The reeling Duke Blue Devils return to action today on the road against the NC State Wolfpack at 2 PM ET. Duke is on a three-game losing streak, something they have not been on since 2007, and need to gain some positive momentum going forward. NC State is 11-8 on the season and 1-5 in the ACC. NC State’s lone ACC win came last Tuesday against the Pittsburgh Panthers, 78-61. It has been well-documented about how undermanned this Duke team is right now. There are only six players Coach K feels comfortable with and if any of them fall into foul trouble, which has been the case the past two weeks, then Duke has no other real options to turn too. Chase Jeter and Sean Obi are disastrous with their positioning on defense as well as being complete foul machines. This leaves Brandon Ingram at the power forward position where he just does not have the weight to deal with post-up players. Here are some keys to the game.
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1. Can Duke slow down Anthony “Cat” Barber?
ACC fans might not know but Barber leads the league in scoring at over 22 points per game. He had 31 points in their win against Pittsburgh and is a dangerous player whenever he drives the lane. Duke’s Grayson Allen is second in the ACC in scoring with just over 20 points per game. I expect that Matt Jones and Allen will take turns on Barber.
2. Does Coach K make any lineup adjustments?
The answer would be: unlikely. The only real question is whether Chase Jeter or Sean Obi will get any minutes and if they can make anything out of those minutes. Otherwise, the six of Marshall Plumlee, Allen, Jones, Brandon Ingram, Derryck Thornton and Luke Kennard will be the ones relied upon. They must rebound better and make the open shots that they have.
Prediction – Duke 75 – NC State 73
I have picked Duke the last three games and as we all know they have lost each of those games. So I was almost inclined to pick NC State just to switch things up. Even though Duke has lost the last three games, each game came down to the last minute. One made shot here, a different bounce of the ball there and we could be talking about this game much differently. Duke is better than NC State. It is up to the entire team to play like it.