The bulk of the scoring load for Virginia falls on Joe Harris at around 16 points a game and Akil Mitchell at around 12. The rest is spread out fairly evenly amongst role players. Harris especially could be a match-up problem for Duke. At 6’6 Joe Harris towers over the Duke guards, presumably Duke will use freshmen Rasheed Sulaimon to guard Harris. The biggest of the Duke guards, Sulaimon will still be giving up 2 inches and about 30 lbs if he is called on to guard Harris. Harris is second in the ACC in 3-point field goal percentage and third in overall field goal percentage.
With UVA being first in the ACC in scoring defense, allowing only 54 points a game, and Duke being first in the conference in scoring offense (78.9 a game) this game should make for a very interesting collision of statistics. UVA is also second to Duke in both 3-point field goal percentage and 3-point defense as well. So trying to get shots up in either of these defenses will be fun to watch and disect.
A few other things to note about UVA is that they are 8 and 2 in their last ten games. They’ve also beaten UNC and NC State at home this year and nearly beat Miami on the road, losing by 4 in Coral Gables.
GAME INFO:
courtesy of GoDuke.com
Duke at Virginia
Thursday, February 28, 2013 • 9:00 p.m. • ESPN
Charlottesville, Va. • John Paul Jones Arena (14,593)
Television
ESPN
Play-by-Play: Dave O’Brien
Analyst: Dino Gaudio
Radio
Blue Devil IMG Sports Network
Play-by-Play: Bob Harris
Analyst: John Roth
Sirius – 91; XM – 91
