When Duke fans last left Cameron Indoor Stadium 11 days ago, their team’s first home loss to N.C. State in more than 20 years had sent them into shock. The Blue Devils were below .500 through seven ACC games and a season that began with a preseason No. 1 ranking appeared to be spiraling out of control with head coach Mike Krzyzewski sidelined following lower-back surgery.
But with a pair of consecutive road victories—Duke’s first two of the season—the Blue Devils appear to have found a bit of a groove as they begin a stretch with Krzyzewski back in action and four of their next five games at home.
No. 21 Duke will host Pittsburgh at 1 p.m. Saturday after the Blue Devils picked up an 84-74 victory at No. 20 Notre Dame Monday night in which they led the entire second half. Just two days after sophomore Luke Kennard put on a show with a 30-point second half and shot 10-of-10 from the field during the final 20 minutes at Wake Forest, it was freshman Jayson Tatum’s turn against the Fighting Irish. The swingman registered his first career double-double as he led a more decisive Duke offense—one that has executed efficiently down the stretch since losing to the Wolfpack.
But where the Blue Devils really excelled in South Bend, at least for the first 20 minutes, was on the defensive end of the floor. The team announced Thursday evening on Twitter that Krzyzewski will return as expected four weeks after his surgery, and will look to keep rolling with its home game against No. 12 North Carolina looming next Thursday.
“To be able to come on the road the past three days in two sold-out hostile environments, to be able to get wins speaks volumes of our guys,” Duke interim head coach Jeff Capel said in his postgame press conference Monday. “We’re growing up.... I think all of the things that we’ve been through have helped us become tougher, helped us become more together and figure this thing out.”
After surrendering 83.5 points per game in their previous two contests, the Blue Devils locked down on the ACC’s best 3-point shooting team throughout the first half Monday. Notre Dame hit just 2-of-10 triples and only converted 26.9 percent of its field goal attempts as Duke (17-5, 5-4 in the ACC) jumped out to a 37-25 halftime advantage. And although the Fighting Irish came out firing from the field to start the second half, the Blue Devil defense suffocated Notre Dame’s offense late, holding the hosts to just two made baskets in the final six minutes.
“We got out to a big lead, and I think we really played great defensively,” Kennard said Monday night. “It started on the defensive end for us. We were able to share the ball.... It was great, and it’s fun to play that way.”
Facing the Panthers in Durham for just the second time since they joined the league prior to the 2013-14 season, Duke will be looking to extend its home win streak against Pittsburgh (12-10, 1-8) to two.
The Panthers enter the game at the bottom of the ACC standings, yet put up a fight for all 40 minutes Tuesday night at No. 12 North Carolina and upset then-No. 11 Virginia earlier in the season. Pittsburgh missed a game-winning 3-pointer as time expired and the Tar Heels snuck away with an 80-78 victory, but the Panthers’ top offensive weapons showed their prowess again facing a top-tier league opponent.
Seniors Jamel Artis and Michael Young—the ACC’s two leading scorers at better than 20 points per game apiece—combined for 36 at North Carolina and the duo got a heavy dose of support from Cameron Johnson, who drained six of his nine 3-point attempts.
A redshirt sophomore guard, Johnson has started all 22 of Pittsburgh’s contests and shoots better than 40 percent from deep after playing a little less than 12 minutes a night last season.
Unfortunately for the Panthers, their secondary offensive production essentially ends with Johnson. He, along with Artis and Young, make up almost 70 percent of the Pittsburgh scoring offense and no other Panther is averaging more than seven points per game. Pittsburgh also boasts a pair of talented rebounders in Young and fellow senior forward Sheldon Jeter—who leads the team with 7.5 boards per contest—to battle the Blue Devils on the glass.
But the Panthers ultimately could have trouble keeping up with a hot Duke offense if the Blue Devil defense is able to contain even just one of their leading scorers. Pittsburgh has also suffered ugly, lopsided losses at home to then-No. 13 Louisville and Miami, so Duke could also notch its first rout in ACC play since a 53-point blowout against Georgia Tech in its ACC opener.
“We’ve become tougher, more together, understanding how much we need each other, understanding how hard we have to play every possession,” Capel said. “We’ve had to learn these things in the fire which is the ACC, but the last two games on the road in these hostile atmospheres, we’ve done a really good job, and now we have to build on it.”
Hank Tucker and Brian Pollack contributed reporting.
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Twitter: @mpgladstone13
A junior from just outside Philadelphia, Mitchell is probably reminding you how the Eagles won the Super Bowl this year and that the Phillies are definitely on the rebound. Outside of The Chronicle, he majors in Economics, minors in Statistics and is working toward the PJMS certificate, in addition to playing trombone in the Duke University Marching Band. And if you're getting him a sandwich with beef and cheese outside the state of Pennsylvania, you best not call it a "Philly cheesesteak."