At the conclusion of the Blue Devils' ACC opener last season, the fans inside Cameron Indoor Stadium were shocked into silence: Unranked Virginia Tech had just defeated then-No. 5 Duke 69-67 in overtime.
More than a year later, the fourth-ranked Blue Devils (15-1, 3-0 in the ACC) have a chance for revenge when they clash with the Hokies (11-7, 2-2) in Blacksburg, Va. at 7 p.m.
"It sticks in your mind," sophomore Gerald Henderson said of last year's loss. "A game that we lost on our home court, that's something you always think about. We're definitely looking to go into their home court and beat them."
One of the keys for Duke to come out of Cassell Coliseum with its fourth conference victory could be improvement in crashing the glass.
In their win against Clemson Saturday, the Blue Devils were outrebounded 42-26. The Tigers' two post players, James Mays and Trevor Booker, had six and 10 rebounds, respectively, which was more than any Duke player recorded.
The Blue Devils are aware that they cannot afford to keep losing the rebounding battle.
"If we keep playing the way we're playing right now, rebounding isn't going to get any better," sophomore guard Jon Scheyer said. "When we play teams bigger than us or smaller than us, we need to win the rebounding game."
An intriguing individual matchup in this contest is Virginia Tech's athletic Deron Washington against the 6-foot-4 Henderson. Henderson, of course, has made a living this year by using his quickness to shed defenders and finish with highlight-reel dunks. The 6-foot-7 Washington, though, has had some jaw-dropping slams, including a one-handed flush against Georgia Tech where he simply made the shot blocker obsolete. And, in last year's win against Duke, Washington jumped over guard Greg Paulus on his way to another high-flying slam.
While both players are capable, Henderson acknowledges that his counterpart has "out-dunked" him.
"He's dunked on quite a few people in his career," Henderson said. "I've had some cool dunks this year but I haven't really dunked on anyone like he has. I'm looking forward to going up against him and the whole Virginia Tech team and trying to see what kind of athletic game it'll be."
Duke will need all facets of its game to be sharp, as Virginia Tech has yet to lose a home game this season. The Hokies are already gearing up to welcome the Blue Devils, as the fans are preparing the "Orange Effect," one of the promotions at the game.
Duke, in addition, has struggled recently on the road. In their last three outings away from Cameron, the Blue Devils have gutted out close wins against Temple and Florida State and suffered their only loss of the season against Pittsburgh in Madison Square Garden.
Nevertheless, Duke is optimistic about the start to this season, especially in comparison to last year. In addition to being undefeated in the ACC, the Blue Devils are ranked nationally in the top five again. They know that the team that fell last year to Virginia Tech does not resemble this year's squad, which also sits atop the conference standings.
"I think we've set ourselves up to be in good position for this week," Scheyer said. "We have an opportunity to go 4-0 in our next game. Obviously we're taking it one game at a time, but we're really in control right now."
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