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Duke Basketball: Keys for Blue Devils to beating Syracuse on the road

DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - FEBRUARY 20: Teammates Tre Jones #3, Cam Reddish #2 and Javin DeLaurier #12 of the Duke Blue Devils react against the North Carolina Tar Heels during their game at Cameron Indoor Stadium on February 20, 2019 in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - FEBRUARY 20: Teammates Tre Jones #3, Cam Reddish #2 and Javin DeLaurier #12 of the Duke Blue Devils react against the North Carolina Tar Heels during their game at Cameron Indoor Stadium on February 20, 2019 in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /
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DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA – FEBRUARY 20: Zion Williamson #1 of the Duke Blue Devils reacts after falling as his shoe breaks during their game against the North Carolina Tar Heels at Cameron Indoor Stadium on February 20, 2019 in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA – FEBRUARY 20: Zion Williamson #1 of the Duke Blue Devils reacts after falling as his shoe breaks during their game against the North Carolina Tar Heels at Cameron Indoor Stadium on February 20, 2019 in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

1. Competing without Zion

The Stadium’s Jeff Goodman, a highly regarded college-basketball insider, has tweeted out that Williamson will unfortunately not suit up on Saturday versus Syracuse, and that’s undeniably a devastating setback for the Blue Devils.

Back in mid-January, when the Orange shocked top-ranked Duke by four points in overtime at Cameron Indoor Stadium, Williamson performed beautifully, as he tallied 35 points and 10 rebounds. In all honesty, he nearly defeated Syracuse by himself, because his domination is that imposing.

Now, in that contest, the Blue Devils stud point guard, freshman Tre Jones, who is one of the premier on-ball defenders across the country, sustained an injury about five minutes into the game. That development changed the entire narrative. Additionally, freshman forward Cam Reddish sat out due to an illness. So Duke came up just short against a hot-shooting Orange unit, and two of its four-best guys didn’t factor into the equation.

What I’m getting at here is that, yes, the Blue Devils are apparently going to miss Williamson. And that’s rough. However, if Jones and Reddish, along with Duke’s No. 1 scorer, freshman forward RJ Barrett, and the rest of the Blue Devils line-up fare well, then there is no reason why Duke can’t beat Syracuse on the Hill.