Best Duke basketball assist-turnover ratio in history
By Matt Giles
Duke basketball’s passing game was practically flawless versus The Citadel.
In Monday night’s 107-81 home win over The Citadel (3-2), the in-sync Duke basketball squad (6-0) committed only three turnovers. That alone tied five marks from past Duke Blue Devils as the program record for the fewest in a game.
The other three-turnover occurrences came against Gonzaga in 2015, UNC in 2002, NC State in 1981, NC State again in 1979, and UNC again in 1965. But none of these previous Blue Devil performances coincided with at least 25 assists, Duke’s total against The Citadel.
Although the official Twitter account for Duke basketball stats implied that the 2017-18 Blue Devils own the school’s best single-game assist-to-turnover ratio, that’s not true. No, their 32 dimes to five turnovers in a December 2017 home win over Evansville stands as the top assist-to-turnover margin; yet in terms of ratio, the 25-to-3 equates to 8.3 while 32-to-5 is only a 6.4 ratio.
In other words, in this regard, the numbers say that no Duke team has ever done it better than the one on Monday night.
A Duke basketball team effort
Junior small forward Wendell Moore led the way in The Citadel game with nine assists to zero turnovers. Freshman power forward Paolo Banchero also managed no turnovers while dishing out six dimes.
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Of the 10 Blue Devils who saw action, only Jaylen Blakes failed to register an assist. In fairness, though, the freshman point guard was on the floor for only five minutes.
Meanwhile, freshman shooting guard Trevor Keels was the only Blue Devil other than Blakes whose assist total didn’t outnumber his turnovers. No, he tallied one of each.
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No. 5 Duke hopes to continue its oh-so-crisp attack when facing No. 1 Gonzaga at 10:30 p.m. ET Friday in Las Vegas.