ACC Hoops: #3 Duke Runs Past Cal, 78-57

The Duke Blue Devils (21-3, 13-1 ACC), got back into their winning ways against the California Golden Bears (12-13, 5-9 ACC) in the ACC nightcap Wednesday.

The Blue Devils kept their undefeated season alive defeating the Golden Bears 78-57 in relatively easy fashion. Cooper Flagg found his form after a lackluster 36 minutes against Clemson scoring 27 points and bringing in 5 rebounds with 3 assists.Proctor added 18 points, going 50% from beyond the arc making 3 of 6 three point attempts. Khaman Maluach got back into double double form with 10 points and 12 boards while Kon Knueppel stayed in single digits with 6.

Jeremiah Wilkinson was the bright spot for the Golden Bears scoring 21 points going 4 for 8 from the three point line. Andrej Stojakovic added 10 and the Blue Devils all but shut down Jovan Blackshear giving up 5 points on a 2-10 shooting night including 1-6 from deep.

The Blue Devils bench got a lot of burn Wednesday night. The Blue Devils played 11 players with 9 playing over 10 minutes. All the extra minutes only allotted 9 total points from the bench, an area that should be a strength for the Blue Devils. Mason Gillis returned after missing the two previous games with illness and was able to make one three point basket. The only other bench players to score were Patrick Ngongba II with 4, and Caleb Foster with 2. Maliq Brown fouled out with 0 points, 2 rebounds and 1 assist. “Showtime Slim” aka Isiah Evans went 0-4 from the night and has not been able to recreate the magic of making 6 threes in the first half against Auburn in the SEC/ACC Challenge.

The starters were able to bear the burden of scoring against the Golden Bears. The starting five scored 69 of the total 78 points. Coach Jon Scheyer was able to play around with different lineups against the Golden Bears. This could account for the lack of scoring for some players like Kon Knueppel as different players got burn with teammates they are not used to playing with. Most importantly for the Blue Devils, no one played over thirty minutes. Against the Tigers last Saturday, Cooper Flagg, Sion James, Tyrese Proctor and Kon Knueppel all played over 30 minutes with Proctor only sitting for a minute and Flagg for two. Looking forward, the Devils will need more production from their bench, if only giving the starters a break. It is difficult seeing a Duke team reaching the levels they want to reach with their starters playing close to 40 minutes a game with no days off to a maximum of one before another high level game. Good news for the Blue Devils is that there is still time to get the bench going with games against UVA, Miami and Florida State ahead.

Coming up this weekend, the Blue Devils host the Stanford Cardinal (16-9, 8-6 ACC) in a game the Cardinal must win to get their name back into the tournament conversation. The Cardinal have lost 3 of their last 4 games needing a big splash for the tournament committee.

Cal travels to Atlanta to take on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets winners against the mighty Clemson Tigers and Stanford Cardinal last week.