While the Blue Devils were hitting the books for finals week, the rest of the college basketball world experienced one of the most chaotic weeks of the season.
Upsets ran amok up and down the AP Top 25, with four top-10 teams picking up a loss and North Carolina suffering an embarrassing home loss to Wofford.
And although Duke was able to sit back and watch the chaos—which helped prop it back to a top-five ranking—the Blue Devils must keep their guard up against that same Terrier squad, a team with a history of knocking off ACC powers.
No. 4 Duke will return to the hardwood Thursday at 6 p.m. in Cameron Indoor Stadium against Wofford. Although this year's squad of Terriers is nowhere near as talented as the Wofford team that gave second-seeded Kentucky an early scare in last year's NCAA tournament, the Blue Devils can't let rust give the visiting team the space it needs to get hot early.
"[The break] is unconventional with finals last week," Blue Devil sophomore Joey Baker said. "But it's a good change of pace. It's good to get back in the gym and get some good practices, hard practices that you're not able to have in the thick of the season when you're not playing games. We've definitely gotten better from this time off and we'll continue to do that once we get back from Christmas break."
With a guard-heavy lineup that likes to work methodically to create scoring opportunities, Duke (9-1) must stay shifty on the perimeter and maintain its highly disruptive defense in order to stop the Terriers (7-4) in their tracks.
Wofford's offense lives on the perimeter, using a lineup that uses ball movement to create open looks for its many shooters. With an average of 11.2 made 3-pointers on a 39 percent clip, the Terriers have made a name for themselves with slick shooting. In particular, Duke will have to put the clamps on Storm Murphy, a junior point guard with a lightning fast release that has knocked down treys at a staggering 54.5 percent rate—all while leading the team in long-range attempts. Adding in Tray Hollowell and Trevor Stumpe, two guards shooting better than 35 percent from three on over 40 attempts apiece, and the Terriers have all the ingredients to give any school fits in its own gym.
"We have to stay smart on defense, especially because we know they're a great three point shooting team at every position," Duke senior captain Jack White said. "We have to be aggressive and get out in transition against them. Just play our game and play hard and play tough."
Although the Blue Devils may be tempted to use their considerable size advantage against an undersized Wofford squad, Duke may need to instead opt for small-ball lineups and elite perimeter defense. When the Blue Devils took down a similarly hot-shooting and undersized Virginia Tech team on the road, Duke sat the imposing but slow-footed Vernon Carey Jr. in favor of White, a capable defender at all positions. Similarly, the Blue Devils may opt for the likes of Wendell Moore and Jordan Goldwire instead of Matthew Hurt and Cassius Stanley, settling in for a lock-down small ball lineup that can exploit a weaker opposing defense to mask limited offensive weapons.
Even with conference play just on the horizon, the Blue Devils can't lose sight of their last few nonconference opponents. If Duke is caught unprepared, it may be the next top-10 team sending shockwaves through the nation with yet another chaotic upset.
"We're in a good place. We're excited to play tomorrow against a really good team," White said. "We saw that they had a really good game against Carolina and we know that they're feeling good about themselves. We're excited to be back on our home court and defending it."
Shane Smith contributed reporting.
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