In their first ACC road game of the season, the No. 2 Blue Devils will make the trip to Winston-Salem, N.C., to take on Wake Forest at Lawrence Joel Coliseum looking for their 14th consecutive double-digit win to open the season. Tipoff is at 9 p.m. Wednesday. Three keys to Duke's second road victory of the season:
Disrupt Wake Forest’s shooting
Sunday against No. 5 Louisville, Wake Forest became the first team to shoot better than 50 percent from the field this season against the Cardinals. Duke will look to halt the Demon Deacon offense—spurred to a near upset by forward Devin Thomas’ 31 points and 11 boards—and keep them closer to their season average of 42.7 percent shooting. Wake Forest scored 76 points against Louisville—the highest allowed by the Cardinals this season—and will look to carry that momentum against a Duke defense that has held 10 of 13 opponents to less than 70 points per game.
Freshman center Jahlil Okafor will need to continue his strong defensive play—coming off of a four block game against Boston College—and lock down the paint to allow his teammates to pressure the ball and disrupt the Demon Deacon offense. Wake Forest shoots just 33.5 percent from long range as a team and was held to just 3-of-15 against Louisville. Outside of guard Mitchell Wilbekin, Wake Forest lacks the three-point sharpshooters to test Duke along the perimeter, so another strong defensive effort should have the Blue Devils in good shape Wednesday.
Continue feeding Okafor in the post
Coming off a career-high 28 points against Boston College, there’s no reason for Okafor to slow down. He has been dominating the paint and finally found some success at the free throw line—connecting on 14 of 17 attempts from the charity stripe—as the Eagles could find no way to stop him whatsoever. The stud freshman has now scored 20-plus points in six of the last eight games and should carry the momentum into Wednesday’s game.
He will have a great size advantage on whoever Wake Forest puts on him—Thomas and fellow forward Darius Leonard are both just 6-foot-9 to Okafor’s 6-foot-11. The Blue Devil center should be able to bully his way into the paint and finish with authority or draw contact and spend a lot more time the free throw line. Look for point guards Tyus Jones and Quinn Cook to be dishing the ball to the Chicago native in transition and the halfcourt offense so Duke can play of its most talented player as it has all season.
Attack early and often on both ends
Boston College led for all of 18 seconds before the vaunted Duke offense put them on their heels. The Blue Devil offense is fourth in the nation at 85.3 points per game and will definitely make it difficult for the Demon Deacons to keep up. After trying to establish Okafor early, Duke needs to stay in attack mode by cutting to the basket and relocating for open 3-pointers against a susceptible Wake Forest defense that ranks 215th in the nation in points allowed per game.
On the defensive end, rebounding and transition defense will be top priorities against a team that leads the ACC in defensive rebounding percentage and boasts the conference's top rebounder in Thomas. Controlling the glass and keeping lightning-quick guard Codi-Miller McIntyre contained will require the Blue Devils being intentional about their movements in a hostile road environment. Duke is 1-4 in its last five ACC road openers but can earn a win this season if it keeps up the aggressive mindset that has worked so well to this point.
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