Living in the moment and ignoring the outside noise has been the motto for the Duke Blue Devils this week. Junior point guard Jeremy Roach, after Duke’s 75-73 win versus Wake Forest, alluded to the upcoming Tobacco Road rivalry having a little extra juice during this meeting after their season was ended by the team 10 miles down the road.
Duke certainly has more questions than answers on their end, but in this rivalry, we’ve seen – time and time again – the unexpected can happen
Here are three keys to a Duke win over UNC:
Transition
Get out in transition with Roach and Proctor allows for the Blue Devils to attack the paint and gain rhythm with their freshman. Emotions and adrenaline will be a factor at the start. Tempo will allow the young studs to settle and play within the flow of the offense. More importantly Duke, who ranks 9th in offensive scoring in the league, will need to put up points in bunches.
Pick-And-Roll
Force Armando Bacot in the pick and roll. Allowing Bacot to play just one side of the ball benefits him offensively. The high ball screens from the post will bring Bacot out the paint – freeing up the wings of Mitchell and Filipowski to attack the paint, potentially drawing fouls on the Bigs of UNC in Washington and Bacot. If the UNC defender cheats off the screen or hedges hard this will free up the snipers from downtown.
Backcourt Dining
Duke’s guards have to eat. The status of Dariq Whitehead won’t be announced until tipoff – perhaps- and coming off a leg strain it’s unknown how much he’ll play and how affective he’ll be. The 38 points combined from Tyrese Proctor and Jeremy Roach in the win against Wake Forest were the most from Duke’s starting backcourt this season. They’ll need to duplicate that Saturday against UNC.