NCAA Basketball: Arizona, UConn, Marquette, Baylor all fall in latest top 25 power rankings
By Joey Loose
17. Duke (8-3)
Even with impressive talent, the Duke season got off to a pretty rough start. Losing at home to Arizona was unexpected but back-to-back road losses to Arkansas and Georgia Tech certainly wasn’t ideal. Prior to this week, the Blue Devils’ only impressive performance was a win over Michigan State in the Champions Classic, though they managed a second nice win just a few days ago.
The Blue Devils went to Madison Square Garden on Wednesday and secured a 78-70 win over a talented Baylor unit. All five Duke starters were in double figures, led by a 21-point effort from Jared McCain, with Jeremy Roach adding 18 points and Kyle Filipowski adding another double-double. This was certainly the type of performance the Blue Devils needed at the back-end of nonconference play.
Duke possesses the talent to win a lot of games this season, though losses in their first two true road games are still quite worrisome. The Blue Devils have a load of potential and could certainly play their best basketball at the end of the season just like last year. They’ll enjoy the Christmas break and then play Queens as a final test before ACC play begins in early January.