The Blue Devils (18-3, 5-1 in the ACC) will travel to Blacksburg, Va. tonight to take on Virginia Tech (12-9, 1-5).
The 7 p.m. matchup at Cassell Coliseum pits No. 7 Duke, which at 80.3 points per game has the 11th best offense in Division I, against one of country’s weakest scoring teams in the Hokies who tally just 67.7 per contest.
Junior guard Erick Green is at the helm of the extremely slow-paced Hokie attack that averages just 64.6 possessions a game, which ranks 266th in the nation. Green—who has made great strides since a freshman year that saw him shoot 29 percent from the field—leads the squad in scoring with 15.9 points per game, fulfilling his point guard duties on both ends with 3.2 assists and 1.5 steals per contest.
Dorenzo Hudson—named third team all-ACC in 2009 before missing the 2010-11 season due to foot surgery—joins Green in the backcourt. He has bounced back well, contributing 11.9 points per game.
The Hokie backcourt has also contributed on the defensive end, where they have led a perimeter defense that allows opponents to shoot just 25.9 percent from beyond the arc this season. That mark ranks second in the nation and could be critical to stopping a Duke offense that records nearly 30 percent of its scoring from 3-pointers and shoots 39.9-percent—best in the ACC—from deep.
Although the Hokies possess talented starters in the backcourt, the Blue Devils may be able to control the paint, since Virginia Tech’s tallest forward is 6-foot-9 Cadarian Raines. But even though Raines and fellow post player Victor Davila face a height disadvantage against Duke, both possess wide 240-pound frames that could enable them to battle the Plumlees down low.
Despite the Hokies’ bulk inside, though, Mason Plumlee will be a particularly tough matchup, as he has grabbed 29 boards and recorded 38 points over his past two contests. If he continues his improved foul shooting after going 20-for-27 over the past five games, he could finally offer the Blue Devils a consistently dangerous inside threat.
The wild card for Virginia Tech could be freshman small forward Dorian Finney-Smith, a 2011 McDonald’s All-American who has done well on the boards with 7.2 rebounds per game, but has shot an ugly 29.5 percent from the field so far during his freshman campaign. Against a Duke team without a true small forward, he could be a candidate to make good on his offensive potential tonight.
But even with Finney-Smith headlining a talented class of rookies for the Hokies, Duke will certainly enter tonight’s contest as the favorite against a Virginia Tech team that has lost six of its last seven games, including defeats at the hands of ACC cellar dwellers Wake Forest and Boston College. The Blue Devils have won three of their past four at Cassell Coliseum, and that tally could increase to four out of five against a Hokie squad that lacks size and depth.
—from staff reports
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