Duke is back in Top 25 after 2 weeks out of poll

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) – Grayson Allen banked in a shot at the buzzer, and Duke beat No. 7 Virginia 63-62 on Saturday.

Virginia has to be asking themselves: What do we need to do? Duke jumped from outside of the poll to No. 19 following wins over Louisville and Virginia at Cameron Indoor, and Kentucky moved up seven spots to No. 14 after a pair of massive wins over Georgia and No. 23 SC.

Seventh-ranked Virginia – dropping the Cavaliers in the polls after a setback such as this would be folly – never blinked Saturday, not even when freshman Brandon Ingram channeled his inner LeBron and scored 18 straight Duke points.

Riding a four-game win streak, the Blue Devils are back in the Associated Press Top 25 after a two-week hiatus, and they could take a huge leap forward to the NCAA tournament with a win in the hostile environment of the Dean Dome. Duke is coming off a 72-65 home win over Louisville and it now is in the midst of a four-game streak against ranked opponents with today’s game vs. Virginia and games against UNC and Louisville on tap for next week.

Let’s go to 2000 when Duke was #3 and took on an unranked Heels team that took mighty Duke to overtime before losing 90-86. The game had eight lead changes as the two heavy-weights traded blows in the second half.

The NBA All-Star Game averaged 7.6 million viewers, up six percent from previous year according to the Nielsen Ratings. In their previous three games, the Blue Devils had shot 47.2 percent from beyond the arc. He finished with 25 points, 7 rebounds, and 1 assist.

“We just had to pick our poison in a way”, Bennett said.

I think you get the picture…

The two biggest weaknesses of this Duke team is their extremely short bench and lack of big men, but Amile Jefferson’s inevitable return will help solve both of those issues.

Meanwhile, after outrebounding Duke 16-10 in the opening stanza, the Cavaliers were outrebounded 24-10 in the second half. It is rare that all 4-5 of their shooters will be off on the same night, but if they are, Carolina will run the Blue Devils out of the gym due to their inability to score inside. “We’re holding teams under 70, but we have goals of holding teams under 60 and under 55, so [we’re] just kind of raising the standard for defense”.

Jones hit another 3-pointer, this one in transition from the right corner, to put Duke up 51-44 with 12:18 remaining. “I though we made the right decisions to go with Malcolm on Ingram, but they certainly have some talented offensive pieces”.

The Cavaliers have plenty of upperclassmen leadership on their squad, and senior forward Anthony Gill dominates the glass for Virginia, as he leads the team with 5.9 rebounds per game.

On Tuesday, it will be two Big 12 games as No. 10 West Virginia is at No. 24 Texas and No. 13 Iowa State is at No. 25 Baylor.