Duke at Notre Dame: 2021-22 college basketball game preview, TV schedule

Monday night in an unexpectedly important game in the ACC, Notre Dame plays host to Duke. Duke has eyes on first place, but Notre Dame is eyeing a signature win. Here’s a preview of the key battle.

TV Schedule: Monday, January 31, 2022, 7:00 PM ET, ESPN

Arena: Purcell Pavilion, South Bend, Indiana

With the hierarchy in the ACC behind the lone-ranked Duke Blue Devils a jumbled mess, every game in the league, especially one against those Blue Devils takes on added significance. Notre Dame gets their shot at the Blue Devils on Monday night in a game that was originally scheduled for New Year’s Day but was postponed.

It seems fitting that in Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s swan song that Duke would be a national title contender, and the 17-3 Blue Devils certainly are. Duke is 7-2 in conference play putting them a half-game behind perhaps the surprise of the ACC, conference-leading Miami. Duke enters their visit to Notre Dame winners of six of their last eight with losses to Florida State and Miami by a combined three points.

The Blue Devils are led by freshman Paolo Banchero who not only leads the team in scoring with 17.6 points per game and in rebounding with 8.3 boards per game, but those numbers have gone up during conference play. The future NBA lottery pick leads the conference in scoring, netting 18.9 per game, and trails only UNC’s Armando Bacot in rebounding with 9.4 per contest.

Junior Wendell Moore, Jr. is the elder statesman of the rotation, doing a little bit of everything for the team. He’s joined by a pair of sophomores, Jeremy Roach and Mark Williams, and two other freshmen Trevor Keels and A.J. Griffin in leading the team statistically. The quartet of underclassmen has accounted for 39 points and 16.6 rebounds per game.

But the Blue Devils aren’t their warts, since the beginning of conference play they have had an issue turning the ball over. They rank 13th in the conference in turnover margin at -2.44 and over their last eight games have averaged 11.9 turnovers per game. On most nights the talent is enough to overcome the miscues but it is something to keep an eye on as postseason play approaches.

If you told coach Mike Brey at the beginning of the year that he would end January with a game against Duke and you’d be tied with them in the standings he would surely take it. That is where the Fighting Irish finds themselves entering Monday night. Notre Dame sits at 14-6 and a league record of 7-2 and has been just as hot as the Blue Devils entering this game, having won seven of eight since the original meeting was postponed on New Year’s Day.

Offensively they are led by junior guard Dane Goodwin and freshman Blake Wesley who net 30.4 of the team’s 71.6 per game average. The Fighting Irish do a couple of things well, shoot the three and play defense. Three-pointers are a big part of the Irish’s game as they account for nearly 40% of the team’s point production and average 24 attempts per game and they make 38% per game and during league play, they have made an ACC best 10.2 per game. Over the last four games, all wins they have allowed Just 67 points and allowed their opponents to shoot 44% from the field and 33% from deep while forcing 39 turnovers.

At the beginning of the year, not many would’ve pegged this game to have much importance during league play, but here we are. The talent advantage belongs to Duke and Notre Dame will need their frontcourt to slow down Banchero and Williams and if they can manifest Duke’s turnover issues while knocking down some timely threes, Duke could be on upset alert.

Prediction: Duke 75, Notre Dame 70