Game Preview: Duke takes on Baylor in Madison Square Garden

The Blue Devils look to record back-to-back wins as they face the Hofstra Pride Tuesday night in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Series & Game Info

Neutral Site Game #2 • Wednesday, Dec. 20 • 7:00 pm ET

Madison Square Garden (19,812) • New York, N.Y.

TV: ESPN

Radio: Blue Devils Sports Network from LEARFIELD

Series

Overall Duke leads, 1-0
In Durham, NC —
at Cameron Indoor Stadium —
In Waco, TX —
at Ferrell Center —
Neutral Site Duke leads, 1-0
Last Meeting Duke, 78-71 (March 28, 2010)

Game Info

TV/Video Stream ESPN
Play-by-Play Karl Ravech
Analyst Jay Bilas
Director Mike Roig
Producer Eric Mosley

Radio Blue Devil Sports Net.
Play-by-Play David Shumate
Analyst John Roth
Engineer John Rose
In Durham 96.5 FM & 620 AM

The Teams

Baylor Bears

Baylor is fresh off a 25 point loss to Michigan State and will be hunting redemption. They boast 6 players in double figures led by freshman Ja’Kobe Walter who averages a team high 14.3 points per game. Senior guard Rayj Dennis leads the team in assists at 6.6 per game to go along with his 13.9 points per game, Dennis is 11th in the nation in assists per game. Jayden Nunn, a 6’4 Junior rounds out the backcourt scoring at 10.6 per game.

The Baylor starting front court also all average double figure scoring with senior forward Jalen Bridges and Yves Missi averaging 10.6 and 10.1 respectively. Missi leads the Bears in rebounding at 6.2 per game. The Bears have 3 starters shooting over 41% from beyond the arc and 4 in their top 6 players including reserve Langston Love, a junior guard averaging 10.8 points per game and shooting 41% from 3.

The Baylor Bears shoot 42% from 3 as a team, good for second in division 1 basketball. They are 7th overall in field goal percentage at 51.7 %, 8th in scoring, and 27th in free throw attempts.

Duke Blue Devils

Duke is on a 2-game winning streak after dropping 2 straight games against Arkansas and Georgia Tech. The Blue Devils are shooting 36.9% from 3 and are 55th in scoring and 48th in assists, 39th in FG%. Duke ranks fifth nationally in fewest turnovers per game (9.0) and ninth in assist/turnover ratio (1.83).

Kyle Filipowski leads the Blue Devils in both scoring and rebounding and is among ACC leaders, ranking sixth in scoring (18.4 ppg), third in rebounding (9.2 rpg) and sixth in blocked shots (1.9 bpg). Jeremy Roach 14.8 per game and 3.3 assists. In his last 5 games Roach is averaging 19.4 points per game and shooting over 60% from 3-point range. Mark Mitchell adds 11.4 points per game to go along with 4.9 boards. Tyrese Proctor, who is likely to miss the game, leads the Blue Devils in assists at 4.5 per game and adds 10.3 points per contest. Proctor is nursing an ankle injury and his status currently is unknown for the game Wednesday night.

Thoughts

The Blue Devils are going to have their collective hands full against the Bears. This is a team, despite what happened against Michigan State, who can put the ball in the basket with aplomb. Baylor is 8th in the nation in scoring and they do it from all three levels, shooting it 42% from beyond the arc yet still getting to the foul like better than nearly anyone in the country. Defending without fouling has been an issue for the Blue Devils that they seem to be tracking better at but old habits die hard – they will need to be much better in that category. Duke also had issues defending the 3-point line against Hofstra – leaving corner 3’s either open or poorly contested. It resulted in a game that was much closer than it should have been. Baylor is not Hofstra, if they are able to get good looks and get hot it could be a very long night for the Blue Devils who will likely be shorthanded without their starting point guard Tyrese Proctor.

What has looked good for the Blue Devils is getting scoring from different areas. The Bears may be able to take away 1 or 2 options but Coach Scheyer will need his secondary options to be ready to score. Jared McCain, Jeremy Roach and Kyle Filipowski will likely be the focal points of the Bears defense but Mark Mitchell needs to be able to contribute – especially in the areas of offensive rebounding and scoring the ball at the basket. Duke utilized him well against Hofstra in the short roll and I expect more of that but when Mitchell did get shots up his percentage was still not very good. He will need to finish better at the rim.