Duke basketball: Keys to victory over lowly Boston College in 2021 debut

Duke basketball is finally set to make its 2021 debut on Wednesday night.

Perhaps we should have known better in the 2020-21 season of Duke basketball.

We had published our ‘Keys to Victory’ against Pittsburgh only hours before the game was postponed. We were working on our ‘Keys to Victory’ against Florida State on Friday night as the game was postponed.

Now, we have waited until the day of the game against Boston College to post our ‘Keys to Victory’ against the Eagles.

Hopefully, that will bring better luck for this game to actually be played.

No. 21 Duke (3-2, 1-0 ACC) makes its 21-day return to the court against Boston College (2-7, 0-3 ACC), perhaps with even less of a full roster than it left South Bend, Indiana with.

The Blue Devils will be without head coach Mike Krzyzewski as he remains quarantined following COVID-19 protocols and regulations, and the status of freshman star Jalen Johnson remains in question following his foot injury suffered in between the loss to No. 6 Illinois and victory over Notre Dame.

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Associate head coach Jon Scheyer will take over head coaching duties in the absence of Krzyzewski, as he would have if the Blue Devils faced Florida State last Saturday night.

Wednesday night will mark the first game the 73-year-old has missed since January 13, 2018, a home victory over Wake Forest.

Duke basketball still has plenty of pieces to defeat Boston College

In full disclosure and honesty, we don’t truly know what kind of team Duke is yet.

The Blue Devils did not look good in their first four games, but they then showed significant improvement in the win over Notre Dame.

Despite its lackluster start to the season, Duke did lose to two Top-10 teams at the time of the game.

However, we do know Boston College is not good.

Aside from an impressive victory over Rhode Island in the second game of the year, the Eagles have only managed to defeat Maine on December 22.

Losses have come against No. 3 Villanova, St. John’s, Florida, Minnesota, Syracuse, North Carolina State, and Louisville.

Granted, Boston College only managed to lose by three on the road against the Wolfpack but managed to lose by 38 points at home to the Orange.

Nevertheless, here is what Duke must do to secure a victory it has to have.