Duke Basketball: Keys to Beating Notre Dame in ACC Showdown

Now that Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski has reached the 1,000-win milestone—doing so with Sunday's win at St. John's in New York City—the Blue Devils can get back to business achieving their more sought-after goal: winning the ACC.

Fourth-ranked Duke (17-2, 4-2) is in the midst of a huge, season-defining stretch, with three of the next four games against teams above it in the conference standings. First up is Wednesday's visit to No. 8 Notre Dame (19-2, 7-1), where it lost last season in the ACC opener.

This will be a much different Fighting Irish team, as last year's squad went 16-17 and played the second half of the season—including the win over the Blue Devils—without star guard Jerian Grant. Grant is back, and he and his teammates have proven to be one of the toughest teams to slow down in 2014-15.

How can Duke come out of South Bend with a huge road win? Check out our keys to victory for the Blue Devils.

Shelve the Celebration

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If Duke wasn't going to get Mike Krzyzewski his milestone victory at home, the next-best place would have been Madison Square Garden.

So many major wins have occurred for the Blue Devils at MSG—where he passed Bobby Knight in 2011 to become the winningest coach in Division I history—that it was almost like a second home venue.

And the celebration after Duke's 77-68 win over St. John's felt like one being held on friendly turf, with players and coaches quickly donning commemorative hats and T-shirts and thousands of Blue Devils fans there to see the achievement.

But just as many college and pro teams try to implement a 24-hour rule to allow for basking in the glow of a big win, so should Duke with this occasion.

As big a deal as it was, the victory didn't help Duke's cause in the ACC since it was a nonconference game, and now comes back-to-back road tilts in the conference that are far more important.

Considering the team is being coached by a man with 1,000 wins, it would be hard to not expect such an approach. But Duke's team has three freshmen playing major minutes, and they have yet to deal with returning to normalcy after such a big event.

If the Blue Devils aren't prepared from the opening tip, Notre Dame has the capability to jump on them and make the rest of the game an uphill climb.

Force Bad Shots

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Duke is allowing opponents to shoot 42.3 percent from the field and 29.1 percent from three-point range, but defense is not this team's forte.

Despite looking better on that end during its three-game win streak, in back-to-back losses at North Carolina State and against Miami (Florida), the Blue Devils defense was...lacking.

NC State and Miami shot a combined 53.4 percent from the field and 55.6 from three, heavily contributing to those 12- and 16-point losses.

Now Duke has to face the second-best shooting team in the country. Notre Dame is hitting 52.1 percent overall and 37.2 percent from outside, which ranks fourth in Division I.

The Fighting Irish's worst shooter is sixth man V.J. Beachem, who is hitting 47.4 percent of his shots, while Pat Connaughton's 48.6 percent efficiency is the lowest among starters.

Aside from a one-point loss to Providence in November, Notre Dame's only other blemish came at home to unbeaten Virginia earlier this month. It shot 33.9 percent in that game.

The key to stopping the Irish is preventing them from getting easy shots. They'll make some of the tough ones, regardless, but fewer if they're being contested. With an average of more than 22 three-pointers attempted per game, if Duke's defenders have their hands down, the shots are going to go up.

Feed the Paint

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As strong as Notre Dame is with its scoring and outside shooting, because of its lineup, it is not very adept at defending the rim. With only one starter—junior Zach Auguste—taller than 6'5", the Fighting Irish are susceptible to getting taken advantage of inside.

Luckily for Duke, it has arguably the best post player in the country in 6'11" freshman center Jahlil Okafor. It's just a matter of making sure he's getting as many touches as possible, and not having the guards take too many unnecessary perimeter shots when such a strong weapon is waiting down low.

Okafor, who leads the team in scoring at 18.5 points per game and who ranks second nationally in field-goal percentage (67.1), has nearly more field goals than any two other Blue Devils players, but his 213 attempts are only 10 more than shooting guard Quinn Cook.

Cook has taken 129 threes this season, and while he's hit some big ones, he's also been known to throw up some heat-check shots. Less of that and more of constant Okafor feeding will go a long way toward winning this one.

Contain Jerian Grant

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There is no real weak spot to Notre Dame's attack, as mentioned earlier. But there's certainly a most dangerous piece to the offensive puzzle, and that's senior guard Jerian Grant.

Grant, who leads the Fighting Irish in scoring at 17.1 points per game, is also the team leader with 6.2 assists. He's hitting 51 percent from the field and making 62.3 percent of his twos, driving to the rim with regularity and then finishing with a strong 79 percent free-throw rate.

The return of the 6'5" Grant has been a major part of Notre Dame's rise this season, as he missed the last 21 games of 2013-14 after academic issues caused him to be suspended by the school.

Duke has allowed nine teams to have a player score at least 20 points this season. Grant could go for 30 if it doesn't slow him down.

Get a Verdict from Justise

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Where has Justise Winslow's game gone?

Ever since scoring a career-high 20 in a road win over Wake Forest on Jan. 7, the freshman forward has all but disappeared from Duke's offense. In the last five games, he's averaged a mere 4.4 points, compared to 10.5 for the season. On Sunday, he played only 10 minutes and went scoreless.

Winslow has made seven of his 30 shots in that span, showing no confidence when on the court with the ball in his hands. This has also affected his defense, and his play on the wing has been one of the better efforts for the Blue Devils in that area.

Duke needs some sort of production from Winslow, or he'll see his minutes continue to drop. Rasheed Sulaimon and Matt Jones combined for 40 minutes off the bench against St. John's, but they shouldn't have to play that much to only contribute eight total points.

Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.