Tale of the Tape: No. 7 Duke at Virginia

No. 7 Duke visits John Paul Jones Arena Saturday (6 p.m., ESPN) for a crucial ACC showdown against Virginia, the hottest team in the conference.

The Cavaliers (20-7, 12-5 ACC) have won five straight games (and eight of their last nine), wrapped up a double bye in the conference tournament and made a strong push toward another trip to the Big Dance to defend their national championship.

The Blue Devils (23-5, 13-4) have lost two of their last three contests, including a 113-101 double-overtime barn burner at Wake Forest Tuesday night. Duke was also walloped by 22 at NC State, 88-66, 10 days ago.

Duke has owned the Cavaliers in the all-time series, 121-51, and Virginia has beaten the Blue Devils just three times in 14 tries under Tony Bennett.

UVA’s three wins over that span were no doubt memorable ones — as most against Mike Krzyzewski’s teams have become:

• Ty Jerome’s dagger 3-pointer in the closing seconds to end a long losing streak at Cameron Indoor Stadium in 2018
• The ACC Tournament championship game (72-63) in 2014, only Virginia’s second conference title in school history
• A 73-68 home win over the then-No. 3 Devils, almost seven years to the day (Feb. 28, 2013), when Krzyzewski infamously complained about the postgame security

The ‘Hoos gave Duke a game twice last season, but current NBAers Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett, Cam Reddish and the Devils pulled off the sweep in a pair of top-five clashes (including in front of LeBron James himself at JPJ in the rematch).

It marked two of the Cavaliers’ three losses in what turned out to be the most magical season in program history.

KenPom has UVA at No. 47 overall (4th AdjD, 211th AdjO), while the ‘Hoos slipped one spot to 52nd in the latest NET rankings. The Blue Devils are 5th according to KenPom (9th AdjO, 14th AdjD) and 6th in the NET.

Duke has put together three impressive winning streaks on the season (six in a row to start the campaign; nine straight from Nov. 29 to Jan. 14; seven more prior to the loss to NC State), with big wins over Kansas in season opener, at Michigan State, and in Durham against first-place Florida State.

There have also been a few noteworthy losses for the Dukies — in overtime at Cameron against Stephen F. Austin in late November, on the road at Clemson in mid-January, and the last two to the in-state rival Wolfpack and Demon Deacons.

Duke is by far the highest scoring team in the conference at 83.2 points per contest, while leading the ACC in field-goal percentage (.475) and blocked shots per game (right at six a night). The Devils are also second in the league in the assists (15.8), rebounds (40.3) and steals (8.4) categories.

Coach K’s squad is once again built around a superb, most likely one-and-done freshman class, led this time around by 6-foot-10, 270-pound center Vernon Carey Jr., who’s putting up 17.6 points (3rd in the conference) and 8.8 rebounds (2nd in the conference) a game, both team highs.

Carey owns the ACC’s best field-goal percentage as well (181 for 314 FG, .576), and he’s also ranked 4th in offensive rebounds (2.8) and sixth in blocks (1.5).

The other first-year standouts include 6-6 Cassius Stanley (12.4 ppg), 6-6 Wendell Moore (7.7 ppg) and 6-9 Matthew Hurt (10.5 ppg).

Tre Jones could have turned pro after his freshman year, but the point guard decided to return for his sophomore season in Durham, and Blue Devil fans sure are glad that he did. He’s the sixth-highest scorer in the league at just over 16 points a night, and he’s second in assists with 6.5, just barely trailing NC State’s Markell Johnson by a few percentage points heading into the weekend. He also ranks sixth in steals with 1.7 a game.

With a win Saturday, Virginia would technically slide ahead of Duke into third place in the standings with a week to go, as well as own the head-to-head tiebreaker, should the ‘Hoos and Devils finish with identical conference records.

Kihei Clark’s game-winning 3-pointer lifted the Cavaliers to a hard-fought victory at Virginia Tech Wednesday, as Mamadi Diakite led another solid all-around performance with 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting.

Braxton Key chipped in with a double-double (10 points and 11 rebounds) and Casey Morsell nailed a huge 3-pointer late in the game.

Tomas Woldetensae cooled off a little, going just 1 of 8 from the floor, while Jay Huff didn’t do much (2 points, 2 boards) in 13 minutes of playing time. UVA will need to put together a complete team effort to pull off a third win over a team ranked in the top 10 this season.

The Cavaliers will wrap up the regular season next week, traveling to Miami Wednesday night before hosting Louisville for Diakite and Key’s Senior Day next Saturday.

Player Stats

As of 2/29