Duke vs Louisville: #12 Duke Blue Devils (13-4, 4-2 ACC) vs. Louisville (6-12, 1-6 ACC)

Overall Duke leads, 13-9
In Durham, NC Duke leads, 4-3
at Cameron Indoor Stadium Duke leads, 4-3
In Louisville, KY Tied, 4-4
at KFC Yum! Center Tied, 3-3
Neutral Sites Duke leads, 5-2
Last Meeting @Duke 79, Louisville 62 (Feb. 20, 2023)

TV/Video Stream ACCN
Play-by-Play Rece Davis
Analyst Jon Crispin
Director Bonnie Reilly
Producer Sean Jackson

Radio Blue Devil Sports Net.
Play-by-Play David Shumate
Analyst John Roth
Engineer John Rose
In Durham 96.5 FM & 620 AM
SiriusXM 160 or 193

The Cards are 6 – 12 overall and 1-6 in the AC, they’ve lost three in a row, most recently falling 90-65 at Wake Forest on Saturday. It was UofL’s third straight road game against teams undefeated at home this season. Over the last five games, the Cardinals are 38-for-88 (43.2%) from 3-point range. Louisville has had a positive assist-toturnover ratio in six of the last eight games after only accomplishing the feat in two of the first 10 games. Louisville is second in the ACC and 40th in the nation with 16.5 free throws made per game.

In the last five games, redshirt sophomore Mike James is averaging 18.8 points per game, while shooting 54.2% from the field (32 of 59), 70.6% from 3-point range (12 of 17) and 81.8% from the free-throw line (18-22). Five Cardinals average double figures in scoring, topped by Mike James with 14.1 points per game. James is the Cardinals best shooter from beyond the arc, hitting his 3’s at a 41.7% clip. Skyy Clark is a streaky shooter but when he gets rolling his step-back can really be a weapon the sophomore guard is averaging 13.6 points per game on the season so far. Tre White is a big shot maker for the Cardinals his size gives him a huge advantage, the type of advantage the Blue Devils have struggled with against both Pitt and Georgia Tech. White is averaging 12.5 points per contest this season. Over the last nine games, junior forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield is averaging 14.4 points and 8.0 rebounds while hooting 61.7% from the field (50 of 81). After registering two double-doubles in the first 68 games of his career, he has four in his last nine games. Huntley-Hatfield rounds out the double-figure scoring for Putt at 10.1 points per game. Ty-Laur Johnson leads the team in assists at 3.5 per game.

Player to Watch:

Freshman guard/forward Curtis Williams is averaging 10.8 points off the bench over the last eight games while making 20 of 46 3-pointers (43.5%). He was 5-for-18 from 3 (27.8%) over the first 10 games. After not reaching double figures in the first 10 games of his career, Williams has scored at least 11 points in five of the last eight.

Overall the Blue Devils are 13-4 and 4-2 in the ACC. Duke had an eight-game winning streak snapped Saturday with an 80-76 home loss to Pitt. Duke ranks ninth nationally in fewest turnovers (9.3 per game) and 10th in assist/turnover ratio (1.76).

Among ACC leaders, Kyle Filipowski ranks fourth in scoring (18.2 ppg), fifth in rebounding (8.7 rpg), sixth in blocked shots (1.9 bpg) and eighth in field goal percentage (.516). Flilipowski is leading the team in scoring, blocks and rebounding. Tyrese Proctor and Jeremy Roach are second and fourth, respectively, in the ACC in assist/ turnover ratio. Among national leaders, Proctor ranks 21st (3.24), while Roach is 23rd (3.19). Roach is second in scoring on the Blue Devils at 14.6 points per game so far on the season while Proctor checks in at 9.7 points per game.

Jared McCain’s team-high 20 points against Pittsburgh on Saturday marked the fourth time in the last nine games the freshman guard has scored 20 points or better. Both McCain and Mark Mitchell are averaging 12.2 points on the season. Freshman guard Caleb Foster tallied season highs of six rebounds and three steals, along with 16 points and five assists versus Pittsburgh in the loss on January 20.

G Jeremy Roach 6’2, 180lbs SR
G Caleb Foster 6’5, 197lbs FR
G Jared McCain 6’3, 197lbs FR
F Mark Mitchell  6’9, 232lbs SO
C Kyle Filipowski 7’0, 248lbs SO

G Skyy Clark 6’3, 205lbs SO
G Zan Payne 6’5, 230lbs GR
G Mike James 6’5, 200lbs RSSO
G Tre White 6’7, 205lbs SO
F Brandon Huntley-Hatfield 6’10, 240lbs JR

Slow starts have plagued the Blue Devils for most of the season and even going back to last season. The Blue Devils have looked like a team waiting for something to happen as opposed to making something happen – akin to a boxer sticking his chin out waiting for a punch to react to instead of taking the fight to the opposition. Teams are very willing to punch first and put the Blue Devils into a game of playing from behind. That’s not where a young team wants to be.

Statistics are a very important part of basketball but heart, will and determination are much more in demand. This Blue Devil team gave a very disappointing defensive effort against Pitt on their home floor that left their head coach both apologizing and scratching his head. Louisville presents some of the same inherent issues for Duke that Pitt does – big guards that are going to look to pick-and-roll Duke to death and if there isn’t a significant adjustment made this will be the second time Duke has had consecutive loses against teams they should theoretically beat. Louisville, over the last five games are 38-for-88 (43.2%) from 3-point range and have been taking care of the basketball much better. While defending the 3 is always a very important part of what Duke does – they need to defend the paint – especially the middle area foul-line in much better. Pitt feasted on Duke’s drop coverage defense. It’s still an unknown at this time whether Duke will be without Mark Mitchell and Jeremy Roach again. The Blue Devils could not overcome a fairly mediocre Pitt team down Mitchell and Roach.

Duke clearly lacked leadership on the court and a lineup that proved to be very one-dimensional on both ends of the floor but specifically defensively where Duke gave up 50% shooting from the floor against Pitt – Pitt also shot 50% from the 3-point line.

In a down ACC teams are looking to make their mark against the Blue Devils who have not seemed to adjust well to being the hunted as opposed to hunting. If there isn’t a significant change in both attitude and effort the Blue Devils will be looking up at the standings as opposed to looking down at them.