Kyle Filipowski shares how he put Wake Forest incident behind him for Louisville game

Following his team’s loss to Wake Forest on Saturday loss, Duke superstar Kyle Filipowski found himself at the center of a national debate surrounding court storming and the safety of players, coaches, and fans. Filipowski and the Blue Devils managed to put the incident behind them and throttle the Louisville Cardinals a few days later, 84-59. Following the win on Wednesday, the Duke superstar spoke about how he and his teammates were able to stay focused for their matchup with Louisville.

Kyle Filipowski on blocking out distractions for Louisville

It was a pretty simple formula that many coaches advise their players in a variety of situations: stay off social media.

“Yeah, just me and all my teammates and coaches. Stay off social media.” The strategy must have worked. The gifted sophomore stuffed the stat sheet with nine points, 10 rebounds, six assists, and one block.

Filipowski and his teammates don’t need to be reminded what time of year it is: March Madness.

“It’s the end of February. We’ve got March to look forward to now. We’ve got to put ourselves in the best position to win come March. That’s the main focus,” the Duke power forward said.

March has every team around the country’s focus. And it’s no different for the Blue Devils. They’re locked in.

“And that’s been a dream of mine since I was a little kid. And I just wanna give my best shot at it. That’s really the most important thing right now,” Filipowski said.

Duke has clinched the coveted double bye in the upcoming 2024 ACC Basketball Tournament in Capital One Arena in Washington DC.

But first the Blue Devils will square off against the Virginia Cavaliers. That one will be nationally televised on Saturday, March 2nd. Tip-off is set for 6:00 PM EST.

Last year, Filipowski and Duke split with their series with Virginia. It’s annually one of the more hotly contested games in the ACC. The Cavaliers defeated Duke in John Paul Jones Arena, 69-62 in overtime. The Virginia defense managed to hold him to zero points in that one. There was plenty of controversy in the final seconds of regulation, but Virginia managed to prevail.

Then in the 2023 ACC Tournament Championship in Greensboro, Duke used some stifling defense to pull that one out, 59-49. He got his revenge and in a big way, stuffing the stat sheet with 20 points and 10 rebounds in the rematch.

This season, Filipowski is averaging 16.6 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and 1.6 blocks per game.