It’s been a one-step-forward, one-step backward kind of January for Duke men’s basketball. It probably hasn’t escaped your notice that the steps forward tend to take place in Cameron Indoor Stadium, the steps backward away from Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Nothing surprising about that. Home-court advantage is a thing, especially when Cameron is one of the home courts under discussion. So, Duke wins at home by two points and loses on the road by three points.
Duke has a chance to flip that narrative Saturday afternoon at Georgia Tech. It’s still January so maybe it’s a little early to be talking about must-win games. But compared to upcoming road games against Virginia, Miami and North Carolina, Georgia Tech is low-hanging fruit and Duke needs to pick it to not be sweating out Selection Sunday.
And we know Duke will be without freshman wing Dariq Whitehead, out with a lower leg injury suffered in Blacksburg.
But Duke has been without the consensus number one recruit before. It’s not uncharted waters.
Not like Whitehead has actually played like the top prospect, not consistently at least. Good reasons for that, starting with the broken right foot that sidelined him for almost three months.
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