After another road loss in the ACC, Duke returns home tonight to play Virginia at 7 p.m. The Cavaliers defeated the Blue Devils 73-68 last year in Charlottesville, led by a magnificent 36-point performance from Joe Harris. Virginia returns most of its key players from last year's team and is off to an impressive 3-0 start in conference play, with all three wins by double-digits. Here are tonight's keys to the game:
Compete on the Boards
The Blue Devils were out-toughed and out-muscled by their own admission against Clemson, and no stat better showcased that fact than the Tigers' 48-30 rebounding advantage. The Cavaliers pose another physical threat, and the Blue Devils will need to find and box-out Akil Mitchell and Mike Tobey to prevent second-chance points. Duke's three-guard rotation of Quinn Cook, Tyler Thornton and Rasheed Sulaimon pulled down just four rebounds against Clemson, a number that must improve Monday night.
Play a Full 40 Minutes
It's been a while since the Blue Devils played a solid 40 minutes of basketball. They faltered down the stretch at Notre Dame and Clemson, and looked sluggish in the first half against Georgia Tech. Virginia just beat N.C. State by more than 30 points on Saturday, so Duke cannot afford to endure a five to 10 minute drought.
Get to the Free Throw Line
Duke went 11-for-15 from the charity stripe Saturday, but Clemson went 18-for-30, indicating that the Tigers were the aggressors, getting into the bonus and driving to the hoop looking for contact—although some of that is skewed by the intentional fouling at the end of the game. On the whole, Duke is a very good free throw shooting team, and getting to the line should be a priority to get easy points while putting some of Virginia's bigger bodies in foul trouble at the same time.
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