duke started one of its tallest lineups in recent memory.

Aside from the 6-5 Jon Scheyer at the point, there was 6-8 Kyle Singler at shooting guard, 6-8 Lance Thomas at small forward, 6-10 Miles Plumlee at power forward and 7-1 Brian Zoubek at center.

Duke's offense didn't hum along in the first half, shooting 39.4 percent while committing 10 turnovers against nine assists.

"I don't think we played big when the big lineup was in," Krzyzewski said. "We were not aggressive inside, and I told the guys after the game, 'When you get the ball inside, you score the ball.' There's a big difference, especially if you get an offensive rebound. You don't shoot it -- you score it.

"Scoring means that you see contact -- you want to get points."

When Smith finally made it onto the court in the second half, the offense perked up, allowing the Blue Devils to methodically build what was a 13-point lead at halftime to 43 points -- 80-37 -- with 5:20 remaining.

Singler led the way with for the Blue Devils with 20 points while Scheyer finished with 19.

"Overall, I thought we did a decent job," Scheyer said. "We could have done better offensively. We had too many turnovers and some bad shots. We need to let the game come to us, and we have a big lineup that caused some mismatches."

Without Smith, it's a lineup that will stick around for another two games.

"It was exciting to see the biggest team I've ever seen play on the court with Jon and Kyle in the backcourt," Smith said. "The first two games are going to be tough watching them play, but I've just got to take the punishment and come back strong when it's over."