Duke is coming off a rollicking win over their arch rival North Carolina where they won by showing plenty of heart.  The Blue Devils will need to reach deep again to defeat a Louisville team hell-bent on revenge in the Yum Center on Saturday.

The first key for the Blue Devils will be to let go of the big win. That's not easy to do for everywhere you look in the internet, fans still want to talk about it.  In fact, getting a die-hard fan to let go of the victory is akin to taking a T-Bone steak away from a rabid pit bull. Some how, some way, Duke must let go and focus in on the task at hand.

If you think Duke faced adversity with six players playing significant minutes, they must now do without junior Matt Jones.  Duke has already lost Amile Jefferson to injury and now they must win with yet another man down.  Jones, of course, suffered a sprained ankle in the win over North Carolina and he could be out numerous games.

What this all means is that Duke cannot in any way afford players in foul trouble.  And they need to get some sort of marginally good minutes from their short and inexperienced bench.  If this happens they may be able to defeat a team they played less than two weeks ago.

It's unlikely that Duke got anything more than  walk through practice in before leaving for Louisville.  In fact, they really can't scrimmage game situations in practice this season making their accomplishments of late even more impressive.

As usual Duke needs the best one-to punch in the ACC to be good. Brandon Ingram and Grayson Allen have to have their usual games but the other three starters are of equal importance.

Marshall Plumlee is perhaps the most under appreciated player in the league.  His play has been vital as the Blue Devils are soaring in league play of late after stumbling earlier in the season.  Derryck Thornton made a key block late in the game to seal a win over North Carolina.  The freshman guard needs to find open Duke players with his passes as do all the Blue Devils to save their legs.

And then there is Luke Kennard who really showed up against North Carolina by allowing the game to come to him and getting into a good rhythm,  Louisville is a good defensive team that will concentrate on the Blue Devils scorers.

Like Duke, Louisville comes into the game with a 20-6 overall mark and 9-4 conference mark.  While the Cards will not be playing in the post season, do not think they have mailed it in.  In fact, the Duke game is the biggest home game left on their slate and one where their players may see as a championship type game.

Louisville comes into the game a 7 point favorite according to Las Vegas, so yes, this Duke is indeed the underdog in this game. Odds makers know that Duke could be tired and that Louisville wants more than anything else, to spoil the Blue Devils winning streak.

The Cardinals are coming off a win where they turned in a dunk fest against a bewildered Syracuse team.  Damion Lee leads a balanced Cardinal team in scoring.  Louisville has eight players who play at least 17 minutes per game and one more who is getting 13 minutes a contest.

Louisville has an advantage in depth, where nine roster players play and they will seek to wear Duke down.  And they will surely press Duke early and often.  It's flat-out hard to beat a good team twice in a season and even more difficult to do it within a mere 12 days of separation between games.

The bottom line - The odds are once again stacked against the Blue Devils, so it will be interesting to see if this team can pull off another huge victory.  It will take a win for Duke to keep pace in a tough ACC if they want to make a run for the regular season title.  Who would have thought that possible when they  stumbled at home against Notre Dame and Syracuse?  Who would have thought Duke would win at Chapel Hill against North Carolina?  In other words count Duke out at your own peril.  But make no mistake, this will be a tough game for Duke and it will take all they've got once again for a happy flight back to Durham.