The regular season champion in the ACC, No. 9 Duke makes its 44th NCAA Tournament appearance when the Blue Devils battle Cal State Fullerton on Friday in a first-round game at 7:10pm in Greenville, S.C. The game will be televised on CBS.
About Duke
- The Blue Devils earned their 44th all-time bid to the NCAA Tournament — fifth most in NCAA history — and the 36th under head coach Mike Krzyzewski, breaking a tie with Jim Boeheim for most appearances by a head coach.
- Duke enters the tournament with a 28-6 record that includes a 16-4 mark in ACC play. The Blue Devils won the program’s 20th ACC regular-season title and 13th under Coach K before advancing to the championship game of this week’s ACC Tournament in Brooklyn, N.Y.
- Duke is 114-38 (.750) all-time in the NCAA Tournament, marking the best winning percentage in tournament history. Duke’s 114 wins are also third-most in the event’s history and Coach K holds the NCAA record with 97 NCAA Tournament wins.
- The Blue Devils have been selected to the West Region in six previous tournaments (last in 2016), holding a 7-6 record. Duke is 30-11 (.732) all-time as a No. 2 seed and 3-1 in NCAA Tournament games played in Greenville, S.C. Its last appearance in Greenville came in 2017.
- Duke has been a No. 1 or No. 2 seed in 20 of its last 24 NCAA Tournament appearances since 1997.
- The Blue Devils own the best winning percentage in NCAA Tournament history at .750 (114-38), while the program’s 114 wins rank third and five championships are fourth most.
- The coach with the most wins in NCAA Tournament history (97-30), Mike Krzyzewski enters his NCAA-record 36th tournament. Coach K’s .764 tourney win percentage is second to only John Wooden (.825).
- The Blue Devils are 13-3 away from Cameron Indoor Stadium and ended the season on an eight-game road winning streak — the longest active road winning streak by a power conference team.
- The ACC Freshman of the Year, Paolo Banchero is averaging 17.0 points to rank second among all true freshmen nationally. He is sixth in the ACC in scoring and fifth in rebounding (7.8) — one of only three league players ranked top 10 in each category.
- A third-team All-America selection from the Sporting News, Banchero is the program’s 75th All-American (52nd under Coach K).
- Sophomore Mark Williams’ .707 field goal percentage is second on Duke’s single-season list. He would lead the nation, but falls just short of the minimum five field goals per game to qualify (4.8).
- Williams is the nation’s only player shooting .700+ from the field and .700+ from the free throw line (min. 100 field goals).
- Junior Wendell Moore Jr., earned his first career All-ACC honor, landing a spot on the second team after establishing himself as one of the conference’s most complete players this season.
- Moore Jr. is the nation’s only power conference player shooting .500+ from the field, .400+ from three-point range, averaging 5.0+ rebounds and 4.0+ assists.
- AJ Griffin is shooting a team-best .467 from three-point range this season, which is on pace to set a Duke freshman single-season record and a top-five single-season percentage overall at Duke. The freshman sharpshooter, who was named to the ACC AllFreshman Team, is the team’s second-leading scorer in road games with 14.5 points on 30-of-54 (.556) from three-point range.
- One of the nation’s best offenses, Duke is ninth in offensive efficiency (KenPom). Duke is also ranked ninth nationally in scoring margin (+13.0), ninth in scoring offense (80.2), ninth in field goal percentage (.489) and 10th in assists (16.9) — leads the ACC in each.
About Cal State Fullerton
- Head Coach Dedrique Taylor has done what no one else has been able to accomplish at Cal State Fullerton, taking the program to the NCAA Tournament twice. Taylor first led the team to the dance in 2018 and is now taking the team to the tournament for the second time in nine years at the helm of the program.
- The Titans are no strangers to being overlooked. The team has nine transfer students
on the roster who were all overlooked at some point in their career.
- Cal State Fullerton was picked to finish 7th in the Big West Conference Preseason Coaches’ Poll and 8th in the conference media poll. Fullerton finished the regular season in second place and earned an automatic bid to the tournament with its win over rivals Long Beach State in the Big West Tournament Championship game.
- Cal State Fullerton Men’s Basketball is currently ranked 25th in the nation in free throw percentage, at 76.3% . The Titans average 19.9 free-throw attempts per game.
- Cal State Fullerton led the Big West Conference in steals per game, averaging 7.26 per game. They also finished tied for first in total steals on the season with 225. Milstead led the conference in steals, with 61 over 31 games, an average of 2 per game, which is the most in the Big West.
- The Titans started the year with a 14-8 record, their best start to a season in the Dedrique Taylor era (2013-pres.). That 14-8 mark is the best start to a season since the 2011-12 season. The 7-3 conference record is tied for the best start to conference play in school
history. The Titans started 7-3 in conference during the 2007-08 season as well.
- E.J. Anosike has lived up to the hype coming into Cal State Fullerton after transferring from Tennessee. The grad student led the Titans in scoring with 16.5 points per game which was tied for the most in the Big West Conference while also leading the team in rebounding which ranked second in the conference.
- Ansoike was named the Big West Conference Tournament MVP after averaging a double-double with 18 points per game and 13.7 rebounds. Anosike was a monster on the boards all tournament, especially in the Titans win over Hawai’i, grabbing a season-high 20 boards, just two short of his career-high 22. It was the first time a Cal State Fullerton player hadn’t recorded 20+ rebounds since Omondi Amoke had 21 rebounds against UC Irvine in 2012.
- Damari Milstead has been a steady force for the Titans all season long. He finished the year second on the team behind Anosike with 12.1 points per game which ranked 15th in the Big West Conference. Milstead stepped his game up when the Titans needed him most in the Big West Tournament, leading the team in scoring 19.7 points per game. Milstead has also been key for the Titans defensively, averaging two steals per game which led the conference and ranks tied for 32nd in the country.
- Prior to the season no one would have said that Jalen Harris will be the Big West Conference Sixth Man of the Year. The senior has been a pleasant surprise this season. After averaging just 5.2 points per game off the bench during the 2020- 21 season, Harris has stepped up in a big way for the Titans. Harris is averaging 9.2 points per game in just over 18 minutes. Harris brings stability and much needed energy off the bench every time he checks into the game.
Duke vs Cal State Fullerton
- Duke and Cal State Fullerton have never met in men’s basketball.
- The Blue Devils are 4-0 all-time versus current members of the Big West Conference, last facing a BWC team on Dec. 30, 2015 at Cameron Indoor Stadium — a 103-81 win over Long Beach State.
- Duke has faced a former Big West member twice in the NCAA Tournament — UNLV in 1990. and 1991.
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