Duke vs FSU Preview
SATURDAY, FEB. 19, 2022 | CAMERON INDOOR STADIUM | DURHAM, NC | 6 PM ET
The Series
Overall Duke leads, 41-11
In Durham, NC Duke leads, 22-2 (22-2 at Cameron Indoor)
In Tallahassee, FL Duke leads, 16-8 (16-8 at Tucker Center)
Last Meeting FSU, 79-78 (OT) (1/18/20 @ FSU)
Coach K vs. FSU 38-10
Last 10 Games (Streak) Duke, 8-2 (FSU, 1W)
TV
Network ESPN
Play-by-Play Bob Wischusen
Analyst Debbie Antonelli
Sideline —
Producer Kim Belton
Stream WatchESPN
RADIO
NETWORK Blue Devil Sports
PxP/Analyst David Shumate/John Roth
Sirius/XM 81/81
NETWORK Westwood One
PxP/Analyst Spero Dedes/Doug Gottlieb
Duke vs FSU:
Looking to stay in first place in the ACC, No. 9 Duke welcomes Florida State to Cameron Indoor Stadium for a Saturday night showdown.
Last Time Out:
Duke rallied from a nine-point deficit with under seven minutes left in the second half to force overtime, but a Wendell Moore Jr., attempt in the final seconds was blocked to give Florida State a 79-78 victory on Jan. 19 at the Tucker Center in Tallahassee.
Duke took a 67-65 lead with 30 seconds left thanks to a Mark Williams’ dunk that capped a 17-6 run, but a RayQuan Evans bucket with 1.6 seconds left sent the game to overtime. Duke led 76-74 with 60 seconds left in OT, before FSU scored five of the final seven points.
Freshman Paolo Banchero posted a double-double with 20 points and 12 rebounds, while Williams added 15 on 6-of-8 shooting. Duke played the final 10 minutes without freshman Trevor Keels, who suffered a lower leg injury that kept him out of the next three games.
Florida State
Florida State is 14-11 overall, 7-8 in the ACC and coming off an 81-80 home victory over Clemson that snapped a six-game skid. The banged-up Seminoles have been without a number of key players due to injury, including Anthony Polite, Malik Osborne and Naheem McLeod. Caleb Mills also did not play in FSU’s last game.
Florida State leads the ACC in steals (9.1), ranks second in offensive rebounds (11.3), ranks third in the conference in turnover margin (+2.64) and third in blocks (4.36). Mills is the team’s leading scorer at 12.7 points and shooting .430 from the field and .372 from three-point range. RayQuan Evans leads the team in assists (2.9), while scoring 8.4 points.
It’s still unclear as to who will and won’t be available for the injury ravaged Seminoles. Caleb Mills, who was hurt last weekend in the loss at UNC, is still sidelined by a foot injury but did travel with the team Thursday. When asked about Mills availability Coach Leonard Hamilton said:
“Caleb has not practiced. He was still limping yesterday. I probably won’t know until game time if he will play at all.”
Starting point guard RayQuan Evans is also questionable, injuring himself versus Clemson where he scored a game high 28 points. Evans, who had a Clemson player jump on top of him as the two went after a loose ball, has led to some swelling in his knee since the Clemson game. Coach Hamilton has listed both as game time decisions.
Duke
The Blue Devils are 22-4 and 12-3in the ACC, they’ve won eight of their last nine, including five straight ACC road wins. Duke is in a first-place tie in the ACC and holds the tiebreaker over five of the seven teams within 4.5 games. Duke is looking to even the season series after Florida State pulled off a 79-78 win in overtime in Tallahassee on Jan. 18. Leading the ACC in both field goal defense (.403) and three-point defense (.296), the Blue Devils have allowed opponents to shoot .280 from three-point range since Jan. 1 (80-of-286) — the second best three-point defense by power conference teams in that span. Duke is 26th nationally this season in defending the three-point line (.296), 36th in field goal defense (.403), 12th in blocked shots (5.5) and seventh in scoring margin (+14.7) — leads ACC in each category. Duke has held 11 of its last 15 opponents — and 17 for the season — to .300 or worse from behind the arc (14-3 in those games).
Six-time ACC Freshman of the Week and the ACC’s lone representative on the late-season watch list for the Wooden Award, Paolo Banchero leads all power conference true freshman in scoring (16.9), is second in rebounding (8.5) and second in double-doubles (eight). He’s Duke’s leading scorer and rebounder. Sophomore Mark Williams, whose tip-in dunk was the game-winner against Wake Forest with 0.4 remaining, is averaging 14.5 points and shooting 24-of-30 (.800) from the field over the last four games. A finalist for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year, Williams leads the ACC and ranks 12th nationally in blocked shots. He is also the nation’s only player shooting .700+ from the field and .700+ at the free throw line (minimum 100 field goal attempts). This week’s ACC Freshman of the Week, Trevor Keels is averaging 13.6 points is 9-of-18 from three-point range over the last four games. Duke is 15-1 this season when Keels scores in double digits.
Duke vs FSU: Keys to the Game
In the first game against FSU, the Blue Devils gave up 19 offensive rebounds with led to 12 second chance points. In a game where Duke shot far better than Florida State, they still lost because they could not finish off defensive sequences with a rebound. If that were the only issue, Duke still may have pulled the game out. Unfortunately for Duke, they played a poor floor game as well, turning the ball over 15 times giving the Seminoles 14 extra points. Those are not survivable statistics for this Blue Devil team, those aren’t survivable statistics for MOST teams.
If the Blue Devils can rebound at a high level and cut down on turnovers this game should be a win, but we’ve seen them struggle at home against teams they should put away. This will be a test to see if what they’ve put together in the film room and in multiple sessions and meetings leads to better play. The topic in recent days was clearly on finishing games, making winning plays and valuing the basketball. Valuing the basketball doesn’t simply mean not turning it over but taking good shots as well. Duke being able to put a team away would go along way toward dispelling the notion that they have played down to their competition but should this game be close it would be nice if Duke can finish with a higher level of skill in that instance as well.
DUKE VS FSU
STAT COMPARISON OVERALL
| Team | G | MP | FG | FGA | FG% | 2P | 2PA | 2P% | 3P | 3PA | 3P% | FT | FTA | FT% | ORB | DRB | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | TOV | PF | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
26 | 40.2 | 29.5 | 61.2 | .482 | 21.5 | 39.4 | .546 | 8.0 | 21.8 | .366 | 12.8 | 17.5 | .732 | 10.7 | 28.6 | 39.3 | 17.0 | 7.0 | 5.5 | 10.7 | 13.9 | 79.8 |
 |
25 | 40.4 | 25.7 | 59.0 | .436 | 18.8 | 38.9 | .484 | 6.9 | 20.1 | .343 | 13.4 | 18.9 | .706 | 11.1 | 24.0 | 35.0 | 14.2 | 9.1 | 4.4 | 12.8 | 17.0 | 71.7 |
DUKE VS FSU
STAT COMPARISON CONFERENCE
| Team | G | MP | FG | FGA | FG% | 2P | 2PA | 2P% | 3P | 3PA | 3P% | FT | FTA | FT% | ORB | DRB | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | TOV | PF | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
15 | 40.3 | 27.9 | 58.7 | .475 | 20.6 | 38.6 | .534 | 7.3 | 20.1 | .362 | 12.1 | 17.0 | .714 | 11.0 | 29.1 | 40.1 | 16.0 | 5.2 | 5.7 | 11.9 | 14.1 | 75.1 |
|
15 | 40.3 | 23.8 | 58.4 | .408 | 17.3 | 38.2 | .454 | 6.5 | 20.2 | .320 | 14.3 | 19.7 | .723 | 10.8 | 23.7 | 34.5 | 13.1 | 8.3 | 4.1 | 11.9 | 16.7 | 68.3 |
PROJECTED STARTING LINEUPS
DUKE VS FSU
Duke Blue Devils
G Trevor Keels 6’5, 221lbs – Freshman
G / F Wendell Moore 6’5, 213lbs – Junior
F AJ Griffin 6’6, 222lbs – Freshman
F Paolo Banchero 6’10, 250lbs – Freshman
C Mark Williams 7’1, 242lbs – Sophomore
Florida State
G RayQuan Evans 6’4, 200lbs – Senior
G Caleb Mills 6’5, 180lbs – Redshirt Sophomore
G Wyatt Wilkes 6’8, 220lbs – Senior
G Matthew Cleveland 6’7, 200lbs – Freshman
F Forward John Butler 7’1, 190lbs – Freshman
