By: Ben McCormick
December 3, 2022
The No. 17 Duke Blue Devils open conference play today in Durham against the Boston College Eagles. The Blue Devils are fresh off a win over No. 25 Ohio State, their first top-25 win of the season. This game will be a bit of a stand alone in the conference slate, as Duke will go back on the road to New York, N.Y., to play Iowa on Dec. 6 and then back home vs. Maryland Eastern Shore on Dec. 10 before playing its first conference road game on Dec. 20 at Wake Forest.
After suffering its second loss of the season against No. 5 Purdue, Duke responded with a resilient win over a solid OSU team on Wednesday. The Blue Devils found success in sharing the ball as they tallied 16 assists, ten more than the Buckeyes. Five Blue Devils scored in double-figures, including Dereck Lively II, who crossed that threshold for the first time in his young career with 11 points.
Kyle Filipowski continues to be the Blue Devils' best player this season. The 6'11' freshman is averaging 15.4 PPG, 9.1 RPG, and 1.4 SPG to start his career. Jeremy Roach has brought a consistent and necessary voice for this team. He is averaging just south of 13 PPG to start his junior year.
As Lively showed flashes of what he can become over the course of the season, Duke can be more optimistic that he and Dariq Whitehead will consistently become larger threats as the season progresses. Current NBA rookie standout A.J. Griffin took a while to progress last season as well before having an 18 point breakout game vs. South Carolina State. Trust the process, they were ranked as the top-two recruits for a reason (even if it was an abnormal class with a massive amount of reclassifications).
Boston College comes into the matchup 5-3, coming off a 21-point loss at Nebraska. The Eagles look very similar to last season personnel wise. They are led in scoring by 6'3' senior guard Makai Ashton-Langford at 12.1 PPG. Despite embarrassing losses to Tarleton, Maine, and Nebraska, this is more or less the same Boston College team that made a lot of noise in the early rounds of last season's ACC Tournament. They are looking for a signature win to turn their season around, and there are few opportunities greater than getting an upset win as the visiting team in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
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