DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — Duke coach Jon Scheyer entered January seemingly grappling a bit with exactly how to bring out the best from his remade roster.
He's found answers as the fourth-ranked Blue Devils close the month in dominating fashion.
The Blue Devils are mauling teams with their frontline led by star freshman Cameron Boozer, both when it comes to scoring in the paint and attacking the glass. There's been defensive improvement, too, with finding the right lineup combinations as well as tweaking the approach. And the Blue Devils are winning games in lopsided fashion, most recently by thumping No. 20 Louisville on Monday night to remain unbeaten in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
“I’ve said to you guys before in January: I feel you get a chance to really learn about the identity of your team and who we can be," Scheyer said after the 83-52 win against the Cardinals. "That doesn’t mean winning or losing. I think it just means understanding the process and understanding the areas you have to grow and get better.”
There had been closer-than-expected wins against Georgia Tech, Florida State and an SMU team playing without top scorer Boopie Miller as league play began. But the past four games have stood out for the Blue Devils (19-1, 8-0 ACC), starting with a two-game cross-country trip for league play. It explains why the Blue Devils — with their past three wins by 30, 21 and 31 points — now have nine Quadrant 1 wins that headline a postseason résumé to tie top-ranked Arizona for most in the country as they head into Saturday's trip to Virginia Tech.
It also shows the 38-year-old Scheyer's willingness to adjust as the personality of his roster develops in his fourth season as successor to retired Hall of Famer Mike Krzyzewski.
“I mean, we’re definitely starting to get it going,” Boozer said. “We can still be a lot better.”
Duke has leaned into its frontcourt edge with Boozer, the 6-foot-9, 250-pound forward who ranks among the national leaders in scoring (23.5 points per game); the 6-11, 250-pound Patrick Ngongba II; and the versatile 6-9, 225-pound defensive whiz Maliq Brown. That's meant relentlessly attacking the interior or running offense through Boozer, who is a deft passer against collapsing pressure or double teams to set up teammates.
As a result, Duke has outscored California, Stanford, Wake Forest and Louisville in the paint by a combined 176-62 margin.
Additionally, the Blue Devils have outscored those four teams by a combined 68-25 in second-chance points. They outrebounded them by 15.5 per game, a margin that ranks best in the country for that span dating to the Jan. 14 win at Cal, according to SportRadar.
Along the way, the Blue Devils have ventured further from Scheyer's preferred style of switching defensively. Scheyer has also talked about simplifying the game plan to “give these guys less," allowing them to hone in on a shorter to-do list.
It all feels different from the perimeter-driven approach with last year's Final Four team, led by Associated Press national player of the year and No. 1 overall NBA draft pick Cooper Flagg and fellow lottery pick Kon Knueppel joining him on the wing.
“I never thought we'd be playing smash-mouth basketball as much,” Scheyer quipped after Saturday's win against Wake Forest.
The latest show came against the Cardinals, who feature a guard-driven roster for a team picked as the top challenger to the preseason ACC favorite Blue Devils.
Duke led by just one late in the first half before closing with a 9-0 spurt before the break, while Louisville struggled offensively all night and had a 3-for-22 stretch over 15-plus minutes spanning halftime.
“Got our butt kicked. That's about the extent of my statement,” Louisville coach Pat Kelsey said before going on to repeat a variation of that blunt assessment roughly a dozen more times in his postgame news conference.
By the end of the night, Duke had posted numbers — 42-10 edge in points in the paint, 16-5 in second-chance points, 47-26 in rebounding — that are becoming a habit.
The Cardinals also shot just 29.6% while touted freshman Mikel Brown Jr. — considered a top NBA draft prospect — had a rough debut at Cameron Indoor Stadium by finishing with seven points on 1-for-13 shooting.
It was roughly three weeks ago that the Blue Devils went to Louisville and rallied from 12 down on the road by shooting 70.8% (17 of 24) in the second half of an 84-73 win.
The Duke team that won Monday night looks as though it has taken a leap.
“I felt like, man, they were locked in,” Kelsey said. “They were like, in two places at once. It felt like there was six of them out there at certain times.”
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball
Duke's Patrick Ngongba II (21) handles the ball as Louisville's Sananda Fru (13) defends during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Durham, N.C., Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Ben McKeown)
Duke's Isaiah Evans, second from left, reacts with Dame Sarr (7) and Cameron Boozer, bottom right, during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Louisville in Durham, N.C., Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Ben McKeown)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two federal officers fired shots during the encounter that killed ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, a Customs and Border Protection official told Congress in a notice sent Tuesday.
Officers tried to take Pretti into custody and he resisted, leading to a struggle, according to a notification to Congress obtained by The Associated Press. During the struggle, a Border Patrol agent yelled, “He’s got a gun!” multiple times, the official said.
A Border Patrol officer and a CBP officer each fired Glock pistols, the notice said.
Investigators from CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility conducted the analysis based on a review of body-worn camera footage and agency documentation, the notice said. The law requires the agency to inform relevant congressional committees about deaths in CBP custody within 72 hours.
The notification came a day after President Donald Trump ordered border czar Tom Homan to take over his administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota following Pretti's death, which was the second fatal shooting this month of a person at the hands of immigration law enforcement.
Ecuador’s minister of foreign affairs, meanwhile, filed a protest with the U.S. Embassy after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents tried to enter the Ecuadorian consulate in Minneapolis without permission Tuesday.
A video of the attempt on social media shows a consulate staffer running to the door to turn the ICE agents away, telling them, “This is the Ecuadorian consulate. You’re not allowed to enter.” One ICE officer can be heard responding by threatening to “grab” the staffer if he touched the agent before agreeing to leave.
International law generally prohibits law enforcement authorities from entering foreign consulates or embassies without permission, though sometimes permission may be assumed granted for life-threatening emergencies, like fires.
“Consulate officials immediately prevented the ICE officer from entering the consular building, thus ensuring the protection of the Ecuadorians who were present at the time and activating the emergency protocols issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility,” the ministry wrote on X.
A “note of protest” was filed with the U.S. Embassy in Ecuador so that similar attempts aren’t made at other consulates, the ministry said. The State Department, Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
By sending Homan to Minnesota, “we’re going to de-escalate a little bit,” Trump said during an interview on Fox News’ “Will Cain Show.” That’s significant since White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, when questioned repeatedly Monday about Homan’s being dispatched to Minnesota, refused to say that doing so was an effort to calm the situation.
The president added of Homan, “Tom, as tough as he is, gets along” with governors and mayors, even in Democratic areas.
As he left the White House Tuesday, the president was asked whether Alex Pretti’s killing on Saturday was justified. He responded by saying that a “big investigation” was underway. In the hours after Pretti’s death, some administration officials sought to blame the shooting on the 37-year-old intensive care nurse.
Trump said in an interview broadcast Tuesday that he had “great calls” with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey on Monday, mirroring comments he made immediately after the calls.
The seemingly softer tone emerged as immigration agents were still active across the Twin Cities region, and it was unclear if officials had changed tactics following the shift by the White House.
Walz’s office said Tuesday that the Democratic governor met with Homan and called for impartial investigations into the shootings involving federal officers. They agreed on the need to continue to talk, according to the governor.
Frey and Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said they also met with Homan and had a “productive conversation.” The mayor added that city leaders would stay in discussion with the border czar.
Homan posted on social media that the discussions “were a productive starting point.” Homan said that Walz, Frey, top law enforcement officials and he all agree that “we need to support our law enforcement officers and get criminals off the streets.”
The White House had tried to blame Democratic leaders for the protests of immigration raids. But after Pretti's killing and videos suggesting he was not an active threat, the administration tapped Homan to take charge of the Minnesota operation from Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino.
Trump said Bovino, the go-to architect for the president’s large-scale city-by-city immigration crackdowns, was “very good” but added “he’s a pretty out-there kind of a guy” and “maybe it wasn’t good here.”
Immigration enforcement activity witnessed by journalists in Minneapolis and surrounding suburbs on Tuesday appeared comparable with recent weeks. As before, most didn’t result in major confrontations with agents. Activists say they continue to monitor enforcement operations through social media and chats on messaging apps.
In Texas, a federal judge issued a temporary order prohibiting the removal of a 5-year-old Ecuadorian boy and his father who were detained last week in Minnesota in an incident that further inflamed divisions on immigration under the Trump administration. U.S. Judge Fred Biery ruled Monday that any removal or transfer of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, is on hold while a court case proceeds.
On Tuesday, federal immigration authorities released an Ecuadorian man whose detention led the chief federal judge in Minnesota to order the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to appear in his courtroom, the man's attorney said.
Attorney Graham Ojala-Barbour said the man, who is identified in court documents as “Juan T.R.,” was released in Texas. The lawyer said in an email to The Associated Press that he was notified in an email from the U.S. attorneys office in Minneapolis that his client had been freed.
In an order dated Monday, Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz expressed frustration with the Trump administration’s handling of Juan’s and other immigration cases. He took the extraordinary step of ordering Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE, to personally appear in his courtroom Friday.
Schiltz had said in his order that he would cancel Lyons’ appearance if the man was released from custody.
“This Court has been extremely patient with respondents, even though respondents decided to send thousands of agents to Minnesota to detain aliens without making any provision for dealing with the hundreds of habeas petitions and other lawsuits that were sure to result,” he wrote.
Schiltz's order followed a federal court hearing Monday on a request by the state and the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul for a judge to halt the immigration enforcement surge. The judge in that case said she would prioritize the ruling but did not give a timeline for a decision.
Schiltz wrote that he recognizes ordering the head of a federal agency to appear personally is extraordinary. “But the extent of ICE’s violation of court orders is likewise extraordinary, and lesser measures have been tried and failed,” he said.
The Associated Press left messages Tuesday with ICE and a DHS spokesperson seeking a response.
Catalini reported from Trenton, New Jersey and Karnowski from Minneapolis. Associated Press writer Tim Sullivan in Minneapolis contributed to this report.
FILE - White House border czar Tom Homan poses for a photo after an interview by Stuart Varney, on the Fox Business Network, in New York, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
A man is detained by federal agents Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
A sign for 37-year-old Alex Pretti, who was fatally shot by a U.S. Border Patrol officer earlier in the day, is displayed during a vigil Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
A framed photograph of Alex Pretti, along with candles and an American flag, sits at a memorial outside the Minneapolis VA hospital on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, in Minneapolis. (Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
Federal agents make a traffic stop on a U.S. citizen as they provide their identification including a passport and drivers license, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
A handwritten sign honoring Alex Pretti hangs on a fence outside the Minneapolis VA hospital on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, in Minneapolis. (Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
People visit a memorial for Alex Pretti at the scene where the 37-year-old was fatally shot by a U.S. Border Patrol officer over the weekend, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
A drawing of Alex Pretti is displayed at the scene where 37-year-old Pretti was fatally shot by a U.S. Border Patrol officer over the weekend, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
A man in handcuffs gets out of a vehicle and runs to avoid being detailed by federal immigration agents in front of a woman holding her child on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
A man in handcuffs runs to avoid being detailed by federal immigration agents on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
FILE - Todd Lyons, acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs. Enforcement (ICE), is interviewed on TV on the White House grounds, Monday, Nov. 3, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
A demonstrator holds a sign reading "ICE OUT" during a protest outside the office of Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., on Monday, Jan. 26, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
A person holds a sign of Alex Pretti during a protest outside the office of Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., on Monday, Jan. 26, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
