On Jan. 10 of last year, Duke and Wake Forest, both undefeated, met for a highly-anticipated, early season matchup in Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Blue Devils had one of their best performances of the season, crushing the eventual ACC regular season champions 74-55.
This year, the stage is very similar for tomorrow's 1:00 p.m. showdown in Cameron Indoor Stadium. Both the No. 2 Blue Devils (13-1, 3-0 in the ACC) and the No. 4 Demon Deacons (11-1, 2-0) have a single blemish on their respective records.
After a 76-57 victory over N.C. State Thursday night, the Blue Devils have a 10-game winning streak, while the Demon Deacons are coming off their first loss of the season. Wake Forest lost Tuesday night at No. 18 Texas 94-81, a team Duke dominated 89-61 earlier this season in Madison Square Garden.
Despite being early in the conference season, the game has major ramifications for the ACC standings. If Wake Forest is able to end the Blue Devil's 35-game home winning streak, the Demon Deacons will have beaten both Duke and UNC on their home courts and be the early-season favorite to take the regular season crown. If the Blue Devils can win on only a single day of rest, they will start out 4-0 in the nation's most competitive conference.
And if Duke hopes to repeat last season's performance, the Blue Devils will have to do it against a different Wake Forest team. Josh Howard, 2003 ACC Player of the Year, graduated in the spring, but Chris Paul, a point guard from Winston-Salem, is emerging as a superstar.
"Chris is obviously one of the better players in the league," Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "He doesn't make many mistakes and he has courage and then the ability to back up that courage."
Paul, averaging just under 13 points and 6 assists per game, could be disrupted by the atmosphere of Cameron Indoor Stadium and the defense of Chris Duhon and Sean Dockery, but head coach Skip Prosser thinks his freshman will be just fine.
"I sleep like a baby with Chris Paul having the ball in his hands," Prosser said. "I think that he will play as well as he can. Fortunately we've already played at North Carolina which was a tough atmosphere. It's not like our first ACC road game."
Paul's backcourt mate Justin Grey scored a career-high 27 points during the team's loss Tuesday night. Grey, primarily an outside shooter, nailed eight three pointers against Texas.
The Blue Devils essentially start three guards as do the Demon Deacons, but the Duke trio is a little bigger. Wake has been banged up along the front line with Vytas Danelius and Chris Ellis each missing action. As a result, size will also play into the Blue Devil's advantage in the Front Court. Wake Forest's leading scorer Eric Williams will likely matchup against Duke's Shelden Williams, leaving 180 pounds Jamaal Levy to guard the bigger Shavlik Randolph.
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