Coming off its most impressive win of the season, No. 3 Duke will travel to South Bend, Indiana to take on Notre Dame on Tuesday night.
Saturday’s neutral-site win for the Blue Devils (25-2, 13-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) over No. 1 Michigan was the first time they defeated the top-ranked team in the country under coach Jon Scheyer. Duke’s last win over the AP No. 1 team was on Nov. 26, 2021 when it topped Gonzaga at a neutral site.
Duke beat the Wolverines despite turning the ball over 11 times and missing five of its 17 free throws. It made up the difference by dominating inside, outscoring Michigan 34-24 in the paint and winning the rebounding battle 41-28. Duke tallied 18 second-chance points off 13 offensive rebounds.
The Blue Devils enter this matchup with Notre Dame (12-15, 3-11) 30th nationally in rebounds per game (39.6) and fourth in shooting percentage inside the arc, making 61.6% of their 2-point attempts. Duke’s defense remains stout too, ranking third in the country in points allowed per game (63.1).
Against Michigan, Duke’s frontcourt trio of Cameron Boozer, Patrick Ngongba II and Nikolas Khamenia combined for 35 points and 25 rebounds. Boozer continues to lead the ACC in both scoring (22.6 points per game) and rebounding (10.0), but Scheyer was equally impressed with Ngongba’s play against the Wolverines.
“I thought he had a huge presence tonight. He’s obviously really valuable for us. We don’t have necessarily a ton of depth at (center),” Scheyer said. ” … I thought he finished really strong inside. I thought he protected our basket well. He had the two blocks, but I thought he altered some shots as well. He has good timing and good instincts, and that made a big difference for our defense.”
Notre Dame is the only team with a losing record remaining on Duke’s regular-season schedule with big matchups ahead against Virginia and rivals North Carolina State and North Carolina.
Dating back to the turn of the new year, the Fighting Irish have lost 11 of their last 13 games. Most recently, the Irish fell on Saturday at Pittsburgh, 73-68.
An abysmal 3-point shooting performance doomed the Irish against the Panthers. They made just 9 of 38 from deep, a 23.7% clip. That was the most shots from behind the arc Notre Dame has attempted in a single game this year, but it fell to 2-9 on the season when shooting 32% or worse from 3-point land.
“I thought we were piss-poor in our execution. I’m doing a bad job of coaching these guys when you don’t execute like that,” Notre Dame coach Micah Shrewsberry said. ” … Thought we got great shots to start the game. I thought we got great shots throughout the game. Just missed. Sometimes it’s not your night. I felt that way for us tonight.”
Notre Dame played without both of its leading scorers against Pitt. Markus Burton has been out with a broken ankle since December, and Jalen Haralson (15.5 points per game) missed his second straight game with a sprained ankle.
With four regular-season games remaining, Notre Dame is in danger of missing the 15-team field for the ACC Tournament. The Irish are tied with Pitt for the final spot, but the Panthers now own the head-to-head tiebreaker.
