Duke and hot Virginia Tech Hokies will meet in ACC championship game. Matchup breakdown
This season’s Duke Blue Devils earned one new banner for Cameron Indoor Stadium’s rafters last week, finishing first in the ACC regular-season standings for the first time since sharing the title in 2010.
Now the same group is one win away from another new decoration for their home arena’s crowded collection.
No. 7 Duke reached the ACC tournament championship game by outlasting Miami, 80-76, in Friday night’s semifinals at Barclays Center.
Now Duke (28-5), the tournament’s top seed, faces Virginia Tech, at 8:30 p.m. Saturday night chasing the school’s 22nd ACC tournament crown. Coach Mike Krzyzewski has led Duke to 15 ACC championships and, since he’s retiring following this season, tonight’s game is the final chance he has to win another.
The Blue Devils’ lone hurdle to accomplishing another piece of history is the underdog Hokies, the tournament’s No. 7 seed who have won three games in three days to reach the final. Virginia Tech knocked off No. 3 seed North Carolina 72-59 in Friday night’s second semifinal, its first win over UNC this season after losing two regular-season games.
The last and only team in ACC tournament history to win four games in four days to claim the championship was Duke in 2017. Now Virginia Tech (22-12) must topple the Blue Devils to join them in that exclusive club.
Here’s a look at Saturday night’s matchup:
What happened in the regular season?
The Blue Devils and Hokies played just once this season, with Duke prevailing, 76-65, back on Dec. 22 at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The game was notable as Virginia Tech led, 36-32, at halftime. It was the first time Duke had trailed at halftime this season and it’s only happened four other times since then.
Duke, of course, rallied past Virginia Tech as Paolo Banchero scored 17 of his 23 points after halftime.
Wait, weren’t the Hokies struggling?
Yes, but that was long ago. Duke’s December win over Virginia Tech was part of the Hokies’ slow start to ACC play. Through their first nine league games, the Hokies were 2-7 with a 10-10 overall record on Jan. 26. Since then Virginia Tech has gone 12-2, including their three ACC tournament wins this week. They’ve gone from near the bottom of the ACC to being mentioned as a bubble team in bracket projections to now being considered a certain NCAA tournament team.
Duke must play physical
The Hokies were all up in UNC’s shooters on Friday night and the Tar Heels failed to respond. UNC hit just 3 of 23 3-pointers and shot 36.7% overall.
That means the Blue Devils will have to be sharp in their half-court offense, making the extra pass to get the best shot available.
“We’ll win (vs. Duke) if we can defend and we can rebound,” Virginia Tech coach Mike Young said.
Duke must also play strong with the basketball to avoid having it knocked away to force turnovers. In the December game, Duke turned it over only 11 times but Paolo Banchero had four of them.
The Hokies are a defensive-minded club and that part of their game has fueled their winning ways of late.
“That’s something that’s been drilled into us,” Virginia Tech forward Keve Aluma said. “If we can guard them and keep them to a low score the offense comes easier to us.”
Tough task for Duke’s big men
Virginia Tech’s frontcourt players, Aluma (a 6-9 senior) and 6-7 Justyn Mutts, both played well against Duke in December. Aluma scored 25 points and Mutts finished with 20. They also combined for 19 rebounds.
Duke starting center Mark Williams, at 7-1 and 242 pounds, along with 6-10 freshman Paolo Banchero, will need to play strong on defense while not fouling. Look for 6-9 senior reserve forward Theo John to get his usual amount of minutes spelling Williams.
Duke needs to crowd Virginia Tech’s shooters
For all their struggles at times this season, the Hokies have consistently been a good 3-point shooting team. Virginia Tech has made 39.1% of their shots from beyond the arc, good for No. 4 nationally.
Three Hokies are shooting better than 40% on them in Darius Maddox (54.1%), Sean Pedulla (44.9%) and Hunter Cattoor (40.1%).
The Blue Devils, though, are a solid team defensively against the 3-pointer. Duke’s foes hit just 31% of their 3-pointers, which leaves the Blue Devils No. 26 nationally in that defensive category.
This story was originally published March 12, 2022 at 5:46 AM with the headline "Duke and hot Virginia Tech Hokies will meet in ACC championship game. Matchup breakdown."