There is seldom, if ever, a good time for an ACC basketball team to visit Duke.
Even so, the timing of Wake Forest's trip to Cameron Indoor Stadium for today's 7 p.m. game (ESPN Ch. 33) could hardly be worse.
Five days after a 76-40 stomping by N.C. State, the Deacons have the task of facing a 15-2 team that is ranked No. 4 in one of the wildest and most raucous arenas in college basketball.
"After our performance on Saturday, we're just learning about ourselves right now," coach Jeff Bzdelik said. "We're focusing on things we're supposed to do, and doing it better — getting open, screening, making good decisions on the break, rebounding.
"I thought we had a hiccup the other day in terms of, I think, we just let our inexperience get the best of us as we fell behind. We got a little frustrated. But it's a growing-up process."
Wake Forest's best chance will be to control tempo, as it has done in its most impressive performances of the season at Nebraska and at home against Virginia Tech. That's easier said than done against Duke, which is averaging 80.3 points and has decisive home victories against Colorado State (87-64), UNC Greensboro (90-63), Western Michigan (110-70) and Penn (85-55).
Since defeating Virginia Tech at home 58-55 on Jan. 7, Wake Forest has lost at Maryland 70-64 and at home to N.C. State to fall to 10-7 overall and 1-2 in ACC play.
"The last couple of games, we struggled stopping teams in transition, and they got a lot of easy points," senior forward Nikita Mescheriakov said. "It's about us. We've got to come out with a lot of energy and play like we've been playing — the last game being an exception.
"I'm not sure what happened. But we've just got to come out and play with a lot of energy, play for each other and share the ball. And I'm sure good things can happen for us."
The loss of Nolan Smith (20.6 ppg) and Kyle Singler (16.9 ppg) to graduation and Kyrie Irving (17.5 ppg) to the NBA left coach Mike Krzyzewski to find other sources of offense. The Blue Devils have one of the most balanced teams in the ACC with five players averaging between 13.8 and 9.5 points.
Austin Rivers, a 6-foot-4 freshman, leads Duke with 13.8 points. Also, 6-2 junior Seth Curry is averaging 12.5 points, 6-11 junior Ryan Kelly 12.1, 6-10 junior Mason Plumlee 11.7 and 6-4 junior Andre Dawkins 9.5.
Mason Plumlee leads Duke with 9.5 rebounds a game, and Miles Plumlee, a 6-10 senior, averages 6.5.
Dawkins has started eight of the Blue Devils' 17 games, yet has been one of the team's most explosive and clutch performers. Dawkins scored 26 points in a 74-69 victory against Michigan State on Nov. 15 and 24 in Sunday's 73-66 victory against Clemson.
"They're 15-2, and they're overall doing a really good job without just having one or two guys," Krzyzewski said. "So we have to be flexible about how we bring a team like this along."
Bzdelik said that Duke is a team from which his team can learn.
"Well, obviously Duke is very deep with their talents," Bzdelik said. "They come at you with so many different weapons. They play extremely hard.
"I think the thing that impresses me most about Duke is they take everybody's best shot. So they play extremely hard, and that's something our team needs to learn, is the intensity and toughness."
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