The Rivalry Resumes

Duke Men's Basketball Notes (February 1, 2000)

Duke (#3 AP/#3 USA Today) at North Carolina
February 3, 2000 * 9:00 pm * espn2/Raycom/JP Sports
Dean E. Smith Center * Chapel Hill, N.C.

BLUE DEVILS LOOK TO LENGTHEN ACC LEAD
Duke (16-2, 7-0), sporting a number three national ranking in both major polls and a two-game lead in the ACC loss column, faces North Carolina (13-8, 4-3) Thursday, February 3 at 9:00 PM in the Dean E. Smith Center on the UNC campus. The Blue Devils are coming off an impressive 93-59 triumph over Clemson on January 29 that extended their home winning streak to 45 games.

Duke enters the game with an ACC record 29 straight regular season conference victories. In addition, Duke has won 15 regular season ACC road games in a row.

North Carolina enters the game unranked and thus Duke will put its 58-game winning streak against unranked opponents on the line. That streak dates back to Dec. 13, 1997 at Michigan.

Duke tops the ACC in scoring (89.3 ppg), scoring margin (20.9 ppg), free throw percentage (74.9) and three-pointers (8.1 pg).

ACC DOMINATION
Duke has dominated ACC regular season play over the last decade with the last three seasons on an unprecedented level. Duke's current 29-game ACC winning streak includes an historic 16-0 record and an average winning margin of 24.3 points in 1998-99.

Duke owns a 48-3 record in the last 51 ACC regular season games with all three losses coming to Top 10 ranked ACC opponents. The Blue Devils have won six of the last nine ACC regular season titles and the last three in a row.

Duke enters the UNC game having won 41 straight games against unranked ACC opponents in the regular season. The last such loss came on Feb. 7, 1996 at Georgia Tech, 73-71, in overtime.

MORE ABOUT DUKE
Senior Chris Carrawell and junior Shane Battier are both leading candidates for All-America and National Player of the Year accolades.

Carrawell has 78 career starts and earlier this year became Duke's 45th all-time player to score 1,000 career points. He is also on the all-time top 10 blocked shots list. The versatile all-court performer had a career-high 30 points against N.C. State on Jan. 19 and has had eight 20-point-plus performances, including 20 vs. Clemson last Saturday. He is among ACC leaders in points (17.7) field goal (49.3) and free throw percentage (76.0), and assist-to-turnover ratio (60/33).

Battier earned the 1999 National Defensive Player of the Year honor. He is looking to repeat with 35 steals, a team-high 42 blocked shots and 16 charges taken. He has also averaged 15.5 points and 5.9 boards.

Freshman Jason Williams is the third player to have started all 18 games as Duke has employed six different starting lineups. Williams is scoring 14.9 points per game and leads the squad in assists (5.4).

Nate James has had 11 double-digit scoring performances, including in five ACC games. Freshman Carlos Boozer continues to improve and has averaged 16.3 points and 6.9 rebounds since returning to the starting lineup on December 11.

Mike Dunleavy is often Duke's first player off the bench and is averaging 10.1 points a game.

DUKE/NORTH CAROLINA - THE SERIES
This is the 205th meeting between Duke and North Carolina, with the Tar Heels leading the all-time series, 121-83. However, the Blue Devils have won four of the last five meetings, including all three games against the Tar Heels last season by an average of 18.3 points. Duke also snapped its seven-game losing streak at the Smith Center with its 81-61 victory on February 27, 1999. The 20-point loss was North Carolina's worst in the 13-year history of the Smith Center.

In Chapel Hill, Duke has a 25-55 record all-time. The Blue Devils are 4-10 all-time in the Smith Center.

Last season, Chris Carrawell averaged 12.7 points and 4.0 rebounds in Duke's three wins over the Tar Heels. In the ACC Tournament Championship on March 7, Carrawell registered a team-high seven assists. Shane Battier averaged 12.0 points and 8.0 boards in two games vs. UNC last season.

Thursday's contest will mark the seventh consecutive game that Duke will enter the North Carolina game ranked third or higher in the Associated Press poll.

LAST GAME - #3 DUKE 93, CLEMSON 59
A well-rested Duke squad exploded in the first half to take a 58-16 lead into the locker room and wound up winning, 93-59, in Cameron Indoor Stadium on January 29. The win was Duke's 29th consecutive ACC regular season victory, the 45th in succession at Cameron Indoor Stadium and the seventh in a row over Clemson.

Four Duke players reached double figures in scoring by halftime, led by Chris Carrawell's 12 (Carrawell was the game's leading scorer with 20). The Blue Devils' 42-point halftime lead was the largest for the team since leading Harvard, 72-30, at the break on November 25, 1989 at Cameron.

While its offense was in gear for the ninth 90+ point outburst of the season, Duke's defense was busy forcing a season-best 30 turnovers, including 19 in the first half. The 30 forced turnovers were the most by a Duke team since South Carolina State committed 33 miscues on December 1, 1997 in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

BLACK AND BLUE ALL OVER
Duke has worn its "alternative" black uniforms in seven Duke victories this season, stretching its unbeaten streak in the black uniforms to 15 straight, dating back to a 1997 road loss at Maryland. Conversely, the Blue Devils have sported the traditional blue road uniforms twice and lost both times.

ANOTHER DUKE WINNING STREAK
Duke enters the North Carolina game with a 16-game overall winning streak. The Blue Devils dropped the first two games of 1999-2000 by a total of six points to current top 10 teams Stanford and Connecticut. Since then, Duke has won 16 in succession by an average of 23.4 points per game. The current 16-game winning streak is the fourth-longest winning streak for Duke under Mike Krzyzewski. Here is a look:

Winning Streak  Season   Final Record 
   32              1998-99  37-2 
   21              1985-86  37-3 
   17              1991-92  34-2 
   16              1999-00 
   16              1985-86  37-3

CAMERON ADVANTAGE
The Blue Devils have had a great deal of success in famed Cameron Indoor Stadium, winning over 80 percent of their games all-time. The 1999-2000 season marks the 60th Anniversary of playing in Cameron. Duke is in a current school record and ACC record 45-game winning streak in Cameron. The streak dates back to an 81-69 loss to then-No. 2 Wake Forest on January 11, 1997.

During the 45-game streak, Duke has a winning margin of 41.6 points in the 20 non-ACC games. In the 25 ACC games, the winning margin has been 20.8 points per game. The overall point differential becomes 28.0 points per game during the 45-game streak.

Duke's all-time record in Cameron is 603-135 for an 81.7 win percentage in the building which opened January 6, 1940. The 603 wins is the most in the ACC and fourth-highest total in the country on a current home court. The Blue Devils are coming off the most successful decade in Cameron history with an incredible 133-17 record in the 1990's.

Under Coach K, Duke owns a 245-42 record for an 85.4 winning percentage since 1980-81. Duke has also won 125 of its last 127 games against non-conference opponents in Cameron. During the stretch, the Blue Devils have reached the 100-point mark 45 times, including three times this season.

The only two losses to non-conference teams in Cameron since 1983 have come against Illinois on December 2, 1995, and Michigan on December 8, 1996. Duke's 45 straight wins at home is the second-longest streak in the country behind only Utah's 48 (the Utes play San Diego State at home February 10). Cincinnati has the nation's third-longest home winning streak with 41 (the Bearcats play at home again on February 13 vs. DePaul).

ACC & NATIONAL HONORS
Duke has had a player earn one of the two weekly ACC honors in each of the first three weeks of the season with the most recent being Jason Williams earning ACC Rookie of the Week honors on January 17. He earned the honor after averaging 15 points, five assists and four steals in wins over Georgia Tech and Florida State.

Freshman Carlos Boozer has twice earned ACC Rookie of the Week honors this season on December 13 and January 3. The first time came following his 25-point, 10-rebound performance at Michigan. Boozer converted 8-of-11 field goals and 9-of-11 free throws while also adding three blocked shots, two assists and a steal.

Boozer repeated the honor by scoring a career-high 28 points against William & Mary and converting 11-of-12 field goals and 6-of-7 free throws. Chris Carrawell was the ACC Player of the Week on Jan. 10 after two huge road wins over Virginia and Maryland. He had 25 points against Virginia and followed that with 20 in College Park.

BALANCING ACT LIKE NO OTHER
When the season started everyone asked where was Duke going to get its scoring and rebounding from since so much had been lost from a year before. Coach K's response was that it would take everyone. Guess what? That's exactly how it has turned out as all five starters are all averaging double figures in points and 4.6 or more rebounds a contest. A sixth player, Mike Dunleavy, comes off the bench and is averaging 10.1 points and 4.3 rebounds a contest.

Chris Carrawell leads the team in scoring at 17.7 points and 6.2 rebounds per game.

No Coach K team has ever featured six players scoring in double-figures or averaging 4.3 rebounds a contest.

DUKE'S YOUTH MOVEMENT
Duke's roster features seven freshmen with two in the starting lineup (Jason Williams and Carlos Boozer) and two more among the first off the bench (Mike Dunleavy and Nick Horvath).

As a group, the freshmen have scored 780 of the team's 1,607 points to account for 48.5 percent and 328 of the team's 738 rebounds for 44.4 percent of the totals. In assists, the freshmen class has dished out 159 of the team's 313 for 50.8 percent.

DUKE IS ALL FOR CHARITY
Hitting free throws has always been a way of earning points and in recent years the trend nationally has been a downward slide in shooting percentage from the charity stripe. At Duke, it has remained a part of the daily practice routine and it continues to pay off as the Blue Devils lead the ACC at 74.9 percent in all games (a 73.8 percentage in league contests).

For the year, Duke has made 344 free throws which is much more than its opponents have even attempted (289). Duke shot a season-high 82.8 percent from the free throw line against North Carolina A&T. The Blue Devils also made an impressive 32-of-40 against N.C. State on Jan. 19 in a 92-88 overtime thriller.

HIGH-SCORING BLUE DEVILS
Duke is once again among the national leaders in scoring by averaging a lofty 89.3 points per game in 1999-2000. Through games of January 24, the school's scoring figure ranked number two in the country, behind only TCU.

Last year, Duke led the country in scoring at 91.8 points per game and scoring margin at 24.6 points per game.

This year, Duke has had five games scoring over 100 points and recorded a streak of three straight against Michigan, North Carolina A&T and Davidson for the first time since 1996-97.

This year's scoring margin of 20.9 points per game ranked third in the country as of January 24. It was behind only Tulsa and Florida.

In seven ACC games, Duke is still averaging an impressive 88.0 points a game, which easily leads the conference. Duke's margin of victory over ACC foes is a league-best 18.1 points per game this season.

NATIONAL RANKINGS
Duke has been ranked a season-best No. 3 in both major polls the past two weeks and has now been ranked in the Top 25 for 68 consecutive polls. Duke re-entered the nation's Top Ten seven weeks ago after a five-week period of being in the second 10. During Mike Krzyzewski's career at Duke, the Blue Devils have spent an incredible total of 230 weeks ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 with 122 of those weeks in the Top 10.

Duke opened the 1999-2000 season with a streak of 43 straight weeks ranked in the AP Top 10 which was the longest active streak in the country. That streak was snapped in the first week when Duke lost its first two contests and fell to No. 18.

The Blue Devils finished the 1998-99 season on top of the national rankings for the first time since 1992. In fact, it was just the third time in school history that Duke has finished No. 1 in the final poll, joining the 1986 and 1992 squads.

Duke finished in the Top 10 in the final AP poll seven times in the 1990's, including eighth in 1997, third in 1998 and first in 1999.

Duke owns a 3-2 record, including three straight wins, against Top 25 teams in 1999-2000.

BLUE REIGN - THE 1990s & FOREVER
Over the past 15 years, the Blue Devils have dominated opponents outside the ACC by a wide margin. In that span, Duke owns a 242-32 record (88.3 percent) against non-conference teams, including the NCAA Tournament.

In the 1990's, Duke owned the third highest total of wins with 271 victories. Duke has also climbed into fourth place for the most all-time wins in NCAA history with 1,601.

Duke has a current streak of 58 straight wins over unranked opponents. The last loss to an unranked team came on December 13, 1997 at Michigan, 81-73. The Blue Devils were ranked No. 1 in the country entering that contest.

ACC DOMINATION - PART TWO
Duke has dominated ACC regular season play over the last three seasons, topping it with an unprecedented 16-0 record and an average winning margin of 24.3 points in 1998-99.

The Blue Devils are just the fourth league team to win three or more straight outright ACC regular season titles. The others were Duke (1963-66) and North Carolina (1967-69 and 1976-78).

Duke has won an ACC record 29 straight ACC regular season games and owns a 48-3 record in the last 51 such games. The only three losses were all to Top 10 ranked opponents.

ACC STANDINGS 1997-2000 
 No. School          W   L   Pct. 
 1.  Duke            50  5  .909 
 2.  North Carolina  38  17 .691 
 3.  Maryland        35  20 .636 
 4.  Wake Forest     28  28 .500 
 5.  Clemson         22  33 .400 
 6.  Florida State   20  35 .364 
 7.  N.C. State      20  36 .357 
 8.  Virginia        19  36 .345 
 9.  Georgia Tech    17  38 .309 



ACC STANDINGS IN THE 1990s 
No. School           W    L   Pct 
 1. Duke             109  47  .699 
 2. North Carolina   108  48  .692 
 3. Wake Forest       86  70  .551 
 4. Maryland          80  76  .513 
 5. Georgia Tech      73  83  .468 
 6. Virginia          69  87  .442 
 7. Florida State     56  72  .438 
 8. Clemson           60  96  .385 
 9. N.C. State        49  107 .314 


ACC REGULAR SEASON TITLES IN THE 1990s 
No.  School         Outright Share Total 
 1.  Duke           6        0     6 
 2.  North Carolina 1        1     2 
 3.  Clemson        1        0     1 
     Georgia Tech   1        0     1 
     Maryland       0        1     1 
     Virginia       0        1     1 
     Wake Forest    0        1     1

DUKE STARTS WITH "D"
The Blue Devils are continuing a long-standing tradition of outstanding team defense in 1999-2000 after multiple seasons of inspired efforts on the court.

Duke's field goal percentage defense of 39.1 in 1998-99 was the lowest in the Coach K era and the best at Duke since the 1959-60 squad limited opponents to 38.3 percent shooting from the field. This season, Duke's limiting opponents to 39.2 shooting percentage from the field and the steal rate of 10.1 per game has outpaced the 1998 team's 9.4 per game.

DUKE'S DEFENSIVE NUMBERS 
Category         1992  1993  1994  1995  1996  1997  1998  1999  2000 
Opp. FG Pct.     46.7  44.2  41.5  43.9  43.7  42.2  41.1  39.1  39.2 
Opp. 3pt FG Pct. 38.2  28.9  29.7  38.6  33.5  34.0  30.5  30.1  31.4 
Opp. Points/G    72.6  71.2  67.3  73.7  69.8  66.2  64.1  67.2  68.4 
Blocks/Game       3.9   5.0   6.0   4.4   3.6   4.0   5.1   6.3   6.4 
Steals/Game       8.2   8.4   7.1   5.7   6.0   8.5   9.4   8.9  10.1 
Opp. TO/Game      17.8 17.9  15.1  13.6  16.0  18.2  19.9  17.7  19.8

THE MINISTER OF DEFENSE (AND MUCH MORE) - SHANE BATTIER
Coach K has called Shane Battier one of the most fundamentally sound defensive players he has ever had in his program and for good reason.

The Birmingham, Mich., junior was named the National Defensive Player of the Year by the NABC in 1999 after setting the school record for most charges taken and leading the team with 65 steals and recording 43 blocked shots. Charges taken have become his specialty for in the past two seasons he has set the school record with 29 in 1997-98 and 36 in 1998-99. He has a team-high 16 this season for a career total of 81 heading into the North Carolina contest. On the offensive side of the ball, Battier has developed his game tremendously over the course of his career. This year, he is second on the team in scoring at 15.5 points per game, leads the league in free throw shooting at 84.0 percent and has connected on 45.5 percent of his shots from the field and 36.9 percent from three-point range.

REJECTION DEFENSE
Shane Battier has quickly moved up Duke's all-time rejection list, currently standing in fourth place with 138 career rejections. Against N.C. State on Jan. 19, he recorded five blocked shots to move pass Grant Hill for fourth on the career rejection list. He needs just eight more rejections to move past Christian Laettner for third all-time.

This year, Battier has already secured 42 such swats to lead the team and currently stands fourth in the ACC. A year ago, he had 43 rejections, the second-highest figure on the team.

Battier has had at least two blocked shots in 12 of the first 18 games. In addition, he had a career-high seven rejections at Maryland. Senior Chris Carrawell has also moved into the career top 10 list and will become the 10th player in Duke history to topple the century mark with two more.

SCORING LIST
Senior Chris Carrawell enters the UNC contest with 1,197 career points, which puts him 29th on Duke's all-time scoring list. Immediately ahead of Carrawell is Bernie Janicki with 1,247 points.

Getting close to the 1,000 point club is junior Shane Battier who has 892 points. He would be Duke's 46th player to go over the mark.

DEVIL TALES
Duke's freshman class has combined to make 35 starts this season, the most by any ACC team. Virginia's rookies have garnered the second-most starts by a league team with 23...Duke has won 46 of its last 54 games away from Cameron Indoor Stadium dating back to 1997... Duke has won 15 straight ACC road games, tying the school and ACC mark held by the Blue Devils' squads from 1962-64. Including ACC Tournament games, Duke's current winning streak stands at 25 straight. The ACC record for such a streak is 33 held by N.C. State from 1973-75....The Blue Devils have won 39 of their last 40 ACC regular season games.

Season Statistics

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