Allen leads No. 5 Duke past Michigan State 78-69

When: Tuesday, 9:30 p.m. He said during the preseason that Duke is “going to try to conduct our season appropriately” because the key question is “will we have all the talent available at the time you have the opportunity to win the championship?” “It should be a good matchup for us”. While Michigan State surely knows they are better than their 4-3 record I expect them to show the nation that they are.

“Grayson does not practice one second”, Krzyzewski said.

But beneath the surface, one question lingers: How much better will this team be once three injured freshman big men – Harry Giles, Marques Bolden and Jayson Tatum – are finally healthy enough to play?

Entering the game with graduate student Amile Jefferson and sophomore Chase Jeter as the team’s only post players, the Blue Devils faced a dilemma matching up man-to-man against the Spartans’ bigger frontline.

Izzo said his team has looked worn out during the opening weeks.

“We’ve been through the gauntlet, no question about it, but we competed nearly to the end”, Izzo said.

Now, this is the part of the program where we’re supposed to look down the Duke bench and find three potential lottery picks wearing street clothes and shrug off any concerns. That nearly never happens here.

A team captain, Bullough finished second on the team in tackles for loss (6.5 for 13 yards) and third in tackles (76) despite missing three games (Wisconsin, Indiana, BYU) due to an injury.

The Blue Devils are ranked fifth, they are loaded with perimeter shooters and have crushed everyone inside Cameron Indoor Stadium this season. “He’s been playing very hard, but he just got caught standing around a lot”.

“I feel like I’ve been doing this since my freshmen year”, Jones said of his defense. “We’ve got to protect our home court”.

Katie Lou Samuelson added 19 points for the Huskies, who have won 127 of their last 128 games and 52 consecutive at home. Michigan State needs to cut down on turnovers, play bigger than it is to win the rebounding battle and make free throws.

Valparaiso 65, No. 21 Rhode Island 62 • Alec Peters scored 27 points to help Valparaiso win at home.

Duke is trying to excel in different types of games. Matt McQuaid could be the x-factor, though, as he can get hot from behind the arc and the rest of the team follows that lead.

“We really challenged our guys that night and the next morning”, Izzo said of coming off the loss to Baylor and preparing to face Wichita State. “There’s a lot of encouragement”.

“We can’t go through the whole year with lingering injuries”, Krzyzewski told ESPN.com’s C.L. Brown earlier this month. Alabama quickly took control of the game and the Buccaneers (3-3) trailed by at least 10 points for the final 32 minutes of the game.

Duke freshman guard Frank Jackson has led his team in scoring three times, scoring in double figures in every game.

The spectacular play continued on Tuesday night as the Blue Devils used a rotation of six to knock off Tom Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans, 78-69, on Tuesday night at the Cameron Indoor Center.