Duke is going to win the NCAA Tournament.

Well, maybe it's not really going out on a limb. Picking Duke to cut down the nets in St. Petersburg, even when the brackets were first released, was a sounder bet than picking the Harlem Globetrotters to beat the Washington Generals. That's not a shot at Michigan State, Ohio State and Connecticut. They're all great teams. But the Blue Devils are the closest thing to unbeatable in sports right now.

In fact, if I was a betting man (remember, gambling on sports teams is not only illegal, but morally detestable, people), I would probably place a few clams on the Dukies.

There are three parts to the college basketball season: the regular season, the conference tournament, and, if your team is good enough (or if it plays in a crappy conference and wins the conference tournament), the NCAA Tournament.

A look back at Duke's dominance over all three stages of the season makes it hard to pick against it, even against the three next-best teams in the nation.

Like most teams, the Blue Devils opened their non-conference schedule with some cupcake opponents and beat the hell out of them. Then, after jumping out to a 5-0 record, the Blue Devils were upset by Cincinnati, 77-75, on Nov. 28.

They haven't lost since.

That's practically three months ago. To put things into perspective, Penn State lost 13 games after Nov. 28.

A lot can happen in three months. There can be injuries, upsets, slumps -- or in the case of Duke, a 31-game win streak. The streak began with a six-point victory over Michigan State, which the Devils will face in the semifinals. The streak continued throughout the non-conference season, with an 11-point win over defending champion Kentucky being the highlight.

The next portion of its quest for domination was the conference slate. Not just any conference, but the Atlantic Coast Conference, usually the nation's best (but this year forced to play second fiddle to the Big Ten). While not its usual sterling self, the ACC didn't fail to impress, sending three representatives to the Big Dance.

No problem. Duke steam rolled through its conference schedule and emerged unblemished. Its closest brush with defeat during that stretch was an eight-point win Feb. 6 at Georgia Tech.

Then, after methodically disposing of all their ACC foes, the Blue Devils mercifully gave them another shot at revenge in the ACC Tournament. But no team gained revenge, and the Dukies plowed to the championship game in which they spanked North Carolina, 96-73.

It was no surprise the Blue Devils were the favorite to win it all in the NCAAs. But even the biggest Duke supporters (not mentioning Dick Vitale) have to be surprised with the smack down the Blue Devils have laid on their tourney opponents thus far.

Duke won its first- and second-round games by a total of 82 points. Then, the Blue Devils removed the glass slipper from the foot of Southwest Missouri State and beat the Bears silly with it. The Blue Devils then earned the right to their first Final Four appearance in five years with a 21-point stomping of Temple.

Now the 1998-99 Blue Devils need only two more wins to take their place in history as one of the most dominant teams ever. Duke has had some great teams and players this decade, the likes of Bobby Hurley, Christian Laettner and Grant Hill. But no other Duke team had the balance top to bottom of this squad.

This team simply has no weaknesses. It's basically an All-Star team with all the honorees from the same university. William Avery is one of the nation's best point guards and backcourt mate Trajan Langdon is a superstar. Center Elton Brand is a Player of the Year frontrunner. Forwards Shane Battier and Chris Carrawell may not get the ink the guards receive, but you'd be hard pressed to find a more solid frontline duo.

But what makes this team so unique is its balance. When Langdon went down in the ACC Tournament with an ankle injury and sat out the first round of the NCAAs, freshman Corey Maggette filled in and the team didn't miss a beat. How many teams can lose a bona fide superstar like Langdon and play as if nothing happened? Maggette, along with fellow reserves Nate James and Chris Burgess, would likely start on most of the nation's teams.

Balance and depth, nurtured by the guiding hand and calming influence of coaching mastermind Mike Krzyzewski, has made this particular Duke team something special, even for a team with so much history.

That's why there's no way it can lose.

You can bet on it.