The No. 3 Duke Blue Devils will look to finish the regular season undefeated at home, as they will meet the Virginia Tech Hokies on senior night for Seth Curry, Ryan Kelly, Mason Plumlee and Todd Zafirovski.
Duke (25-4, 12-4 ACC) is coming off of a victory this past Saturday against then No. 5 Miami in Cameron Indoor Stadium, 79-76.
Ryan Kelly returned to the court for the first time since January 8, and had a remarkable performance, as he scored a career-high 36 points while fueling the Blue Devils to its fourth victory over a top-five team this season.
With two games remaining in the season, Duke will now turn its focus to a Virginia Tech (13-16, 4-12 ACC) team that ranks last in the conference standings.
Virginia Tech is led by high-scoring senior Erick Green, who averages 25.0 points per game.
Duke and Virginia Tech met back on February 21 in Blacksburg, which saw the Blue Devils roll to a 32-point victory, 88-56.
Tonight’s game will be televised on ESPNU with the tip set for approximately 7:00 PM ET. The game will also be broadcast on the Blue Devil IMG Sports Network (Sirius/XM – 91).
By The Numbers
• The Blue Devils are ranked No. 3 in the AP Poll and No. 4 in the USA Today Coaches Poll. Duke is 2-1 this season and 111-23 overall when ranked No. 3 in the country.
• The Blue Devils have been ranked in the AP top 10 for 111 consecutive weeks. Duke has been ranked in the top five in 15 of the 18 polls this season.
• Duke is playing its 206th straight game as a top-10 team in the AP poll. Duke is 171-34 in that span.
• Head coach Mike Krzyzewski ranks tied for second for most wins by a coach at one school with 879 career victories at Duke.
• Duke is 15-0 at Cameron Indoor Stadium this season with one home game remaining. The Blue Devils have 16 undefeated seasons in Cameron.
• Duke is the only team in the top 5 of the Associated Press Poll (No. 3), Coaches Poll (No. 4), NCAA RPI (No. 1) and Strength of Schedule index (No. 1).
Duke-Virginia Tech Series
• Duke leads the all-time series with Virginia Tech 41-8 with a 16-1 record in games at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Duke has won three straight games over Virginia Tech in Cameron.
• The Duke-Virginia Tech series began on Feb. 16, 1912 when Duke won 37-32.
• Duke is 12-3 against Virginia Tech under head coach Mike Krzyzewski.
• Duke has won five straight meetings and nine of the last 10 contests.
• Duke is 12-3 against Virginia Tech since the Hokies joined the ACC in 2004-05.
• With 71 points in six games against Virginia Tech, senior Seth Curry has scored the fifth-most points by a Duke player in the Virginia Tech series. Curry has hit at least one three-pointer in five straight meetings against Virginia Tech.
• In the last meeting, Duke got 22 points from Seth Curry and 17 from Rasheed Sulaimon to take down Virginia Tech 88-56 in Blacksburg. The win was Duke’s largest over an ACC opponent since an 82-50 win over North Carolina on March 6, 2010.
Duke Player Statistics
• Duke has had at least one player score 20 or more points in each of the last five games. Four different players have accomplished the feat with Seth Curry posting three 20+ point games and averaging 18.6 ppg., while shooting 50.0 percent (15-of-30) from three-point range in that span.
• Ryan Kelly returned to the lineup for the first time since Jan. 8 and scored a career-high 36 points to lead Duke past No. 5 Miami, 79-76, at Cameron Indoor Stadium Saturday.
• Kelly, who had missed Duke’s previous 13 games with a foot injury, set career highs in both field goals (10) and three-pointers (7) and also led Duke with seven rebounds. His 36 points were the most by a Blue Devil since Jon Scheyer scored 36 against Gardner-Webb on Dec. 15, 2009 and the most by a Duke player against a top-five team since J.J. Redick scored 41 against No. 2 Texas on Dec. 10, 2005.
• Duke is 4-0 against ranked opponents with Ryan Kelly in the lineup. The senior forward is averaging 18.8 points while shooting 61.1 percent (11-of-18) from three-point range. All four of the victories have been against a team ranked in the top five of the AP Poll.
• The Blue Devils are shooting 47.5 percent from three-point range over the last four games. Seth Curry and Quinn Cook are a combined 22-of-43 in that stretch, while Ryan Kelly returned to the lineup with a 7-of-9 effort from behind the arc in the win over Miami.
• Mason Plumlee is averaging 18.8 points and 11.5 rebounds per game at Cameron Indoor Stadium this season. He has recorded 10 of his ACC co-leading 16 double-doubles at home.
By Chad Lykins
