Blue Devils trying to keep things rolling while searching
for first road victory
Duke coach Jon Scheyer makes a point during Tuesday night’s win over Syracuse. (Rob Kinnan/USA Today Sports Images)
It comes as a surprise to no one that road wins in the ACC appear to be hard to come by this season.
In the infancy of league play, road teams are 5-12. Clemson lost at Miami this week despite the Hurricanes missing their second-leading scorer (Wooga Poplar) and last weekend, Notre Dame blitzed Virginia for a 22-point win in South Bend.
Duke knows the feeling, both because of December’s loss at Georgia Tech and by way of losing four of its first five ACC road games last season, only one of which was against a team that made the NCAA tournament.
Now the Blue Devils head to the venue where one of those surprising games happened, as Duke plays at Notre Dame on Saturday night.
“Even last year, we struggled a bit trying to get that first road win,” sophomore forward Kyle Filipowski said. “But we’ve just got to keep doing what we’re doing.”
That’s true.
Duke is on a five-game winning streak and playing its best basketball of the season. The ball movement has been crisp — 61.4% assist rate in this streak — and the defense has been active, turning teams over at a high clip and turning those mistakes into instant offense.
“When you play conference games, they’re just different,” coach Jon Scheyer said. “Teams really know you well, you have a history there, what you’ve done three years ago against each other or two years ago. … The game plans are more detailed, it means more, and so you have to learn how to grind games out.”
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Here’s what to know ahead of Saturday night’s game:
Time: 6 p.m.
Location: Purcell Pavilion, South Bend, Ind.
TV: ACC Network.
Series; last meeting: Duke leads 29-8; Duke won 68-64 at home in mid-February last season, and has won four straight games at ND.
Records: Duke 10-3, 1-1 ACC; Notre Dame 6-8, 1-2.
Notre Dame coach Micah Shrewsberry watches during the second half of Wednesday night’s loss to N.C. State. (Matt Cashore/USA Today Sports Images)
Stat to watch: 20.3%.
That’s Notre Dame’s turnover percentage, which is 308th in the country and worst in the ACC (per KenPom).
Duke’s defense has been more active lately, turning its last four opponents over at higher than 20%. Given Notre Dame’s lack of ball security, the Blue Devils should make it five straight games.
It’s led to easier offense for Duke. Syracuse committed 17 turnovers, leading to 26 of Duke’s 86 points on Tuesday night. Last weekend, Duke turned Queens’ 19 turnovers into 33 points. In both games, Duke had over 20 fast-break points.
Notre Dame committed 13 turnovers against N.C. State in Wednesday night’s two-point loss (and the Wolfpack only committed four).
Jeremy Roach, middle, talks to teammates Mark Mitchell, left, and Jared McCain on Tuesday night. (Rob Kinnan/USA Today Sports Images)
Matchup to watch: Duke’s 3-point shooting vs. Notre Dame’s defense.
Will Duke’s second half against Syracuse and the 8-for-8 clip on 3s carry over? Or will there be a repeat of the 0-for-9 first half the Blue Devils threw up against the Orange?
Probably neither … but there’s some intrigue to this part of the game.
Aside from the weird split of Tuesday night’s game, Duke has been hot from the outside. During this five-game winning streak, the Blue Devils have shot over 45% three times, and one of the other times they made nine 3s (against Queens).
It helps when two of your guards, Jared McCain and Jeremy Roach, are shooting over 50% for a five-game span (McCain is 17-for-32, Roach is 9-for-17).
Notre Dame doesn’t do a whole lot of things well, but the Irish has stymied teams from the outside. Virginia and N.C. State were a combined 5-for-28 against the Irish in the last two games.
Irish(man) to watch: Guard Markus Burton (No. 3).
Notre Dame is going to put the ball in the hands of its freshman guard and live or die by what he does.
Burton has one of the highest usage rates in the country, with 33.4% of Notre Dame’s possessions ending with the ball in his hands when he’s on the court (13th nationally, per KenPom). He’s 12th in the ACC in scoring (16.1) and is the only freshman in the league’s top 20.
The 5-11, 166-pounder signed with the Irish before Mike Brey announced last season would be his last. Burton is the only player of that three-man signing class who still made it to South Bend, with Parker Friedrichsen landing at Wake Forest and Brady Dunlap switching to St. John’s.
Blue Devil to watch: Guard Jared McCain (No. 0).
McCain didn’t quite get to 20 points against Syracuse, which would’ve marked his fourth 20-point game in the last five.
And it still felt, during one stretch of the second half, that any possession in which he didn’t get a touch was a wasted opportunity.
The freshman is that pure of a shooter and he’s on fire lately. Over the last five games, McCain is averaging 19.4 points per game on 57.6/53.1/100 shooting splits. The 17-for-32 clip on 3-pointers means he’s up to 46.9% on the season, which is 49th in the country (entering Thursday’s games).
“Just the way he’s looking to play, I mean … he doesn’t really need the ball,” Roach said of his fellow off-ball guard. “You’ve gotta love playing with a guy like that, he doesn’t really need the ball but when he gets the ball, he’s ready to shoot.”
What’s on deck: Duke will come back from this game and have a couple of days at home before heading back onto the road against what’s likely to be a desperate team. The Blue Devils play at Pittsburgh — the only 0-3 team in the ACC — on Tuesday night.
Notre Dame comes out of this game with a trip to Georgia Tech, a meeting between two of the ACC’s three first-year coaches.
KenPom prediction: Duke wins 74-60.
Devils Illustrated prognosis: This is a step Duke needs to take.
The Blue Devils need to win ACC road games. It’s not an easy task, but it’ll have to be done if Duke wants to position itself for a deep March run. Muddling through the league schedule without many road wins won’t do the Blue Devils any favors when it comes to NCAA tournament seeding.
And this is a game that lines up simpler than other ACC road games. Short of calling this a take-care-of-business game, it’s one that Duke needs to keep things rolling in the right direction.
