Virginia Tech vs Wake Forest | 2015 ACC Men"s Tournament Highlights
The Blue Devils will open the ACC tournament Thursday in hopes of solidifying their position as a No. 1 seed for the NCAA tournament and will try to exact a little revenge in the process.
No. 2 Duke will face N.C. State at 7 p.m. in the ACC tournament quarterfinals at the Greensboro Coliseum. The Wolfpack defeated Pitt 81-70 Wednesday night to advance to the quarterfinals, where the Blue Devils have been waiting after receiving a double-bye. Both squads are playing some of their best basketball heading toward the NCAA tournament, as the Wolfpack have won six of their last seven and Duke has won 11 straight en route to claiming the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament.
The game will be the second clash between the two teams this season, as N.C. State upset the then-No. 2 Blue Devils 87-75 in Raleigh Jan. 11, a victory that sent the Wolfpack faithful pouring onto the court following the final buzzer. Although Thursday"s game will more than likely not feature a court storming, the possibility of a second straight upset remains a serious threat to Duke"s bid at a No. 1 seed.
Okafor went for 23 points in the teams" first meeting and has been the backbone of the Blue Devil offense all year, but it will be the backcourts, not the big men, that decide this game.
Duke boasts what some have been recently calling the best backcourt in America in freshman Tyus Jones and senior Quinn Cook, a duo that combined for 27.8 points and 8.5 assists per game in the regular season. Cook enters the game having scored 20 points in five of his past eight contests and has been an offensive catalyst for the Blue Devils all season, with an improved three-point shot to go along with his nifty finishes in the lane.
Jones has been a floor general in every sense of the wordhe owns a 2.8 assist-to-turnover ratioand has been Duke"s best performer down the stretch. And although both Blue Devils have proved time and again that they are up to the challenge of facing the top guards in the conference, the Wolfpack boasts a formidable trio capable of hurting Duke in a variety of ways.
N.C. State sophomore Anthony "Cat" Barber scored just four points on 1-of-3 shooting in the first contest between the two, but if his Wednesday performance signaled anything, it"s that a lot has changed since January.
The Wolfpack point guard poured in a career-high 34 points on 9-of-13 shootingincluding 4-of-5 from long rangein the second-round win against Pittsburgh.
In the first matchup, Cook and Jones primarily guarded Barberand did so with successwith Cook sometimes stepping over to cover the larger Trevor Lacey. The redshirt junior Alabama transfer is averaging 16.1 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.4 rebounds per game and has kept the Wolfpack afloat in many of their close games this season. Lacey is N.C. State"s go-to playmaker and seems to have a consistent green light from head coach Mark Gottfriedthe last time he was held to single-digits was a nine-point effort in a Jan. 7 loss at Virginia.
The 6-foot-3 guard has displayed an uncanny talent for converting tough shots and consistently picks up the Wolfpack during runs by their opponent. Although Barber"s herculean effort against the Panthers will draw attention to the point guard Thursday, Lacey made his presence felt with a 21-point outing in the upset win back in January.
Lacey was guarded one-on-one by five different Blue Devils in the first meetingCook, Jones, Rasheed Sulaimon, Matt Jones and Justise Winslow.
Sulaimon stuck with Lacey the best out of the five Blue Devils thanks to the Houston native"s combination of size and quickness. Cook and Tyus Jones both give up at least three inches and 20 pounds to the redshirt juniorsomething he took advantage of often by rising up to knock down contested jumpersand Matt Jones struggled to stay with Lacey"s quick first step.
With the physicality that Wolfpack big men BeeJay Anya, Kyle Washington and Abdul-Malik Abu bring in the paint, Winslow will likely be occupied with Abu or swingman Ralston Turner for the majority of the night if Duke plays man-to-man defense.
Turner is the third guard rounding out N.C. State"s backcourt, and although he contributed just four of the trio"s combined 59 points Wednesday, the Muscle Shoals, Ala., native is not the be overlooked. Turner scored 16 points in the January contest and held Winslow to 10 points on 3-of-13 shooting on the other end of the court.
Turner shoots 37.7 percent from downtown and knocked down four 3-pointers in January"s win. Cook and Matt Jones both struggled to fight around screens and Turner took advantage of the daylight he was granted.
With all three Wolfpack guards coming on strong as of late, Duke may opt to play a zone rather than give Lacey the one-on-one matchups he has won all year or expose Okafor in the pick-and-roll between Barber and the N.C. State bigs. The Blue Devil zone has minimized Duke"s issues with players who excel at those skill sets in past gamesthe Blue Devils" commanding win at then-No. 6 Louisville being a prime example.
But even with the improvements on defense, Duke"s offenseone that ranks third in the nation in points scoredmust be running on all cylinders to produce a different result in the rematch.
Duke shot just 24-of-65 from the field in Raleigh, well below its season average of 50.2 percent. Part of the low shooting percentage was due to the Wolfpack bigsnamely Washington and Anyacombining to swat away 10 shots. N.C. State averages 5.5 blocks per game and had a field day against a Blue Devil team that with the exceptions of Winslow and Okaforplay below the rim.
If the Blue Devils hope to avoid another upset Thursday and continue on their way to locking up a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, they will need to slow down the Wolfpack backcourt and play aggressive. With wins against Louisville, Duke and North Carolina during the regular season, N.C. State appears to have a spot in the Big Dance wrapped up, so as much as Thursday"s rematch will be about seeding for the Wolfpack, it will be about revenge for the Blue Devils.
The winner between the two will take on the winner of Thursday"s Notre Dame-Miami contest in the semifinals Friday at 9 p.m.
Source: http://www.dukechronicle.com/articles/2015/03/12/blue-devils-look-revenge-against-nc-state-acc-tournament-quarterfinals
