Defeating Duke: Three ACC Games In Which Coach K's Blue Devils Could Stumble

Duke flexed its muscles in the latest top 25 rankings by gathering all 65 first place votes in the Associated Press poll and all 31 first place votes in the USA Today poll.

The defending national champions sport an unblemished record of 12-0 and have beaten their last four opponents by an average 36 points per game.

As if that weren’t scary enough, consider that Coach K’s squad has already toppled No. 17 Kansas State, No. 19 Michigan State, Marquette and Butler during non-conference play.

Duke clearly opted to throw an ample amount of meat in their non-conference slate rather than have a dozen cupcakes delivered to Cameron Indoor Stadium.

While Duke’s non-conference resume is impressive, the Blue Devils toughest tests will certainly come against ACC competition in conference play, right?

As Lee Corso would say, “not so fast my friend.”

Duke is the lone ACC team ranked in the top 25, with Florida State and North Carolina only receiving six votes apiece in the Associated Press poll. The league's lack of quality teams this season can be attributed to the NBA defections that many of the ACC’s traditional powers endured and to a string of recent coaching changes within the conference.

Wake Forest has limped out to a 6-7 record thus far this season and has already suffered losses to Stetson, Winthrop, (UNC) Wilmington and Presbyterian. The Demon Deacons are transitioning from fired coach Dino Gaudio to first-year head coach Jeff Bzdelik. Wake Forest also lost their two best players to the NBA in guard Ishmael Smith and forward Al-Farouq Aminu.

A similar situation is occurring at Georgia Tech; the Yellow Jackets have only mustered up a 6-5 record so far and already have losses to Siena and Kennesaw State on their resume. Georgia Tech has had the benefit of coaching stability with Paul Hewitt roaming the sidelines for what is now his 11^th season with the Yellow Jackets.

Unfortunately, Georgia Tech’s two best players in power forwards Derek Favors and Gani Lawal both left the program and are now playing in the NBA. This has left coach Hewitt and the Yellow Jackets to rely mostly on underclassmen to carry the load and the team has endured some noticeable growing pains.

Georgia Tech and Wake Forest both went to the NCAA Tournament last year, and the two schools were some of Duke’s most formidable competition.

My question is: Who is going to challenge Duke this year in an ACC conference that is marred by mediocrity?

Through Duke’s first 12 games, only a few teams have been able to seriously mount a challenge against the Blue Devils. Will Duke run through their ACC schedule undefeated or are there contenders ready to take down the nation’s number one team?

After looking at Duke’s schedule, I see three games in which the mighty Blue Devils could stumble:

1. Jan. 12 at Florida State:

Florida State has a tremendous amount of size and length in their frontcourt with Xavier Gibson (6'11"), Chris Singleton (6'9") and Bernard James (6'10").

This length can be a tremendous asset against Duke, which relies heavily on precision and spacing to run their offense.

Duke is at their best offensively when they can smoothly run their sets, but when you can take them out of what they want to do through tipped passes, pushing them out towards mid court and forcing pressure you stand a much better chance of stifling Duke’s high powered offense.

The Seminoles also have a talented pair of athletic guards in Derwin Kitchen and Michael Snaer, who can really help open things up on offense. Kitchen in particular averages 3.5 assists per game and has really made more of an emphasis on getting his teammates involved where previously he was more of a pure scorer.

At 11-3 with wins over No. 23 Baylor and Clemson, Florida State is one of the few ACC teams that has shown the ability to beat top 25 competition. The Seminoles also played Butler tough just recently in the Diamond Head Tournament before falling to the Bulldogs 67-64.

I think Florida State’s massive frontline along with talented facilitators and scorers in the backcourt could pose problems for Duke, both offensively and defensively.

Finally, if you throw in the fact that Florida State will be playing behind a raucous crowd at the Donald L. Tucker center, then you can see why Duke could be ripe for an upset.

2. Feb. 2 at Maryland:

Maryland’s record doesn’t immediately jump out at you at 9-4. Consider that their four losses to No. 6 Pittsburgh, No. 25 Illinois, Temple and Boston College have come by a combined 20 points and you can see why the Terrapins are far from a pushover.

Head coach Gary Williams also has one of the best players that nobody has ever heard of in sophomore Jordan Williams. Williams, a 6'10", 260-pound sophomore forward has been tearing it up this season for the Terps averaging 18.1 points and 11.8 rebounds per contest. I think his presence, along with the experienced trio of seniors in Cliff Tucker, Dino Gregory and Adrian Bowie, will be beneficial against Duke.

It should be remembered that Maryland defeated Duke last season in College Park 79-72. Yes, Grevious Vasquez has now moved onto the NBA, but for the most part the same team remains intact that defeated Duke last season.

3. March 5 at North Carolina:

After watching North Carolina lose to Minnesota in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off Tournament and watching them recently against Rutgers and Texas, I can tell you that this team has already greatly improved.

Yes, putting freshman Harrison Barnes on the preseason first team All-American list was definitely premature. You can’t doubt the raw talent of Barnes and fellow freshman Kendall Marshall though.

If you combine that with the improved play of sophomore John Henson, who went from averaging 5.7 points and 4.4 rebounds as a freshman to now putting up 9.8 points and 8.8 rebounds as a sophomore, then that is another reason for optimism.

Finally, after suffering some injury problems early in his career, Tyler Zeller has come into his own as a junior and is putting up 14.9 points per game.

North Carolina is a team that is only going to keep improving as the season goes on under Roy Williams and the fact that they play Duke this late in the season in Chapel Hill bodes well for the Tarheels.

Clearly Duke is the favorite to win the ACC and I wouldn’t be shocked if they ran through the ACC gauntlet undefeated.

In my opinion though, these three games look like the most likely stumbling blocks for the mighty Blue Devils.