Until a statement ACC win by the men's basketball team last night at Cameron Indoor Stadium, Duke's two No. 1-ranked teams had had a shakier grasp on the top of the polls than a couple of hands on cocktail glasses for happy hour at a retirement home.
The women's team has continued to be rickety in conference play thus far, with only Alana Beard's gargantuan performance against Virginia Thursday keeping their record clean. The Blue Devils (14-0, 2-0 in the ACC) head to Atlanta tonight to take on Georgia Tech (11-3, 0-2) for a chance to stabilize things at the top of the nation, let alone the conference.
"We're going to have to do a much better job to be successful in Atlanta," head coach Gail Goestenkors said after her team escaped with a controversial 60-59 win over the Cavaliers. "I'm worried about everybody in the ACC."
And though after crushing their opponents over winter break Duke seemed to be the ones inducing fear into opponents, the Blue Devils have looked like nothing more than a low-scoring, one-woman team of late.
"I knew I needed to take over at a certain point," Beard said. "If I make something happen my team will step up. But if my teammates don't play well, it's not a good game."
With those "good" games not in the air in the new year, the Blue Devils might not only give up the top ranking to streaking Connecticut when the new polls are released this afternoon, but they might be in for another test with the Yellow Jackets.
"We need to be ready to play," Goestenkors said. "We know that Georgia Tech is an exceptional team; they're hungry. They've already beaten Georgia, and that gave them a lot of confidence. Now they've lost a couple in the conference. They're an angry team, similar to Virginia. Their backs are against the wall, and that's always a very scary team."
When Beard struggled against the Ramblin' Wreck last season, Duke relied on a second scoring threat in Monique Currie. But with Currie out for the season with an ACL tear that has gone unnoticed amongst the Blue Devils' No. 1 stature, even star forward Iciss Tillis has been unable to bare some of the brunt from the scintillating, seemingly unguardable Beard.
Though Tillis dropped 23 points in the second Tech game last year, the Jackets flaunt a talented frontcourt of their own. Junior forward Fallon Stokes, who will probably be matched up with Beard for much of the game, drained 34 points in a recent loss to No. 9 North Carolina, and bulky senior center Sonja Mallory grabbed 19 boards to go with 17 points when Tech dropped last Sunday's contest to Maryland.
Despite the two-game losing streak, Agnus Berenato's squad has had over a week to prepare for the tenuously-titled No. 1 Blue Devils. Freshman center Mistie Bass, who broke into the starting lineup over the break as Goestenkors turned to a bigger lineup, will be responsible for neutralizing the brutally physical Mallory, if she can stay out of foul trouble.
And after scoring well below their season average in ACC play thus far, Duke will need to give more than an unsteady helping hand to Alana Beard to avoid any more trouble than that.
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