Preview:  Duke Blue Devils (13-5, 4-3) vs. Miami Hurricanes (15-3, 6-2) 

Duke Blue Devils (13-5, 4-3) vs. #17 Miami Hurricanes (15-3, 6-2) 

Game #19 • Home Game #10 • ACC Game #8 • Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023 • 12 p.m. ET 

Cameron Indoor Stadium (9,314) • Durham, N.C. 

TV: ESPN 

Radio: Blue Devils Sports Network from LEARFIELD 

After a week of no games the Duke Blue Devils return home to Cameron Indoor Stadium Saturday at Noon to face the formidable Miami Hurricanes in a critical ACC matchup.

History

Duke leads the all-time series 23-9, but the teams have split their ACC regular-season meetings, 5-5. Duke’s last two losses in the series have been two-point decisions — 76-74 in Durham on Jan. 8, 2022 and 77-75 at Miami in on Feb. 1, 2021. Miami won in Durham last season, 76-74, behind 18 points and seven steals by Charlie Moore as the Hurricanes racked up 15 steals and forced 17 Duke turnovers. Duke won in the ACC Tournament semifinals last year, 80-76, thanks to 21 points from AJ Griffin and limiting the Hurricanes to just six steals.

The Series

Overall Duke leads, 23-9 
In Durham, NC Duke leads, 11-3
at Cameron Indoor Stadium Duke leads, 11-3
In Coral Gables, FL Duke leads, 9-6
at Watsco Center Duke leads, 7-5
Neutral Sites Duke leads, 3-0
Last Meeting Duke 80, Miami 76 (March 11, 2022)
Last 10 Games in Series Duke leads, 6-4 

About Duke

Duke is looking to rebound after letting a second-half lead slip at first-place Clemson last Saturday — a game in which Duke led by eight in the second half, limited the hot-shooting Tigers to just 3-of-17 from three and held Hunter Tyson and Chase Hunter to 12 total points.

Duke has out-rebounded 14 of its first 18 opponents and is 12-2 this season when holding an advantage on the glass. Duke is 10-2 when leading in offensive rebounding. The ACC’s best rebounding team, Duke ranks fourth nationally in rebound margin (+9.0), 11th in offensive rebounds (13.7) and 19th in rebounds per game (39.8) — leading the conference in each category. Duke has not finished as the ACC’s team leader in rebounds since 1998-99.

Duke, Tennessee and Alabama are the nation’s only teams ranked inside the NCAA’s top 20 for each rebound margin, offensive rebounds and total rebounds. Duke has held 16 of 18 teams below their season scoring average, ranking second in the ACC and 39th nationally in scoring defense (63.4) and 16th nationally in three-point defense (.284). Freshman Kyle Filipowski, who was named ACC Rookie of the Week for a league-leading fifth time, poured in 46 points and grabbed 29 rebounds last week — including a monster 28-15 effort vs. Pitt to become just the third Duke freshman all-time with at least 28-15 in a game. Filipowski is fifth in the ACC, 32nd nationally and leads all power conference freshmen in rebounds (9.2). His eight double-doubles are sixth in the ACC and lead all Division-I freshmen.

Stepping up to handle point guard duties in place of junior starting guard Jeremy Roach, who has missed the last three games with a toe injury, freshman Tyrese Proctor scored a career high 17 points at Clemson on the heels of 14 points, five assists and no turnovers vs. Pitt.

About Miami

Miami enters Saturday’s game ranked No. 17 in the AP Poll at 15-3 overall and 6-2 in the ACC. Of the teams’ shared opponents in ACC play, Miami has a win over Boston College and split with NC State. This is the first of two meetings between Duke and Miami over the next 16 days — Duke is in Coral Gables for a Big Monday showdown on Feb. 6.

The Hurricanes are led by a bevy of talented guards led by Isaiah Wong who is averaging 16.7 points per game. Wong is also the leading assist man for Miami at 3.8 per game. Transfer Nijel Pack is the best shooting starter from beyond the arc where he shoots at a 37.4% clip and is averaging 11.6 points per game. Jordan Millar at 14.8 and Norchad Omier at 14 round out the double-figure scores with Omier leading the Hurricanes in rebounding at 10.2 per game.

Stats Comparison

Probable Starters

Thoughts

Miami has some really good 3-point shooters but they can really hurt you in the mid-range. Fade away jump shots, jab step jumpers. Duke has to stay connected to shooters and be aware of cross court passes for corner 3’s. If Duke allows Miami’s guards to get into rhythm dribbles and don’t pressure the ball the Hurricanes will eat Duke alive. Duke has to find ways to throw them off of their game, their guards can hit contested 3’s just as well as open ones so it’s going to be a tough ask defensively.

Duke cannot have offensive lulls against Miami or they will find themselves in a huge hold quickly. Duke has to find ways to get into their secondary and tertiary actions much better than they have been as of late. This game will be physical and Duke will have to initiate that physicality as opposed to just reacting to it. The Blue Devils also have to be much better with the basketball, turnovers are a death knell especially live ball turnovers – when your margin for error is as small as the young Devils’ you have to make sure you are doing the little things correctly.

HEAD COACH JON SCHEYER 

Opening Statement: 

“I’ll just start off, a couple quick things. One, Jeremy [Roach] is, we’re hoping he can practice today, we’ll see. He’s gonna be a gametime decision tomorrow. He’s been able to progress, but really hasn’t done a whole lot. So, it’s still up in the air. gametime decision, we’ll see how he is. We want him to be comfortable, whenever that time is, to come back. But there’s a chance for tomorrow and we’ll see today and tomorrow morning. Jaylen Blakes broke his nose two days ago. Jaylen will be ready to go. Our medical team did a great job about an hour after, they were able to reduce the fracture and he handled it like an absolute champ, is tough as nails. So, he’s able to play, he’ll just be wearing a mask for the time being. And he’s shown a lot about just doing whatever he needs to, to get out there on the floor.” 

On what the team has shown this week to get things back on track: 

“I think for us just bouncing back and having great life. I think anxious to get back out there again. We’ve had really good days of practice. Wednesday was a little bit lighter because you can’t go five days straight too hard. Think we’ve made some really good steps. It’s time for us to transition it to a game and do it for a full game. But I think our confidence has grown. Of course, we’ve had questions really, throughout the whole year, there’s nothing new this week with Jaylen’s availability or Jeremy or anything like that. We’ve gotten better, I think on the offensive end, just understanding what our strengths are and playing to those. And then on defense, just building. We’ve been a good defensive team, just continuing to build.” 

On if he saw what he wanted during the downtime during the week off: 

“I did. Yeah, I did. I felt good about those two days. And really just taking some time just with our team, just understanding what our strengths are. And clearly you can look at our offensive rebounding, and that’s been a strength all year. But how can we get in the paint? How can we value each possession at the highest level possible? When you get into these games, no matter who you’re playing in the ACC, you have to do that in order to win. So, we’ve taken some steps there. I think we’ve taken some steps, confidence wise and then defensively, same thing. The end to the Clemson game, we learned a lot from. They got to our basket, they got to our paint. So, taking some steps forward on that.” 

On if the offense is evolving to revolving around Kyle Filipowski: 

“Kyle’s a big part of establishing the team early, whether it be him scoring, people may play him differently where they can send doubles at him, or they may play him straight up, but his passing should be a big asset for us as well. Finding ways to get the ball in the paint, we’re not a jump shooting team. If we are, we’re not going to be a team that wins a lot of games. And so we have two guys on the perimeter in Mark [Mitchell], Dariq [Whitehead], we need to find ways to get them in the paint. I want them to drive the ball more. And obviously the offensive glass has been something that we’ve done, but Kyle has been probably the biggest force offensively with drawing attention and he shoots 22 shots, a few of them are just throwing the ball up and going and getting it again, and he’s got a great knack for that. But him, Ryan [Young], finding ways to hit Derek [Lively II] and he can be really good passer as well inside, that’s been some things we’ve worked on this week.”

On what he thinks Duke needs to improve on to increase assist numbers: 

“Make shots. If you just look at assists, you have to figure out ‘alright, why do you have those assists?’ And for us, we missed some good shots too. I mean, I’ll give you an example, Tyrese [Proctor], he had one assist last game, and he had nine potential assists. That means eight other times he made passes where we got an open look, whether it be a finish or a shot, and we didn’t convert. So, part of that is we have to knock some of those down. And then part of it is we have too many possessions where we don’t come away 

with the best look for us. So, having the patience, playing through a little bit more resistance, to get to the areas that we want. I think those numbers will go up for us, the assist number. Because we have a team that wants to share the ball. We have a team that really anybody can step up at different times. And it’s just taking that piece to the next level now.” 

On what he’s seen while scouting Miami: 

“They’re really explosive in transition. They’re very athletic, they’re smaller, but that doesn’t mean they can’t rebound or anything. I mean, [Jordan] Miller and those guys, they get all over the offensive boards. And obviously [Isaiah] Wong is as good of a guard as there has been in our league. He’s not a guy you can just eliminate. He plays with great poise. And he really takes his time in high traffic areas. He doesn’t get sped up. And then they have great shooting too, so it’s not a team you can just say ‘take away the paint’ or ‘take away the three’, you have to do both with a lot of their guys. And so we know they’re a confident team. They’ve been as hot as anybody in our league and they’re a great challenge for our defense, keep them out of transition, try and keep them away from our paint and limiting threes. It’s a team you have to do both. And then on the offensive end, they’re active. They’re right there in our league, think second in our league right now steals per game. Active hands, they can really guard, so you have to be really strong with the ball and work together to get a good shot.” 

On if there’s been any focus on Virginia Tech and how Duke will handle the quick turnaround: 

“Zero. Like, literally zero. I’ve not talked about it once with our staff or our team. And now, when the game’s over at two o’clock or 2:30 on Saturday, it’s right to Virginia Tech because it’s a quick turnaround. We’ll be in this situation again two weeks later. Hopefully we’re in a position we can play in some moments like this in March where you have a day in between. But right now, I just want our guys focusing on Miami. We know it’s a great challenge and we’ll worry about that when the time comes.”

FRESHMAN FORWARD KYLE FILIPOWSKI 

On what the main focus of practice of practice has been during the week off: 

“These practices what we’ve really been focused on, it’s a long season, and there’s not really a lot of time to dwell on the last game and be all up in our feelings about that. So, we’ve just been, we took a day to learn from that and move on, and know we competed last game and that should be the bare minimum every day now, every game now. And so all [Coach Scheyer] was saying is we got to do that next game, we got to make some tweaks that that we messed up on in the game. It’s nothing big, there’s just some things that we hand to the other team that we could easily just correct and then we’re going to keep that lead and not give it up. Or win the game by 10 plus points. So, just things like that. And obviously, just the X’s and O’s with Miami and the team they are and how we’re going to go up against them.” 

On what he’s expecting on the boards against Miami: 

“I’m definitely expecting a physical game for sure. Just like the rest of them, there’s going to be no backing down, of course. I think I was a little surprised by that, just how teams adapted to me in the beginning of the season. And I think I’ve adapted well back. So, it’s just gonna be a physical game, and I think we can definitely do what we do best and out-rebound them. 

On the things he has adjusted recently that has led to back-to-back double-doubles: 

“I think just going out and trying to punch them in the in the mouth first. All the losses we’ve had, they’ve punched us in the mouth first and maybe we responded or didn’t respond enough or even not at all, but that’s something I definitely try to go out there and expect the physicality and expect just like cheap shots or them doing whatever they can to keep me off the boards or affect me in a negative way with my mindset somehow. So, I’m just trying to stay poised, stay collected and go out there and still do what I do best.” 

FRESHMAN GUARD TYRESE PROCTOR 

On what he’s learned about himself and what it takes to play point guard without Jeremy Roach: 

“Obviously Jeremy being out was a big loss for us, but just taking on that leadership role, I guess, and being the main vocal guy on court — Jeremy was doing that when he was there, but him being out, I just had to step up another level, and just try and organize a team and I felt like I’ve done that.” 

On if he thinks he was ready for that role: “I mean, it happens throughout the game of basketball, and I just had to adapt to it at a much quicker rate than what I probably would have if he hadn’t gotten injured. So, I think it helped me individually. And I think I adapted to it pretty quickly.” 

On how he balances scoring and facilitating for his teammates: 

“Yeah, I’m not too worried about scoring. As long as we got the win. Just trying to find my teammates whenever I can. Being on the court, they’ve got really good defense, Clemson was a really good defensive team, so turnovers are gonna come here and there. But just trying to make sure that they’re aggressive turnovers and just not sloppy and just loose with the ball turnovers. So, that’s the main emphasis. I’ve been looking at, watching film and Miami is going to be a similar game to Clemson. They’re a really good team and they’ve got a really good backcourt. So, just taking care of the ball and just sharing it at a high rate.” 

On if it’s still a learning process for the freshmen playing together: 

“I think our chemistry is really starting to get there now. I think we’ve played enough games where we’re starting to feel each other and know where everyone can do really well at a higher rate. So, I think, the freshmen stuff is, we’re all sort of just coming together now.” 

On how he’s handled playing more physical guards and if it’s what he expected: 

“Yeah, I think at first it was a surprise, I didn’t think it was gonna be as physical as it was. That tournament before coming over definitely helped me with that in Indonesia, just playing with grown men and those sorts of guys. But it was definitely a surprise at first, but our scout team in practice and Jeremy [Roach] and Jaylen [Blakes], just going up against them every day. I think that’s really helped me individually. And then just adapting as we play, game by game, I think that’s been a big thing that I’ve taken on my shoulders and just adapted to.” 

On if he feels more comfortable to deal with it compared to four weeks ago: 

“Yeah, for sure. I think just watching a film and stuff, a lot of guys are coming for us. And we’ve got to expect that every night and I think just some of the big games we’ve already played, you’ve seen that. And just lean into them, just doing more outside of practice, just getting pressured by Spencer [Hubbard], just for example, in practice. And just adapting to the physicality and the pressure, the constant pressure that’s going to be going on in the game.”