Duke Basketball: ACC regular season title out of reach for Blue Devils

The Duke Basketball team suffered a set back in more ways than one with the loss to Virginia Tech on Tuesday night, surrendering first place in the ACC.

While in the minds of many, three of the losses the Duke Blue Devils have suffered this season have an asterisk next to it, but no asterisk goes in the standings and the Blue Devils are no longer in first place in the ACC.

By dropping Tuesday’s game to Virginia Tech, the Blue Devils fell to No. 3 in the ACC, behind Virginia and North Carolina.

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Virginia sits at 13-2 in the ACC with an overall record of 25-2, while North Carolina is also 13-2 in the ACC, but with a loss against Virginia, the Heels lose the tiebreaker over the Cavaliers.

Duke fell to 12-3 in the ACC, all three losses coming when the Blue Devils were less than fully healthy.

While in theory, Duke can reclaim the top spot in the ACC by winning out and Virginia losing one of its remaining three games (vs. Pittsburgh, @ Syracuse, vs. Louisville).

But how likely is that?

The Cavaliers have lost three ACC games in the past two seasons, two of which came against the Blue Devils this year, with the other coming by one point in overtime against Virginia Tech on February 10, 2018.

The Blue Devils must take care of business on Saturday against Miami and on Tuesday against Wake Forest, both games at Cameron Indoor Stadium, before the likely showdown for the No. 2 seed in the ACC Tournament on March 9 in Chapel Hill against North Carolina, assuming the Tar Heels win at Clemson and at Boston College.

While winning the ACC regular season title and the ACC Tournament seems to just be the icing on the cake, Mike Krzyzewski knows that he has to have a fully healthy and rested team by March 21 for the tournament that really counts and what every player and coach is judged by.