A pair of teams looking to right their ships, Duke and Louisville collide for a Saturday matinee at the KFC Yum! Center on ESPN. Each squad enters on a two-game slide as the Blue Devils have dropped a pair of single-digit decisions on the road at Virginia Tech, 74-67, and Pittsburgh, 79-73. The Blue Devils are scheduled to play seven of their next 10 games at Cameron Indoor, after opening ACC play with four of six on the road. Duke’s last visit to Louisville produced the second-largest comeback in program history as the Blue Devils came from 23 points down (59-36) with 9:05 remaining to win 71-69 on Feb. 12, 2019.
About Duke:
- Jalen Johnson played his most significant minutes Tuesday at Pitt since returning from a foot injury, and the freshman became the first Blue Devil all-time with a 20-15-7-4 statline as he scored 24 points, with 15 rebounds, seven assists, no turnovers and four blocks.
- Only three times in at least the last decade has a power conference player had 15+ points, 15+ rebounds, 5+ assists and 4+ blocks in a game — Johnson has two of those three performances.
- The Blue Devils have deployed seven starting lineups through nine games, with only sophomore Matthew Hurt starting all nine games.
- Hurt is second in the ACC in scoring at 18.9 points per game, while ranking third in rebounding (8.2) and seventh in field goal percentage (.516). He is also second in conference-only scoring (18.8) and fourth in conference-only rebounding (8.2).
- The watch list candidate for the Wooden Award and Naismith Trophy, who has also been named both ACC Player of the Week and Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week last week, Hurt has scored 17+ points in seven of nine games. Three of his four career doubledoubles have come in this season’s first eight games.
- Senior Jordan Goldwire leads the ACC in steals (2.6), is third in assist/turnover ratio (+2.43) and seventh in assists (3.8).
- As a team, Duke is third in the ACC in both steals (9.0) and blocked shots (4.7), ranking 18th and 34th nationally, respectively.
About Louisville:
- Louisville is 9-3 overall and 4-2 in ACC play, but also looking to shake a two-game slide entering Saturday’s contest.
- Carlik Jones is the only player in the ACC to rank among the top five in scoring (17.9, third) and assists (4.7, third). Jones has 94 career double-figure scoring efforts.
- Louisville ranks fourth in the ACC in scoring defense (65.5).
- The squad also fourth in field goal defense (.408) and three-point field goal defense (.323).
- Jae’Lyn Withershas made 71.8 percent of his shots over his last six games (28-of-39). He has produced double-doubles in two of his last four games. He is the Cardinals’ rebounding leader and ranks second among ACC freshman (7.3 rpg, ninth in the ACC), averaging 10.3 points while shooting a team-best 61.7 percent from the field.
- David Johnson, who is averaging 13.1 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists (sixth in the ACC), has cut his turnovers significantly recently, with 17 assists and just nine turnovers in his last five games after totaling 29 assists and 29 turnovers in his first seven games.
Duke vs Louisville:
- Saturday’s game is the 18th meeting between Duke and Louisville, with the Blue Devils leading 10-7.
- Duke’s three-game winning streak in the series was snapped last season in a top-15 battle at Cameron Indoor as Louisville’s David Johnson scored 19 points with seven assists in a 79-73 victory, while Cassius Stanley scored a game-high 24 for Duke.
- Six of the last seven games in the series have been decided by less than 10 points.
- In Duke’s last visit to Louisville on Feb. 12, 2019, the visitors trailed 59-36 with 9:05 left before a remarkable comeback win, 71-69 — the second-largest in program history and the largest under Coach K.
- Zion Williamson scored 27 and Cam Reddish scored 22, including the tying triple with 1:28 left and go-ahead free throws with 14 seconds remaining.
- Louisville head coach Chris Mack had faced the Blue Devils eight times as an assistant, going 2-5 against Duke while on Skip Prosser’s staff at Wake Forest from 2002-04 and 0-1 while on Sean Miller’s Xavier staff from 2004-09.
How to Watch:
Time: 4:00pm
TV: ESPN (Dan Shulman, Jay Bilas)
Stream: Watch ESPN
Radio: Blue Devil Sports (David Shumate/John Roth)
