Fourth-ranked Duke (15-1, 3-0) is the only ACC team still unbeaten in conference play, but it travels to face a Virginia Tech (11-7, 2-2) team Thursday night that traditionally has given the Blue Devils trouble.
Duke leads the series with Virginia Tech 32-7, but has lost two of the last four meetings, including a 67-65 defeat in Blacksburg on Feb. 17, 2005, and one in Cameron Indoor Stadium last year.
Duke has won five games in a row since its lone loss, in overtime against Pittsburgh, while the Hokies are 7-0 at home this season. The Blue Devils are 9-point betting favorites on WagerWeb.com.
Duke assistant coach Chris Collins is expecting a close game on Thursday.
"Certainly we know we have our hands full this week," Collins said. "Playing at Virginia Tech is always a tough place to play. They've played us extremely well the last couple of years, and last year they were able to come into Cameron and beat us."
That 69-67 home loss to the Hokies last year began a downward spiral for Duke's 2006-07 team. That squad was 13-1 when it lost to Virginia Tech on Jan. 6; Duke would finish 22-11 finish and suffered its first opening-round NCAA tournament loss in a decade.
"We're not getting ahead of ourselves at all," sophomore guard Jon Scheyer said. "We've been successful so far, but we have a long way to go, and for us, to experience the losses we had last year, we know (how quickly) it can change."
Virginia Tech will be without a key player tonight in freshman forward Jeff Allen.
Allen bumped an official Saturday against Georgia Tech and was suspended for two games. Allen leads the Hokies in rebounding (8.1 rpg) and field-goal accuracy (51.4 percent) and is No. 2 in scoring (12.8 ppg). On the season he has scored 230 points in 18 games - the first Hokie freshman to eclipse the 200 point mark since Deron Washington scored 238 during the 2004-2005 season. Allen has scored in double figures in 15 of 18
games.J.T. Thompson will likely take Allen's place in the starting lineup. His most important task will be replacing Allen's team-high rebounding as Virginia Tech has exceeded expectations in the ACC in part because of its plus-5.8 rebounding margin during league games, second in the conference.
With Allen not available, look for Virginia Tech to rely heavily on Deron Washington and A.D. Vassallo to handle the scoring load. The duo combined for 23.1 points and 9.3 rebounds per game last season, and have upped those totals this year. In four ACC games Washington and Vassallo are combining for 28.8 points and 16.6 rebounds per game.
Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg, the 2005 ACC coach of the year who has gone 78-63 at Virginia Tech since taking over the program in 2004, had a contract extension through the 2012-13 season announced Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Duke has struggled some on the road this season. In their last three outings away from Cameron, the Blue Devils have gutted out close wins against Temple and Florida State and suffered their only loss of the season against Pittsburgh in Madison Square Garden.
The arrival of freshmen Kyle Singler, Nolan Smith and Taylor King has given the Blue Devils the depth to run a more up-tempo offense. Duke ranks second to North Carolina in the ACC with 85.0 points per game and is third in the nation with an average scoring margin of 20.9 points.
"It's been more fun just because transition basketball has been something that I've played my whole life," guard Gerald Henderson said. "Just getting out on the break and stuff like that, we didn't really do that last year, and that's something that we've added."
All those freshmen contributing has led to balance: six players average at least nine points, with captain DeMarcus Nelson (14.1 ppg) leading the way, and five players have two or more 20-point games.
But the Blue Devils don't have a lot of size and Clemson outrebounded the Blue Devils 42-26 on Saturday, but Duke converted 21 turnovers into 37 points and pulled out a 93-80 win.
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