Duke has dropped four straight ACC games, so they're absolutely going to break this nasty skein and win in honor of Coach K's 60th birthday on Wednesday night, right? Right?

The Blue Devils have lost consecutive tilts to Virginia, Florida St., North Carolina and Maryland, not exactly a set of creampuffs, but these defeats and an overall sloppy style of play have caused Duke to fall out of the AP and coaches' polls for the first time since dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Now Duke travels up to Boston to tackle ACC-leading Boston College who have somehow kept it together despite the dismissal of shot-blocking phenom Sean Williams in early January.

The Eagles lost big to Duke just a few weeks back, 75-61 (in fact, that game was the Blue Devils' last win). That contest was in Durham; this one will be in the Conte Forum. For BC, Duke is a great white whale of sorts; they lost an impossibly close regular-season home tilt to the J.J.-Redick-led Dookies in '05-'06, then lost the '06 ACC championship game to the Blue Devils by one point. This has to end.

Jared Dudley and Tyrese Rice are simply better players, right now, than anyone Duke will put on the court Wednesday night. Now, the upsides of guys like Jon Scheyer, Gerald Henderson and Lance Thomas are probably quite a bit higher than anyone the Eagles have, but ACC games aren't won on gonna-be. True, the Eagles have an even more frightening foe coming to Chestnut Hill on Saturday: the angry North Carolina Tar Heels. But they should look at the Duke game this way: win this one, and then you don't have to freak out too badly if the 10-deep Heels come to town and wax you.

The Eagles are better, they'll force Duke to turn it over, they'll run that frustrating high-post offense, and they'll ride a crest of emotion that finally carries them over the hump. Take Boston College.

Play: Boston College -2½