By BRYAN STRICKLAND

bstrickland@heraldsun.com; 419-6671

DURHAM -- On a night filled with a little bit of everything, Duke junior Nolan Smith delivered perhaps a little bit too much.

Leading up to Friday's Blue-White scrimmage, the centerpiece event of "Countdown to Craziness" at Cameron Indoor Stadium, a set of movie-spoofing skits were highlighted by Smith reprising Kate Winslet's role in Titanic, namely the scene where a disrobed Winslet poses for a painting.

At the end of the evening, Smith showed nearly as much skin, taking off his uniform during the dunk contest to reveal a Johnny Dawkins throwback uniform, complete with the too-short shorts.

And in between the laughs, Smith enjoyed the last laugh in the scrimmage.

Smith played with all of his fellow starters in the first 12-minute game and exploded for 15 points to lead his White team to a 40-17 victory. Smith switched to the Blue team along with starter Miles Plumlee for the second game and helped it rally to victory, hitting two free throws with 0.8 seconds left for a 33-31 win.

Over the two games, Smith scored 25 points on 10-of-14 shooting.

"I was just being aggressive, and my teammates were looking for me," said Smith, who hit three 3-pointers in fewer than four minutes of the first game. "The coaches want me to be aggressive, so I got into the flow of the game early."

Duke's other returning starters weren't far behind, with Kyle Singler chipping in 20 points and Jon Scheyer scoring 18 and dishing out 12 assists.

The best action came over the final five minutes, when Scheyer, Singler and freshman Andre Dawkins (14 points) all hit 3-pointers in rapid fashion in the White team's attempt to stave off a Blue rally from an 11-point deficit. Freshman Seth Curry (10 points), in the only game action he will have this season while he sits out following his transfer from Liberty, missed his first six shots but drilled a trio of 3-pointers over the final four minutes to rally the Blue.

Then after the dramatic finish, a dunk contest featured Smith's best Johnny Dawkins impersonation.

"I just wanted to do something different, go retro, and pulling out Johnny Dawkins is definitely going retro," Smith said. "I hope I gave everybody a good laugh.

"I was the only person with a prop. I definitely thought I was going to get in the finals, but not with them dunkers."

The finals came down to Andre Dawkins and sophomore Olek Czyz, who got the most spirited response from the near-capacity crowd by bouncing the ball in front of him, jumping and grabbing it with his left hand and then passing it through his legs to his right hand for an emphatic slam.

Czyz and Dawkins shared the title after both got perfect scores on a pair of dunks in the finals.

"That's like my face, the way that people know me -- as a dunker," Czyz said. "I'm getting back from knee surgery, so I haven't been able to do a lot of stuff. This was the first time I've been able to do that.

"It was a lot of fun to do it in front of the Crazies."

The entire evening was about fun first, from skits shown on the scoreboard featuring the Duke Improv (assistant coach Steve Wojciechowski merits mention for his portrayal of Don Corleone) to contests that featured fans playing musical chairs with a basketball twist.

"Crazie Choice Awards" included Christian Laettner's famed shot to beat Kentucky in the 1992 NCAA Tournament as the "Best Buzzer Beater" and Duke's remarkable rally at Maryland in 2001 as "Best Comeback."

Laettner, a guest coach along with Bobby Hurley, and Jason Williams were on hand to accept the awards.

The players and staff put a lot of preparation into Friday's festivities, and now with practice underway -- including an autograph session (11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.) and open practice (1-3 p.m.) today -- they'll begin building toward more serious stuff.

"It was amazing; it was a great atmosphere," Smith said. "We did a lot leading up to this. We just had a lot of fun, and all of it was great team bonding.

"We had a lot of laughs, and we want to have a lot of fun winning this year."