Duke Basketball: Will Upcoming Road Stretch Test Blue Devils' Maturity?

Absolutely nothing has stood in the Duke basketball team’s way in the early going—not a trip to Wisconsin, not a clash with Michigan State and not a neutral-site game with the defending national champion Connecticut Huskies.

Perhaps the immediate schedule will serve as the biggest obstacle now.

Starting with Wednesday’s trip to Wake Forest, six of the next eight contests for the second-ranked Blue Devils (13-0) come on the road. ACC games take on an extra notch of intensity every season, especially for the road team, so the young Duke squad is going to be tested.

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Just the mere fact that "D-U-K-E" is stretched across the front of the jersey ensures that Mike Krzyzewski’s team will get the opponent’s best shot on a nightly basis. It can be physically grinding dealing with that in every single game because the Blue Devils cannot afford to take any nights off or to overlook a single opponent in conference play.

Otherwise, shocking performances like we saw against Mercer last season happen.

Why is the upcoming road stretch so particularly daunting for this season’s Blue Devils beyond the typical reasons of opposing student sections screaming in the players’ ears and the extra energy level that Duke elicits from its opponents?

The fact that three of the primary contributors on this squad are freshmen who have never played an ACC schedule before could be a problem.

There is no replacement for experience, and that is the one thing missing from Jahlil Okafor’s game. Throw in Justise Winslow as the most important defensive player on the team and Tyus Jones as the pass-first point guard who directs the offense and sets everything up, and there is plenty riding on the play of the freshmen.

Duke fans were treated to some early conference struggles last year with a team that primarily relied on freshmen Jabari Parker and Rodney Hood.

Duke got off to a 1-2 start in the conference and lost the first two road games against overmatched opponents in Notre Dame and Clemson. Parker shot a combined 7-of-23 from the field in those two losses and looked to have hit something of a freshman wall at that point of the season.

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There is no reason to expect a falloff in production from Okafor, Jones or Winslow, but if the freshman wall can happen to someone like Parker, it can happen to these players. That is especially the case with so many mentally challenging road games on tap in the immediate future.

It’s not just that six of the next eight games are on the road that should have Duke fans at least concerned. Included in that stretch are difficult contests at Louisville, at St. John’s, at Notre Dame and at Virginia. Those four games all come as part of a five-game stretch with a home game against Pittsburgh squeezed in.

You would be hard-pressed to find a more difficult five games in a row for any team in the country than at Louisville, vs. Pittsburgh, at St. John’s, at Notre Dame and at Virginia. Those are some of the primary ACC challengers for Duke (with a nonconference tilt against St. John’s included) and arguably the most important games it will play all season.

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Louisville and Virginia are two of the top five teams in the nation in Ken Pomeroy’s pace-adjusted defensive efficiency rankings, so those games promise to be physically exhausting. Don’t overlook a clash with Notre Dame’s Jerian Grant that should put more pressure on Jones and Winslow on the defensive side.

Ultimately, the immediate schedule will test the overall maturity of a team that has to deal with classes on top of daunting road games.

The good news for Duke is that there are the proper people in place to make sure this stretch doesn’t become a problem for the talented freshmen who are yet to experience anything like it in their careers.

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Experienced veterans like Quinn Cook, Rasheed Sulaimon and Amile Jefferson have been through the ACC meat grinder before and will offer leadership through their play and verbally in the huddle and on the bench.

Plus, the freshmen couldn’t ask for a better coach than Krzyzewski if they hope to deal with a stretch of the schedule that could test the maturity of even some of the best players in the nation. Coach K has dealt with any situation one can imagine in college basketball as well as with NBA players in international competition.

He is the steadying hand who has guided Duke to the national title before and will have his team ready to go during this upcoming road trip.

Finally, the trip to Wisconsin at least gave the youngsters a taste of a daunting venue. Yes, it was just one game and can’t quite compare to so many road games in a row, but the Kohl Center is one of the most difficult places to play in the country.

The Blue Devils conquered that without a problem, winning 80-70.

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Duke certainly doesn’t have to win every one of these games to emerge as the ACC favorites, but it does have to maintain its composure on the road and avoid an early losing stretch like we saw last year. 

Hitting the road for so many games will test the maturity of the youngsters and the talent level of the whole team, but the Blue Devils have the right pieces to deal with it. They will need them all.

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