Duke, Illinois Set For Top 10 Showdown in ACC/Big Ten Challenge

Tuesday, December 8

Durham, N.C.

9:30 p.m.

Duke University

Illinois

Duke Men’s Basketball takes on the Bellarmine University Knights in the first half at the Cameron Indoor Stadium on December 4, 2020 at Durham, North Carolina.

Duke, Illinois Set For Top 10 Showdown in ACC/Big Ten Challenge

12/7/2020 3:16:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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THE OPENING TIP

In the second AP top-10 matchup in a week at Cameron Indoor Stadium, No. 10 Duke welcomes No. 6 Illinois in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge presented by Continental on Tuesday night.
The Blue Devils have won 19 of the 21 games in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge since the event began 21 years ago, marking the most wins and best winning percentage of teams from either conference.
Last season, Duke won at Michigan State, 87-75, for its eighth consecutive victory in the Challenge.
Duke and Illinois met in each of the first two seasons of the Challenge -- with the Blue Devils winning 72-69 in 1999 at the United Center in Chicago and 78-77 in 2000 at the Greensboro Coliseum.
Duke leads the overall series with Illinois, 5-2, but the teams have not met since the Maui Invitational semis in 2007 -- a 79-66 Duke win.
Sophomore Matthew Hurt's 19.0 points per game paces Duke. The watch list candidate for the Wooden Award and Naismith Trophy has posted consecutive 20-point games for the first time in his career.
Hurt, whose .415 career three-point field goal percentage ranks fifth on Duke's all-time list, was 6-of-8 from three-point range against Bellarmine. He had 21 points and 13 rebounds against Michigan State.
Freshman Jaemyn Brakefield has come off the bench in each of Duke's last two games to set career highs in scoring and rebounding. He scored 11 with four rebounds in 15 minutes against Michigan State and went for 12 and six in 16 minutes against Bellarmine.
Going 4-of-4 from three-point range against Bellarmine, Brakefield became the first freshman in Cameron Indoor Stadium history to go perfect from long range on a minimum of four attempts. He was just the third Duke freshman to do it in any game.
Since the start of last season, Duke has held 15 opponents to .250 or less from long range -- second most nationally. Going back to the Blue Devils' 2014-15 national championship season, Duke's 81 games holding the opponent to .250 or less from three-point range are the most nationally (by nine).

ACC/BIG TEN CHALLENGE
Duke's 19-2 record in the 21-year history of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge is the best record for either conference, and the Blue Devils are on a Challenge-best eight-game winning streak…The Blue Devils are 2-0 versus Illinois in the Challenge, facing the Illini in each of the first two years of the event…Illinois is 8-13 in the Challenge (3-6 in road games)…As a conference, the ACC is 12-6-3 and has won two of the last four overall Challenges against the Big Ten…Kyrie Irving's 31 points versus Michigan State in 2010 stand as the Duke scoring record in the Challenge…See page 35 for a full list of Duke records in the Challenge.

ACC/BIG TEN CHALLENGE | MOST WINS
Duke -- 19-2
Virginia -- 13-7
Wake Forest -- 12-6
Clemson -- 11-9
Purdue -- 11-8
Maryland -- (1-5 as Big Ten member) 11-10
entering 2020-21 ACC/Big Ten Challenge

DUKE-ILLINOIS SERIES
Tuesday's game marks the eighth in the series between the Blue Devils and the Fighting Illini, with Duke leading, 5-2…The teams have not met since 2007 -- a 79-66 Duke win in the Maui Invitational semifinals behind 23 points from Gerald Henderson…Illinois' only trip to Cameron Indoor came on Dec. 2, 1995, a 75-65 Illini victory -- one of the 10 non-conference home setbacks in the Mike Krzyzewski era (297-10)…Now assistant coach Chris Carrawell poured in 21 points in the inaugural year of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge as Duke downed Illinois, 72-69, on Nov. 30, 1999 at the United Center in Chicago…Head coach Brad Underwood is in his fourth year at Illinois and eighth overall as a head coach. He spent three years at Stephen F. Austin and one at Oklahoma State before the move to Champaign…Underwood has faced Duke once in his career. That came Nov. 24, 2010 while he was an assistant at Kansas State -- an 82-68 Duke victory CBE Classic in Kansas City -- Coach K's 800th win at Duke.

DUKE-ILLINOIS CONNECTIONS
Duke sophomore Matthew Hurt teamed with Illinois junior Ayo Dosunmu for a gold medal at the 2018 FIBA U-18 Americas…Hurt started all six games and averaged 14.3 points while shooting 12-of-20 from three-point range. Dosunmu was 25-of-40 from the field and averaged 9.5 points.

RANKED VS. RANKED IN THE CHALLENGE
Entering this season, 239 games have been played in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge -- 48 have come with each team ranked in the AP Top 25…The ACC leads in Top 25 match-ups 27-21, with Duke accounting for a 13-1 mark. Illinois is 2-5…The home team is 31-11 in ranked-vs.-ranked Challenge games.

RANKED VS. RANKED | ACC/BIG TEN CHALLENGE | MOST GAMES
Duke, 14 games -- 13-1
North Carolina, 13 games -- 6-7
Michigan State, 12 games -- 6-6

ON THIS DATE
Duke is 16-6 when playing on December 8 and has won five straight by an average of 28.0 points, including two lopsided wins over Michigan -- 104-83 on the road in 2001 and 95-67 at home in 2007…The Blue Devils last played on this date in 2018 -- a 91-58 victory over Yale at Cameron Indoor.

DUKE VS. RANKED OPPONENTS
Duke is 235-153 (.606) vs. ranked teams under Coach K, with a 155-81 (.658) mark since the 1996-97 season…Each of Duke's three wins over ranked teams last season came over teams 11th or better in the AP Poll -- Kansas, Michigan State and Florida State…Since 1996-97, Duke is 87-51 (.630) against ranked ACC teams and 68-30 (.693) vs. ranked non-league foes…In the Coach K era, Duke is 144-87 (.625) overall when both teams are ranked in the top 15 ... 87-62 (.584) overall when both teams are ranked in the top 10 ... 33-18 (.647) when both teams are ranked in the top five…With the win over No. 3 Virginia on Feb. 9, 2019, Coach K broke a tie with Dean Smith for most wins in top three games (11).

TOP-10 VS. TOP-10 AT CAMERON
Tuesday's game will mark the 51st in the history of Cameron Indoor Stadium between teams each ranked in the AP top 10…The Blue Devils are 37-13 in those games, including a 29-12 record under Coach K…Cameron has hosted more top-10 vs. top-10 regular-season games (50) than any arena in college basketball history…Two have come in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge -- in 2010 when No. 1 Duke beat No. 6 Michigan State, 84-79 and in 2012 when No. 2 Duke edged No. 4 Ohio State, 73-68...Eleven have been non-conference games (8-3).

NOTHING EASY OUTSIDE THE ARC
Since the start of last season, Duke has held 15 opponents to .250 or less from behind the three-point line -- second most nationally…In that time, the Blue Devils are 13-2 when doing so…Going back to the Blue Devils' national championship season of 2014-15, Duke's 81 games holding the opponent to .250 or less from three-point range are the most nationally (by nine)…Over that seven-season span, Duke opponents have made just 5.9 threes per game, tied for the fewest among power conference teams (Michigan; Wisconsin) and tied for the fifth fewest nationally…Duke and Virginia are the only programs to finish in the NCAA's top 50 in three-point field goal defense over each of the last four years…Last season, Duke held opponents to a .299 mark from three-point range to rank third in the ACC and 32nd nationally…Duke's .299 percentage marked just the sixth time in program history the Blue Devils held the opposition to less than 30 percentage from three-point range…The Blue Devils allowed opponents to make an average of just 4.84 threes per game last year -- the fourth fewest yielded nationally and fewest among power conference teams…From January 1 to the end of the season, Duke allowed just 87 made three-pointers -- the fewest by any power conference team.

YOUTH AND INEXPERIENCE
Duke's 2020-21 roster features seven newcomers -- six freshmen that comprised the nation's No. 2 class and graduate transfer Patrick Tapé from Columbia University -- the program's first grad transfer…Duke's roster is ranked as the fifth most inexperienced in the nation of the 287 ranked by KenPom, behind only Kentucky, Presbyterian, Auburn and Stetson…Of Duke's new faces, Tapé missed all of last season at Columbia University with a foot injury…Freshman center Mark Williams missed time during his senior season at IMG Academy with an injury…Freshman guard Jeremy Roach missed the entirety of his junior season at St. Paul VI with a knee injury.

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