Despite his recent drop in offensive production, Mason Plumlee is still Mike Krzyzewsi's guy. Credit: CHUCK LIDDY

Every Saturday, the News & Observer takes a look around the ACC. That also provides an opportunity to check in with the Blue Devils and look for any emerging trends.

After establishing himself as the front-runner for national player of the year honors, Mason Plumlee has cooled off in Duke’s last three games. Against Davidson, Wake Forest and Clemson, Plumlee has had his three lowest scoring outputs (10, 13 and eight, respectively), and also set a new-season high with six turnovers against the Wildcats and Tigers.

Part of the slow down, in head coach Mike Krzyzewski’s opinion, is due to the extra time opponents have had to game plan for Plumlee—Duke had eight days off for the holidays, and most other teams took a break from games, too. Also, both Davidson and Wake Forest constantly double-teamed Plumlee in the post, a strategy teams didn’t use earlier in the year.

Quinn Cook will look to find his shot against Clemson, Credit: CHUCK LIDDY

Duke vs. Clemson
When: 7:02 p.m.
Where: Cameron Indoor Stadium, Durham
TV/Radio: ESPNU/WKIX-102.9 FM

Projected starting lineups:

No. 1 Duke (14-0, 1-0 in the ACC)
G Quinn Cook, So., 10.3 ppg, 6.2 apg
G Seth Curry, Sr., 16.6 ppg, 1.8 rpg
G Rasheed Sulaimon, Fr., 11.9 ppg, 3.5 rpg
F Ryan Kelly, Sr., 13.5 ppg, 5.4 rpg
F Mason Plumlee, Sr., 18.4 ppg, 11.3 rpg

Clemson (8-5, 0-1)
G Rod Hall, So., 6.5 ppg, 4.0 apg
G Damarcus Harrison, So., 5.8 ppg, 3.2 rpg
G/F K.J. McDaniels, So., 11.4 ppg, 4.6 rpg
F Milton Jennings, Sr., 10.1 ppg, 5.2 rpg
F/C Devin Booker, Sr., 11.1 ppg, 7.5 rpg

Player to watch:

Devin Booker, Clemson

Quinn Cook has played like a first-team all-ACC player through Duke's nonconference schedule. Credit: CHUCK LIDDY

Back in October, ACC beat writers and reporters gathered in Charlotte for the conference’s preseason media day. One of the annual traditions is voting on the preseason favorite to win the league and picking preseason all-conference teams. With ACC play about to (finally) begin Saturday, let’s see how my picks look at this point in the year.

Here’s what I predicated in October:

After scoring a Duke career-high 31 points against Santa Clara, Seth Curry struggled to find his shot against Davidson. Credit: CHUCK LIDDY

CHARLOTTE—It's a baker's dozen worth of victories for No. 1 Duke to open the 2012-13 season. Check out the game story from the 67-50 win over Davidson. And below are a few more thoughts and notes:

***One game after scoring a Duke career-high 31 points against Santa Clara, Seth Curry went 3-for-11 from the field for just six points in front of his hometown Charlotte crowd. He did record a team-high three assists, though, which tied his season-high. Other than Mike Krzyzewski, Curry drew the loudest applause during pregame introductions.

“I got the shots that I wanted, but I just wasn’t able to knock them down,” Curry said. “Coming out of the gate, I was maybe pressing a little bit, trying to get my shot going. It didn’t really go early or anytime throughout the game. I got the shots that I wanted, that’s the biggest thing. I’ll bounce back Saturday.

***For the fourth game in a row, Duke appeared to come out sluggish, or at least not matching the standard set this season. After the game, Quinn Cook didn’t seem overly concerned that it would develop into a long-term trend.

Both Ryan Kelly and Tyler Thornton scored in double figures for Duke in the 67-50 win over Davidson. Credit: CHUCK LIDDY

CHARLOTTE—Over the course of No. 1 Duke’s undefeated run through nonconference play, head coach Mike Krzyzewski hasn’t seen much—anything, really—from his team that has upset him.

And even though Duke’s 67-50 win over Davidson was a struggle for the majority of the game, Krzyzewski came into the postgame locker room in a good mood, cracking a joke about the long walk he had from the Blue Devils’ locker room.

And, while he said he was pleased with his team’s performance throughout the game, he succinctly summarized the difference between the first half, which ended in a 29-29 tie, and the second.

“In the first half, we gave up offensive rebounds,” Krzyzewski said. “In the second half, we didn’t.”

The expanded 18-game ACC schedule kicks off in 10 days.

North Carolina has an important game with UNLV and N.C. State gets a potential RPI-helper in Western Michigan on Saturday, but it's fairly safe to gauge how the 12 ACC teams did outside of league play.

Duke and N.C. State are in the top 10 of the RPI and the ACC could get another four or five teams in the NCAA tournament.

There have been some surprises (hello, Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech) and some disappointments (really, FSU and Clemson?). A breakdown of all 12 teams (in order of RPI ranking, according to Jerry Palm at CBS Sports):

There have been a few constants for Duke this season. One is winning, as the No. 1 Blue Devils are 11-0. Another is Mason Plumlee, who has been Duke’s go-to guy night in and night out. And, not to be forgotten, the nightly questions about team chemistry.

After every game—every single one—there are at least two questions about Duke’s chemistry. Thursday night after Elon was no exception. When head coach Mike Krzyzewski was asked when the last time Duke had this good of chemistry this early in the year, he paused.

“Even ’10, I thought we had good chemistry, but it really got good in February,” Krzyzewski said of his most recent national championship team. “I’ll tell you what, Kyrie’s freshman year (2010-11), I thought we could maybe run the table. We had good chemistry right away with that group.”

So, Duke’s chemistry hasn’t been this good since the last time the Blue Devils were ranked No. 1, and, since we’re talking about Duke, that was just two years ago. And before that, you’d have to go back a whopping three years, and the chemistry improved right as the team improved (it was against Maryland on Saturday, Feb. 13, 2010, Brian Zoubek scored 16 points and pulled down 17 rebounds in 22 minutes, and that was the start of the Blue Devils’ run to Indianapolis).

There have been a few surprises this season in Durham. Pretty much all of them have been positive. Credit: CHUCK LIDDY

In honor of the day (12-12-12 for those who, somehow, haven't had this pointed out to them at least 12 times today), here's a dozen thoughts on No. 2 Duke (9-0) so far this year

1. Anyone that tells you they predicted Duke would be 9-0 at this point of the season is either a) lacking objectivity or b) not being truthful. Not even Mike Krzyzewski could have predicted this strong of start.

“If you looked at our schedule, I don’t think you could have expected to be 9-0 at this time,” he said after the win against Temple.

In fact, by being 9-0, Duke has done something no team in NCAA history has done before: beat three top-5 teams before the end of December. As a review, Duke beat then-No. 3 Kentucky 75-68 in Atlanta in the second game of the year, then-No. 2 Louisville 76-71 in the Battle 4 Atlantis final and then No.-4 Ohio State 73-68 in the ACC/Big 10 challenge.

2. While Kentucky has fallen out of the polls, both the Cardinals and the Buckeyes remain in the top 10. Minnesota, another Duke victim in the Bahamas, is now No. 13 with an 11-1 record. I was super impressed with the Gophers when I saw them. Rodney Williams (who was held in check by Ryan Kelly) is as athletic a player as you will find in college basketball.

Duke's Josh Hairston, along with the rest of his team, reacts to Todd Zafirovski's block against Delaware. CREDIT: CHUCK LIDDY

NEW YORK—Good morning, DukeNOW readers. It feels like it's been awhile since we talked hoops on here (a week without games combined with finals preparation for the players will do that, I suppose), so here are two links to stories that have run in the paper:

Mason Plumlee no longer a liability at stripe: Much has been made of Plumlee's free throw shooting improvement this year. He began tweaking his routine at the end of last season, and the success he had then has carried over through the summer to this season. 

And as he talked Wednesday about charting his summer improvement, he compared his progress to a scatter plot. An impressive visual, if I do say so myself.

Duke's Quinn Cook (2) prepares to block a shot against Ohio State. His six defensive rebounds were a bright spot in what has been Duke's biggest weakness so far. Credit: CHUCK LIDDY

Duke vs. Delaware

When: 2:07 p.m.

Where: Cameron Indoor Stadium, Durham

TV/Radio: RSN/WKIX-102.9 FM

Projected starting lineups: