I believe that's exactly what it is. When I covered them, he was asked quite often about his philosophies to schedulng, etc, and it was some of the more interesting stuff he openly discussed. And it was very clear he put more thought into scheduling and how, for lack of a better term, he could manipulate it to help his team's RPI.
Neutral site games are great for RPIs, but the thing that always stuck with me was how he would schedule a slew of low-mid major teams but most would be picked to finish among the top two or three in their leagues. He wasn't bringing in Prairie View or Stetson, he would bring in Albany, Holy Cross, and Western Illinois when they were figured to compete for conference titles.
So, by late February, those teams were 20-6 or 18-7 with league tourneys still to play, and by winning a lot of games. regardless of the competition, they had good RPIs and it helped Duke. They weren't always in the top 100, but if your lowest-rated opponents are in the 120s to 160s, as opposed to 285, 305, and 330, it makes a huge difference in your RPI and strength of schedule.
