The Duke basketball team will like nothing more than to return home to Cameron Indoor Stadium to try and right the ship against a team that dominated the Blue Devils from tip to finish.
Things haven’t been roses and rainbows in Durham of late, but the Duke Blue Devils will try to get back in the win column on Monday night.
Duke has lost three of its last four games and two straight, with the lone win coming at home over the Virginia Tech Hokies, as the Blue Devils host North Carolina State, the team that sent the Blue Devils into this freefall.
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The Wolfpack thrashed Duke 88-66 two weeks ago in Raleigh, and there’s not much the Blue Devils can take from that game other than a positive five-minute span from Tre Jones and Vernon Carey Jr.
Virginia handed Duke its most recent defeat in yet another game in which no one truly contributed outside of Jones and Carey Jr., and perhaps that will change at home, but the Blue Devils need contributions from the entire roster in order to be successful in March.
While the win over Duke put NC State right back in the NCAA Tournament conversation, Kevin Keatts‘ team dropped its next two games to Florida State and North Carolina before getting back on track with a win over Pittsburgh.
It’s tough to diagnose what Duke needs to do better on offense, but its defense looked much better on Saturday against the Cavaliers, although the horrid Virginia offense may have had something to do with that.
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Returning to Cameron Indoor Stadium might be exactly what Duke needs, but the Blue Devils’ problems run deeper than just what arena the team is playing in. Running crisp, clean offensive sets while getting role players involved would be a major key in defeating NC State.
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Tipoff is at 7:00pm EST on ESPN as Duke will try and turn the tide as the calendar has turned to March.
PREDICTION: Duke 77, NC State 64