Duke vs Florida State: 2021 ACC Tournament game preview, TV schedule

The Duke Blue Devils look to keep its season alive with a quarterfinal matchup set against Florida State.

TV schedule: Thursday, March 11, 6:30 pm ET. ESPN

Arena: Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina

One of the biggest storylines this week will be the fate of the Duke Blue Devils. They finished the regular season with three straight losses to put their NCAA Tournament hopes in extreme peril. Duke’s resume may already be in rough enough shape to where they’ll need an automatic bid but at the bare minimum, will need to make a deep run in this year’s ACC Tournament.

So far, the Blue Devils have done. After easily handling Boston College, the Blue Devils took on Louisville on Wednesday in the second round. They got off to a big lead in the first half, before the Cardinals went on a 16-0 run to take the lead into halftime. But Duke came out firing in the second half, scoring 40 points and taking over, eventually leading to a 70-56 victory.

Matthew Hurt had 20 points in another effective game but the star was freshman center Mark Williams, who went for a season-high 23 points and 19 rebounds, seven coming on the offensive end. His emergence has given the Blue Devils more offensive potency and could make them real threats to make a run in this ACC Tournament.

They’ll be taking on the No. 2 seed Florida State Seminoles, who last time on the court lost to Notre Dame to lose out on the ACC Regular-Season title. They should be motivated and rested, while the Blue Devils will be running on pure adrenaline, playing three games in three days. That’ll be tough against a team that plays 11 players regularly and has plenty of size, including 7’1 center Balsa Koprivica and Raiquan Gray, who averages 12.4 ppg and a team-leading 6.9 rpg.

One key will be how Duke deals with freshman Scottie Barnes off the bench. His versatility will be a weapon against guards DJ Steward and Jeremy Roach, who each have been struggling a bit as of late.

Due to pauses and postponements, these two programs actually didn’t meet in the regular season. The Seminoles would love to be the team that ends the Blue Devils’ season, while a win over Florida State would be what’s needed to get Duke back in the heart of the bubble conversation.

In this game, Duke will need the guards to play very well, as both Hurt and Williams will be dealing with the size and depth of the Seminoles frontcourt. And with Barnes wreaking havoc on both ends of the court, I believe it’ll be too much for what should be a tired Blue Devil squad on Thursday.

Prediction: Florida State 74, Duke 67