Major road tests await Duke. Blue Devils’ next two opponents remain unbeaten at home
Duke started its travel-laden final five weeks of the regular season as it wished on Saturday, topping Louisville, 74-65.
That began a stretch where the No. 9 Blue Devils (17-3, 7-2 ACC) will play eight of their final 12 ACC games away from Cameron Indoor Stadium. This is where it’s appropriate to drop the reminder that two of the Blue Devils’ three losses this season came away from Durham.
But Duke took care of business against the Cardinals, building a 16-point first-half lead and watching it disappear before pulling away late behind AJ Griffin’s hot shooting to win.
The road stretch continues Monday when Duke plays at Notre Dame at 7 p.m. on ESPN, with the season’s biggest road game, at North Carolina, looming on Saturday night.
Neither Notre Dame nor UNC has lost a home game this season. The Irish are 9-0 at Purcell Pavilion, while the Tar Heels are 12-0 at the Smith Center.
With all that in mind, here’s what we learned from Duke’s win over Louisville with a look ahead to the matchup at Notre Dame as the Blue Devils reach the halfway point of their ACC schedule.
Duke continues to win in different ways
On Saturday against Louisville, Griffin hit five 3-pointers to score a game-high 22 points for the Blue Devils. He did so on a day where freshman star Paolo Banchero hit only 5-of-15 shots to score 11 points. The last time Banchero scored that few points in a game was way back on Nov. 19 against Lafayette.
But Griffin picked up the slack in a game where the Blue Devils never trailed.
This was far different than two weeks earlier, at Cameron, when Duke dominated inside behind 7-1 center Mark Williams (19 points) and Banchero (21 points) to beat N.C. State, 88-73.
Against Louisville, Williams was limited due to foul trouble. He produced 14 points in 23 minutes. But, again, Griffin made sure that was enough for Duke to still win.
This versatility is a good sign for the Blue Devils going forward.
Griffin appears slump-proof
Sure, Griffin could have an off night or two. Some shooters, particularly, an 18-year-old freshman like Griffin, could fall into a deeper slump.
So far, Griffin has shown the ability to avoid that.
In his first start on Jan. 12 at Wake Forest, Griffin hit 8-of-11 shots overall, including 3-of-5 3-pointers, to score 22 points in a 76-64 Duke win.
Three days later against N.C. State, he only hit one of six shots, scoring three points.
At Florida State on Jan. 18, a foul-plagued Griffin took only five shots, making three, while producing just eight points in Duke’s 79-78 loss.
On Jan. 22 at home against Syracuse, Griffin drilled five 3-pointers to score 15 points in Duke’s 79-59 win.
Last Tuesday, he misfired to only hit 1-of-7 shots from the field when Duke edged Clemson, 71-69.
He followed that up with one of his best shooting days of the season against Louisville. His teammates gladly got him the ball for open shots, despite those ups and downs.
“He’s our best shooter,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “He’s one of the purest shooters in the country. And so I love the fact that our guys are looking for him and are so happy with him.”
A 50% 3-point shooter on the season, Griffin doesn’t let the ebbs and flows affect him emotionally.
“It’s just falling back on the work you do and just continuing to work,” Griffin said. “You can’t get too high or too low. You’ve just got to stay strong. It’s really all glory to God to help you during those times. To stay mentally strong. You know, it’s not always going to be the sun shining. So, you know, you’ve got to just fight through it.”
Good trend on turnovers
Throughout November and December, Duke established itself as a team that protected the ball and rarely committed turnovers. For the entire season, the Blue Devils are No. 13 in the country according to KenPom.com, by only turning the ball over on 14.8% of their possessions. The national average is 18.8%.
Still Duke had a season-worst 17 turnovers in a 76-74 loss to Miami on Jan. 8. The Blue Devils turned it over 15 times while losing 79-78 in overtime.
They had 15 more while beating Syracuse and reduced that to 12 in the win over Clemson.
On Saturday, Duke committed just seven turnovers. That was just 10.9% of its possessions in the game.
Expect that to continue against Notre Dame. While the Irish (14-6, 7-2 ACC) are in the thick of the ACC race, they are winning despite not benefiting from turnovers. Notre Dame’s defense is No. 285 in the country as opponents have only turned the ball over on 16.8% of their possessions.
What about Trevor Keels?
Duke played the last three games without Trevor Keels, the 6-5 freshman guard who started the Blue Devils’ first 17 games this season. Keels is out with a lower right leg injury that Krzyzewski said involves his calf and ankle.
On Thursday, Krzyzewski expressed hope Keels’ absence was about to end.
“Hopefully, he’s getting real close to coming back,” Krzyzewski said.
While hope remains that Keels could play Monday night at Notre Dame, another line of thinking is another few days of rest would help him. That would mean a return Saturday night at North Carolina.
Either way, Keels’ return is indeed getting close. Though Jeremy Roach has played well the last three games, producing 23 assists with just three turnovers in 106 minutes of play, the Blue Devils could use Keels’ ball-handling and defense nevertheless.
This story was originally published January 31, 2022 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Major road tests await Duke. Blue Devils’ next two opponents remain unbeaten at home."