Duke hits the road on Sunday for a faceoff with Clemson for sole possession of #2 in the ACC standings. Clemson is coming off of a painful overtime loss at Florida State. After losing senior forward Donte Grantham earlier in ACC play, starting guard Shelton Mitchell was hospitalized after being knocked unconscious in the waning minutes of overtime against FSU. It appears the Mitchell suffered a concussion. His status for Sunday is up in the air. With his status in doubt, the Tigers have a painfully thin rotation. In conference play, only 8 Tigers have played 12 of the 13 games. The team could be down to 7 regulars.

Clemson features a dynamic trio of guards in the aforementioned Mitchell, junior Marcquise Reed, and senior Gabe DeVoe. The senior DeVoe is the gunner of the group, knocking down 43.4% of his 3's from long range on 5.8 attempts per game. Reed is a decent and frequent shooter from range as well, hitting 37.3% on 5 attempts per game. Both Reed and DeVoe are pretty good rebounders, too, pulling in 4.6 per game. Mitchell is more or less the point guard, although Reed has nearly as many assists. If Mitchell is out, expect Reed to take on the bulk of the ball-handling responsibilities. Expect to see some of 6'4" freshman guard Clyde Trapp to play a larger role on Sunday. He is averaging a mere 1.3 pts per game in conference play.

Inside, Clemson features a trio of transfers, headlined by rugged 6'9" Elijah Thomas. The Texas A&M transfer holds down the middle for the Tigers and leads the team in blocked shots. He has a few good post moves and scores a little, too. Michigan grad transfer and senior Mark Donnal is not a prolific scorer, but he averages a few points (3.8) and rebounds (1.9) while hitting a 3 pointer or two per game. While he is listed at 6'9" 240, he appears more slight of frame. Croatian David Skara, a junior transfer by way of Valparaiso University, is the other forward. He has a reputation as a stretch 4 but has been having trouble stretching defenses with his 26.7% 3-point shooting on the season. He is even more slight of frame than Donnal at 6'8" and 215 pounds. Rounding out the forwards is 6'7" freshman forward Aamir Simms. He has nearly interchangeable stats with Skara if slightly worse from outside (25.9%) and terrible from the free throw line (44.4%).

Without Mitchell, the Tigers might employ a few of their deep reserve guards and forwards, none of whom have made much of an impact this season. Behind Thomas, Clemson is also going to miss leading rebounder Donte Grantham. There isn't another body on their team that can physically match up with Wendell Carter, Jr. or Marques Bolden. On defense, Duke will have to key in on the Clemson shooters and force turnovers. The Tigers coughed the ball up 21 times against FSU. As K has decided that zone is the way to go, communication in a hostile environment will also be key to prevent open looks. Even without Marvin Bagley III, Duke should have a size and depth advantage against Clemson. With Bagley III, that advantage should be enormous. As is usually the case, playing well on defense will be the key for this Duke team.