Duke will end a long break today when Western Michigan visits Durham for a 7 p.m. game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Because of the Christmas holiday and final exams, Duke will be playing for only the second time in the past 19 days. It last played 10 days ago, when it defeated UNC Greensboro at Cameron.
The break from games has led to plenty of practice time, which coach Mike Krzyzewski welcomed. He said he wasn't pleased with how his team played against UNCG, despite winning 90-63, and said he wants more intense effort the rest of the season.
Freshman guard Austin Rivers said Duke has to improve in its next three games, all against nonconference opponents, with the start of ACC play coming on Jan. 7.
"Coach K was just very angry in the locker room (at halftime against UNCG), as he should have been," Rivers said. "We played awful. And our whole thing before we went out in the second half (was) we don't want to go on a break thinking about a loss or a bad win."
Duke is 10-1 and Western Michigan, of the Mid-American Conference, is 5-7. A win would build Duke's home winning streak to 42 games, which would be the second-longest in school history.
The Blue Devils' 41-game streak is tied for the second-best ever at the school. They are 55-1 at home since the start of the 2008-09 season.
Cameron has proved a difficult building in which to play for MAC teams. The Blue Devils are 4-0 against MAC teams at home, with an average winning margin of 22.2 points.
Mason Plumlee, a 6-foot-10 forward, said he is confident his team won't repeat the mistakes it made against UNCG.
"I just don't think we were playing very hard," Plumlee said. "The coaches were on us about our energy and our effort, so it wasn't an X's and O's thing. The good news is we were able to turn it around in the game.
"I think it'd be more concerning if we were to go through a whole game with that as a problem. The second half was a different story, and that's the sign of a good team if things aren't going your way to be able to get out of a slump. We have to be able to do that to be a good team."
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