The No. 3 Duke men's basketball team (23-2, 11-2 in the ACC) looks to redeem itself from Sunday's poor showing at Maryland against No. 20 Wake Forest (18-8, 8-4) Thursday night at Lawrence Joel Coliseum.
The Blue Devils will strive to correct their communication woes, a mishap that plagued them at Cole Field House.
"Something that happened in the Maryland game is that we were trying to communicate with Coach on the floor instead of communicating with each other," Duke junior Nick Horvath said. "Out on the court we're talking better now."
The intense crowd at Maryland led to many of the communication problems, and the team expects Wake fans to be rowdy Thursday, as well. The Blue Devils look to counter this with solid team play.
"If you take a team out of the game, then the crowd really doesn't have anything to cheer about," Duke freshman Daniel Ewing said.
The general attitude around the Duke team has not changed much after the Maryland loss. Unlike the events after the Blue Devils' only other loss at Florida State, there have not been
The team looks at Wake Forest as a challenging opportunity to start another winning streak.
'They're a good team. We're going to their home court, and we're going to come out and fight,' Ewing said. 'I mean, it's not going to be an easy win.'
Wake Forest presents the same problem Maryland did for the perimeter-oriented Blue Devils: strong interior play.
Darius Songaila and Josh Howard are Wake's two leading scorers, and they get a large percentage of their points from inside the paint. Songaila is coming off a 30-point outing against Virginia, when his Demon Deacon's put on an impressive show in a 92-70 win Sunday.
Fortunately for Duke, Howard is questionable for Thursday after missing the game against the Cavaliers.
Duke has steadily been improving all year on its interior game, and hopes that Wake will not have too large of an advantage in this category.
'We've been working on our rebounding primarily for the past few weeks,' said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser said that Duke's emphasis on perimeter skills could play to Duke's advantage against Wake Forest's talented interior players.
'They're a bit atypical with four perimeter kids,' Prosser said. 'They just spread you out. You can't cheat off any of their guys. They have excellent, excellent players. You have to guard all their guys.'
Prosser also fears that Duke's 11-game winning streak against the Deacons could play into the minds of his players. He knows Duke has confidence that it can beat Wake, but is not quite sure if his players feel they can beat the Blue Devils.
'We have to some how try and overcome that,' Prosser said.
As for the Blue Devils, they are hoping that their trip to Winston-Salem refreshes them of the basic play that led to their excellent team chemistry.
'It's about us going out and playing,' said Ewing. 'It's as simple as that.'
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.