Matchup: Indiana Hoosiers (5-1) at Duke Blue Devils (5-1)
Date and time: Tuesday, Nov. 27 at 9:30 p.m. ET
TV schedule: ESPN
Location: Cameron Indoor Stadium, Durham, NC
Duke might have left Maui with their first regular season loss after falling 89-87 to Gonzaga in the championship game, but they also walked away with valuable experience that they plan to carry into the rest of the season starting with Tuesday’s game against Indiana.
“I think it’s made us hungry,” forward Jack White said ahead of the Blue Devils’ game against the Hoosiers. “It’s never a good vibe when you come off a loss, especially in a championship game. We’ve played some great teams and we’ve been tested. We‘ve played six games in 15 days. We haven’t practiced as much as we would’ve liked, and I think that’s where we saw some of our habits kind of fall off. Just to get back in here since the trip and getting back to practice and work on those habits with our talk and moving the ball along with defensive fundamentals. We’re just hungry to win. We’re really excited for tomorrow night and now it’s going to be a big statement game for us. It’ll really be a big teller in who we’re going to be and how we’re going to respond to situations like this.”
Duke will play Indiana as part of the annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge for the third time in two years and while everyone is rightfully talking about Duke’s set of phenomenal freshmen, the Hoosiers have a young talent of their own in Romeo Langford who’s averaging a team high 18.5 points per game.
“I played with him at the McDonald’s All-American Game,” RJ Barrett told reporters. “He’s a very good scorer and a very good player. He can read, he can shoot, and he does a lot of good things. Coach is fired up, we’re all fired up. We have another opportunity to prove ourselves. We’ve just got to bounce back.”
Overall, Duke has won four straight in the series with Indiana and leads the all-time series 6-3. The Blue Devils are 17-2 all-time in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, the best record among either conference (by five games) and have won six straight in the Challenge.