#12 Duke Blue Devils (3-1) vs. #17 Arizona Wildcats (2-1)
Friday, Nov. 22 • 10:30 pm ET
McKale Memorial Center • Tucson, AZ
TV: ESPN2
Radio: Blue Devil Sports Network from LEARFIELD
The Blue Devils look to avenge last year’s 5-point loss to Arizona and get a road win against the top 25 Wildcats in Tuscon on Friday night.
Broadcast Information
TV/Video Stream
ESPN2
Radio
Blue Devil Sports Net.
This Series
Overall
Arizona leads, 6-4
In Durham, NC 1-1
at Cameron Indoor Stadium 1-1
In Tucson, AZ 0-2
at McKale Memorial Center 0-2
Neutral Sites 3-3
Last Meeting Arizona 78-73 (Nov. 10, 2023)
Last 10 Games in Series Arizona leads, 6-4
Arizona Wildcats
Arizona is coming off a season that saw the Wildcats go 27-9, including a win at Cameron Indoor against the Blue Devils 78-73. The Wildcats won 2 games in the NCAA Tournament before losing to Clemson in the Sweet 16.
Arizona’s last outing saw them drop a game to a ranked Wisconsin team where the Badgers shot the ball at a 44.4 % clip from the outside and Arizona struggled from distance only shooting 17.4%. Jaden Bradley for Arizona still scored 22 points in the loss shooting 7-14 from the field but the Wildcats could not stop Wisconsin’s John Tonje who scored a game high 41 points, going 8-14 from the field and adding 21-22 from the free throw line.
Led by a quartet of double-figure scorers this season starting with junior guard Jaden Bradley who averages a team high 14.7 points a game. Sophomore KJ Lewis comes in at 12.3 points per game – both guards average 3.7 rebounds per game with Bradley edging out Lewis in assists at 2.3 to 2.0. Arizona’s 3rd guard is one Duke fans will know very well. Caleb Love, formerly of North Carolina was the PAC-12 player of the year last season and is now in his second year under Tommy Lloyd after spending 3 years at UNC. Love is averaging 11 points so far this season to go along with 3 rebounds and 3 assists. In his first year at Arizona Love improved his scoring output and efficiency and is looking to push that improvement even further in what should be his final year in college. Sophomore forward Tobe Awaka rounds out the double-figure scorers for Tommy Lloyd’s Wildcats, Awaka is averaging a double-double pairing 10.3 points with 12.3 rebounds so far this season.
The Wildcats are scoring the basketball at a 94.3 points a game clip so far with their lowest output being their lone loss to Wisconsin where they were still able to score 88 points. Arizona has been the best team in the nation on the offensive glass this season, averaging 21.7 offensive rebounds per game and second in total rebounds per game at 51.3 per contest. They are also top 60 in the country at taking the ball away, averaging 9.7 steals a game so far this season.
Duke Blue Devils
Duke enters Friday with a 3-1 record with their only blemish being a 5 point loss to Kentucky in the Champions Classic – a loss that saw freshman Cooper Flagg flex his muscle scoring a game high 26 points. The Blue Devils are led in several categories by Flagg. Flagg is the leading scorer (16.3), the leading rebounder (9.5) and the leading assist man (4.0) for the Blue Devils so far this season. Another freshman, Kon Knueppel, is right behind Flagg in terms of scoring at 14.8 points per game. Tyrese Proctor rounds out the double-figure scorers for the Blue Devils. Proctor’s play during this early season stretch has to be a welcome site for Blue Devil fans, the junior guard is shooting the ball and a 50% clip from beyond the arc so far this season and averaging 12.8 points per game. The Blue Devils are shooting 37% from beyond the arc so far this season, 58% from 2-point range and just under 76% from the free throw line.
The Blue Devils despite being up on Wofford in their last outing probably still have a bad taste in their collective mouths after losing a game against a ranked opponent that they should have won.
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 | 4 | 40.0 | 32.0 | 66.8 | .479 | 20.0 | 34.5 | .580 | 12.0 | 32.3 | .372 | 12.5 | 16.5 | .758 | 13.3 | 31.0 | 44.3 | 18.0 | 8.8 | 4.5 | 9.5 | 15.0 | 88.5 |
| Arizona | 3 | 40.0 | 33.0 | 72.3 | .456 | 26.3 | 48.0 | .549 | 6.7 | 24.3 | .274 | 21.7 | 32.0 | .677 | 21.7 | 29.7 | 51.3 | 15.7 | 9.7 | 3.3 | 10.3 | 21.3 | 94.3 |
Duke Projected Starters
PG Caleb Foster 6’5, 202lbs – Sophomore
SG Tyrese Proctor 6’6, 183lbs – Junior
SF Kon Knueppel 6’7, 217lbs – Freshman
PF Cooper Flagg 6’9, 205lbs – Freshman
C Khaman Maluach 7’2, 250lbs – Freshman
Arizona Projected Starters
G Jaden Bradley 6’3, 200lbs – Junior
G Caleb Love 6’4, 205lbs – Grad Student
G KJ Lewis 6’4, 210lbs – Sophomore
F Trey Townsend 6’6, 235lbs – Grad Student
F Tobe Awaka 6’8, 250lbs – Junior
Final Thoughts
The Blue Devil starting backcourt know very well what Tommy Lloyds team is capable of and they know they will have their work cut out for them. The Blue Devils as a team allowed every starter on the Arizona side to score in double-figures including 35pts from their trio of guards in last season’s loss. While only one starter from that team remains (Caleb Love) for Friday’s game several impact players including KJ Lewis (now a starter), Jaden Bradley and Motiejus Krivas are all players that will see the floor against Duke and logged minutes in last years game.
One advantage the Wildcats might have over Duke is size in the front-court. While the Wildcats don’t start a lot of size they do bring two 7-footers off the bench who log over 13 minutes a game each – depending on how Tommy Lloyd chooses to play this it could get very interesting. Lloyd has shown he has no issues playing both 7-footers at the same time and has done so several times this season. Duke can counter with Patrick Ngongba and I think that is why Jon Scheyer at times chose to play some different larger lineups against Wofford. While ultimately I think the backcourt that plays the better game wins, it’s hard to deny foul trouble and the effectiveness of the front-court will be a huge factor Friday night.
We know what Caleb Love can do, he’s dangerous behind the arc but he can be limited if Duke has progressed in their perimeter defense. It’s been a point of note for Jon Scheyer. Caleb love is a beast off of offensive rebounds, the ball seems to find him and he’s a flame thrower relocating to open spaces beyond the arc off of those offensive boards.Love has expanded his game and is an adept finisher but the most consistent player for the Wildcats might be Jaden Bradley – he’s probably going to end up their leading scorer this season and Duke has to find ways to shut him down.
Duke cannot turn the ball over against the Wildcats and defensively have to figure out both their perimeter rotations and their transition defense. Those have been the pain points for the Blue Devils so far this season.
For the Blue Devils, I believe if they shoot the ball well and master , as Jon Scheyer put it, the 98% well they should win this game but that means their younger players have to be far more attentive to the details – box-outs, screening, defending without fouling. One would expect AZ, with their advantage in experience to have that down pat.
Duke, once again, will have to grow-up in order to win this game.
