NCAA BASKETBALL NOTEBOOK: Blue Devils fall out of Top 25

All in all, the third-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish (21-1, 9-0) escaped with a 68-61 win over the Duke Blue Devils (16-7, 5-4) at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Monday. Against Duke “we played very good defense”, he said, and “got completely outplayed by North Carolina State in every category of the game”. “She definitely does not get the attention she deserves”. Duke began that season 9-3, then Krzyzewski stepped away and was replaced by interim coach Pete Gaudet – who went 4-15.

Allen now has 27 points as the double-digits points and rebounds are starting to add up for Blue Devils players. The Jackets have pulled down at least 40 rebounds in five of their last six ACC games.

McGraw called it “great confidence for our team to know that we can come in, not play particularly well… and come out with the win”.

Greenwell scored the last points of the period, a three that cut the Notre Dame lead to 22-14.

But the Blue Devils caught some momentum shortly before halftime after Irish junior guard Lindsay Allen and Duke freshman guard Angela Salvadores were whistled for offsetting technical fouls on a jump ball play. But they followed that with 10 empty possessions while Notre Dame took over. In just more than minutes, the Yellow Jackets reduced a 15-point deficit to seven with 58 seconds left to play.

Allen fouled out with less than a minute to go after hitting 7 of 10 from 3-point range.

Normally this would seem to be an easy game to overlook for Duke after having eight days rest, but the Vegas line only has the Blue Devils as a 3.5-point favorite and at this point Duke can’t afford to overlook anyone. Some may say the Blue Devils are on the bubble, as Duke is now in 10th place in the ACC. Duke currently has a RPI of 19 (according to KenPom.com), though. 500 or below after eight league games. The only loss came at Duke in 1997.

Associate head coach Jeff Capel was in charge during Coach K’s absence. Including that game, Duke has 10 regular season games remaining and five of those are against teams now ranked in the top 25.

A key for Duke will also be for Luke Kennard to get out of his recent slump.

The Bears (17-4, 6-2) are tied for the Big 12 lead with No. 1 Oklahoma and No. 9 West Virginia heading to the midway point of the conference schedule.