The Blue Devils are coming off two very important and impressive conference wins.  In those, games, the youthful Blue Devil grew up a bit as a team but the next challenge will be even more telling.  Duke will face Virginia tomorrow at 4:30 in Cameron Indoor Stadium in a very critical game in the Atlantic Coast Conference standings.

In their last outing, Duke outlasted 13th ranked Louisville.  That win was the Blue Devils first against an upper tier ACC opponent.  Virginia comes into the game ranked in the nation's top 10, coming in at 7th in the latest polls.  The Cavaliers most recently defeated Virginia Tech by 18 and they are on a seven game winning streak.

The general take on this game is that Virginia is a team of grown men and Duke is too young to handle them.  On paper, that seems to be the case looking a veteran cast which includes All ACC standout Malcolm Brogden, Anthony Gill who will be playing in Durham which is his hometown and London Perrantes.

The Blue Devils are winners of four of their last five contests and according to Mike Krzyzewski are fighting for their NCAA life.  The veteran coach knows that this is a game where a win would vault his Blue Devils back into the top 25 with a bullet.  But he also knows, as others have alluded to, that Virginia is a veteran team.

For Duke to win this game, they will need another great effort from Marshall Plumlee who has been solid of late.  His play has gone more or less unnoticed in big wins as he gives way to the deserved hype that freshman Brandon Ingram and sophomore Grayson Allen receives.

Ingram and Allen have become a key one-two scoring punch for the Blue Devils and both are vying for post season honors.  Luke Kennard has flirted with being the third main scorer but is still adjusting being a freshman.'

One of the key match ups in this game will be how Derryck Thornton reacts against the savvy Malcolm Brogden.  And as usual, Virginia is deeper than Duke where they play eight players in their rotation and sometimes ten.

Duke will almost certainly be without Amile Jefferson, a captain and leader for them this season.  The best they could hope for is him dressing, so this means that the Blue Devils will remain a youthful bunch but a group who can score points.

Virginia, on the other hand is a sold defensive team, so don't expect an up and down score-fest in this game.  It will be interesting to see if Duke can rise to the challenge and take out a top ten team.  It won't be easy, but possible.  And this would be a big win going into a very difficult part of their schedule with road games at North Carolina and Louisville on the horizon.