#4 Duke Blue Devils (13-2, 5-0 ACC) vs. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (7-8 1-3 ACC)
Saturday, Jan. 11 • 12:00 pm ET
Cameron Indoor Stadium • Durham, NC
TV: ESPN
The Blue Devils look to extend their winning streak to 10 with a conference matchup at home against the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame at noon on Saturday.
Broadcast Information
TV/Video Stream ESPN
Play-by-Play Dan Shulman
Analyst Jay Bilas
Reporter Jess Sims
Producer Eric Mosley
Director Mike Roig
Radio Blue Devil Sports Network
Play-by-Play David Shumate
Analyst John Roth
Engineer John Rose
In Durham 96.5 FM & 620 AM
SiriusXM 84
This Series
Overall Duke leads, 31-8
In Durham, N.C. Duke leads, 11-2
at Cameron Indoor Stadium Duke leads, 11-2
In South Bend, Ind. Duke leads, 9-4
at Purcell Pavilion Duke leads, 9-4
Neutral Sites Duke leads, 11-2
Last Meeting @Duke 71, ND 53 (Feb. 7, 2024)
Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Micah Shrewsberry is in his second season after taking over for Mike Brey as the head man at Notre Dame. Notre Dame currently sits at 7-8 overall and 1-3 in conference, they are coming off of back to back 1 point conference losses to North Carolina and NC State. The Irish are 4th in the ACC in 3-point percentage at 37.6% and top 10 in both steals and offensive rebounding.
Markus Burton leads the Irish in both scoring and assists at 18.4 per game and 4.0 respectively. He leads a quartet of double-figure scorers including forward Tae Davis at 16.5, Braeden Shrewsberry at 15.9 and grad student Matt Allocco at 10.1 points per game. Allocco leads the starters in 3-point shooting at 48.3% per game. Matt Allocco is second in the ACC and 13th in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (+3.57) and Shrewsberry, a sophomore, ranks second in the ACC in 3-pointers per game (3.0). Kebbe Njie leads the Irish with 6.1 rebounds per game.
Duke Blue Devils
With a record of 13-2 and a conference mark of 5-0, the Blue Devils enter Saturday riding a 9 game winning streak. Duke is one of two Division I teams to score 80 points or more per game (80.0) and hold its opponents to fewer than 60 points per game (58.4). Liberty (CUSA) averages 80.1 points per game with a scoring defense of 59.3 points per game. Jon Scheyer’s has not allowed more than 65 points to an unranked opponent this season, their defense has limited power-conference opponents to 64.4 points per game and 39.7 percent shooting from the field. The Blue Devils are tops in the ACC in most offensive and defensive categories, including:
- Scoring
- Assists
- Rebounding
- 3pt%
- 2pt%
- Scoring defense
Duke is led by freshman Cooper Flagg in several categories including points, rebounds, assists, blocks and steals. His 17.5 points per game leads a trio of double-figure point producers. Freshman Kon Knueppel scores 12.7 points per game adding 2.7 assists per game. Junior guard Tyrese Proctor is having a superb year shooting the ball from deep, he’s currently shooting 43% from beyond the arc and scoring 11.7 points per game.
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 | 15 | 40.0 | 28.3 | 59.5 | .475 | 17.9 | 31.4 | .571 | 10.3 | 28.1 | .368 | 13.1 | 17.5 | .749 | 11.5 | 28.4 | 39.9 | 16.8 | 7.4 | 3.9 | 10.3 | 15.8 | 80.0 |
| Notre Dame | 15 | 40.3 | 27.1 | 57.7 | .469 | 19.0 | 35.3 | .538 | 8.1 | 22.4 | .360 | 12.7 | 16.9 | .748 | 9.8 | 26.3 | 36.1 | 12.8 | 5.1 | 1.9 | 10.7 | 15.1 | 74.9 |
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 | 5 | 40.0 | 29.8 | 57.8 | .516 | 19.6 | 31.6 | .620 | 10.2 | 26.2 | .389 | 12.4 | 15.6 | .795 | 8.4 | 27.8 | 36.2 | 18.4 | 4.6 | 4.2 | 8.8 | 15.4 | 82.2 |
| Notre Dame | 4 | 40.0 | 24.5 | 55.0 | .445 | 16.5 | 33.8 | .489 | 8.0 | 21.3 | .376 | 13.5 | 18.8 | .720 | 8.8 | 20.0 | 28.8 | 11.3 | 5.5 | 2.0 | 11.3 | 15.5 | 70.5 |
Duke Projected Starters
PG Sion James 6’6, 220lbs – Grad Transfer
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
Notre Dame Projected Starters
G Markus Burton 6’0, 190lbs – Sophomore
G Braeden Shrewsberry 6’4, 200lbs – Sophomore
F Matt Allocco 6’4, 190lbs – Grad Student
F Tae Davis 6’9, 215lbs – Junior
F Kebba Njie 6’10, 250lbs – Junior
Final Thoughts
Notre Dame is a different team with a healthy Markus Burton. Since returning, after being injured in the Rutgers game back in November, Burton has worked himself back into the starting lineup. He’s scored 23 and 15 points in his 2 games back. I expect a hungry Notre Dame team on Sunday, especially after having lost 2 straight games by a single point. Duke will need to do what they have been doing – executing on the offensive end with efficiency and continue being the stingiest defense in the NCAA. Markus Burton is going to get his, the key for Duke is making him a volume shooter but a poor efficiency one. Forcing Notre Dame into tough 2-point shots off the dribble, making them operate in one on one situations late in the shot clock. Notre Dame has excellent shooters in Shrewsberry and Allocco, making sure to chase them off the line and not give them early looks that get them into a rhythm will be important.
From there, Duke needs to rebound the basketball on the defensive end. The Blue Devils, while not giving up a ton of second chance points, have been giving up a few too many second chance opportunities – when a defense works as hard as Duke’s does, it’s important to pay it off by securing the possession for the offense.
Offensively, the Blue Devils still aren’t as good as they can be, often missing some opportunities for easy buckets by pre-determining their moves. The Blue Devils could very easily be the best team offensively in the nation if it cashed in their potential assists at a higher level. That doesn’t mean Duke’s offense isn’t top tier, but it goes to show that as good as they are, there are still levels to ascend to. Notre Dame provides a good opportunity to show and improve.
