Postseason play is always a late-season test of endurance, as teams are forced to play multiple games in a weekend. In preparation for the closely-packed playoff schedule, No. 4 Duke (25-4, 12-2 in the ACC) heads to Winston-Salem tonight for its third game in six days with less than two weeks until the ACC tournament.
“It’s a challenge because you have three games in less than a week, and it’s not the conventional week,” Blue Devil head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “It started off with just a very, very difficult game against Florida State, and then Virginia Tech came after us hard.”
Tonight’s matchup with Wake Forest (13-15, 4-10) marks Duke’s second-to-last regular season game before the much-anticipated contest against No. 6 North Carolina Saturday. Josh Hairston will be one casualty of the quick turnaround. The sophomore will not play tonight as a precautionary measure after being hit in the head early in Saturday’s game against Virginia Tech.
Krzyzewski said he was not sure whether Hairston had suffered a concussion, but added that the forward’s condition is improving.
In the absence of the minutes that Hairston has been gaining, forward Miles Plumlee looks to continue his recent dominance on the boards as he heads into the final games of his senior season.
“He’s playing the best basketball of his career right now,” Kryzewski said. “His rebounding and just his athleticism and strength have really shown up.”
But Wake Forest head coach Jeff Bzdelik is most worried about another Duke post player—the versatile Ryan Kelly, who shot 8-for-11 from the floor and amassed 20 points and 10 rebounds in the teams’ last matchup Jan. 19.
“Ryan Kelly is not just a tough matchup for us, but for anybody,” Bzdelik said. “He’s so skilled. He shoots it so well. He stretches the defense. He can take smaller guys into the post and overpower them.”
Bzdelik will counter Kelly and Plumlee with a pair of 7-foot centers from his own roster. Senior Ty Walker has averaged 4.6 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game since returning from an early-season suspension, and sophomore Carson Desrosiers has added 4.6 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per contest. Walker and Desrosiers were able to limit Mason and Miles Plumlee to just eight points on 2-for-7 shooting in their last matchup with the Blue Devils.
“Carson and Ty are very long.” Bzdelik said. “If you can get your opponent to catch the ball outside the lane... then we don’t have to compromise our defense by doubling down and digging off their great 3-point shooters. It all starts in the post.”
Duke came out on top by a margin of 18 points at Cameron Indoor Stadium in January, but four players posted double-digit scoring totals for the Demon Deacons. Wake Forest’s C.J. Harris led the way with 20 points, and Travis McKie racked up 16 points and 10 rebounds.
Harris is the team’s leader on the floor, scoring 17.0 points per game, but Bzdelik also praises his leadership off the court.
“C.J. Harris has had a very quiet, terrific year,” Bzdelik said. “He always seems calm and cool and collected.... If you were to poll our players and ask them who they trust the most, [Harris] would get 90-percent plus of the votes.... When he speaks, they listen, because he doesn’t speak that often.”
Despite quality performances from Harris and McKie, who both rank in the top five in the ACC in scoring, the Demon Deacons’ lack of depth ultimately cost them the game against a deep Duke squad that received 43 points from its bench. Although the stage moves west to Winston-Salem, the Blue Devils’ balanced attack should give them the advantage over bottom-dwelling Wake Forest. With a regular-season ACC title hanging in the balance and postseason play looming, though, Krzyzewski and his team can ill afford to overlook a road matchup on short rest against any conference foe.
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