For Kyrie Irving’s talent, it’s never easy to integrate a player back onto a basketball team, especially a great one. Duke had to gamble and play him – without Irving, the Devils weren’t on a trajectory to win a national title.

But Thursday’s loss to Arizona was an example of how tough this transition can be. Irving was very good, but Nolan Smith was rarely anywhere to be seen. Halfway through the second half you found yourself thinking, Where is Smith?

Smith just wasn’t the same dominant player at all. When Arizona pushed out to its 66-55 lead on a run that proved decisive, Smith tried to strike back with a critical 3-point shot.  But it missed, and he dropped to 2 of 9 from the field – with only four points.

Irving, at the time, had 18.

Duke kept trying to get back in this. At 77-64, you thought Duke might have one more run. On a fastbreak, Smith had the ball and drove the basket, but a Wildcat was right there. Smith slid to the left, and ACC fans have seen him score that way dozens of times before. But this time, the ball just grazed the rim and fell out.

On Duke’s next possession, Irving drove the lane and shot, as if it was all up to him. It wasn’t, but it seemed that way. The fluid, precise Duke team we’d seen all season was missing. It was almost as if the Blue Devils players were on the court wondering who was in charge.

Arizona deserves credit for an amazing performance. If the world didn’t know what a great job Sean Miller was doing before this, it does now. Some media outlets are hinting that Miller will at least listen to N.C. State, but come on, we know how that works. You listen, make a head fake to Raleigh, and get a half million dollar raise.

Miller would be a marvelous fit in Wolfpack red, but State’s chance to get him was 2009, when he was wrapping up a brilliant five-year run at Xavier. It’s too bad that didn’t work out. Watching Miller work Tobacco Road on a regular basis would have been fascinating.