CHARLOTTE — Duke will play with the No. 1 national ranking next to its name for the first time this season when it takes the court in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament quarterfinals Thursday afternoon.
The Blue Devils face Georgia Tech with hopes of solidifying an NCAA Tournament No. 1 seed.
Duke (28-3) carries an eight-game winning streak into the postseason. The top-seeded Blue Devils won 27 games in each of their first two seasons under third-year coach Jon Scehyer.
They are not expecting anything to be easy despite dominating often during the regular season.
“We’ve been winning a lot of games big, which is great, hope we keep doing that,” Duke guard Sion James said, “but history says that it’s not going to be like that every game. We learned how to weather a storm, play through some physicality and find a way to win.”
In their most recent game — an 82-69 win at North Carolina on Saturday — the Blue Devils recovered from a seven-point second-half deficit.
“It was a real test of your trust in those moments,” Scheyer said. “And we showed we have great trust in each other in that situation.”
Eighth-seeded Georgia Tech (17-15) advanced with a 66-60 victory against ninth-seeded Virginia on Wednesday, buoyed by Duncan Powell’s 21 points. There were also big contributions from Naithan George, whose 13 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists left him just shy of the tournament’s first triple-double since 1963.
“Just having those guys around me, they just make it a lot easier,” George said in crediting teammates. “But just playing the right way is the main thing.”
Georgia Tech’s Baye Ndongo earned third-team all-ACC recognition when the teams were revealed Monday. Duke, meanwhile, collected big hardware. Eighteen-year-old Cooper Flagg was named the ACC’s Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year after averaging 19.4 points, 7.6 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game.
Kon Knueppel (13.7 ppg) joined Flagg on the All-Rookie squad while adding second-team all-ACC honors. Tyrese Proctor made the third team and 7-foot-2 freshman Khaman Maluach received honorable mention.
Duke welcomed back reserve Maliq Brown for the North Carolina game after he missed four games with a shoulder injury. He made an impact with eight points in 16 minutes.
“We have a versatile team, so certain games are going to just be somebody’s number more than others,” Scheyer said.
The Wednesday result gave the Yellow Jackets victories in four of their past five games. Two of those triumphs came against teams (North Carolina State and Miami) that didn’t qualify for the ACC tournament and another was against Pitt, which lost in the first round on Wednesday as the No. 13 seed.
Georgia Tech is in line for its first winning season since 2020-21.
When Duke and Georgia Tech met Dec. 21 in Atlanta, the Blue Devils won 82-56 behind Knueppel’s game-high 18 points. Ndongo had 14 points for Georgia Tech.
“That Duke team, obviously they’re different,” Powell said. “They’re long. They’re athletic. I look forward to the game, though, to be honest with you. The one thing I do know going into this game is that we’re playing our best basketball of the season.”
This will be the first Duke-Georgia Tech game in the ACC tournament since Duke won in the 2010 championship game.
–Bob Sutton, Field Level Media
