No. 6 Blue Devils Take on FSU Tuesday in Tallahassee

Tuesday, January 18

Tallahassee, Fla.

9 P.M.

Duke University

Florida State

No. 6 Blue Devils Take on FSU Tuesday in Tallahassee

1/17/2022 4:23:00 PM | Men's Basketball

WATCH LISTEN LIVE STATS DUKE GAME NOTES FSU GAME NOTES GAME PROGRAM

THE OPENING TIP

In an battle of teams near the top of the ACC, No. 6 Duke takes on Florida State Tuesday night at the Tucker Center in Tallahassee.
The game tips at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN with Dan Shulman and Cory Alexander on the call. On the radio locally, David Shumate and John Roth call the action on the Blue Devil Sports Network from Learfield.
The Blue Devils and Seminoles are meeting for the first time in more than a year as both of the meetings last season were canceled by COVID-19 protocols.
In Duke's last visit to Tallahassee, Cam Reddish nailed a three-pointer in the closing seconds for an 80-78 victory on Jan. 12, 2019.
Duke has won nine of the last 10 in the FSU series and leads the all-time series 41-10, including 38-9 under Coach K.
The ACC Freshman of the Week for the fourth time, Paolo Banchero has scored 20+ points in three straight games and four of the last five. His seven 20-point efforts lead all power conference true freshman and his 17.9 points leads all true freshmen nationally.
Banchero is the ACC's sixth leading scorer at 17.9 and his 21.0 points in ACC games are tied for second in the conference.
Sophomore Mark Williams is fifth nationally and leads the ACC in blocked shots (3.44). He is coming off a near triple-double against NC State with 19 points, 11 rebounds and a career-high eight blocked shots in just 27 minutes of court time.
Since the calendar turned to 2022, Duke opponents are shooting just .239 (17-of-71) from three-point range -- the second best percentage defense by power conference teams in that span (10th overall).
Duke has held five straight opponents -- and 11 for the season -- to .300 or worse from behind the arc.
Freshman Trevor Keels is second in the ACC in assist/turnover ratio (2.6) and third in the league in steals (1.94). In two games last week, Keels totaled 23 points, 13 assists, four turnovers and seven steals.
Duke is 12-0 when Keels scores in double figures.
The Blue Devils have been whistled for fewest fouls in the league per game (13.8) -- 16th fewest nationally. Duke has made 48 more free throws than opponents have attempted this season (225-177), which represents the largest disparity in the ACC.

DUKE VS. FLORIDA STATE
Duke is 41-10 all-time versus Florida State, which includes a 16-7 mark in road games -- all coming at the Tucker Center … Duke has won five straight in the series by a combined 29 points (5.8 per game). That includes a win on Feb. 10, 2020, 70-65, at Cameron Indoor and an 80-78 win in Tallahassee on Jan. 12, 2019 thanks to Cam Reddish's three in the final seconds … Duke and FSU clashed for the 2019 ACC Tournament title -- a 73-63 Duke win behind 21 points from Zion Williamson … Under Coach K, the Blue Devils are 38-9 in the series … The teams had a pair of meetings canceled last season by COVID-19 protocols -- at FSU on Jan. 2 and in the ACC Tournament quarters … FSU head coach Leonard Hamilton has 183 ACC wins (regular season and tournament) to rank fifth all-time behind Mike Krzyzewski, Dean Smith, Roy Williams and Gary Williams.

SCOUTING THE SEMINOLES
Florida State is 10-5 overall and 4-2 in the ACC and tied for fourth in the conference standings with Notre Dame … Caleb Mills leads the balanced Seminoles in scoring at 13.0 points, while Malik Osborne averages 11.1 and Matthew Cleveland chips in 10.7 per game. Osborne is also the team's leading rebounder (7.2) … Florida State leads the ACC in steals (9.7), while Duke ranks third (8.3). Duke (+4.00) and FSU (+3.40) are second and third in the conference, respectively, in turnover margin … The Seminoles have won 82 of their last 87 home games since February 27, 2015 and are 28-2 over their last 30 ACC home games with setbacks coming to Duke in 2019 and Syracuse this season.

ON THIS DATE
Duke is 12-10 all-time when playing on Jan. 18 … The Blue Devils are 2-4 on the road on this date … Duke last played on this date in 2020 -- a 79-73 setback against Louisville at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

NOTHING EASY BEHIND THE ARC
Since the calendar turned to 2022, Duke opponents are shooting just .239 (17-of-71) from three-point range -- the second best percentage defense by power conference teams in that span (20th overall) … Both Virginia Tech and Wake Forest made their fewest number of threes and shot their lowest percentage of the season against the Blue Devils -- VT was 5-of-19 (.263), while Wake was 2-of-16 (.125) … For the season, Duke is 58th in the NCAA (second in the ACC) in three-point defense (.301) … In addition to Virginia Tech and Wake Forest, two other opponents -- Gardner-Webb (.125) and Lafayette (.259) -- also shot what still stands as their lowest three-point percentage this season.

SHARING THE ROCK
Duke enters the game with the nation's third best assist/turnover ratio of 1.77. The Blue Devils also rank top 15 nationally and lead the ACC in field goal shooting (.492) and assists (17.4) … Duke has had a positive assist/turnover ratio in 14 of 16 games -- its only games with a negative ratio came vs. Kentucky (9 turnovers, 8 assists) and Virginia Tech (11, 10) … Ten of Duke's 13 assists at Wake Forest came in the second half … Duke's 23 assists against NC State marked its ACC high for the season and its most since 23 vs. South Carolina State … Duke's season-high 25 assists came vs. The Citadel. The Blue Devils also registered a season-low three turnovers in that game … Junior Wendell Moore Jr., is second in the ACC in assists (4.8) and fourth in the ACC in assist/turnover ratio (2.24), while freshman Trevor Keels ranks second in the league in A/T ratio (2.60).

WILLIAMS LEADS DUKE'S BLOCK PARTY
Duke leads the ACC and is 10th nationally in blocked shots per game (6.0), paced by the ACC blocks leader, sophomore Mark Williams, who is fifth nationally with 3.44 blocks per game … As a team, Duke has finished ranked 42nd or better nationally in blocks in each of the last five seasons, including leading the nation in 2018-19 (6.8) and finishing second nationally in 2019-20 (6.1) … Since the start of the 2018-19 season, no team in college basketball has blocked more shots than Duke's 650 … Only one power conference player has more rejections than Williams' 55 and his 6.75 blocks per 40 minutes rank second among power conference players … Williams has blocked 16.2 percent of opponents' shots, the fourth best percentage in the NCAA … Williams has multiple blocks in 14 of 16 games this season, including in each of the last 13 … The 7-foot-1 sophomore is coming off a 19-point, 11-rebound and career-high eight block effort against NC State in just 27 minutes.

DUKE AWAY FROM CAMERON
In the Coach K era, Duke is 264-153 (.633) in true road games and 279-77 (.784) in neutral site games, for a combined mark of 543-230 (.706) in all games outside of Cameron Indoor Stadium … In ACC regular-season play, Duke is 193-127 (.603) away from home under Coach K … Coach K's 193 ACC road wins are a conference record … Coach K has also won 16 road games against AP top five teams, the most in the history of the AP poll.

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