Jon Scheyer is preaching to the choir following second weak performance from Duke basketball

The Duke basketball program looked unlike itself once again on Dec. 31 against Georgia Tech, as the Blue Devils squeaked out an 85-79 victory over the Yellow Jackets, which entered the game ranked 134th at KenPom, after heading into the halftime locker room down 43-39.

This was the second contest in a row where the Blue Devils just looked...off. The program suffered its first loss of the season to Texas Tech at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 20, and this was the second game in a row where the defense wasn't anywhere near the level of intensity and connectivity that fans grew accustomed to seeing over the team's first 11 games of the season.

Duke has now allowed each of its last two opponents to shoot better than 50% from the field as a team after not allowing any of its first 11 foes to hit that mark. Jon Scheyer switched to a zone look in the second half after the Yellow Jackets were shooting better than 70% from the field until the early part of the final 20 minutes, and that's when his guys were able to take control. But as conference play begins to heat up, in an ACC that's in a much healthier place than it's been in any of the past five seasons, Scheyer will need to clean up these defensive miscues sooner rather than later.

Jon Scheyer knows what his program revolves around and how that's been lacking as of late

After the not-so-dominant victory over Georgia Tech, Scheyer spoke to the media and said the quiet part out loud.

"Our program is built on fighting, scrapping, clawing for every single possession in every single half of a game," Scheyer said. "And I don't think we did that to the level against Texas Tech. I don't think we did that to the level today."

Duke dropped to eighth in adjusted defensive efficiency at KenPom after the two recent lackluster defensive performances. With the program still facing numerous question marks offensively, the defense must be the ringleader for success. If the Blue Devils are allowing teams to shoot 50% or better against them consistently, losses will begin to pile up.

With such a young team, bumps in the road are going to occur, but what's confusing is that the defense has looked to take a big step back from day one. The Blue Devils didn't allow any opponent to score over 73 points until the loss to the Red Raiders, and now they've surrendered 82 and 79 points, respectively, across their last two matchups.

It's still so early, but with conference play here, the defense will need to be addressed.