Steve Wojciechowski is in his eighth season on the Duke basketball staff, after a playing career with the Blue Devils that ended in 1998. A two-time All-ACC selection, "Wojo" earned national defensive player of the year honors from the National Association of Basketball Coaches as a senior. The former point guard still ranks among the Devils' all-time leaders in assists and steals.

Wojciechowski, 30, recently spoke with us about Duke's famous defense, the maturation of Greg Paulus, the Blue Devils' seven-man rotation, the arrival of Jon Scheyer, and many other topics.

"The reality of it is, we're fighting for our lives," Wojciechowski said. "I mean, we started out 0-2 in the conference. We don't feel, as a group, that we're entitled to anything."

DG: You're a former national defensive player of the year under Mike Krzyzewski, you've been an assistant coach on some of his better defensive teams, and you're part of a defensive tradition that has helped to define the Krzyzewski era at Duke. Can you put your finger on what Coach K does that makes him such a great teacher of the game in that area?

Wojo: You're absolutely correct. It is the foundation of our program. We always talk about defense first. I really think it goes back to when (Coach K) was a player. He had a chance to play for Bob Knight, who's certainly noted for his motion offense but has always been a very good defensive coach as well. On his Army teams, Coach (K) was a defensive stopper. That was his role, to protect the basketball and to guard the other team's best perimeter players. So I think it started and was ingrained into him when he was a player, and certainly now he's as passionate about defense as you possibly can be. He believes that's what makes a team one, and what wins championships.

DG: Roughly speaking, what percentage of time in Duke's practices is utilized for defense, as opposed to offense or rebounding or the fastbreak or free throws or anything else?

Wojo: I think everything is situational. Our major emphasis going into every game (is defense). I would say over half of practice time is dedicated to our defense, what we want to do on a game-to-game basis. But also, we always want to reinforce our foundation, and it starts with us playing great team defense. It's a habit that's built on a day-to-day basis, so it's something that we pay a great deal of attention to every day.

DG: On this Duke team, who are the best individual defenders and team defenders in the eyes of the coaches?

Wojo: Well, I think on the perimeter you have to look right away at (junior guard) DeMarcus Nelson. He's had an outstanding year. One of the areas of his game that's been most impressive to me is that he's always guarded the other team's best perimeter player. And he's done a great job, whether that's guarding a guy who has the ball in his hands for the majority of the game, or guarding a guy who plays off the ball most of the game. DeMarcus has very good athleticism, really good strength, and because he's our oldest player — which is hard to believe — he's got those habits ingrained the best. He's really been our best defensive player, especially on the perimeter.

Inside, especially recently, (sophomore forward) Josh McRoberts has done a very good job of protecting our basket. He's become a terrific shotblocker, and he does a really good job of protecting our paint. We like to put a lot of pressure on the other team's perimeter, and one of the things you give up at times is that teams try to break you down off the dribble. So you rely on your post players, your fours and fives, to do a great job of cleaning up any mess that's made (by dribble penetration). Josh has really done a great job of that for us.

DG: It's often said that defense is primarily about attitude. You weren't the fastest guy in the world laterally when you played, but you had a bulldog mentality that helped turn you into an award-winning defender. Is that mental approach the key to this year's team having some of the best defensive statistics in the nation?

Wojo: I really believe it is (primarily about attitude), and I'm a living testament to that. I don't have revisionist history or visions of grandeur. I know who I am as a player and a person. Certainly, I wasn't — by any stretch of any imagination — a great athlete. The thing I tried to do, though, was compete on every possession and give a greater effort — physically, mentally, concentration-wise, knowing my opponent.

I think a lot of defense is will. I mean, certainly it helps to be a heck of an athlete. But I would take somebody with a strong will and maybe not as athletic over somebody who's a great athlete but lacks concentration or lacks desire on the defensive end. I think a large part of defense is attitude, and just saying, "You know what? You're not gonna score on me. You're not gonna get to that spot." I think if you have that attitude, right away — regardless of what you bring to the table as an athlete — you have a good chance of being a good defender, and making the other player you're playing against work for what he's getting.

DG: Next to Coach K on the bench are three former Duke guards — you, Johnny Dawkins and Chris Collins — and one of the key players on this year's team is sophomore point guard Greg Paulus, who already has had plenty of ups and downs this season. What are the important things you remember about being a young point guard, and how has that shaped the way you're helping to coach Paulus through his challenges this year?

Wojo: One of the things I remember from being a young point guard is that the ACC is very unforgiving. You're playing against great players every night who are capable of doing great things on the basketball floor. With Greg being as young as he is, and being surrounded by a young supporting cast, he's been thrown into the fire and had to learn in difficult situations. We're very proud of him, that he is starting to show the benefits of his maturation process.

You've just gotta keep fighting. There are going to be times in everyone's growth process as a player where you may have times you're not playing as well or not playing up to your potential. You've gotta keep at it. That's certainly for Greg, but it's for all of our guys. We have so many young players who are trying to define who they are, and trying to define what their reference points are of success, and what their reference points are of failure, and how to have more success than you do failures.

Through that time, we have to be positive with our guys. We have to push them through their limits, but overall we have to be on their side and let them know that, as long as they're giving their best effort, we'll take whatever comes to us.

DG: At this point in the season, Duke is using basically a seven-man rotation. Is it going to stay that way, or is there still time for someone else to earn more minutes?

Wojo: Well, Coach (K) certainly doesn't go handing out anything. It's something that's earned on a day-to-day basis in practice. The reality of it is, we're fighting for our lives. I mean, we started out 0-2 in the conference. We don't feel, as a group, that we're entitled to anything. Certainly, our past teams have had a great deal of success in the NCAA Tournament, the ACC Tournament, the ACC regular season.

Our guys understand — all of them, from Josh McRoberts and DeMarcus Nelson through our last walk-on — that our main focus is winning basketball games. All of our guys need to be prepared to do whatever it takes to help us do that. We're all in it together. You earn playing time in practice, through your effort and your performance in practice. Then, once you get in the game, it's time to translate what you've done in practice to a game situation. We gotta go with the guys who give us the best chance to win on a night-to-night basis. The guys who aren't playing as much have to work their tails off in practice, and catch up and earn more playing time in a game.

DG: We all have our own personal lists of the most common questions we get from fans. On my Duke list are lots of questions about (sophomore guard) Marty Pocius. What are his strengths and weaknesses in practice? Why doesn't he play more? When will he play more?

Wojo: He's been hurt. He's really hurt his ankle a few times. Every time we've given him some time off, where he's taken a week and got rehabilitation, he's come back and he's tweaked it again. He can't seem to stay healthy. The things that Marty does the best? He's a kid who can score the basketball. We would wish for him, that he can get his body physically to 100 percent so he can practice every day and be a quality contributor to our team.

DG: What are (forwards) Lance Thomas and David McClure working on right now?

Wojo: We've been really excited about the development of the guys who are playing at the second big position, Lance and Dave. We feel like, especially in our latest wins, they've provided our team with a great deal of energy and emotion. Lance has really been a catalyst for that, and David McClure has fallen right in line.

For Lance, what we want him to do is create a foundation for himself as a player, as a guy who can be a defensive stopper at the high post and in the low post, a great help defender, terrific energy. Then, offensively, take what the game gives him. A lot of (defenses) focus on our team right now on Josh McRoberts and DeMarcus and Jon Scheyer and even Greg has been shooting the ball. Those guys (Thomas and McClure) have to be opportunistic scorers — opportunities to drive, opportunities to play off penetration, opportunities to go to the offensive board. We're trying to get those guys to seize on those opportunities when they aren't getting the focus of the other team's defense. Those are just some of the things we're working on with Lance. His energy and David McClure's energy really have been a key thing for our team's development, especially over the last few games.

DG: There aren't many rookies who lead Duke in scoring in ACC games, but Jon Scheyer is certainly one of the best freshmen in the conference, and it looks as if this year's Duke team needs that additional threat on the perimeter. What's the message to him from the coaching staff at this point?

Wojo: I'm glad you asked about him. It's certainly an outstanding freshman class across the board nationally, but Jon's just had a fantastic freshman year, and you never really hear him get talked about. I appreciate you recognizing what he's done. He's had a terrific freshman year. He's really been a good scorer for us, and we've been a team at times that has struggled to score.

Jon's been a scorer throughout his life. Everybody wants to kinda put him in the same mold as a J.J. Redick, and really their games aren't that similar. Jon's a scorer. He can score in a lot of ways. If he's open, he can knock down open shots. He can put the ball on the floor. He just creates scoring opportunities for himself, and because he scores he creates scoring opportunities for the guys who play with him.

So we've encouraged Jon not to defer. There aren't the senior leaders (this season). There isn't a hierarchy on our team. We want Jon to go out and seize the opportunity he has with this young team he's on and not to hold anything back. If he's open, we want him shooting the ball. If there's opportunities to drive, we want him driving. It's going to make everybody that he plays with a better player if he's doing those things.

DG: Paulus, Nelson and Scheyer against the 2007 versions of Collins, Wojo and Dawkins. What happens?

Wojo: Well, we've got the trump card in Dawkins. If you take Dawkins out of the equation, Chris and I probably get our butts whipped. One of the good things with Chris and I, we always had really good teammates. You play with (Shane) Battier and (Elton) Brand and (Trajan) Langdon, they have a way of making you look good. So I'm glad we have a good GM. We drafted well with Dawkins. Otherwise, we might be in trouble.