Powers!

That was fun.

Some nice shooting and scoring tonight. Loved Stewart's game tonight. Hope he continues to grow into that big man we need.

Glad McCain shot himself out of his mini game slump.

📺 ACC Network
⏰ 7pm
📍 Cameron Indoor

I know we played Friday but it seems like weeks ago at this point.. Duke enters game two of the “challenge” against the 4-0 Explorers currently as a 26.5point favorite.

La salle is coached by.. drum roll please……. FRAN DUNPHY. To say I was surprised to find this out might be an understatement. Fran is entering his second year here after a previous 13 year stint at Temple where he was a regular loser to Duke. Fran played baseball and basketball at la salle so this is one of those full circle moments


Duke should win with ease and we should get a good look from everyone again tonight. My hope is getting powers PT and get him going tonight.

Duke-84
La Salle- 60

Duke among the recent wave of power five offers for the rising 2025 OLB in Tennessee

Preview for tomorrow night's game.

Programming: I'll be there with full coverage.

Predictions:

- Kyle Filipowski gets his first double-double of the season.

- Another double-digit scoring game for Mark Mitchell.

- Duke makes double-digit 3s for the second straight game. (never had back-to-back games with 10+ 3s last year)

⏰ 7pm
📍 Cameron indoor
📺 espn2

One of the matchups I’ve been excited about since it was announced, the 12th ranked Arizona wildcats come into Cameron tonight in front of “Cameron” and his brother. We’ve had some good games against AZ and some bad ones but this one should be fun!

AZ is coached by Tommy Loyd the 2022 national coach of the year.. off to a great start in his short head coaching career after being a Gonzaga assistant for 22 seasons. Also on staff is former UNC assistant Steve Robinson, hopefully he gets to experience another painful L to duke along with everyone’s favorite guard Caleb Love!

Key to the game- we need Mitchell to play, and I believe he will.. strong post play will be important as well!

Duke- 89
AZ- 72

📍 United Center- Chicago
📺 ESPN
⏰ 7:00

For the 7,000th time in the past 20 seasons we get to play Michigan State and one of the most overrated coaches of all time Tom Izzo. Both teams come into tonight’s games at 1-1 after preseason expectations were sky high, an early L for both teams makes this game a little more important as neither team should happy about the prospect of starting 1-2.

MSU is coached by Tom Izzo in his 29th year at the helm. A member of the Naismith hall of fame, winner of the 2000 national champion, 10 big ten regular season championships and 6 big ten tourney ships. Izzo also has 8 final fours with 8 national coach of the year awards. I call him overrated (maybe not fair) for just one ring with all those final fours.

This has the potential to be a fun game and another nice test for us on the young year. I think we get it done and walk away with the W. I’m hoping Jon has preached EFFORT to this team and we see much more from them tonight!

Duke-93
MSU-79

Mitchell was on fire tonight and this game looked to be a good confidene builder for the team.

Duke hasn't offered yet but I wouldn't be surprised if/when they do

Kicking off this week's game thread with the thread of updates from the presser:

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That was as well done all the way around as we’ve seen in a long time. From managing awful turnovers early from trying too hard, to Flip’s foul trouble, guard rotations, defensive assignments, defensive rotations, managing Who was hot (Mitchel) (Foster), limiting Blakes to his true role, etc. etc.

The Ryan Young BS narrative can be put to rest for another week or so. He was awesome.

Most importantly, we played with more toughness than we’ve seen since coach took over.

WINNER WINNER!

📺 ACCN
📍 Cameron Indoor Stadium
⏰ 6pm

Game one of the “blue devil challenge” featuring duke vs the mighty bison of Bucknell we are a 33 point favorite

Bucknell is coached by JOHN GRIFFIN III in his very first season. John played ball at Bucknell and graduated in 08. His father coached at St Joseph’s from 90-95. As a player he was a key backup on Bison squads that defeated Kansas and Arkansas in the first round of the 2005 and 2006 NCAA Tournaments. The Kansas win was the first NCAA Tournament victory in Bucknell and Patriot League history. The 2005-06 squad finished 27-5 overall (14-0 in the Patriot League), earned a top-25 ranking and a No. 9 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Prediction is it’s a long night for the new cosch

Duke-102
Bucknell-62
As we finally flex our muscles a bit

Preview for tomorrow night's game.

Programming: I'll be there with full coverage.

Predictions:

- Duke gets at least 15 offensive rebounds.

- Jeremy Roach is Duke's leading scorer (thinking around 15ish points, balanced night).

- Lots of time at the end of the game for Sean Stewart and Christian Reeves to continue development.

Three man pod this week. Touched on the MSU win, recruiting of VJ and Harper, and what we’d like to see in the next three games.

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Thought he was signing today and Duke was introducing entire class? Is that still happening or has Evans pushed things back?

Sorry should have posted this yesterday. We go back through the zona game and talk about what went wrong, where we can improve in the short term and long term. Give our MSU preview and predictions.

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Rebounded more by committee which is what this team has to do. Mitchell very important at the line and Foster - well he just earned some minutes.

Preview for tomorrow night's game.

Programming note: I'll be covering the game from home.

Predictions:

- 12-15 minutes for Sean Stewart.

- 15-plus points for Tyrese Proctor.

- Duke wins by 10.

With tonight's basketball game against Arizona, tomorrow night's battle for the Victory Bell, and everything on tap for the next two months, it's a fantastic time to sign up for a premium membership.

We're offering a 60-day free trial if you use the promo code "DUKE23"

Here's the link -- would love to have you join!

Positives:

This kind of game makes you tougher.

Made some good adjustments in second half.


Negatives:

Rebounding has potential to be our Achilles heel

Need improvement on interior D

Any word on how it went?

Kicking off this week's thread with the live-tweeting of Elko's presser:

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Starting the game thread with a quick story on Mark Mitchell -- can be found here.

I'll have the preview and my predictions up later tonight.

Don't let that stop you from making predictions if you're ready, though.

Going to leave all the pregame hoopla and predictions to my man @pisgah101 , but did want to talk a little about Friday's game.

Checking Arizona's front line they go about 7 feet at center, and, 6'-7", 6'-8" @ the 3&4. Top or "key" reserves off bench include 7', 6'-9," and 6'8.

Bottom line I think we'll need more than Ryan Young, and will need more Reeves and Stewart than we saw vs Dartmouth.

OFC