Duke Battles Louisville Saturday on Senior Night

Saturday, February 27

Durham, N.C.

6 P.M.

Duke University

Louisville

Duke Battles Louisville Saturday on Senior Night

2/25/2021 7:35:00 PM | Men's Basketball

WATCH LISTEN LIVE STATS DUKE GAME NOTES (PDF)LOUISVILLE GAME NOTES (PDF)GAME PROGRAM JORDAN GOLDWIRE QUOTES

THE OPENING TIP

Duke plays at Cameron Indoor Stadium for the final time this season, hosting Louisville on Saturday for Senior Night as the Blue Devils will honor Jordan Goldwire and Mike Buckmire before the game.
With three games remaining in the ACC regular season, the Blue Devils and Cardinals enter Saturday separated by three places and just a few percentage points in the standings.
The game tips at 6 p.m. ET on ESPN with Dave O'Brien and Chris Spatola 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).
Duke leads the overall series versus Louisville, 10-8, but the Cardinals have won two straight and four of the last seven, including a 70-65 win on January 23 at the KFC Yum! Center.
Duke is 11-4 since the start of the 2017-18 season when playing an ACC opponent in the regular season for a second time
Duke's four-game winning streak came over a 10-day span by an average margin of 13.8 points, while holding the opponents to 62.3 points and just .319 from behind the arc.
Over the current four-game win streak, Duke has 77 assists against 44 turnovers (+1.75), and has assisted on 65.8 percent of the team's made field goals (77 assists on 117 made field goals).
On a late-season tear, sophomore sharpshooter Matthew Hurt enters the game averaging 20.8 points over his last four contests.
A candidate for ACC Player of the Year and Most Improved Player, Hurt joins Gonzaga's Corey Kispert as the only players in college basketball shooting better than 56 percent from the field, better than 46 percent from three-point range and making more than six field goals per game.
A Blue Devil has been the ACC's leading freshman scorer in six of the last seven seasons, and freshman DJ Steward is on pace to make it seven of the last eight. Steward leads all ACC freshmen at 13.4 points.
Senior Jordan Goldwire leads the ACC in assist/turnover ratio (+2.72), is second in the league in steals (2.5 -- 12th in the NCAA)and is seventh in the ACC in assists (3.8).
Goldwire's 18 multi-steal games are tied for the most nationally and he ranks third on Duke's single-season steals per game list.

DUKE VS. LOUISVILLE
Saturday's game is the 19th meeting between Duke and Louisville, with the Blue Devils leading 10-8 ... The Cardinals have won two straight in the series, including a 70-65 win on January 23 at the KFC Yum! Center ... When the teams met last season at Cameron Indoor, Louisville won the top-15 battle, 79-73, behind David Johnson's 19 points and seven assists ... Seven of the last eight games in the series have each been decided by less than 10 points.

ON THIS DATE
Duke is 14-6 all-time when playing on February 27, and is 9-2 when playing at Cameron Indoor at home on this date ... Eight of those 20 games on Feb. 27 have come against North Carolina, with Duke winning five ... Duke and Louisville have yet to meet on this date.

A HELPING HAND
As Duke's young roster has gained confidence and experience, the Blue Devils are playing better team basketball as a result ... Duke leads the ACC in assists at 16.1 per game (34th nationally) this season, and is fifth in assist/turnover ratio at +1.25 (54th NCAA) ... Duke's 124 assists in seven games (17.7) in the month of February are seventh-most nationally -- and the most by any power conference team ... While increasing their assists the Blue Devils have also taken better care of the ball. Duke's +1.5 assist/turnover ratio this month is 27th-best in the NCAA ... Over the current four-game win streak, Duke has 77 dimes against 44 turnovers (+1.75). The ratio is +2.0 over the last three (60-30) ... This season, Duke has improved both its assists per game and assist/turnover ratio each month.

HURT AVERAGING 20.8 PPG IN LAST FOUR GAMES
Sophomore Matthew Hurt has scored 20+ points in three of the last four games and has averaged 20.8 over that stretch ... He scored 20+ for three straight games for the first time in his career -- 24 at NC State, 22 at Wake, 22 vs. Virginia -- while shooting 14-of-19 (.736) from three-point range and 24-of-32 (.750) from the field in that span ... Over the last four games, he is 29-of-43 (.643) from the field and 16-of-24 (.667) from three-point range ... He has nine 20-point games this season -- 13 in his career ... His 6-of-7 from downtown at NC State tied the second-best three-point accuracy for a game in Duke history, and marked the first time a Blue Devil has made 6+ threes in multiple games since both Gary Trent Jr., and Grayson Allen in 2017-18.

STEWARD LEADS ALL ACC FRESHMEN IN SCORING
A Blue Devil has been the ACC's freshman scoring leader in six of the last seven seasons and seven of the last nine ... Freshman DJ Steward is looking to keep that run going in 2020-21, as Steward is ranked first in scoring among the conference's freshman corps at 13.4 points per game (ranked 19th in the NCAA) ... The Chicago native posted a 19-point, five-rebound, three-assist effort against Georgia Tech, with his ACC career-high of 21 coming in home wins over Wake Forest and Syracuse ... In the win at Wake, he posted a 16-point, seven-rebound, three-assist, two-steal effort in 30 minutes ... Against Virginia, Steward nailed a clutch corner three to tie the game at 56-56 with 5:49 to play, and his pull-up jumper pulled Duke within one (65-64) with 2:41 left ... Steward has hit at least one three-pointer in 15 consecutive games -- he's also started in each of the 15 ... He has scored in double figures 14 times this season, including in 13 of the last 15 games.

GOLDWIRE TIED FOR NCAA LEAD IN MULTI-STEAL GAMES
Senior Jordan Goldwire leads the ACC in assist/turnover ratio this season (+2.77), while ranking second in steals (2.5) and seventh in assists (3.8). He is 12th nationally in steals per game ... A tenacious on-ball defender that has come off the bench nine times this season (eight in ACC play), Goldwire has 2+ steals in 18 of 19 games this season and his 18 multi-steal games are tied for the NCAA lead with Posh Alexander (St. John's) and Luke Smith (Belmont) ... Only Georgia Tech senior Jose Alvarado (113) has more steals over the last two seasons than Goldwire's 95 ... At 2.52 steals per game this season, Goldwire is on pace for a top-five steals per game season in Duke history ... His career-high five steals came against Winthrop last year and he has recorded four steals four times this season ... Not just known for his defense, Goldwire has recorded four assists in six consecutive games and has posted 24 assists against eight turnovers (+3.00) in that span ... After posting nine turnovers over the first four games this season, Goldwire has just 17 turnovers over the last 15 games. His assist/turnover ratio over the last 15 games is +3.35.

MOORE WAYS THAN ONE
Sophomore Wendell Moore Jr., came off the bench at Pitt on Jan. 19, giving Duke 31 minutes and hitting 5-of-10 from the field, including a career-high three made three-pointers, for 15 points ... He has started the 10 games since Pitt, and making contributions all over the box score for the Blue Devils ... Scoring: went for 24 and 10 -- his second career double-double versus Notre Dame to cap a three-game stretch that saw him average 19.0 points ... Rebounds: is Duke's second-leading active rebounder in ACC play (4.9), and has 4+ rebounds in 14 of the last 15 games ... Assists: has set a career high in assists in two of the last four games -- six at NC State and seven vs. Virginia, and his 26 assists since Feb. 6 are fourth-most in the ACC in that span ... Moore has 3+ assists in 10 of the last 11 games, after not doing so in any of the first eight games.

CAMERON INDOOR STADIUM
Duke has posted an all-time record of 915-167 (.846) at Cameron Indoor, including 556-70 (.889) under Coach K ... Duke is 257-61 (.809) in ACC regular-season games at Cameron Indoor in the Coach K era ... Duke has won more games at its current home venue than any team in college basketball ... Now in its 82nd season as the home of the Blue Devils, Duke has averaged 11.1 wins since the venue opened January 6, 1940 -- a 36-27 win over Princeton ... The Blue Devils have 18 undefeated home seasons, including 11 under Coach K.

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