The No. 4 seed Duke Blue Devils are set to face No. 12 seed James Madison Dukes in the South Region of the 2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament’s second round.
James Madison Dukes
The 12th seeded JMU Dukes enter Sunday with a 32-3 record and they are currently on a 14 game winning streak dating back to February 1st. They made it to the round of 32 by handling the 5th seeded Wisconsin Badgers 72-61. They are in the top 10 in points scored in Division I, they are also top 30 in field goal percentage, assists and steals.
3 players averaging in double figures led by Junior guard Terrence Edwards at 17.4 per game, Edwards also leads the Dukes in assists at 3.5 per contest. Senior forward T.J. Bickerstaff comes in second in scoring for JMU at 13.4 per game and is their leading rebounder at 8.5 per contest. Rounding out the double-figure scorers is Noah Freidel, a 6’4 guard, at 12.1 per game. JMU have 8 players averaging 14 minutes or more per game and two others averaging 7 minutes or more.
The Dukes held Wisconsin to under 40% shooting for the game and 13 points under their season average in scoring while turning the Badgers over 19 times. Wiscy averaged under 10 on the season.
Duke Blue Devils
The Blue Devils now stand at 25-8 after beating a tough Vermont team in the first round of the NCAAT 64-47. The Blue Devils struggled from the floor only shooting it 42% but held Vermont to under 39% and just 25% from beyond the arc. The Blue Devils also dominated the glass 38-26 and kept the Catamounts from scoring off of turnovers. Mark Mitchell and Jared McCain led the Blue Devils with 15 points each while Duke’s leading scorer Kyle Filipowski was double-teamed consistently but found ways to contribute – tallying 12 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks and 2 steals in the win.
Filipowski has led the Blue Devils in both scoring and rebounding all season at 16.7 points per game and 8.3 rebounds. He’s complimented by Jeremy Roth at 14 points per game in his senior season. Freshman Jared McCain is tallying 13.5 points a game and 5 boards on the season. Sophomore forward Mark Mitchell comes in second in rebounding at 6.2 per game and adds 12.4 points to Duke’s average per game. Tyrese Proctor rounds out the double-figure scorers at 10.6 points per game. Proctor leads the Blue Devils in assists at 3.6 per game.
Thoughts
The Blue Devils need to punch first against the Dukes. As seen against Wisconsin this James Madison team is an energy team and Jon Scheyer’s team cannot afford to let them strike first. You don’t want to spend this game playing from behind hoping you’ll be able to pull away. Duke needs to be methodical, poised and efficient. Those things coupled with energy will win the day.
One school of thought in the Vermont game was that, sophomore big, Kyle Filipowski had a bad game because he didn’t shoot the basketball minus his one attempt from the field. The other school of thought is that the 7 footer, despite being double-teamed consistently found other ways to affect the game. He rebounded, assisted, blocked shots – these were all needed elements to Duke’s victory – if anything this showed that the Blue Devils can win when he’s not scoring. Duke will have to figure out their spacing issues as it often looked like guys were overloaded on the perimeter making things much more difficult to find open guys. I’d also love to see guys cutting to the rim when Flip is doubled instead of watching on the perimeter, give him a target that makes teams rethink their strategies.
