Duke basketball sees ranking slide without playing
There were no Duke basketball games last week. The Blue Devils (10-2, 1-0 ACC) haven't played since their 82-55 home win over the Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks on Dec. 10.
Even so, the AP Top 25 voters dropped Duke from No. 12 to No. 14 this week. The fall was due to impressive wins last week from the now-No. 11 Gonzaga Bulldogs (9-3, 0-0 WCC) and the now-No. 13 UCLA Bruins (10-2, 2-0 Pac-12).
For the second straight week, four ACC teams appear in the poll. The other three are the Virginia Cavaliers (8-1, 1-0 ACC) at No. 6, the Virginia Tech Hokies (11-1, 1-0 ACC) at No. 21, and the Miami Hurricanes (11-1, 2-0 ACC) at No. 22.
The Blue Devils, who began the first season under head coach Jon Scheyer at No. 7 in the country, have won four straight since their humbling 75-56 loss to the now-No. 1 Purdue Boilermakers (11-0, 2-0 Big Ten) in the Phil Knight Legacy championship game in Portland, Ore., on Nov. 27.
And the Duke basketball team hopes to make it five straight when it plays a road game against the unranked Wake Forest Demon Deacons (8-4, 0-1 ACC) at 6:30 p.m. ET Tuesday (ACCN). Then the Blue Devils don't have another outing until the unranked Florida State Seminoles come to Cameron Indoor Stadium at 1 p.m. ET on Dec. 31.
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