Louisville's Guards a Concern for Duke

Coming into Tuesday’s ACC Tournament opening round game, only one Blue Devil had scored points in the postseason in his career—Jordan Goldwire, who had nine. The team was able to get accustomed to the environment quickly, blowing out Boston College by 35. What the Blue Devils lacked in experience, they made up in enthusiasm.

“Yeah, just excitement,” said coach Mike Krzyzewski. “I think the main thing. DJ (Steward) has had a smile on his face for two days. He's just geeked, he's so excited. It's neat to see -- for this 74-year-old guy to see these young guys get excited, and that's after losing a few games at the end of the season. So they were able to put that behind them and just play with enthusiasm.”

Now that the team is filled with players who have postseason experience, the young Blue Devils need to follow up their strong debuts.

“Now they have played one,” Coach K said. “Now we've got a chance to play another, and hopefully we can do well in that.”

That game will be against Louisville, who won both regular season matchups with Duke.

“They were both really outstanding games,” Krzyzewski said, “and their veteran backcourt was the difference. (David) Johnson is terrific. (Carlik) Jones in the last four or five minutes of a game is probably the best in our conference in managing the game and making the right decisions. So we're going to face them again, and we'll try to do stuff where we can limit them. That's the main thing is to -- I mean, they're really good, but those two guards are exceptional. They're going to be professional guards at some level. ”

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