Recent history suggests that Duke’s road game against archrival and third-ranked North Carolina on Saturday isn’t the Blue Devils’ most foreboding road test this week.
Instead, Duke’s toughest away game comes on Monday at Virginia Tech, where the No. 12 Blue Devils (15-4, 6-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) have lost two straight games and five of the last six meetings ahead of their date with the Hokies (13-7, 5-4) in Blacksburg, Va.
No current Duke player was on the Blue Devils’ roster when they last won in Blacksburg in 2019, but this season’s squad carries a core of contributors who have guided Duke to 10 wins in its last 11 games.
Kyle Filipowski rightfully draws attention as a 7-foot preseason All-America center who leads the Blue Devils in scoring (17.7 points) and rebounding (8.7).
Meanwhile, guard Jared McCain has been a steady contributor as Duke’s only player other than Filipowski to start every game this season. McCain is averaging 12.5 points and 3.9 rebounds over his 19 starts and has notched at least 20 points in two of his last three games.
“Jared just has a special belief about him, and when things get tough, you just feel like Jared is going to make a play,” Blue Devils coach Jon Scheyer said after McCain scored a team-high 21 points in Duke’s 72-71 win over Clemson on Saturday in Durham, N.C.
“… It doesn’t matter if he’s a freshman,” Scheyer said. “It doesn’t matter if he’s never been in a situation like this before. He just has a belief his team’s supposed to win.”
Tyrese Proctor displayed his poise on Saturday when he drained the game-tying and game-winning free throws with one second left to help the Blue Devils avoid their second straight home loss.
Proctor’s clutch shots salvaged Duke’s shaky performance on Saturday from the line, where the Blue Devils shot 63.6 percent and missed a season-high 12 times.
Filipowski accounted for half of those misses, but Scheyer expects sharper shooting from his center moving forward.
“Flip is not going to go 5-for-11 again,” Scheyer said. “He’s a great free-throw shooter and he has to learn from this and get back out on Monday against a team that plays very similar.”
Virginia Tech deploys its own stalwart center in 6-foot-10 Lynn Kidd, who is averaging 14 points and shooting 65.4 percent from the floor during the Hokies’ current three-game winning streak.
Kidd delivered 18 points in Virginia Tech’s 91-67 rout over Georgia Tech on Saturday in Blacksburg, while forward Mylyjael Poteat matched Kidd’s output in 23 minutes off the bench.
Three other players scored in double figures for the Hokies against the Yellow Jackets in the team’s latest well-distributed scoring effort. Virginia Tech has had at least four double-digit scorers in each of its last three games, a sign of the team’s emerging unity that coach Mike Young relishes.
“We’ve always had good chemistry, but I see connectivity within the unit here of late that has been quite fascinating to watch develop,” Young said. “That’s what it’s all about … five players playing as one. … That’s the formula — tough, together (and) physical.”
Sean Pedulla leads the Hokies with 15.7 points per game.
Robbie Beran averages six points, but all three of his double-digit performances this season have come in his last four games.
–Field Level Media