Indiana travels to Duke on Tuesday night as part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. The Hoosiers will look to upset the Blue Devils who are coming off their first loss of the season against Gonzaga. Can the Hoosiers pull off the surprise win or will Duke protect its home court?
Matchup: Indiana Hoosiers (5-1) at Duke Blue Devils (5-1)
Date and time: Tuesday, Nov. 27 at 9:30 p.m. ET
TV schedule: ESPN
Location: Cameron Indoor Stadium, Durham, NC
Everyone is talking about the fabulous freshman from Duke, especially Zion Williamson and deservedly so. They have been great so far. But Indiana has a pretty good freshman of their own in Romeo Langford. Langford is averaging just over 18 points a game and just under six rebounds per game. He along with Juwan Morgan (17.5 ppg and 9 rpg) has helped lead the Hoosiers to a 5-1 start on the year.
Last week was tough for Indiana as they lost to Arkansas and then had to come back against UC Davis and used a late run to put away Texas Arlington. Those two games were games the Hoosiers should have taken care of easily, but they are still learning to win after being somewhat of a surprise team in the Big Ten last year. Archie Miller has IU heading in the right direction and Tuesday is a big game to show where the Hoosiers stand in the country.
Duke is coming off their first loss of the year in the championship game of the Maui Invitational. Gonzaga jumped on them early and held off a great second half rally from the Blue Devils. Even in the loss, the freshmen were fantastic. RJ Barrett scored 23, Williamson added 22 and Tre Jones put in 17 of his own. Those three scored 62 of the Blue Devils 87 points. Coach K has put his faith in these freshmen and so far they look great.
The question in this game is can Indiana slow the tempo enough to in turn slow down the Blue Devils. Duke has excelled in running this year and will look to push the pace against the Hoosiers. Duke will run an offense but they have been more comfortable scoring in transition or letting Williamson go one on one when he gets a mismatch. Indiana will need to make this a half-court game and have Langford and Morgan working the two-man game. Morgan has been very good down low, but Duke has the size to counter that. How well Morgan can work down low will be another key for this game.
Indiana has the talent to stay with Duke, but for how long? Duke, according to ESPN matchup predictor, has a 77.2% chance of winning on Tuesday night and with the game being at Camron Indoor it could be even higher. If Indiana can grind this game to a very slow pace they can stay close, but Duke is very good at scoring a lot of points in spurts and could put this game away quickly. Look for Indiana to stay within striking distance in the first half but the talent of Duke (Williamson and Barrett) will take over in the second half and the Blue Devils win comfortably.