Granted, this list would be easier to write in the other direction.

Duke is, deservedly, rated the No. 1 team in the nation. Most of the time on Wednesday night, the Blue Devils will have the two (J.J. Redick, Shelden Williams) best players on the floor. Mike Krzyzewski loses at home about as often as Dick Clark is on live television at midnight. So, yes, the title of this article easily could have been "25 Reasons Duke Will Beat State."

But the Wolfpack really can beat Duke this time. Here's why:

(1) Experience -- Without it, forget it. Trying to win a basketball game in Cameron Indoor Stadium with lots of freshmen and sophomores in key roles is like trying to win Best Picture with Keanu Reeves as your leading man. Don't bother.

N.C. State's starting lineup consists of three seniors (Tony Bethel, Cameron Bennerman, Ilian Evtimov), a junior (Engin Atsur) and a sophomore (Cedric Simmons). All but Simmons have logged enough minutes in major college basketball to be eligible for the NCAA's pension plan.

Remember, when Virginia Tech had its almost-win in Durham earlier this season, the Hokies did it with four juniors and a sophomore getting most of the minutes. Same with Maryland last year.

(2) Balanced Scoring -- One of the many things Coach K's defenses typically do very well is take the opponent's best scorer out of his comfort zone. Top perimeter players often are defended with one and a half men, elite posts with quick double-teams. Neither tactic is particularly necessary, or effective, against State.

With four players in double figures and seven averaging between 7.9 and 12.2 points per game, the Wolfpack is one of the most balanced offensive teams in the nation. Moreover, of the seven rotation players (five starters, plus forward Andrew Brackman and guard Gavin Grant), all but Simmons and Grant are serious threats from 3-point range.

(3) Good Guards -- Bethel and Atsur certainly aren't going to make anyone in Raleigh forget about Chris Corchiani and Rodney Monroe, but they're both smart, efficient, two-way players who aren't rattled by physical defense or hostile environments.

Like Virginia Tech, N.C. State doesn't cough up many turnovers, and like everyone else Duke is much more vulnerable when it's not getting easy fastbreak buckets. Atsur (47.6) and Bethel (49.2) are the Wolfpack's most accurate 3-point shooters, and Atsur's assist-turnover ratio (2.32) ranks behind only Hokies guard Jamon Gordon among ACC players.

(4) Defensive Matchups -- If you face Duke without one defender who's quick and/or savvy enough to stay with Redick outside, and another who's strong enough to battle Williams inside, you're probably going to end up looking like Mike Tyson against Buster Douglas: scared, confused and beaten, then crawling around searching the floor for your mouthpiece.

Redick has said that Atsur, a cunning defender, gives him as much trouble as anyone in the conference. Bennerman, another likely matchup, is exactly the kind of quick, exceptional athlete who has given Redick problems at times, even this season. Simmons, a 6-9, 233-pound center who's second in the ACC (to Williams) in blocked shots, is exactly the kind of post presence who can contain Williams, who's most productive when he overpowers his foes.

(5) Princeton Principles -- First, my apologies to N.C. State coach Herb Sendek. He recently reacted to this phrase the way many of us would react to, say, root canal, tax audit or Duran Duran reunion. Furthermore, the Pack hasn't leaned on its Princeton principles nearly as often this season as in recent years.

The most common way to beat Duke's infamous, often-suffocating, man-to-man defense is with dribble penetration. (Again, see Virginia Tech.) That's not necessarily a great strength of this year's State team, but one other way to make the Blue Devils pay for their aggressiveness in the passing lanes is to beat them with back-door, Princeton-type passes.

Is this a prediction? Not really. I save most of those for the preseason, the postseason and the stock market, and even there I'm a mutual fund kind of guy.

But I agreed with Krzyzewski when he recently said that no college basketball team will finish undefeated this season, and I believe the Wolfpack's trip to Durham on Wednesday night represents the Blue Devils' most dangerous home game of the year.