Duke is back at No. 1, but staying there has proved to be difficult this month for Atlantic Coast Conference teams.
The Blue Devils (18-1, 5-0), looking for their 11th straight win, will be tested in a major way, traveling on Wednesday to face No. 4 Wake Forest, the team Duke replaced atop the rankings this week.
Duke made their climb to the top with a rout over Maryland on Saturday, combined with a Wake Forest loss to Virginia Tech earlier on in the week.
Duke became the third ACC team to reach No. 1, as North Carolina was there until a Jan. 4 loss to Boston College.
"It's a big deal for us because it means we're playing really well," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "We talked about it last week that, just don't worry about anything, let's just play. It's the same thing we're going to tell them going into this next week. ... It's an honor and it says you're playing real well. You don't get anything from it except a really big headline when you lose.
Wake Forest has won four of its last five home games against the Blue Devils, but the loss came when the Blue Devils were No. 1.
Wake Forest is 4-24 against No. 1 teams with all those wins coming when the Demon Deacons were unranked. Wake's previous victory over a top-ranked opponent.
The Blue Devils have taken five of the last six overall meetings and lead the all-time series 155-76.
Look for Jeff Teague to win the the point guard match up for Wake Forest against Nolan Smith, and Greg Paulus. Kyle Singler, and Gerald Henderson should handle their match ups easily, but Al-Faroug Aminu and Chas McFarland should win their match ups against Duke's big men.
This is a very exciting match up for any college basketball fan. I am looking forward to this great game, as well as many other college game on tonight that can be seen on the ESPN family of networks.
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