In their first of three nonconference games against SEC opponents, the Blue Devils got dominated on the glass and suffered their first loss of the season at Vanderbilt Nov. 20.
When Duke takes on the team heavily favored to win the SEC Sunday, it knows it will need a much more consistent performance to earn its first win against a ranked team in almost two years.
The Blue Devils will travel to Piscataway, N.J., to take on Rutgers at the Rutgers Athletic Center Thursday at 7 p.m. as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge before playing their first ranked opponent of the season in No. 3 South Carolina Sunday. Rutgers has won just one game this season but will provide another road challenge for Duke, which will need to play its best to knock off the Gamecocks Sunday.
Although it is technically a home game for the Blue Devils, South Carolina fans are expected to flood Durham in droves as they did in 2014 for a top-10 matchup between the two teams. One of the largest crowds in program history saw the Gamecocks' dramatic 51-50 win that day, and a similar atmosphere is expected once again this year.
“South Carolina brings bus loads of people and fills Cameron with South Carolina fans, so it’s technically an away game,” Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “It’s an interesting situation there for us, but we’ve got to play for each other, play off each other, and have some heroic defensive measures in terms of the perimeter and inside games that they present. It’s a very deep team, but it comes at a great time.”
The Blue Devils (7-1) have only faced one 2016 NCAA tournament team early in the season, but after taking on the struggling Scarlet Knights (1-5) they will take on a national title contender.
Although South Carolina (5-0) only returns two starters—junior forward A’Ja Wilson and senior center Alaina Coates—from a team that won the SEC, the Gamecocks added transfers Kaela Davis and Allisha Gray from Georgia Tech and North Carolina, respectively.
Davis and Gray were both top-seven recruits out of high school and earned All-ACC honors before helping the Gamecocks reload at guard. They’ve both made waves quickly, combining to average 31.4 points per game to help South Carolina notch commanding double-digits victories against then-No. 7 Ohio State and then-No. 4 Louisville.
Wilson and Coates represent arguably the best post duo in the country, with both earning All-SEC nods and Wilson finishing as an All-American and finalist for National Player of the Year. Coates ranks second in the nation in rebounds per game with 12.8 and paces the nation’s eighth-ranked offense with 16.6 points per contest.
For a Blue Devil team that gave up 18 offensive rebounds in its loss at Vanderbilt, Sunday will show how far Duke has come in the past two weeks.
“No question, this is the highest level we’ve played so far. It’s a great test for us,” McCallie said. “With the transfers, and their strong posts, this is the best South Carolina team there’s ever been. We’ve got to work it out rebound-wise, limit them to one shot, and really getting after the perimeter players.”
McCallie's team struggled to slow the dynamic post duo in a hard-fought 66-55 road loss to South Carolina last December, allowing them to combine for 44 points and 18 rebounds.
However, the Blue Devils led by five points as late as the third quarter against the then-No. 2 Gamecocks, buoyed by a 16-point outburst and a strong defensive effort from then-freshman point guard Kyra Lambert.
“We’ve played them tough every time,” McCallie said. “We just didn’t finish the job there, and obviously credit to them for that.”
Duke will need another strong performance in the post from surging senior forward Oderah Chidom in order to slow South Carolina’s high-flying posts.
Chidom has stepped it up on both ends of the floor, scoring in double digits and averaging 7.5 rebounds per game in her last two contests alongside fellow senior Kendall Cooper.
“Oderah has great, great potential,” McCallie said. “Every day, she’s getting better. She’s… a veteran that understands the level of competition...She’s slightly built, but super fast, and when she uses her athleticism to move around some of the bigger opponents she can be very dangerous.”
Against South Carolina, the rest of the team will need to improve upon its defense as a unit after allowing Pepperdine to make 11 of its 20 3-pointers in the Blue Devils' 99-65 win Sunday.
“It’s a matter of great team defense. There’s no one individual responsible. We’ve got to play great interior and exterior defense, and it will be multiple defenses that try to help us do that,” McCallie said. “That’s a critical piece to getting better, not only contesting the 3-point shooter but cutting them off when they penetrate.”
Before Sunday’s marquee matchup, the Blue Devils will need to get past the Scarlet Knights.
On paper, a lowly Rutgers team that ranks 340th in the nation in scoring offense might not seem to pose too big of a threat to a team led by dynamic guards Rebecca Greenwell and Lexie Brown, but Duke has struggled in true road games the past few years and is being careful not to overlook the Black Knights.
“Rutgers is a very dangerous team,” McCallie said. “Their outcomes have not been what they want, but their abilities far surpass their outcomes. They’re very athletic and very quick... We’re really going to have to be on our A-game in terms of transition defense.”
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Managing Editor 2018-19, 2019-2020 Features & Investigations Editor
A member of the class of 2020 hailing from San Mateo, Calif., Ben is The Chronicle's Towerview Editor and Investigations Editor. Outside of the Chronicle, he is a public policy major working towards a journalism certificate, has interned at the Tampa Bay Times and NBC News and frequents Pitchforks.