ACC rivals No. 6 Duke and Syracuse square off for a Saturday matinee at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim have combined for 2,175 wins – the winningest coaches in D-I history.
Since Syracuse joined the ACC, Duke has won seven of the 11 regular season meetings, with those 11 games decided by just 8.5 points. The Blue Devils lead the all-time series 11-6, including 4-2 at Cameron.
About Duke
- The ACC Freshman of the Week for the fourth time, Paolo Banchero has scored 20+ points in four straight games and five of the last six. His eight 20-point efforts lead all power conference true freshmen and his 18.1 points leads all true freshmen nationally.
- Banchero is the ACC’s sixth leading scorer at 18.1 and he is one of only two players in the league averaging 20+ in ACC games (20.8).
- Sophomore Mark Williams is fifth nationally and leads the ACC in blocked shots (3.41). He posted a near triple-double last Saturday against NC State with 19 points, 11 rebounds and a career-high eight blocked shots in just 27 minutes of court time.
- Williams has blocked 20 shots over Duke’s last four games, joining Mike Gminski and Shelden Williams as the only other Blue Devils to accomplish that in program history.
- Since the calendar turned to 2022, Duke opponents are shooting just .250 (24-of-96) from three-point range – the second best percentage defense by power conference teams in that span.
- Duke enters the game with the nation’s third best assist/turnover ratio of 1.73. The Blue Devils also rank top 15 nationally and lead the ACC in field goal shooting (.492) and assists (17.6).
- Duke has had a positive assist/turnover ratio in 15 of 17 games – its only games with a negative ratio came in wins over Kentucky (9 turnovers, 8 assists) and Virginia Tech (11, 10).
About Syracuse
- The Orange are coming off a 91-78 victory over Clemson on Jan 18th.
- Syracuse has out-rebounded its foe in all six ACC games this winter.
- Syracuse is 9-9 overall, 3-4 in the ACC and has won two of three.
- The Orange are scoring 78.7 points per game with all five starters averaging better than 12.2 points.
- Syracuse’s five starters play 83 percent of the team’s minutes.
- Brothers Buddy and Jimmy Boeheim, the sons of head coach Jim, are the team’s leading scorers at 19.2 and 14.2, respectively.
- Buddy is fourth in the ACC in scoring, third in free throw percentage (.896) and fourth in three-point percentage (.349).
- Joseph Girard III leads the ACC in both three-point shooting (.455) and free throw percentage (.902).
Duke vs Syracuse
- Saturday’s game is just the 18th all-time meeting between Duke and Syracuse, with the Blue Devils leading 11-6.
- Duke has won four straight in the series and has claimed seven of the 11 regular-season meetings since Syracuse joined the ACC – those 11 games have been decided by an average of 8.5 points.
- The teams met just once last season, with the Blue Devils winning 85-71 at Cameron in February behind 21 points from DJ Steward.
- Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim served as an assistant on Mike Krzyzewski’s Team USA staffs that won Olympic gold medals in 2008, 2012 and 2016.
- The two coaches are first and second, respectively, in all-time D-I men’s basketball wins – Coach K with 1,184 and Boeheim with 991.
How to Watch
Time: 12:00 p.m. (ET)
TV: ESPN (Dan Shulman, Jay Bilas)
Stream: Watch ESPN
Radio: Blue Devils Sports Network (David Shumate, John Roth)
Per Release
