Duke basketball: 3 keys to the Florida State rematch
By Jack Burgess
It’s time for Duke basketball to be more dominant on Coach K Court.
On Saturday, the unranked Florida State Seminoles (14-11, 7-8 ACC) travel to Durham to take on the No. 9 Duke Blue Devils (22-4, 12-3 ACC) at 6 p.m. ET in their second and final match-up of the regular season. The Duke basketball team is coming off quite the high from a nearly buzzer-beating victory on Tuesday night against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.
Duke looks to keep the momentum going as the program hosts the Seminoles for the final time in the Mike Krzyzewski era.
The last few games in Cameron Indoor Stadium have proven to be quite the challenge for the Blue Devils as they barely skid by Wake Forest after dropping a home game to the Virginia Cavaliers a week prior. So, what gives? It’s simple, really. If you look at each of Duke’s home losses this season, the squad has struggled with execution in the latter half of each game.
In the last three minutes of both the Miami and Virginia losses, Duke led by at least five points but ultimately missed shots and turned the ball over down the stretch to give the opposing teams an edge.
The same goes for the Wake Forest game. Duke led by seven points with three minutes to go but failed to execute from the field and turned the ball over four times. Luckily for the Blue Devils, the best dunking big man in the NCAA, Mark Williams, represents the Duke colors.
The recent trend of tight games in Cameron suggests that Florida State will come to Durham and serve the Blue Devils with yet another tough test. The Seminoles can certainly beat Duke on their home turf after handing the Blue Devils a loss earlier this season in Tallahassee.
With all that being said, here are three keys to a Duke basketball victory over the Noles this time.