Duke vs Arkansas: 2023-24 college basketball game preview, TV schedule

Duke takes on Arkansas in Bud Walton Arena in a key early season matchup for two teams seemingly headed in two different directions.

TV schedule: Wednesday, November 29th, 9:15 pm ET, ESPN

Arena: Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Arkansas

Two teams headed in opposite directions will battle it out in a key early season matchup. Duke, outside of dropping a home game to Arizona, has looked as good as advertised, winning easily in every other game so far this season. Arkansas, on the other hand, has struggled mightily to find their groove. They were shocked at home, losing 78-72 to UNCG, and later lost to Memphis and North Carolina while squeaking out a double overtime victory against Stanford in their trip to the Bahamas. There is still a glimmer of hope for the Hogs, as this game will be played in the raucous Bud Walton arena, and they will need the crowd to help them get back on track Wednesday night.

Duke has all the makings of a national championship team, as they have an elite offense and a defense that can give you fits for 40 minutes. Kyle Filipowski is off to a flaming hot start, averaging 18.8 points to start the season. The Blue Devils have three additional double-digit scorers in Tyrese Proctor, Mark Mitchell and Jeremy Roach. They’re a veteran team, but the freshmen trio of Foster, McCain and Stewart give them a solid bench rotation, and Ryan Young can help down low when they need the size or if anyone gets into foul trouble. Something that is going to scare Arkansas fans coming into this one is the fact that Duke doesn’t have any glaring holes.

Arkansas has looked as disjointed as ever on both ends of the court to start the year. Their defense gives up a ton of open shots and has struggled with dribble penetration. In other words, they’ve gotten gashed pretty consistently. Their offense hasn’t been much better, as they end up standing still for 20 seconds, walking around and chucking up a prayer as the shot clock expires on most possessions.

The Hogs have plenty of capable scorers, especially El Ellis, Khalif Battle and Tramon Mark, but they have had an extremely difficult time figuring out how to coexist so far. Tramon Mark and Davonte Davis are also elite defenders, but that hasn’t translated into good team defense. The saving grace for this squad is that Eric Musselman’s teams tend to figure it out and get better as the season goes on.

Arkansas is going to need everything it can get from their home crowd if they hope to take down the 7th ranked Blue Devils and avoid dropping to 4-4 this early in the season. I love this Arkansas team, and I think they are extremely versatile and have a ton of potential, but that has been so far from the product they have put on the court so far. Duke, on the other hand, has shown that they are ready for another deep run come March, and the continuity their team has is going to be extremely difficult for Arkansas to overcome.

While Arkansas was able to beat Purdue in a preseason scrimmage at home, I’d have to imagine their current confidence levels are at an all-time low. I think they’ll be able to keep this game close for awhile, but ultimately Duke will prove to be too much.

Prediction: Duke 82, Arkansas 71