What to know about Notre Dame men's basketball vs. Duke
As Notre Dame welcomes No. 14 Duke into Purcell Pavilion on Saturday, the Blue Devils are on a tear.
Under second-year head coach Jon Scheyer, Duke recovered from back-to-back road losses in late November and early December to Arkansas and Georgia Tech, respectively, to rattle off five-straight wins. That run includes a victory over No. 10 Baylor and an 86-66 blowout of Syracuse.
Notre Dame, on the other hand, has to bounce back after a crushing loss again. The Irish let an 11-point second-half lead against North Carolina State slip away, and head coach Micah Shrewsberry said it himself: They should be 2-1 in Atlantic Coast Conference play. Instead, they’re 1-2, but they have to put that behind them now.
“Everybody was upset and mad about that in the locker room, because that’s a game that we should be winning,” sophomore forward Kebba Njie said. “Nobody thinks we should be losing that. But it doesn’t matter, it’s behind us now, we’re onto the next one. Big game Saturday.”
Here’s everything you need to know about Notre Dame’s Saturday night battle with Duke.
Notre Dame vs. Duke game information
- Teams: Notre Dame (6-8, 1-2 ACC) vs. No. 14 Duke (10-3, 1-1 ACC)
- Date: Saturday, Jan. 6
- Location: Purcell Pavilion in South Bend
- Time: 6 p.m. ET
- Television: ACC Network
- Streaming: WatchESPN
- TV Announcers: Mike Monaco (play-by-play, and incidentally a Notre Dame alum), Randolph Childress (analyst)
- Radio: 960 WSBT-AM in South Bend
- Radio announcer: Tony Simeone
Matchup notables
• While Duke is not short on talented freshmen — guards Jared McCain and Caleb Foster come to mind — this is a much more veteran-based Blue Devils team than we’re used to seeing. And yes, this is Duke, so sophomores count as veterans.
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• Sophomores Kyle Filipowski (C), Mark Mitchell (F) and Tyrese Proctor (G) all returned after their freshman years, and Filipowski is comfortably the star of the team. He’s a 7-footer who’s incredibly difficult to stop in the paint and whose outside shot is not elite but can’t be ignored, either. That all adds up to 17.5 points and 8.7 rebounds per game.
• Mitchell, on the other hand, has an outside shot that can be comfortably ignored but his athleticism length still allow him to put up 12 points per game. He led the Blue Devils with 21 against Syracuse. Proctor is the floor general, averaging 4.4 assists. The dangerous long-range shooters are McCain (46.9 percent from 3-point range) and senior guard Jeremy Roach (48.8).
• Proctor missed time with an ankle injury and came off the bench for the past two games, with Foster starting in his place.
• This Duke team is not particularly deep — the six players mentioned above average 25-plus minutes per game, while No. 7 (junior guard Jaylen Blakes) sits at 12.5 — but the dangerous thing about it is it has so many ways to beat you within those six guys. The keys to stopping it are Proctor and Filipowski. The former runs the show to the extent where he often needs to play well for the Blue Devils to win, while the latter can get into foul trouble if he’s not careful.
• Notre Dame needs a big defensive game from Njie against Filipowski if it hopes to have a chance. Until he made a defensive mistake against NC State graduate forward D.J. Burns Jr. on the Wolfpack’s final possession, Njie had been one of his better outings of the season. He wasn’t a factor offensively, but he was a strong defensive anchor who helped hold NC State to 54 points.
