By: Ben McCormick
December 20, 2022
It has been 10 days since Duke last played. Its AP ranking has both risen and fallen during those 10 days, but despite the change in rank, one thing has remained constant: Duke has not been playing games. Now, No. 14 Duke travels to Winston-Salem to play Wake Forest in its first true road game.
It sounds simple, but it will be a big hurdle to jump over for these young Blue Devils who are still trying to find their identity as individual players and as a team. A 10 day break is not a small one; albeit it is not the biggest stall in action for Duke this month, as it will wait 11 days after the game at Wake Forest on Tuesday until its next game vs. Florida State on New Year's Eve. Games following exam breaks have proven to be sluggish for Duke teams in the past. Throw in the fact that this is the team's first true road game of the season, a dangerous game any year, and you have a potentially difficult game for the No. 14 Blue Devils.
The game will prove especially difficult as Duke will be without Dariq Whitehead and Dereck Lively II due to non-COVID illnesses, the team announced on Tuesday. Down two key players, Duke's typical nine man rotation is down to seven. Expect Ryan Young to step in for Lively in the starting lineup, and Jaden Schutt to see some minutes off the bench to make up for Whitehead's absence.
December has been a particularly poor month for the Demon Deacons. Wake is coming off a 24-point loss at Rutgers on Dec. 17 this past Saturday. Before that, the Deacs required a game winner to beat KenPom 210th Appalachian State. That was Wake's only win in December as they suffered a 20-point loss to Clemson and a 2-point loss to LSU in the games preceding the win over App. State. For a team that was 7-1, luck has not smiled kindly upon Wake Forest. However, that certainly does not mean Wake can be taken lightly.
Without last year's ACC Player of the Year Alondes Williams and All-ACC forward Jake LaRavia, Wake is certainly not the same team. Still, senior guard Tyree Appleby is averaging 18 PPG, good for third best in the conference. As a team, Wake is especially average in most areas of the game, but without its paint protector in Lively, Duke may be weaker inside than usual.
Duke is down two players, and among those playing, one hasn't played in 14 days (Jeremy Roach, who missed the Dec. 10 game against UMES) and the other six rotation players haven't played in 10 days. Duke faces a legitimate trap game Tuesday night that could really damage its resume with a loss.
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