Winners of five straight and in sole possession of first place in the ACC, No. 9 Duke welcomes Virginia for a Big Monday showdown at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Each of the last 12 games in the Duke-Virginia series have been decided by 10 points or fewer, including five of the last seven decided by one or two points. The average margin of victory in the last 12 is 4.6 points.
About Duke
- Six-time ACC Freshman of the Week, Paolo Banchero is averaging a double-double over Duke’s five-game winning streak with 15.8 points, 10.8 rebounds in that span.
- Banchero, the ACC’s lone representative on the late-season watch list for the Wooden Award, has nine 20-point efforts this season — seven coming against power conference opponents — six in ACC play — in addition to 21 points vs. Gonzaga. He is the second leading scorer (18.6) and rebounder (9.5) in ACC play.
- Sophomore Mark Williams, a finalist for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year, leads the ACC and is 11th nationally in blocks (3.14). Williams is 38-of-49 (.776) from the field and averaging 12.7 points over Duke’s last seven games.
- Freshman AJ Griffin set a Duke freshman record for three-point accuracy with his 5-of-5 at Louisville and scored a career-high 27 points at UNC. He is averaging 20.7 points over the last three games.
- Griffin is the only power conference player — and one of nine players nationally — shooting .500+ from three with a min. of 50 attempts.
- Junior Wendell Moore Jr., is one of the nation’s premier perimeter defenders, regularly drawing the opponent’s best offensive match up. This season, opponents are shooting just .315 from the field and .241 from three-point range with Moore as the primary defender
- Sophomore Jeremy Roach has a 6.83-to-1 assist/turnover ratio over Duke’s last seven games (41 assists, six turnovers). He is second in the ACC and 13th nationally for the season (3.0-to-1).
- Duke leads the ACC in both field goal defense (.400) and three-point defense (.300) — one of just two power conference teams this season holding opponents to .400/.300 or worse (LSU).
- Since January 1, Duke opponents are shooting just .282 (60-of-213) from three-point range — the best percentage defense by power conference teams and 19th best overall in that span.
- For the year, Duke is 37th nationally in three-point defense (.300) — was 119th nationally (.314) on December 31.
- Duke leads the ACC in both field goal defense (.400) and three-point defense (.300) — one of just two power conference teams this season holding opponents to at or below .400 from the field and at or below .300 from three-point range (LSU).
About UVA
- Virginia has won two straight and three of the last four to improve its ACC record to 8-5 – good for sixth place.
- Leading the ACC and 10th nationally in scoring defense, the Cavaliers are yielding just 59.5 points — 54.2 points in their 14 wins.
- UVA has forced 25 shot clock violations and averaged 25.7 shot clock violations from 2019-21 (31 in 2018-19).
- Virginia is 141-11 when scoring at least 70 or more points under Tony Bennett. UVA is 5-1 when scoring 70 or more points in 2021-22. UVA was 10-1 when scoring 70 or more points in 2020-21. Virginia is 40-1 all-time under when scoring 80 or more points under Bennett with their lone loss a 93-81 setback at North Carolina in 2012-13.
- The Cavaliers have limited 11 opponents to 56 or fewer points (Radford, Coppin State, Georgia, Providence, Lehigh, Pitt, JMU, FDU, Virginia Tech, Louisville and Boston College).
- UVA is led by its returning backcourt of Kihei Clark (9.8 ppg & 4.0 apg) and Reece Beekman (7.9 ppg, 5.1 apg, 3.5 rpg & 2.2 spg), and the additions of transfers Jayden Gardner (14.3 ppg & 6.8 rpg) and Armaan Franklin (12.3 ppg).
- Virginia (1.42) is second to Duke (1.67) in assist/turnover ratio in the conference and the teams are also the top two in the ACC in blocked shots — Duke at 5.41 and Virginia at 4.74.
- Only three teams have scored 70+ versus Virginia — Iowa (75-74 loss), North Carolina (74-58 loss) and NC State (77-63 loss).
- The Cavaliers added transfers Gardner (East Carolina) and Franklin (Indiana) to fill the void left by standouts Sam Hauser (16 ppg), Jay Huff (13 ppg) and Trey Murphy III (11.3 ppg).
- Gardner averaged 18.5 points and 8.9 rebounds in 79 career games at East Carolina, while Franklin averaged 11.4 points and shot 42.5 percent from 3-point range in 2020-21.
- Francisco Caffaro (4.7 ppg & 4.2 rpg) and Kadin Shedrick (6.6 ppg, 5.1 rpg & 2.4 bpg) anchor the paint. Shedrick started the first 16 games, while Caffaro has started the last seven contests.
- Kody Stattmann (38.5% 3FGs), Taine Murray (38.1% 3FGs), Igor Miliĉić Jr. (36.4% 3FGs) and Carson McCorkle (33.3% 3FGs) provide perimeter shooting off the bench.
- Armaan Franklin scored a game-high 22 points to lead Virginia to a 71-58 win over Miami on Feb. 5 at John Paul Jones Arena. Jayden Gardner added 12 points and Kihei Clark added 11 as the Cavaliers (14-9, 8-5 ACC) shot 60 percent in the win. Reece Beekman added a game-high 10 assists.
Duke vs UVA
- Duke leads the all-time series, 122-52, and has won three of the last four, six of the last eight and seven of the last 10.
- In Durham, the Blue Devils lead 59-10, including 54-9 at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
- The last 12 games in the series (Duke, 8-4) have been decided by 10 points or fewer with the average margin just 4.6 points. Four of the last five games in the series have been one or two-point decisions.
- In last year’s meeting, Jaemyn Brakefield scored the go-ahead basket on a reverse layup with 1:58 left and Duke came up with a final-possession stop to beat the No. 7 Cavaliers, 66-65, at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
- Matthew Hurt scored 22 points on 8-of-13 shooting as Coach K won his 100th career game over a team ranked in the AP top 10 (100-95).
How to Watch
Time: 7:00 p.m. (ET)
TV: ESPN (Dan Shulman, Cory Alexander, Andraya Carter)
Stream: Watch ESPN
Radio: Blue Devils Sports Network (David Shumate, John Roth)
Per Release
