Duke remains #2 but Wake is closing in

[watzone]

In the latest coaches poll, Duke is a few points ahead of Wake, UNC 6th and Clemson 9th - meaning 4 ACC teams in the top ten.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/rankings

[juise]

And the AP picked Wake 2nd (including 2 first place votes), bumping Duke to third. It's good to see (non-Heel) ACC teams nipping at the top spot.

[BlueintheFace]

I would really like to beat these two King George schools this week. If we were to win both by 10+, I would at least FEEL more deserving of the ranking.

[jipops]

This is all obviously reactionary to last night but I don't think anybody was really all that surprised by the result. Wake is arguably the ACC's most talented team but they're also still relatively young and inexperienced. I still think UNC is the best team (especially if Roy actually has his guys prepared to play). I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Wake drop a few unexpected losses along the way but they are certainly a force and a major national threat in March.

[SMO]

This is all obviously reactionary to last night but I don't think anybody was really all that surprised by the result. Wake is arguably the ACC's most talented team but they're also still relatively young and inexperienced. I still think UNC is the best team (especially if Roy actually has his guys prepared to play). I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Wake drop a few unexpected losses along the way but they are certainly a force and a major national threat in March.

We're still a long way from the rankings being an indication of who is going to win on any given night (are they ever?), but the overall trend of ACC teams rising to the top is great.

[weezie]

that teddy bear should be facing INTO the corner

[SilkyJ]

Guys aren't we forgetting to discuss the uberness that is the Big East? I mean they have 3 out of the top 10 teams! They are the greatest conference ever! Just like UNC is the greatest team ever!

So what have we learned kids (read: the press): don't throw around superlatives so loosely.

(as a note the ACC has 4 of the top 10 teams in both polls, though clemson is still an asterisk for me since they are always overrated at this point in the season...then again, so are we, at least this year and the last few years. No WAY we are the #2 team in the country.)

[77devil]

No WAY we are the #2 team in the country.

Ssssh. Keep it to yourself.

[KyDevilinIL]

No WAY we are the #2 team in the country.)

I am admittedly awful at watching a teams play and trying to guess how well or poorly Duke might compete against them.

That said, I watched that game last night and was overcome with the sense that this Duke team, if facing either Wake or UNC today, would have to play a darn near spectacular game to win. We're cruising along OK right now, but we've got to get a lot smoother on offense and a lot more consistent at both ends to make good on our lofty ranking by the end of the year.

[CameronCrazy'11]

I am admittedly awful at watching a teams play and trying to guess how well or poorly Duke might compete against them.

That said, I watched that game last night and was overcome with the sense that this Duke team, if facing either Wake or UNC today, would have to play a darn near spectacular game to win. We're cruising along OK right now, but we've got to get a lot smoother on offense and a lot more consistent at both ends to make good on our lofty ranking by the end of the year.

It's hard to bring too much out of that game, since neither team had any interest in trying to seriously play defense. I certainly didn't think the level of play was noticeably above Duke's. That said, the safe money is definitely on us splitting wins with Carolina and with Wake.

[mgtr]

No WAY we are the #2 team in the country.)

I cast my lot with SilkyJ on this one. Tournament berths are not decided on January rankings, so lets all relax. I have been surprised by the strength of two teams in the last week (FSU and Wake). However, I not yet ready to declared the ACC the greatest conference in the history of everything!

[Karl Beem]

I am admittedly awful at watching a teams play and trying to guess how well or poorly Duke might compete against them.

That said, I watched that game last night and was overcome with the sense that this Duke team, if facing either Wake or UNC today, would have to play a darn near spectacular game to win. We're cruising along OK right now, but we've got to get a lot smoother on offense and a lot more consistent at both ends to make good on our lofty ranking by the end of the year.

I had the exact opposite feeling. If they played as they did last night, Duke would have no trouble with either team. However, I do expect both teams to play better against Duke.

[Wander]

Can we kill the myth about Wake not playing defense? They forced UNC into their worst offensive performance of the entire season. Not only does Wake play defense, they play some of the best defense in the country.

Agreed that a split with UNC and Wake is the most likely scenario at this point.

[ehdg]

Granted that was an exciting game to watch and was a nice win for Wake but come on for crying out loud why the heck are they storming the court after that win? Heck they where ranked 4th and beat the 3rd ranked team. It's not like this was a huge upset or anything. These are two very good teams that are ranked where they belong or damn close to it. It would have been much more appropriate if the Duke people had stormed the field after we won our 1st football game this year or after we beat UVA to win our first ACC game in how many years!! But we didn't and I think that showed a lot more.

[juise]

Granted that was an exciting game to watch and was a nice win for Wake but come on for crying out loud why the heck are they storming the court after that win? Heck they where ranked 4th and beat the 3rd ranked team. It's not like this was a huge upset or anything. These are two very good teams that are ranked where they belong or damn close to it. It would have been much more appropriate if the Duke people had stormed the field after we won our 1st football game this year or after we beat UVA to win our first ACC game in how many years!! But we didn't and I think that showed a lot more.

I guess you can't "act like you've been there before" if you've never actually been "there." Yes, I know Wake has been highly ranked and that they have knocked off a few highly-ranked Duke teams. I guess I'm referring more to post season success, which has been very limited (1 FF in the 60's).

[Wildling]

I had the exact opposite feeling. If they played as they did last night, Duke would have no trouble with either team. However, I do expect both teams to play better against Duke.

I wouldn't say "no trouble", but I do agree with you. I watched the game last night and couldn't help but notice WF's players just standing around on offense. They were playing 1 on 1 and had literally no movement on offense. That being said, if Duke brings their "A" game defensively, I think WF will have their hands full trying to score with all that standing around.

Over the past few weeks I have a good friend of mine who keeps taking jabs at me saying "what is Duke going to do when they play NC this year?". He is almost laughing at the thought that Duke can't even stay in the game with them. My response to him a few weeks back was to tell him as long as we can keep Lawson under wraps, and play top notch defense, we got a good shot at beating NC. He laughed at the notion that is all Duke had to do.

Well considering the 2 loses NC has right now, it looks like my answer wasn't too far off of what Duke needs to do.

[SilkyJ]

Granted that was an exciting game to watch and was a nice win for Wake but come on for crying out loud why the heck are they storming the court after that win? Heck they where ranked 4th and beat the 3rd ranked team. It's not like this was a huge upset or anything.

I agree with you, but I think its cause of the hype. Pre-season, and early on in the season this UNC team was heralded as one of the all time greats (despite having accomplished very little as a team) and had talk of going undefeated, blah blah...also wake hasnt been very good since CPIII left.

I guess I'm referring more to post season success, which has been very limited (1 FF in the 60's).

Very very true, although that game a couple years back in the elite 8 versus WVU when wake had justin gray and CPIII was something to watch. Double or triple overtime IIRC. Tangent: That WVU team was one of my favorite non-duke teams in a long time...john belein can really coach, as we all know...

[juise]

Very very true, although that game a couple years back in the elite 8 versus WVU when wake had justin gray and CPIII was something to watch. Double or triple overtime IIRC.

You did recall correctly about the overtime aspect... it was double OT. However, that was only the second round. WVU was a seven seed (as we Duke fans know, WVU can be a tough seven seed).

[ice-9]

I wouldn't say "no trouble", but I do agree with you. I watched the game last night and couldn't help but notice WF's players just standing around on offense. They were playing 1 on 1 and had literally no movement on offense. That being said, if Duke brings their "A" game defensively, I think WF will have their hands full trying to score with all that standing around.

Exactly! Ironically, UNC made Wake look better on offense than Wake really is because they defended Teague so poorly. When you give a good player that much room to create, the entire team looks good. Duke will definitely make Teague work much, much harder.

I see Duke vs. Wake coming down to a defensive battle.

[dbd4ever]

First of all, let's come back down off of the Wake Forest band wagon! Yes we are all glad that they knocked off the Tar Heels, but college basketball is not once you beat the man, you automatically become the man. Everyone who watched that game last night saw that the Heels lost that game more than Wake won it. There was no chemistry on either end of the floor for Carolina and we all saw the bickering on the sideline during the timeout. This game was also officiated in a way that gave Wake the chance to use their bigs to their advantage. They didn't play flawless defense by any means. The biggest thing was the ball pressure that Teague and Smith put on Lawson that completely frustrated him. But at the same time, the Tar Heels did nothing to negate this and they also didn't move the ball. They all stood around and watched the others try to create off the dribble. And the few times they fed it to the post, Wake would just collapse on the ball. And with none of the post players trying to pass it back out or look for another teammate around the basket, they kept forcing up the shots with very little effect.

The bottom line is that every team has a different style and ours is nothing like Carolina's or Wake's. We will have to figure out how to play against us just as much as they will have to figure out how to stop us. We obviously play better defense than both of the above mentioned teams and we are also more disciplined in the "big" games than either of them. So I think that will play a big part in all four of the games. We are more versital than either of those teams in that we can go big and play slow or go small and play fast.

We all need to quit stressing about how good they ARE and see how good our guys are. We are DUKE!!!!