Duke Caps Three-Game Road Swing Saturday at Louisville

Saturday, January 23

Louisville, Ky.

4 P.M.

Duke University

Louisville

Duke Caps Three-Game Road Swing Saturday at Louisville

1/21/2021 5:55:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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THE OPENING TIP

A pair of teams looking to right the ship, Duke and Louisville collide for a Saturday matinee at the KFC Yum! Center on ESPN.
The game tips at 4 p.m. ET on ESPN with Dan Shulman and Jay Bilas on the call. On the radio, David Shumate and John Roth have the call on the Blue Devil Sports Network from Learfield IMG College (96.5FM & 610AM in Durham). Ryan Radtke and Will Perdue have the call nationally on Westwood One Radio.
Each squad enters looking to snap a two-game skid as the Blue Devils have dropped a pair of single-digit decisions on the road at Virginia Tech, 74-67, and Pittsburgh, 79-73.
The Blue Devils are scheduled to play seven of their 10 games at Cameron Indoor, after opening ACC play with four of six on the road.
The Blue Devils lead the all-time series over the Cardinals, 10-7, and have won six of the last 10 in the series.
Duke's last visit to Louisville produced the second-largest comeback in program history as the Blue Devils came from 23 points down (59-36) with 9:05 remaining to win 71-69 on Feb. 12, 2019.
Jalen Johnson played his most significant minutes Tuesday at Pitt since returning from a foot injury, and the freshman became the first Blue Devil all-time with a 20-15-7-4 statline as he scored 24 points, with 15 rebounds, seven assists, no turnovers and four blocks.
Only three times in at least the last decade has a power conference player had 15+ points, 15+ rebounds, 5+ assists and 4+ blocks in a game -- Johnson has two of three performances.
The Blue Devils have deployed seven starting lineups through nine games, with only sophomore Matthew Hurt starting all nine games.
Hurt is second in the ACC in scoring at 18.9 points per game, while ranking third in rebounding (8.2) and seventh in field goal percentage (.516). He is also second in conference-only scoring (18.8) and fourth in conference-only rebounding (8.2).
The watch list candidate for the Wooden Award and Naismith Trophy, who has also been named both ACC Player of the Week and Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week last week, Hurt has scored 17+ points in seven of nine games. Three of his four career double-doubles have come in this season's first eight games.
Senior Jordan Goldwire leads the ACC in steals (2.6), is third in assist/turnover ratio (+2.43) and seventh in assists (3.8).
As a team, Duke is third in the ACC in both steals (9.0) and blocked shots (4.7), ranking 18th and 34th nationally, respectively.

DUKE VS. LOUISVILLE
Saturday's game is the 18th meeting between Duke and Louisville, with the Blue Devils leading 10-7…Duke's three-game winning streak in the series was snapped last season in a top-15 battle at Cameron Indoor as Louisville's David Johnson scored 19 points with seven assists in a 79-73 victory, while Cassius Stanley scored a game-high 24 for Duke…Six of the last seven games in the series have been decided by less than 10 points…In Duke's last visit to Louisville on Feb. 12, 2019, the visitors trailed 59-36 with 9:05 left before a remarkable comeback win, 71-69 -- the second-largest in program history and the largest under Coach K…Zion Williamson scored 27 and Cam Reddish scored 22, including the tying triple with 1:28 left and go-ahead free throws with 14 seconds remaining…Louisville head coach Chris Mack had faced the Blue Devils eight times as an assistant, going 2-5 against Duke while on Skip Prosser's staff at Wake Forest from 2002-04 and 0-1 while on Sean Miller's Xavier staff from 2004-09.

SCOUTING THE CARDINALS
Louisville is 9-3 overall and 4-2 in ACC play, but also looking to shake a two-game slide entering Saturday's contest…Carlik Jones is the only player in the ACC to rank among the top five in scoring (17.9, third) and assists (4.7, third). Jones has 94 career double-figure scoring efforts…Louisville ranks fourth in the ACC in scoring defense (65.5), the squad is also fourth in field goal defense (.408) and three-point field goal defense (.323).

ON THIS DATE
Duke is 9-8 all-time when playing on January 23, including a 5-5 record in road games…Duke is 6-5 in ACC games on this date…Duke last played on this date in 2018, an 84-70 win at Wake Forest.

THREE-POINT STREAK
Duke has connected on at least one three-pointer in 1,099 straight games, the second-longest streak nationally…It has been more than 30 years since Duke was held without a three-point field goal -- Dec. 30, 1989, versus Hawai'i…Vanderbilt had owned the second-longest streak before its January 18, 2020 game versus Tennessee (0-of-25).

SO GOOD IT HURTS
Matthew Hurt added 25 pounds to his frame in the offseason, and the bulked-up Hurt is second in the ACC in scoring (60th nationally) at 18.89 points per game…Last week's ACC Player of the Week and Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week, Hurt has nearly doubled his per-game scoring average from last season (9.74 to 18.89)…The Rochester, Minn., native is also third in the ACC in rebounding (8.2) and seventh in field goal percentage (.516). ..The Blue Devils have deployed a different starting lineup in seven of nine games with only Hurt starting all nine games…He scored a career-high 26 points in the Wake Forest win (Jan. 9) and followed that with a 20-11 double-double at Virginia Tech (Jan. 12)…Hurt has scored 17+ points in seven of nine games this season, and his first sub-.400 field goal effort of the year came at Pitt…Three of his four career double-doubles have come in this season's first nine games, including 21 and 13 vs. Michigan State, 17 and 11 vs. Boston College and 20 and 11 at Virginia Tech.

JOHNSON MAKES STATEMENT IN RETURN
Jalen Johnson logged 33 productive minutes at Pitt, scoring a career-high 24 points with 15 rebounds, seven assists, no turnovers, four blocked shots at two steals…It marked his second career double-double, after posting 19 points and 19 rebounds in the season-opener versus Coppin State…Johnson is the first Duke player all-time to score at least 20 points, have at least 15 rebounds, at least seven assists and no turnovers in a single game…He is one of eight players nationally to post a 20-15-5 statline with no turnovers since at least the 2010-11 season, and is the only one to do so with at least four blocked shots…He was 8-of-14 from the field, 7-of-10 at the free throw line and of his 15 rebounds 10 came on the defensive glass…The freshman had missed three consecutive games with a foot injury before returning to play limited minutes at Virginia Tech on Jan. 12.

EXCLUSIVE COMPANY
Only three times in at least the last 10 seasons has a power conference player logged a game with 15+ points, 15+ rebounds, 5+ assists and 4+ blocked shots -- freshman Jalen Johnson has two of those three occurrences…Johnson had 19 points, 19 rebounds, five assists and four blocks versus Coppin State (Nov. 28), and 24 points, 15 rebounds, seven assists and four blocks at Pitt…The only other power conference player with at least 15-15-5-4 in last decade was Wisconsin's Ethan Happ versus Virginia on Nov. 23, 2018 -- 22 points, 15 rebounds, six assists and four blocks.

ON THE DEFENSIVE
This season, Duke ranks third in the ACC and 18th nationally in steals per game (9.0)…The Blue Devils have 38 thefts over the last four games, including a season-high 14 in the Boston College win -- their most in a game since 14 last season vs. Central Arkansas (11/12/19) and its most in the regular season versus an ACC opponent since 14 vs. NC State (1/18/14). ..Senior Jordan Goldwire leads the ACC in steals per game (2.56) and is ninth nationally. He leads all power conference players…Duke was second in the NCAA and led the ACC in blocked shots per game (6.1) last season, after leading the NCAA in blocked shots per game in the 2018-19 season (6.8)…Duke is third in the ACC in blocked shots (4.7) this season…Since the start of the 2018-19 season, no team in the nation has blocked more shots than Duke's 486…Duke and Florida State were the only power conference teams to finish last season ranked in the top 25 for both blocked shots and steals per game.

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