BOSTON (AP) – Some folks around Chestnut Hill insist it will be just another basketball game when second-ranked Duke visits No. 15 Boston College on Wednesday night.

Craig Smith doesn’t even pretend.

“Nothing can match Duke. It’s going to be pretty crazy,” Smith said Tuesday before the Eagles practiced for their biggest Atlantic Coast Conference game to date. “If you’ve got earplugs, bring them. If not, you’re in for a long night.”

BC (16-4, 4-3 ACC) got a taste of the excitement on Sunday night when it beat Georgia Tech for a fourth straight conference victory. The crowd counted off the closing minutes with a “We Want Duke!” chant, but Eagles coach Al Skinner deflected questions about the Blue Devils (19-1, 7-0) after the game.

Pretending to double-check the scoresheet, Skinner said, “We played Georgia Tech tonight. Isn’t that right?” On Tuesday, Skinner snickered about the dozen or so media who attended practice – usually it’s just a couple – and asked, “Where are you all from, Carolina?”

“It would be special if it was the final two, in the championship,” he said. “Right now, it’s just another league game. There’s no special significance for me other than we’re trying to get better.”

BC has done that.

After defecting from the Big East over the summer, BC started out life in the ACC by losing its first three games. But the Eagles have since won four in a row, including a victory in Chapel Hill over North Carolina, another one of those traditional ACC powers – oh, and the defending national champions, too.

Now the ACC’s upper echelon comes to Boston, and BC students have been bragging about how much they sold their tickets for, or complaining that they got in line too late to score some.

The only game in recent history that has matched the excitement was last year’s against Syracuse, when the Orangemen were No. 9 and BC was No. 6. The Eagles won, 65-60, and the Conte Forum crowd stormed the court with the kind of verve usually reserved for a major upset or a tournament title.

But Syracuse is not Duke, as the Eagles decided when they abandoned the Big East for the ACC last year. And they did it with just this kind of game in mind.

“Great program. Great tradition. Coach K,” BC guard Louis Hinnant said. “There’s a lot to be said for Duke and its accomplishments.”

And it’s not all in the past.

The only blemish on the Blue Devils’ record this year is an 87-84 loss to Georgetown on Jan. 21 that dropped them from the top spot in The Associated Press Top 25. Even at No. 2, they bring an aura to Boston that can make – if not break – BC’s season.

“We’re underdogs,” Smith said. “That’s what we are is a bunch of underdogs out to prove we can play at this level.”

Smith is BC’s preseason All-America selection – the first in the school’s history – so he can play with anyone. But Duke put two players on the five-man team, J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams.

Maybe that’s why Skinner is downplaying the importance of the matchup.

“One game is not going to transform us and prove that we can play in this league,” Skinner said. “We’ve had some success (in the Big East), and one game isn’t going to prove anything.

“We want to play against the best in college basketball. And we want to do our best.”

And then he walked off to practice, daring the media to sustain its interest until Feb. 13.

“See you all for Stony Brook.”