bstrickland@heraldsun.com; 419-6671
DURHAM -- The ACC race painted in the preseason featured a pair of thoroughbreds in the lead, with everyone else left to jockey for position.
But out of the starting gates at least, the full field appears to be in contention.
"It's pretty even in our conference," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said following the Blue Devils' 79-59 victory over Boston College on Wednesday. "No one is dominant in our league, and nobody's bad. No one is going to roll over and die, and no one can just show up and win."
At halftime of Wednesday night's game, even just a week into the ACC season, the Blue Devils reminded themselves of that fact. Days before, the Blue Devils were viewed as the prohibitive favorites to finish first in the conference -- ahead of rival North Carolina, which tied Duke atop the preseason poll -- but Wednesday, they were in danger of falling to 1-2 in the league.
Fortunate to have a three-point lead against an Eagles team that had been struggling, Duke's team leaders talked a good game in the locker room. The entire team responded, running the lead out to 17 less than five minutes into the second half on the strength of six of Nolan Smith's career-high-tying 24 points and another six points from Kyle Singler (15 points, 10 rebounds).
"Being 1-1 in the conference, there's no way our veterans were going to let us go 1-2 in this conference. That was the main message," said Smith, whose Blue Devils will look take on another 2-1 team when Wake Forest visits Cameron Indoor Stadium on Sunday (8 p.m., Fox Sports). "We didn't want to be 1-2, so the energy was there not to lose. We went out and played that way."
While the Blue Devils responded by playing the way they were predicted to, little has gone as forecast in the early going.
Virginia, a team picked 11th out of 12 in the preseason that went 4-12 in the ACC a year ago, stands as the lone unbeaten in conference play at 2-0 following Wednesday's victory over Georgia Tech. Behind the Cavaliers, the eight teams that have played three conference games are all either 2-1 or 1-2, along with a pair of 1-1 teams.
All but Duke and Wake will be in action today.
UNC is among the 1-1 teams and has lost five overall heading into today's game against Georgia Tech, one more loss than the Tar Heels suffered all of last season on their way to the NCAA title.
Recall, however, that UNC started out 0-2 in the conference a season ago, a recent reminder that the ACC race is a marathon rather than a sprint.
Over the course of a 16-game schedule, the cream inevitably rises to the top, and the Blue Devils still look like the best bet to be the cream of the crop.
They appear to have the talent to be right there, but just as importantly they appear to have the heart.
"Attitude, toughness, freshness -- all of those things are going to play a key factor as far as the conference race," Krzyzewski said. "My thing is, let's just play. We've got Wake Forest, and everything else will just happen."
