With the collective gone to the NBA, a college basketball loving nation knew it would be up to Tre Jones to lead the Duke Blue Devils with such a young roster surrounding him.

In Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night, while the offense wasn't pretty, the sophomore guard did just that, scoring 15 points and playing his usual style of terrific defense.

The Duke Blue Devils did defeat the more experienced Kansas Jayhawks, thanks to Kansas turning the ball over 28 times, but it certainly helped that Jones was there to steady the Duke ship.

“The difference maker was Tre. Lot of young guys, lot of new guys,” Mike Krzyzewski said. “We really tried to play good defense in our first 30 practices. We played really good defense (tonight). It starts with that kid. Really happy with my team. Terrific win for us.”

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Obviously, it is only one game, but Duke does look like a team that will need to focus on its defense, as the offense is — at best — a work in progress. With that being the case, expect Tre Jones to continue to play a huge part in everything Blue Devils related.

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