Next up for the Blue Devils is a trip to Virginia Tech’s Cassell Coliseum, a place that has given Duke significant trouble since the Hokies joined the ACC.
We’ll give the fans their full credit: we don’t
know how they turn out for other teams, but when Duke comes to town, that’s an incredibly difficult environment.
Virginia Tech has had a tough couple of years, but this year’s team is looking pretty good and crucially, they seem to be healthy again.
Mike Young, one of the nation’s best offensive coaches, has his team at 16-6. The losses are to Saint Mary’s – reasonable – VCU, also reasonable- and Wake Forest, Stanford, SMU and Louisville.
None of those are embarrassing losses or anything close to it.
Also worth noting: Virginia Tech has had four overtime wins (and six overtimes, by the way). And one more thing worth noting: the loss to Wake Forest and SMU were both by one point. This is a team that has been in a lot of tight games and has come through in most of them.
The Hokies rely on Neoklis Avdalas (6-8 freshman), Amani Hansberry (6-8/240 lb. junior), Tyler Johnson (6-5 sophomore), Ben Hammond (5-11 sophomore), Tobi Lawal (6-8 senior), former Blue Devil Jaden Schutt (6-5 junior), Jailen Bedford (6-4 senior), Christian Gurdak (6-10/240 lb. freshman) and Antonio Dorn (7-0/260 lb freshman).
We’ve seen some terrific games from Avdalis, Hansberry, Hammond and Gurdak in particular. Schutt can heat up in a hurry and while Lawal is just getting himself back up to speed after an injury, he’s a potential NBA prospect.
Avdalis has had some lingering issues apparently and hasn’t been consistently good, he’s very talented and could go off on Duke.
Dorn has had some back issues as well. This is not an untalented team; far from it. They also have enough size to muscle Duke inside.
So could they win Saturday? Well, yes. There are a number of scenarios, but here’s one we can imagine.
First, the crowd is going to be very good. It always is for Duke. Second, imagine that Pat Ngongba and Maliq Brown stack up some early fouls. It’s not hard to imagine because it’s happened before. Third, imagine that the Hokies trade three for twos. That’s not at all difficult to imagine. And four, imagine that Duke’s young players get rattled by an aggressive Cassell.
Not that Duke should be shooting blanks. The Blue Devils have plenty on offense and with such a long team, defense is a strong suit as well.
We would expect the same sort of performance that we’ve seen from Cameron Boozer all year again here and call it a hunch, but it seems like an Isaiah Evans type game too.
Competitiveness is ingrained in the ACC and every team Duke sees is going to try to rip its head off, which is as it should be.
In our mind, therefore, this is a particularly dangerous game. The Hokies are at home with a very good but also very young Duke team. It has a clear tendency to start slow and at times, the offensive pilot light takes a while to start cooking.
Sooner or later, there’s a strong chance that that will hurt. Could it happen Saturday? Well, obviously. Duke has a mixed track record in Cassell and the bullseye is on the back. They will come loaded for bear, both team and fans. It’s up to Duke to step up to the challenge. Underestimate this program at your own risk.
We’ll add links as we find them.
- ‘Stick to my path’: Duke men’s basketball’s supporting cast has emerged via the team’s defensive focus
- Virginia Tech’s task? Slow No. 4 Duke’s blowout roll
- Duke basketball still leads ACC power rankings. How good are Cameron Boozer’s Blue Devils?
