Duke entered this year’s NCAA Tournament with high hopes, and after surviving a wild opening weekend which saw the No. 1 overall seed Kansas lose a shocker to No. 9 Northern Iowa, the Blue Devils are flying high. Of the 16 teams remaining, only Duke, Kentucky and Syracuse won their first two games by at least 15 points each, and the Orange have since been eliminated as well. The Blue Devils (31-5) will look to extend that scoring streak and avoid the upset bug Friday night in Houston when they take on No. 4 Purdue (29-5).
The teams last met Dec. 2, 2008 in West Lafayette for the ACC/Big Ten Challenge—a game that the Blue Devils won, 76-60. Duke’s victory was characterized by stellar defense, as the Boilermakers were limited to just 37.3 percent from the field. Robbie Hummel, a key contributor for Purdue, had a team-high 15 points and eight rebounds in that matchup. Hummel tore his ACL in February, though, and is sidelined for the rest of the year.
The Boilermakers’ coaching staff looks back to these teams’ last matchup as a turning point for its program.
“The game really helped us because our guys felt like they played hard before that, but after that game they know what playing hard really means,” head coach Matt Painter said.
Purdue also had lofty expectations for this season and rose as high as No. 3 in the country Feb. 22. After losing Hummel, however, Painter’s squad has struggled to score, averaging just 61.1 points per game. A strong defense and clutch play late, though, have kept the Boilermakers competitive and led them to two straight Tournament wins over No. 13 Siena and No. 5 Texas A&M.
“I thought [JaJuan Johnson] did a good job for us. He played good post defense,” Painter said. “He was beating the bigs down the court and getting in good position.”
Johnson, a 6-foot-10 center, is averaging 17 points and nine rebounds per game in the Tournament. He was the team’s leading scorer in its first-round game against Siena, and he is the best big man the Blue Devils have seen in the Tournament thus far. But without Hummel, the Boilermakers lack the overall size to match up with Duke inside. Johnson is the only Purdue player over 6-foot-6 who has averaged more than eight minutes per game this season. The Blue Devils—aware of the Boilermakers’ shortcomings— hope to exploit Purdue in the lane.
“Lance [Thomas] and I are definitely going to have to step up this game,” senior center Brian Zoubek said. “We have to attack the paint and grab rebounds.”
In its last game against No. 8 California, Duke’s big men won the battle on the glass thanks in large part to Zoubek’s 13 rebounds and Thomas’s nine. Purdue was outrebounded by 10 against Texas A&M and by five in its opening round matchup. Both coaches know how important the battle under the boards is.
“We have to be able to take care of the basketball, rebound and play at a high level,” Painter said. “We have to worry about what we can control. Those elements of the game are going to be very important.”
Luckily for the Blue Devils, they take care of the ball quite well. Senior guard Jon Scheyer holds the highest assist-to-turnover ratio of any player left in the Tournament, and gainst the Golden Bears, Duke turned the ball over a season-low five times. If the Blue Devils can protect the ball as well as they did in their last game, they will be very difficult to beat.
The Blue Devils know that it has been six years since they have reached the Elite Eight, and they are ready for their chance to extend this Tournament run.
“[Purdue] might have some incentive from last year’s game, but we know we lost in this round last year,” junior guard Nolan Smith said. “We want to go further. We’re a hungry team.”
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