Preview: #3 Duke Blue Devils (10-0, 0-0 ACC) vs. Lipscomb Bisons (6-4, 0-0 ASUN)

#3 Duke Blue Devils (10-0, 0-0 ACC) vs. Lipscomb Bisons (6-4, 0-0 ASUN)

Tuesday, Dec. 16 • 6:00 p.m. ET

Cameron Indoor Stadium (9,314) • Durham, NC

TV: ACC Network

Radio: Blue Devil Sports Network from LEARFIELD

Jon Scheyer and No. 3 Duke return home to Cameron Indoor Stadium to chase to host the Lipscomb Bisons on Tuesday, Dec. 16 at 6 p.m. Sitting on 99 win’s Lipscomb provides the 4th year coach his first opportunity to win his hundredth game as a head coach.

TV ACC Network
Play-by-Play Anish Shroff
Analyst Randolph Childress
Producer Will Black
Director Chad Lampman

Radio Blue Devil Sports Net.
Play-by-Play David Shumate
Analyst John Roth
Engineer John Rose
In Durham 96.5 FM & 620 AM
SiriusXM 117 or 193 & SiriusXM app

Last season, the Bisons finished with a 25-10 record, including a 15-3 record at home and 10-6 on the road. They were winners of the A-Sun Championship, earning an NCAA Tournament berth – their second. Lipscomb looks to build on last season in this, Kevin Carroll’s first season as head coach after he spent the past two seasons as head coach at Trevecca.

The Bisons have six returners and nine newcomers made up of five freshmen and four transfers, they return just 16.7% of scoring from last season. Senior Center Grant Asman leads the bison in scoring at 13.7 points per game, he also leads the team in rebounding at 6.4 per contest. The Bisons boast two other double-figure scorers at 10.4 and 10.1 points per game respectively in junior guard Mateo Esmeraldo and his backcourt mate guard Ethan Duncan. Emeraldo leads the Bisons in assists at 6.6 per game. Lipscomb ranks 13th in the nation in three-point attempts per game (31.6), with points from behind the arc accounting for 41.6% of its offense – 15th-most in Division I.

The Bisosn are currently 6-4 on the season. Currently, on a 5 game winning streak, the Bisons were predicted to finish 5th in the A-Sun in the coaches poll and 7th in the media poll.

Last Time Out:

Last time out, Lipscomb blew out Alabama A&M 92-58 for their 5th straight victory. Let by Grant Asman’s 15 points and 8 rebounds, the Bisons exploded in the second half, scoring 57 point in the second stanza while giving up just 30 to A&M. The Bisons used 50 points in the paint, 44 bench points and 23 past break points along with 23 points off of turnovers to coast to the victory.

The Blue Devils are coming off of a 35-4 season that saw them within a game of a title shot. Duke went 19-1 in conference, winning both the regular season and the ACC Tournament.

The Blue Devils welcome in a number 1 recruiting class after their Final Four run. Jon Scheyer after losing his entire starting lineup to the NBA but retaining core pieces with experience. Leading Duke are experienced returners senior big Maliq Brown and junior guard Caleb Foster, both instrumental pieces in Duke’s run this past season. Duke also returned 3 members from last season freshman class in hot shooting Isaiah Evans, who shot a team high 41.6%. Duke also brings back Darren Harris who has reshaped his body in hopes for a larger role and Patrick Ngongba who similarly has reshaped his frame, coming into this season healthy.

Duke’s freshman class includes the Boozer brothers, Cayden and Cameron, do-it-all forward Nik Khamenia and Italian import Dame Sarr. Duke also added reserves Jack Scott and Ifeanyi Ufochukwu, from Princeton and Rice, respectively. Duke also added Sebastian Wilkins, who has elected to red shirt this season.

The Blue Devils moved to 10-0 on the season after a road dub at Michigan State in East Lansing. The 10-0 start is the best open to a season since winning the first 11 games in 2017-18. The Blue Devils are No. 1 in the nation in field goal percentage defense (.341) and rank third nationally in scoring margin (+27.2) and fourth in scoring defense (59.6). In their first 10 games, the Blue Devils secured four top-25 victories with wins over No. 7 Michigan State, No. 15 Florida, No. 22 Arkansas and No. 25 Kansas. Duke is second in the NET rankings, tied for the most Quad 1 wins (4), and is one of only two teams to be unbeaten with four Quad 1 wins, along with Arizona. The Blue Devils are tied for the third-longest active win streak, trailing Nebraska (15) and Iowa State (11). Duke is the top-rated defense in the country with a raw defensive efficiency rating of (85.8), while also leading the nation in effective field goal percentage defense (40.0%).

Cameron Boozer, the nation’s leading scorer (23.0 ppg), earned his third ACC Player of the Week honor and fourth ACC Rookie of the Week award on Dec. 8. He’s leading the Blue Devils in scoring, ebounding (9.9) and assists (3.8). Patrick Ngongba II is the ACC’s third-leading shot blocker with 1.6 swats per contest, he’s also scoring 11.9 points per game. Isaiah Evans has drained three or more 3-pointers in five games this season. Duke is 16-0 the past two seasons when the sophomore sharp-shooter hits three or more triples. Evans is scoring at a 12.2 point per game clip so far this season.

Last Time Out:

The Blue Devils travelled to East Lansing and defeated the Michigan State Spartans 66-60 boasting 3 double-figure scorers led by freshman Cam Boozer who had 18 points, 15 rebounds and 5 assists. Caleb Foster came up big for the Blue Devils with 12 points and Nik Khamenia added 10 points going 3-6 from beyond the arc. The win moved the Blue Devils to 10-0 on the season and gave Jon Scheyer his 99th victory.

The game against Lipscomb provides a perfect playground for the Blue Devils to put into play the tweaks they’ve been able to work on during this extended break before tackling Texas Tech. This doesn’t mean I expect Duke to overlook the challenge in front of them – at least I don’t expect the coaches to. There is the unwavering battle against human nature to do so, and part of Jon Scheyer job is to make sure this team comes out firing, no matter the score or opponent.

Because Lipscomb takes a lot of 3 point shots, I’m sure the coaching staff wants to see how well this team not only takes that away, but also how they counter the counter. Playing tight on the perimeter can lead to backdoor cuts, which is something I assume the Bisons will have in their back pocket against Duke’s aggressive defense. The Bisons are a big assist team, top 20 in the nation, and so Duke’s guards have to be acutely aware of how well the Bisons pass the basketball.

This game also provides some opportunities for Duke to work on depth, situational lineups and to reinforce good habits. If you don’t do it against Lipscomb, how are you going to do it against an ACC opponent. The other piece to playing a team like Lipscomb is they were a tournament team last season so you are in essence playing against a team not unlike what you could face in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

1. Enforce good habits
2. No injuries
3. Work on Depth & lineups
4. Put into play tweaks