After losing on the road at North Carolina, Duke Basketball (24-2, 13-1) has been dominant. They’ve won three straight games, coming off a 101-64 home win over Syracuse. But their next opponent is the toughest of the season, taking on No. 1 Michigan (25-1, 15-1 Big Ten). Outside of a home loss to Wiscosin, the Wolverines have been nearly perfect, coming off a 91-80 road win at Purdue.
A case can be made that this is the toughest opponent for both sides in this top-3 neutral site matchup. Focusing on Duke’s side of things, here are three keys to the game to get the big win.
1. Quality interior defense
There’s a great case to make that Duke has the best defense in the country, and somehow, even better on that end compared to the Blue Devil team from a year ago. But they’ll be tested by the Wolverines, who run a three-big lineup featuring Yaxel Lendeborg, Morez Johnson, and Aday Mara. Duke’s centers, Maliq Brown and Patrick Ngongba are two of the best defenders in the country and Cameron Boozer is also fantastic. But they’re going to have to defend well without fouling and will need to slow down the versatile Lendeborg at the three-spot.
2. Continued stellar play from Isaiah Evans
It’s a given that Duke needs Cameron Boozer (22.8 ppg and 10 rpg) to have a big game for them to have a chance. But there’s just as much importance on the team’s second-best scorer Evans, who’s averaging 14.7 ppg on the season and in the last three games, putting up nearly 20 ppg on 12/21 shooting from deep. He’s capable of going nuclear, especially from beyond the arc, and to take some pressure off of Cameron, Duke needs Evans to have a strong outing.
3. X-factor emerging from the role players
Even with that being said, it may not be enough for just Cameron Boozer and Evans to have big games against another elite defensive unit in the Wolverines. There are several others in the rotation with the potential of being double-digit scorers, including freshmen wings Dame Sarr and Nikolas Khamenia. They’re likely to need to find 10+ points from one of these guys against Michigan, with Cayden Boozer and Caleb Foster also other candidates to watch, as they’ll need to outplay Elliot Cadeau and LJ Cason on the other side to get the win.