With another successful road swing in the books, it’s time for Duke to come home.
The No. 5 Blue Devils (24-2, 11-1 in the ACC) will play in Cameron Indoor Stadium for the first time in 11 days Sunday, as a struggling Georgia Tech squad comes to Durham seeking its first road victory of the season.
“We haven’t been at home for a while,” Nolan Smith said. “We’ll be happy to be home in front of the crowd again. I want to win.”
Despite a Wednesday night victory over Chattanooga, the Yellow Jackets (11-14, 3-8) are currently riding a five-game conference losing streak. Their most recent loss was the worst of the season, a 102-77 annihilation at the hands of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va.
Georgia Tech boasts a young squad featuring 10 freshmen and sophomores and is shooting a mere 40.7 percent from the field this year, good for 299th in Division I. The Yellow Jackets rely heavily on guard Iman Shumpert, who leads the team in minutes, points, rebounds, assists and steals this season. Despite the junior’s best efforts, though, Georgia Tech as a team has mustered only 69 points per game on the season, placing ninth in the ACC.
Still, head coach Mike Krzyzewski warned Wednesday that the Yellow Jackets were not to be overlooked.
“We have a lot of respect for who they are,” he said.
The losses of Gani Lawal and Derrick Favors have left a gaping hole in the front line for Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets have only three players 6-foot-8 or taller, and all three are freshmen. Center Daniel Miller is seeing the most playing time of the group at 24.9 minutes a game but is only managing 4.4 points and 4.8 rebounds per contest.
With its many options up front, Duke appears to have the personnel to exploit the Yellow Jackets’ weakness in the paint. The Blue Devils will primarily look for Mason Plumlee to continue his recent production to take some pressure off their perimeter stars. Over the past five games, Plumlee has averaged 10.2 points and 9 rebounds as Duke has established itself at the top of the ACC.
“We’ve tried to make a point to get our big guys involved,” Smith said. “We know if we do that we’ll be a deeper team and a more explosive team.”
But the player who could be positioned to benefit the most from the size discrepancy is senior Kyle Singler. Coming off a 21-game double-digit scoring streak, Singler got into foul trouble Wednesday against Virginia and finished with only two points on 1-for-5 shooting. Although his shooting percentage has been a very respectable 43.2 percent on the year, Singler is shooting only 31.9 percent over the past four games.
“He’s entitled to not playing well once in a while,” Krzyzewski said. “He’s a champion. I’m okay with Kyle.”
Returning to the friendly confines of Cameron to face smaller opponents should open things up for Duke’s No. 5 all-time scorer. Singler should have no trouble getting his shot off against the Yellow Jackets, who will be forced to send a guard out to the perimeter to defend the 6-foot-8 forward. The size advantage should also help Singler on the boards where he can use his size advantage to provide rebounding assistance to Ryan Kelly and the Plumlees.
If the Blue Devils can get Singler back on track, Duke should prove to be too much for a young, undersized Georgia Tech squad to handle Sunday night.
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