Looking to stay in first place in the ACC, No. 9 Duke welcomes Florida State to Cameron Indoor Stadium for a Saturday night showdown. The Blue Devils have won eight of their last nine, including five straight ACC road wins. Duke is in a first-place tie in the ACC and holds the tiebreaker over five of the seven teams within 4.5 games. Duke is looking to even the season series after Florida State pulled off a 79-78 win in overtime in Tallahassee on Jan. 18.
About Duke
- Leading the ACC in both field goal defense (.403) and three-point defense (.296), the Blue Devils have allowed opponents to shoot .280 from three-point range since Jan. 1 (80-of-286) — the second best three-point defense by power conference teams in that span.
- Duke is 26th nationally this season in defending the three-point line (.296), 36th in field goal defense (.403), 12th in blocked shots (5.5) and seventh in scoring margin (+14.7) — leads ACC in each category.
- Duke has held 11 of its last 15 opponents — and 17 for the season — to .300 or worse from behind the arc (14-3 in those games).
- Duke’s four losses this season have come by a total of nine points — five at Ohio State (71-66), two at home against Miami (76-74), one in overtime at Florida State (79-78) and one to Virginia (69-68). In each, Duke held a lead in the games’ final 70 seconds.
- Sophomore Mark Williams, whose tip-in dunk was the game-winner against Wake Forest with 0.4 remaining, is averaging 14.5 points and shooting 24-of-30 (.800) from the field over the last four games.
- A finalist for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year, Williams leads the ACC and ranks 12th nationally in blocked shots. He is also the nation’s only player shooting .700+ from the field and .700+ at the free throw line (minimum 100 field goal attempts).
- This week’s ACC Freshman of the Week, Trevor Keels is averaging 13.6 points is 9-of-18 from three-point range over the last four games. Duke is 15-1 this season when Keels scores in double digits.
- Six-time ACC Freshman of the Week and the ACC’s lone representative on the late-season watch list for the Wooden Award, Paolo Banchero leads all power conference true freshman in scoring (16.9), is second in rebounding (8.5) and second in double-doubles (eight).
About Florida State
- Florida State is 14-11 overall, 7-8 in the ACC and coming off an 81-80 home victory over Clemson that snapped a six-game skid.
- The banged-up Seminoles have been without a number of key players due to injury, including Anthony Polite, Malik Osborne and Naheem McLeod. Caleb Mills also did not play in FSU’s last game.
- Mills is the team’s leading scorer at 12.7 points and shooting .430 from the field and .372 from three-point range. RayQuan Evans leads the team in assists (2.9), while scoring 8.4 points.
- Florida State leads the ACC in steals (9.1), ranks second in offensive rebounds (11.3), ranks third in the conference in turnover margin (+2.64) and third in blocks (4.36).
- Florida State enters Saturday’s game against Duke with five one-point victories this season – 81-80 over Boston University (November 24), 65-64 over Miami (January 11), 79-78 over No. 5 Duke (January 18), 61-60 at Miami (January 22) and 81-80 over Clemson (February 15).
- The Seminoles’ five one-point wins are the most by any team in the nation. The Seminoles are the third team in the ACC since 1980 with at least four one point wins in a season
– joining Duke in 1981-82 and Maryland in 1982-83.
- Florida State started its ninth different lineup of the season (John Butler, Wyatt Wilkes, Tanor Ngom, RayQuan Evans, and Matthew Cleveland) in its 81-80 victory over Clemson on Wednesday in Tallahassee. In scoring 81 points in their victory over the Tigers, Florida State scored nearly nine points (+8.7) higher than its season scoring average of 71.3 points and scored at least 80 points in an ACC game for the first time since scoring 83 in an 83-81 win over NC State on January 1.
Duke vs Florida State
- Duke is 41-11 all-time versus Florida State, which includes a 22-2 mark in home games — all coming at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
- The last five games in the series have been decided by a total of 30 points (6.0 per game). That includes Duke’s win on Feb. 10, 2020, 70-65, at Cameron Indoor and an 80-78 win in Tallahassee on Jan. 12, 2019 thanks to Cam Reddish’s three in the final seconds.
- Duke and FSU clashed for the 2019 ACC Tournament title — a 73-63 Duke win behind 21 points from Zion Williamson.
- Under Coach K, the Blue Devils are 38-10 in the series.
- The teams had a pair of meetings canceled last season by COVID-19 protocols — at FSU on Jan. 2 and in the ACC Tournament quarters.
- FSU head coach Leonard Hamilton has 186 ACC wins (regular season and tournament) to rank fifth all-time behind Mike Krzyzewski, Dean Smith, Roy Williams and Gary Williams.
How to Watch
Time: 6:00 p.m. (ET)
TV: ESPN (Bob Wischusen, Debbie Antonelli)
Stream: Watch ESPN
Radio: Blue Devils Sports Network (David Shumate, John Roth)
Per Release