The three ways Duke basketball must slow down Illinois

Duke basketball needs to check off three boxes in order to defeat Illinois.

The Duke basketball team will be playing its second big-time game of the year at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday (ESPN) when it hosts Illinois in Cameron Indoor Stadium. This is the first time since the 2000-01 season that the Blue Devils and Fighting Illini have met as a part of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.

ALSO READ: How Duke has fared in ACC-Big Ten Challenge since 2010

Illinois comes into this game at No. 6 in the latest AP Top 25 Poll, with the only loss coming to No. 2 Baylor. The Illini will provide a tough test for the Blue Devils, who fell from No. 6 to No. 10 in the rankings this week after losing at home last Tuesday against now-No. 4 Michigan State. They are athletic, experienced, and well-coached, led by Brad Underwood.

Duke will certainly miss the big-game boost it typically gets from the Cameron Crazies.

The Blue Devils will have to get out to a strong start, similar to what they did against Michigan State. In order to win, though, they will have to put together a 40-minute complete game. Winning this game could be a huge confidence boost for this young Duke team, which features six freshmen and two sophomores among the 11 guys who have seen the floor thus far.

Now, here are the three main things that Duke will have to do as a team in order to slow down the Illinois attack and ultimately come away with the W…