Duke vs. Florida State: 2018-19 college basketball game preview, TV schedule

The Florida State Seminoles will welcome No. 1 Duke to their home turf on Saturday afternoon, in a monster Atlantic Coast Conference clash.

TV schedule: Saturday, January 12, 2:00 pm ET. ESPN.
Arena: Donald L. Tucker Civic Center in Tallahassee, Fla.

Two top-15 teams out of the Atlantic Coast Conference are squaring off on Saturday afternoon, in a duel that has critical ramifications for the early part of the league race.

No. 1 Duke, which has captured eight contests in a row, will travel to a talented Florida State program ranked No. 13 in the AP top-25 poll.

The Blue Devils (13-1, 2-0), featuring a starting five that includes four of the premier freshmen in the country, absolutely crushed Wake Forest on Tuesday evening, 87-65, in the first true road tilt of the 2018-19 campaign for Duke.

Freshman forward Zion Williamson, perhaps the most electric player in all of college basketball, tallied a season-high 30 points along with 10 boards versus the Demon Deacons. This stud is totally must-see TV, and not just for his outlandish dunks.

The Seminoles (13-2, 1-1), meanwhile, got 41 points from their bench in a 68-62 triumph over struggling Miami on Wednesday night in Tallahassee, Fla.

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The Blue Devils possess a really strong resume at this juncture, with neutral-court conquests of Auburn, Kentucky and Texas Tech, along with a home success against Indiana. Duke’s lone loss in the present stanza is at a neutral site to highly rated Gonzaga by two points.

Florida State, on the other hand, has conquered Florida, Purdue and Winthrop in Tallahassee, and the Seminoles also defeated Connecticut, LSU and Saint Louis on neutral courts.

FSU’s pair of setbacks are to Villanova, the defending national champions, by a half-dozen points at a neutral site, and at No. 4 Virginia by 13.

The bottom line is that both the Blue Devils and the Seminoles are having excellent years to date. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Duke reaches the Final Four and perhaps captures a national championship. Florida State, in my opinion, is certainly capable of reaching the Big Dance’s second weekend.

During the 2017-18 term, the Blue Devils and the Seminoles faced off one time, with Duke collecting a 100-93 victory at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, N.C.

The Blue Devils are prolific on the offensive end, putting up nearly 91 points a game while shooting at a roughly 50-percent clip. Additionally, their defense is quite solid, allowing only 64 points.

FSU isn’t too shabby on offense, either, generating close to 79 points and connecting on 46 percent of its field-goal attempts. The Seminoles give up approximately 68 points on the defensive side.

Duke commands advantages in the majority of other statistical departments, such as rebounding, assists, blocks and steals. Florida State is better from the charity stripe, and it’s imperative that the Seminoles drive to the basket with frequency to land some easy points and get the Blue Devils’ big men into foul trouble.

Besides Williamson, Duke is guided by another freshman sensation, forward RJ Barrett. They each average more than 20 points per contest. On Jan. 9, the duo received inclusion to the John R. Wooden Award’s mid-season top-25 watch list. Florida State, conversely, has a nicely balanced scoring attack, with seven guys nabbing a minimum of seven points.

Next. Keys for Florida State to beat Duke. dark

Currently, the Blue Devils are No. 2 in the NCAA NET rankings, with FSU at No. 21. ESPN.com’s match-up predictor says that Duke has a 72.3 percent chance to prevail. This is no picnic for the Blue Devils competing on the road in a hostile environment, but I do feel that Duke has too much firepower for the Seminoles to contain.

Prediction: Duke 84 – Florida State 74

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