North Carolina vs Duke: 2022-23 college basketball game preview, TV schedule
By Joey Loose
The sport’s greatest rivalry reconvenes, can the Blue Devils hold serve at home or can the Tar Heels get back on track, hoping for a major boost?
TV schedule: Saturday, February 4, 6:30 pm ET. ESPN
Arena: Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, North Carolina
North Carolina (15-7) has certainly underachieved this season. This team isn’t much different than last year’s squad that marched to the national title game after a bit of a slow start to Hubert Davis’s first season in the helm. Now, the Tar Heels have been swept by Pittsburgh, dropping their most recent contest at home on Wednesday night. Can they bounce back this weekend?
Four starters are back from that Final Four squad, led by senior forward Armando Bacot (17.7 ppg, 11.3 rpg), one of the best players in the ACC and most impactful frontcourt pieces. Junior guards Caleb Love (16.5 ppg, 3.7 rpg) and RJ Davis (16.0 ppg, 5.0 rpg) have had impactful seasons as well, while the addition of the former Northwestern star Pete Nance (11.0 ppg, 5.9 rpg) has filled a key hole in the backend of this Tar Heels rotation.
Once the top team in the nation in the preseason, North Carolina is unranked and sits just 34th in KenPom and recently dropped to 43rd in the NET rankings. The Tar Heels generally avoid turnovers but haven’t been great at forcing them on the defensive end. This year’s team is struggling from beyond the arc, though the offense still remains efficient, thanks to the play of Bacot and this frontcourt.
Across the court, Duke (16-6) sits poised, hoping to upend their bitter rivals. Jon Scheyer’s first season as head coach hasn’t been exactly what many expected, as the Blue Devils sit outside the national rankings. Their performance in conference play has been choppy, dropping four of their six ACC road games. They did recently slaughter Georgia Tech on the road and will be playing from the comforts of Cameron Indoor this time.
In a lineup littered with top prospects and highly-rated recruits, freshman center Kyle Filipowski (15.8 ppg, 9.5 rpg) has been the standout all season long, with a slew of double-doubles in recent weeks. Junior point guard Jeremy Roach (12.2 ppg, 3.1 apg) has been vital for the Blue Devils, leading the team with 21 points in their most recent win against Wake Forest. Keep your eyes on freshman guard Tyrese Proctor (8.9 ppg, 2.8 apg), who had 16 points on Tuesday and is playing solid ball this season.
We already mentioned that Duke is unranked in the AP Poll, though they are up to 22nd in the NET rankings and sit 30th in KenPom. Other metrics may show other numbers, but the bottom line is that these Blue Devils are solid but underachieving for all the 5-star and high-level talent on this squad. The offense is not near where it’s been in recent years, though they do rank as one of the nation’s best offensive-rebounding squads; having a slew of blue-chip centers helps with that.
With these rivalry games, you often have to throw out the records and the standings, but these two teams are in pretty similar places. Neither of them is playing as well as we expected overall. North Carolina is coming off that rough home loss to the Panthers and will be looking to bounce back in a major way on the road. The Blue Devils, however, are looking to extend their home winning streak and get revenge for that loss in the Final Four last season.
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The battle between Filipowski and Bacot will be must-see television, but that’s not the only thing to watch. These teams are dripping with talent and potential. They just need a spark. For the Tar Heels, that might mean a great performance from someone off the bench, while the Blue Devils will want one of those underachieving 5-stars to really show out on the national stage. Since this game is in Durham, a slight edge is given to the Blue Devils, but make no mistake that North Carolina will be ready to play this game.