Between last Saturday's emotional comeback victory over N.C. State and Duke's upcoming blockbuster matchup against No. 1 North Carolina Saturday, it would be easy to overlook Virginia.
The Cavaliers, who host the Blue Devils at 7 p.m. tonight at John Paul Jones Arena, rank near the bottom of the conference so far this season. No. 6 Duke (25-3, 12-2 in the ACC) had no problem with Virginia (14-13, 4-10) when the two squads met Jan. 13 in Cameron Indoor Stadium, winning overwhelmingly 87-65. It remains the Blue Devils' biggest margin of victory in an ACC contest this year.
But by no means is Duke stuck reveling in the past or thinking a game ahead. The Blue Devils also cannot afford to look past a Cavaliers squad that came one point away from upsetting the Tar Heels Feb. 12 and two points from taking down surging Miami Saturday.
"Our last game is far behind us-we've played it, we've watched the tape and it's in the past now-it's in the winning column," sophomore Gerald Henderson said. "Obviously, the Carolina game is going to be a big game for us, but this Virginia game is just even bigger right now in terms of winning the ACC championship."
Despite showing promise last year, Virginia has failed to build on its previous success, falling just short of victory on multiple occasions this season. Especially considering that Duke has struggled as of late against weaker ACC teams, though, the Blue Devils have learned that every opponent poses a legitimate threat.
"They have an all-league guard in Sean Singletary-he'll be our focal point," Henderson said. "He's a heck of a guard, he's scoring the ball lately and in the next few days, we'll have to be prepared to stop him."
Singletary is one of the ACC's premier seniors, but his situation could not be more different than that of captain DeMarcus Nelson. The Cavaliers have not capitalized on their senior captain's dominance on the court as well as the Blue Devils, who have jelled around the leadership of Nelson-called "a rock" for the team on numerous occasions by head coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Virginia has lost eight of its last 10 games even though Singletary ranks third in scoring in the ACC with 19.7 points per contest and second in assists with 5.8. But no matter how poorly a team may be playing, a player like Singletary has the individual capability to keep his team in the game even when they shouldn't be, much like Tyrese Rice of Boston College did last weekend when he put up 46 points on North Carolina in the Eagles' loss.
And as Duke looks to reestablish the dominant play it exhibited throughout January and early February-a period during which the Blue Devils won every game and all but one by double digits-the focus has not been on improving the offense all that much. Instead, playing strong defense and containing game-breaking players such as Singletary have continued to be at the center of Duke's game plans.
"All year, we've been a good shooting team, especially from behind the 3-point line. We have good shooters who are capable knocking down shots," Henderson said. "The last few games don't show an example of what we've done all season-but we'll approach the game [thinking] 'Shots will fall.' But the biggest thing for our game is that we just need to play good defense."
If the Blue Devils can emerge from Charlottesville unscathed and with another tally for the win column, the team will have built solid momentum for the showdown against the Tar Heels March 8 in Cameron Indoor Stadium. Henderson seemed pretty confident in his squad's ability to do just that.
"We feel like we have a pretty good chance to win," he said.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.