The Duke Blue Devils had little time to celebrate another great road win over Florida State for Virginia Tech is on the horizon at noon tomorrow. The first thing that comes to mind is possible fatigue, but I doubt Krzyzewski will let the Hokies slip up on his Blue Devils nor will the team. You don’t earn your way to a tie for first with North Carolina and then blow a winnable game at home.
But the Hokies are not without talent and should Duke be sluggish, they’ll hang in the game. I’m expecting a big outing from the brothers Plumlee in this one. Mason who was saddled with early foul trouble should be fresh and Miles is playing like he has something to prove of late.
The danger with the Hokies is that they have nothing to lose and they’re fighting to stay out of the bottom three teams as the season winds down. They have a solid guard in Erick Green and Dorenzo Hudson, Victor Davila and Jarell Eddie are all ACC caliber players. The Hokies have a fair amount of depth as well albeit young.
The Hokies want a game in the 60′s at best and if Duke allows them to control the early tempo, then this will be one of those ugly games, In ugly, I mean a grinder of a game which is somewhat sloppy and slow. The Blue Devils will try to run at every opportunity in an attempt to break the Hokies spirit early on but considering the fatigue factor for Duke, I feel this will be a somewhat close game. The pick here is Duke 75 Virginia Tech 62
