DURHAM, N.C. -- The blood was starting to ooze out of the right side of Shavlik Randolph's busted lip, but there was no need to wipe away the badge of toughness he earned Wednesday night.

Randolph proudly flashed a grin with the blood spilling over his teeth as if to say that he has broken through his own form of basic training in the ACC post.

	Shavlik Randolph stood up to Virginia's bigger frontline, scoring 17 points in 19 minutes off the bench.

He scored 15 points and grabbed seven boards off the bench during the win over Wake Forest Sunday night and its pair of rugged forwards Eric Williams and Vytas Danelius. But that was just one game. Could Randolph do it again?

How does 17 points in 19 minutes off the bench sound? Pretty good when it came against Virginia's Travis Watson, Elton Brown, Jason Clark and Nick Vander Laan in the top-rated Blue Devils' 104-93 victory Thursday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

"Shavlik has now put together two outstanding games," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "That one three he hit was huge. He wants the ball. He's not afraid. These last two games he's taken a giant step forward in maturity."

The significance of Randolph playing strong back-to-back games both inside and out is monumental for Duke. Randolph has been all over the map offensively this season, scoring 23 points in the opener against Army but whiffing against UCLA and scoring only two points against Ohio State.

His inconsistencies have stemmed from his inability to stay on the court defensively. Randolph is 6-10, but he's only 215 pounds and he hasn't hit the weight room as well as he probably will next summer. He was getting pushed around too often and not using his feet to his advantage. Poor defense meant he wasn't going to stay on the court at the other end.

"Shav has been a work in progress," Duke associate head coach Johnny Dawkins said. "He's developing great instincts offensively and he's starting to take the basketball to the hole strong. Defensively, he's more alert and active and he's throwing himself into the game more physically."

That was a must. Randolph said he initially injured his lip when he caught an errant Casey Sanders' elbow in practice. But he didn't play tender with it as another elbow to the face Thursday night opened up the stitched cut.

"We've been playing against great big men the past few games and that's given me a lot of confidence to do this night in and night out," Randolph said. "I just needed to get into the flow of the game. I've had a bit of a slump (four points against Georgetown, six against Clemson prior to the Wake Forest game). I just needed one game to get my confidence back."

And this is how Duke can get even better this season.

Sure, fellow freshman J.J. Redick was scorching hot with a career-high 34 points. But Redick can't be expected to carry this team by himself, not when the Blue Devils are post-challenged. And it doesn't help when probably the team's best back-to-the-basket player -- freshman Shelden Williams - is limited to eight points in 19 minutes because of four fouls.

"Shavlik is a great player, top-five in the country out of high school," Virginia coach Pete Gillen said. "All he had to do was play stronger."

The Blue Devils needed and will need Randolph to play like he did the past two games if they're going to mount a serious run toward the national title, let alone win on the road at places like Maryland on Saturday.

"He's giving us that inside presence that we need," Duke point Chris Duhon said. "Opposing teams are going to run at Dahntay (Jones), J.J. and Daniel (Ewing) so we need him. He's capable of big games like this. We were worried about his defense, not his offense, but now he's playing better defense and he'll get more minutes. When he scores like that we'll have even more balance on our offense."

Randolph isn't hiding that he's a scorer. He knows he was brought to Durham to put the ball in the basket. That's the reason he was even discussed as a potential pro out of high school. He is a big man with deep 3-point range. But he understood that he needed to toughen up in the post if he was going to survive at the next level, let alone in the ACC. Prior to Thursday's game, Randolph was talking about the need for Duke to play physical like it did in beating ... the Brighton Bears back in London.

Yes, prior to the Clemson ACC opener two weeks ago, the Duke staff showed the team its 22-point comeback win over the British Basketball League team on Oct. 14. Randolph and the rest of the Blue Devils played tough inside overseas and they needed to get back to that style on U.S. soil. Collectively, the Blue Devils found it the last three games against Georgetown, Wake Forest and Virginia. As for Randolph, he's shown his toughness the past two games.

"He's barely scratched the surface of what he can do," Dawkins said. "He's getting experience against tougher competition. Georgetown, Virginia and Wake Forest came in here with formidable frontlines and he held his own and then some."

Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.