#14 Duke Blue Devils (10-3, 1-1 ACC) vs. Notre Dame (6-8, 1-2 ACC)

Overall Duke leads, 29-8
In Durham, NC Duke leads, 10-2
at Cameron Indoor Stadium Duke leads, 10-2
In South Bend, IN Duke leads, 8-4
at Purcell Pavilion Duke leads, 8-4
Neutral Sites Duke leads, 11-2
Last Meeting Duke 68, Notre Dame 64 (Feb. 14, 2023)

TV/Video Stream ACCN
Play-by-Play Mike Monaco
Analyst Randolph Childress
Producer Robert Ringer
Director Tyler Honeycutt

Radio Blue Devil Sports Net.
Play-by-Play David Shumate
Analyst John Roth
Engineer John Rose
In Durham 96.5 FM & 620 AM
SiriusXM 119 or 193

Notre Dame enters Saturday with a 6-8 record and 1-2 in the ACC. The Irish are coming off of a 2 point loss to NC State their last time out. Freshman guard Markus Burton tops the Fighting Irish in scoring with 16.1 points, 3.9 assists and 1.4 steals per game. Backcourt mate J.R. Konieczny averages just under double-figures with 9.9 points per game, the 6’6 guard also averages a team high 5.9 rebounds per game. Notre Dame ranks second in the ACC and 44th nationally in scoring defense, holding opponents to 64.8 points per game. First-year Notre Dame head coach Micah Shrewsberry spent six seasons (2013-19) as an assistant coach with the Boston Celtics, working with former Duke standout Jayson Tatum. Shrewsberry’s son, Braeden, is a freshman guard for the Fighting Irish, averaging 6.9 points in 26.0 minutes per contest.

No. 14 Duke plays its third true road game of the season at Notre Dame. The Blue Devils are boasting a 5 game winning streak and have evened their ACC record at 1-1. Duke ranks sixth nationally in fewest turnovers per game (9.1) and seventh in assist/ turnover ratio (1.88).

Kyle Filipowski ranks eighth in scoring (17.5 ppg), sixth in rebounding (8.7 rpg) and fifth in blocked shots. Filipowski leads the Blue Devils in all 3 categories. Jared McCain has reached the 20-point mark in three of the last five games, averaging 19.4 points per contest during Duke’s current five-game win streak. He checks in at 12.2 points per game and 3.9 rebounds from the guard spot.

In the past seven games, senior guard Jeremy Roach has distributed 28 assists with just six turnovers, while averaging 17.2 points per contest and shooting 55.6% (40-for-72) from the field, including 12-of-21 (57.1%) from long distance. On the season Roach is averaging 14.5 points per game, good for second on the team – he is also averaging 3.2 assists per game. Mark Mitchell is coming off of a stellar game and a career high 21 points that saw the sophomore shoot 7-10 from the field, pulling down 6 rebounds and dishing 3 assists. Mitchell is up to 12 points per game this season. Sophomore Tyrese Proctor also scores double-figures for the Blue Devils at 10.5 points per game, the Aussie is also leading the Blue Devils in assists at 4.4 per game this season.

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

G Markus Burton 5’11, 166lbs, FR
G J.R. Konieczny 6’7, 204lbs JR
F Tae Davis 6’9, 208lbs SO
F Kebab Njie 6’10, 254lbs SO
F Carey Booth 6’10, 203lbs FR

Notre Dame’s offense starts and ends with Markus Burton and his shiftiness and ability to score the basketball. Even when Burton isn’t scoring he’s the high assist man for the Irish – he’s a short guard that knows that to be effective he has to attack and he does just that. Stopping Burton is job 1 for the Blue Devils. The Irish will have a decided size advantage over the Blue Devils, something that Duke hasn’t had to contend with in quite a few years and I expect first year Head Coach Micah Shrewsberry to try to exploit that advantage on the offensive end. Defensively the Irish have excelled only allowing 64.8 points per game – Shrewsberry, much like Coach Jon Scheyer has prioritized defense in his first year and the Blue Devils will need a solid effort of ball movement and taking great shots over good ones to overcome that Irish defense.

The Irish will seek to muddy up this game and keep it in the low 60’s while the Blue Devils will want to push tempo and run – if Duke can shut down Burton they have a much better chance of getting the type of ball movement and game speed they want. The fear is that Duke will look for the knock-out punch and lose patience. The key is making the Notre Dame defense have to pick their poison.

Duke needs a good first half from Kyle Filipowski, some of that is depending upon his foul situation and some of that is dependent upon how Duke’s rotations in the paint improve.  With the size that Notre Dame puts on the floor the Blue Devils will need to move the ball around, cut to the basket when the situation affords it and make the extra pass.