Let’s examine three important keys to victory for the Spartans heading into this blue blood match-up between the Duke Blue Devils and Michigan State Basketball in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.
Michigan State Basketball head coach Tom Izzo is 2-11 against Duke and Coach Mike Krzyzewski in his time as the head of the program for Spartans but he looks to win two in a row against the Blue Devils. Duke once again has a group of highly talented freshmen who are looking for redemption from a shocking home loss to Stephen F. Austin. Both teams have aspirations to win a national title this season after both teams have lost a game that they shouldn’t have lost last week.
Based on last week’s AP poll, this match-up between the Spartans and Blue Devils was heading into this week looking like a top 3 match-up between No. 3 Michigan State and on No. 1 Duke. This week’s AP Poll has this game now as a No.11 Michigan State vs. No. 10 Duke top 15 battle. This game for the Blue Devils will be played late Tuesday night in East Lansing in front of what should be a very lough Izzone in a rematch of the close and competitive 2019 Elite Eight game won by Michigan State.
The Blue Devils like many other years has a different looking team from last season due to three underclassmen be drafted in the top 8 of the NBA draft last June. Duke usually loses freshmen and sophomores to the NBA draft due to Coach Krzyzewski recruiting many talented players who are ready to be drafted after a year or two in Chapel Hill. However, Duke has a trio of three very talented players in Wendell Moore, Vernon Carey, and Matthew Hurt.
The Blue Devils also have sophomore guard Tre Jones who decided not to enter the NBA draft after his freshmen season as well as key role players in Joey Baker and Jack White. The biggest setback for Duke, however, is losing their third-leading score Cassius Stanley to injury. The Blue Devils are talented and they will be a challenge for the Spartans.
The Spartans are entering this game at 5-2 after winning two out of their three games in the Maui Invitational. Even though they beat two talented power five schools in Georgia and UCLA, both schools are works in progress and both teams kept it somewhat close against the Spartans. Michigan State does have a very impressive road victory at Seton Hall but they lost on neutral courts to Kentucky and Virginia Tech by 7 and 5 points respectfully. The Spartan’s defense has been consistently solid but their offense at times stalls and always teams to come back from deficits.
Michigan State is looking forward to hosting a power conference ranked team in non-conference play which they have not done since November of 2017 when they hosted No. 5 Notre Dame. Now let’s take a look at the three key storylines for the game.