I walked into the RBC Center about 10 minutes before Duke and N.C. State were set to tip off, and the place was dead. I was stunned by the lack of atmosphere. With Duke coming in, I expected the arena to be rocking and the crowd to be roaring. I’ve been to the RBC Center when it was electric. There was none of that today.

And you know what? N.C. State played exactly like the crowd that was watching -- listless and with no emotion.

Meanwhile, Duke is getting better and better, and they just put it to the Wolfpack about as bad as it can get. Duke had State in full retreat, like General Pickett at Gettysburg.

“We are becoming a better team,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “ We prepared with passion and played with passion. We may not win them all, but we have to keep growing and we will keep getting better.”

This game was never close, and that passion was certainly a key. Duke played like they wanted it, that it mattered. State was just the opposite. This was a great opportunity for Sidney Lowe’s program to make a statement, and they were as flat as that old proverbial pancake.

“We hurt ourselves in so many ways”, State coach Sidney Lowe said. “We missed a couple of layups and I can deal with that. What I care about is the defensive end and covering the other team the way we should. Some of our guys didn’t show up tonight, and that was what upset me the most.”

I saw Duke lose to Virginia Tech two weeks ago, and their improvement over the past two weeks has been impressive.

The freshman Jon Scheyer had 20 points, three assists and just one turnover. Greg Paulus was again solid, with 13 points, four assists and two turnovers. You can see their confidence growing.

DeMarcus Nelson is so steady, with 15 points and six rebounds. Sidney Lowe calls him a tough kid. Nelson does so much more than score. He’s quick and he can defend.

The key for Duke is Josh McRoberts. I think he needs to take more than nine shots, but you can’t argue with his all-around game. He scored 13, had eight rebounds, two assists and no turnovers. Defensively, he completely neutralized Ben McCauley.

And Duke is getting good play off the bench from David McClure and Gerald Henderson. McClure does a lot of things, and Saturday he scored ten points. Henderson is the kind of athletic player Duke needs and you can see his confidence growing.

This was a good win for Duke. I will admit I thought N.C. State had the chance at home to beat a Duke team that that has won a lot of games, but has not been pretty doing it.

But State did nothing right. Courtney Fells missed two wide-open dunks. They shot 34 percent, turned it over 20 times, got out-rebounded -- but more than that, they played like they didn’t care. Gavin Grant, who’s been the backbone of the team, was a no-show.

On Saturday, these were two programs going in opposite directions. Duke jumped on the escalator going up. They seem to have learned from those back-to-back ACC losses. They are not a great team but they’re getting better. They're a young team that’s improving, and that’s just what Coach K is looking for.

Maybe N.C. State will get better if Engin Atsur ever returns. But on this Saturday, the Wolfpack looked like one of the league's basement dwellers. There wasn't much about their play that was encouraging.

When you hit rock-bottom, there’s only one way to go. Maybe this was State’s rock-bottom.