#6 Duke Blue Devils (15-1, 4-0 ACC) vs. California Golden Bears (13-4, 1-3 ACC)
Wednesday, Jan. 14 • 11:00 p.m. ET
Haas Pavilion (11,877) • Berkeley, Calif.
TV: ACC Network
Radio: Blue Devil Sports Network from LEARFIELD
The #6 Duke Blue Devils begin a west coast road trip versus the Cal Golden Bears before taking on Stanford.
Broadcast Information TV
TV ACC Network
Play-by-Play Wes Durham
Analyst Dennis Scott
Producer Chris Damiani
Broadcast Information Radio
Radio Blue Devil Sports Net.
Play-by-Play David Shumate
Analyst John Roth
Engineer Raul Velez
In Durham 96.5 FM & 620 AM
SiriusXM 81 & SiriusXM app
History
Overall Duke leads, 3-2
In Durham, NC Duke leads, 1-0
at Cameron Indoor Stadium Duke leads, 1-0
In Berkeley, CA (1982 in Oakland) Duke trails, 0-1
at Haas Pavilion —
Neutral Sites Duke leads, 2-1
Last Meeting @Duke 78, California 57 (Feb. 12, 2025)
Coaches
Duke Jon Scheyer (Duke ‘10)
Career Record / at Duke 104-23 (4th) / same
vs. California 1-0
California Mark Madsen (Stanford, ‘00)
Career Record / at School 110-93 (7th) / 40-42 (3rd)
vs. Duke 0-1
Cal Golden Bears
Mark Madsen’s Cal Bears enter this week with a 13-4 record overall and a 1-3 mark in the ACC. Cal is the nation’s third-best free-throw shooting squad, with a conference-high 79.4% success rate at the charity stripe. The Golden Bears are second-best in the ACC at taking care of the ball (19th nationally) with just 9.6 turnovers per game.
Dai Dai Ames tops four Golden Bears to average double figures in scoring with 17.8 points per contest. Chris Bell, a 6’7 forward out of Concord, averages 13.8 points per game. John Camden, a senior forward, adds 13.2 points per game. Camden is sixth in the ACC with 42 three-pointers. Justin Pippin, Ames’ backcourt mate, averages 14.7 points and is the leading assist man at 4.1 per game. Lee Dort leads the team in rebounding at 7.5 per game.
Last Time Out:
Last time out, the Bears lost a close game to Virginia Tech. Cal fought through seven ties and four lead changes, but host Virginia Tech held off the Bears’ hopes of a final word in a 78-75 Hokies win in Blacksburg, Va. The Bears had a last look to tie it up and force overtime that was just off the mark, leaving Cal with the road loss. The Bears are now 13-4 overall and 1-3 in ACC play. Virginia Tech goes to 13-4, 2-2.
Duke Blue Devils
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.
Cameron Boozer leads the Blue Devils in scoring at 22.9 points per game, he leads the Blue Devils in rebounding at 9.5 per contest. In addition, averaging a double-double, Boozer leads the Blue Devils in assists at 4.2 per game. Isaiah Evans and Patrick Ngongba both are averaging double figures for Jon Scheyer’s team at 14.4 and 10.9 points per game respectively.
Last Time Out:
The No. 6 Duke men’s basketball team defeated No. 24 SMU, 82-75, on Saturday, Jan. 10, at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Blue Devils (15-1, 4-0 ACC) earned their sixth top-25 victory of the season, utilizing four players scoring at least 12 points, to defeat the Mustangs (12-4, 1-2 ACC). Isaiah Evans led the team with 21 points, including a key three-pointer late in the second half. Cameron Boozer and Patrick Ngongba II scored 18 and 17 points, respectively, and Cayden Boozer rounded out Duke’s double-digit scorers with 12 points. Cameron Boozer paced Duke on the glass with seven boards, and joined his brother, Cayden, and Nikolas Khamenia for the team lead in assists with four dimes apiece.
Stats Comparison Conference
| G | MP | FG | FGA | FG% | 2P | 2PA | 2P% | 3P | 3PA | 3P% | FT | FTA | FT% | ORB | DRB | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | TOV | PF | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duke | 4 | 40.0 | 27.0 | 56.3 | .480 | 17.3 | 29.3 | .590 | 9.8 | 27.0 | .361 | 21.8 | 28.8 | .757 | 9.8 | 21.8 | 31.5 | 15.3 | 10.5 | 3.0 | 13.0 | 15.5 | 85.5 |
| Cal | 4 | 40.0 | 22.5 | 58.3 | .386 | 15.3 | 32.3 | .473 | 7.3 | 26.0 | .279 | 17.0 | 20.5 | .829 | 7.5 | 19.3 | 26.8 | 13.0 | 6.0 | 2.5 | 7.5 | 21.3 | 69.3 |
Stats Comparison
| G | MP | FG | FGA | FG% | 2P | 2PA | 2P% | 3P | 3PA | 3P% | FT | FTA | FT% | ORB | DRB | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | TOV | PF | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duke | 16 | 40.0 | 29.3 | 58.8 | .498 | 19.4 | 31.1 | .624 | 9.8 | 27.6 | .355 | 18.4 | 25.7 | .718 | 12.0 | 28.1 | 40.1 | 17.8 | 8.5 | 4.2 | 11.7 | 16.6 | 86.8 |
| Cal | 17 | 40.0 | 26.5 | 58.4 | .454 | 17.7 | 33.9 | .522 | 8.8 | 24.5 | .361 | 17.9 | 22.6 | .794 | 9.6 | 25.1 | 34.7 | 14.7 | 6.4 | 3.8 | 9.6 | 17.9 | 79.8 |
Projected Starters
Duke Blue Devils
G Cayden Boozer 6’4, 205lbs Fr.
G Caleb Foster 6’5, 205lbs Jr.
G Isaiah Evans 6’6, 180lbs So.
F Cameron Boozer 6’9, 250lbs Fr.
C Patrick Ngongba 6’11, 250lbs So.
Cal Bears
G Dai Dai Ames 6’2, 190lbs Jr.
G Justin Pippen 6’3, 190lbs So.
F Chris Bell 6’7, 195lbs Sr.
F John Camden 6’8, 220lbs Gr.
F Lee Dort 6’10, 235lbs Sr.
Final Thoughts
We’ve all known for 5 games what Duke needs to do in order to win. Defensively, the Blue Devils have been like water through a colander. Just leaking points. I’m not sure of the historical context, but this iteration of the Blue Devils have allowed 5 straight opponents to shoot 50% or better from the field. It’s only resulted in one loss so far on the season but a road trip and a late start time could spell trouble. I purposely didn’t write a post game for the SMU game, just to see if there was some sort of turnaround during this road trip. A lot of aspersions have been cast regarding the staffs choice of defense, but I believe anyone watching sees that the issues this team faces on that end of the floor revolve around effort and execution. The easy tell is that they’ve been able to turn on defensive pressure for stretches of time and fall into bad habits during others.
Texas Tech: 55.2% from the field
Georgia Tech: 53.7% from the field
Florida State: 52.8% from the field
Louisville: 50.9% from the field
SMU: 56.6% from the field
Coach Scheyer in the latest coaches call used the term consistent connectivity as something the Blue Devils have lacked on the defensive end. He also cited taking bad shots leading to good opportunities for the opponents. The number 1 issue has been the habits, intensity and moving with the basketball. Duke has an opportunity, as the coach put it, to grow as a team during this extended road trip.