Ball Durham
Fansided

No. 2 Duke on the cusp of No. 1 ranking with Georgia State awaiting

By Kevin Connelly

Duke basketball freshman Cassius Stanley #2 drives between DeAndre Jones #55 and Rylan Bergersen #1 of the Central Arkansas Bears during the second half of their game at Cameron Indoor Stadium on November 12, 2019, in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
Duke basketball freshman Cassius Stanley #2 drives between DeAndre Jones #55 and Rylan Bergersen #1 of the Central Arkansas Bears during the second half of their game at Cameron Indoor Stadium on November 12, 2019, in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

The Duke Basketball team is on the cusp of being ranked as the No. 1 team in the nation and all the Blue Devils have to do is defeat Georgia State.

No. 2 Duke will host the Georgia State Panthers on Friday night, but the Blue Devils should not thing this is a game that is already in the bag.

All Mike Krzyzewski needs to do is show his team the score from Tuesday night as the No. 1 Kentucky Wildcats lost to Evansville in Rupp Arena.

More from Ball Durham

Duke is 3-0 on the season with wins over then No. 3 Kansas at Madison Square Garden, Colorado State, and Central Arkansas in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

In the win over Central Arkansas, point guard Tre Jones was injured and did not return to the game due to precautionary reasons, but Coach K anticipates Jones to be fine and the expectation is for him to be on the floor Friday night.

Jones only played nine minutes, virtually every single Blue Devil stepped up in the win over Central Arkansas and that should continue as the sophomore returns on Friday night.

Freshmen Vernon Carey Jr. and Matthew Hurt are arguably coming off their best games as Blue Devils as Carey Jr. posted his first collegiate double-double while Hurt posted a career high 19 points, which led Duke on Tuesday night.

Duke is the far superior team in this matchup and it will show on the court Friday night.

Coach K will once again have the chance to rotate basically his entire bench in the game, in the first half, and it’ll give the coaching staff to evaluate the talent and experience on the roster and who could help contribute later in the season.

With a win over Georgia State, Duke will head back to Madison Square Garden as the No. 1 team in the nation for the Empire Classic.

Duke and Georgia State will tipoff at 7:00pm EST from Cameron Indoor Stadium on Friday, November 15 and the game can be seen on the ACC Network.

PREDICTION: Duke 104, Georgia State 65

Home/Duke Basketball