Notre Dame Basketball: 3 keys to upsetting Duke Blue Devils at home

2. Win the turnover battle

Turnovers are a huge part of the game. Most conference games usually come down to who can commit fewer turnovers than the other team. The team that usually commits the lesser amount of turnovers is the team that majority comes away with the victory in the end.

Notre Dame has always been a team under Mike Brey that really takes care of the ball. This year is no different as they are a team that for the most part does a great job of taking care of the ball and not giving away possessions with turnovers. This is expected from a senior-laden roster.

Duke and Notre Dame both come into this matchup ranked 18th and 19th when it comes to turnovers per game according to the NCAA website. The Blue Devils may be 18th in this category but they have had issues at times with the turnovers, especially in ACC conference games.

In the two conference losses they committed seventeen turnovers at home against Miami, and fifteen on the road at Florida State. Mike Krzyzewski has a younger roster again in his final year at Duke and sometimes with a roster that is full of multiple freshmen and sophomores turnovers do happen more often.

Notre Dame this season has played better on the defensive end of the floor. This past offseason Mike Brey made some changes with the coaching staff. One of those changes was bringing back Anthony Solomon for his third stint on the Irish bench. Solomon is a defensive-minded coach and that really is showing this year as the players really seem to be buying into his defensive philosophy and being more locked in on that end of the floor.

The Irish will need to try and speed up the Blue Devils and force them into at least past their average of ten turnovers. If they do they will find themselves in this game when it hits crunch time.