Coming off four consecutive wins, including two double-digit conference victories over the likes of Virginia and Florida State, the Blue Devils are on a roll.
But this Saturday at 6 p.m. in Cameron Indoor Stadium, No. 7 Duke (14-1, 2-0 in the ACC) takes on the No. 24 Clemson Tigers, a team which, like the high-flying Blue Devils, has beaten up on its last two conference opponents.
Clemson (14-3, 2-1) matches up well against uptempo Duke in nearly every category and should provide the toughest ACC challenge yet for the Blue Devils.
Last year's Jan. 25 game against the Tigers in Cameron was as close as they come, and Dave McClure's game-winning shot at the buzzer was one of the defining moments of a tumultuous season.
Now, both teams are much improved, and if history repeats itself, the game could be just as close.
"You have to win a lot of close games in this league because you're not going to blow very many people out," Clemson head coach Oliver Purnell said. "By and large they are all going to be close and you need to win 80 percent of those if you want to have a successful ACC season."
The two teams are the second and third-best scoring offenses in the conference, with Duke averaging 84.5 points per game, just edging out the Tigers' 81.9. The Blue Devils' shooting has seen a resurgence in their last two contests, as Duke is hitting over 47 percent of its shots from the floor compared to the 40.1 percent clip the team had managed the three games before.
"We have a good number of good shooters," head coach Mike Kryzewski said. "I don't know if we have any great shooters, but we have good shooters. And, if we take open shots, we've got a chance to hit them."
Even though Clemson suffered a surprising 10-point loss to the Charlotte 49ers just days after nearly beating No. 1 North Carolina Jan. 9, the Tigers have responded strongly. Over their last two games, the team's confidence on offense has been restored to full form.
Much of Clemson's firepower has come from second chances and its domination of the offensive glass so far this season. Duke, a team which lacks a dominant inside presence, will have to eliminate all those second-chance opportunities if they want to keep the Tigers out of the game.
Down low for Clemson, forward Trevor Booker, the prominent big man for the Tigers, ranks second in the ACC with 8.8 rebounds per game-2.6 more than the closest Blue Devil, Demarcus Nelson. Booker is not just a rebounding machine. On Monday, Booker was named the ACC player of the week for scoring 61 points in two games.
Freshman guard Terrence Oglesby provides a spark off the bench for the Tigers and, like Duke's Taylor King, is a solid 3-point shooter. Oglesby is hitting around 43 percent of his shots from beyond the arc, which ranks third in the conference, and he has hit an ACC-best 46 treys on the season-12 more than King. Add to that Oglesby's proven performance under pressure and he becomes a legitimate threat to any team. His three clutch 3-pointers in double overtime against the Seminoles last Saturday helped Clemson seal a 97-85 win.
But there is little chance that Duke will be steamrolled or caught off guard by the powerful Clemson squad. On defense, the stingy Blue Devils have held their opponents to just 63.1 points per game, leading to Duke's claim to the nation's third best average margin of victory. At the same time, the Tigers are not a one-sided group. They have both more steals and blocked shots than the Blue Devils.
With the teams so evenly matched statistically, it seems like the difference might be endurance, as it was in last season's victory.
"In this league, at this level, you have to learn to play 'tired' well," Krzyzewski said after the Jan. 25, 2007 last-second win. "You have to find something, and you can't really teach that in practice."
Since both squads are offensively merciless and red-hot, the same will be true this year. The team that cools off first will be at a severe disadvantage and will face a tough up-hill climb if it hopes to battle back into the game.
It will take that extra 'something' to get the win.
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