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Josh Wilson Previews Indiana-Duke
The Indiana Hoosiers travel to Durham, NC tonight to take on the Duke Blue Devils in the annual ACC/BigTen Challenge. The game tips at approximately 9:30 pm on ESPN. Both teams come into tonight’s contest with similar records of 5-1. Indiana’s only blemish coming on the road to a solid Arkansas team, while Duke’s only loss came from the instant classic that was the Maui Jim Maui Championship game, where Duke fell to #1 ranked Gonzaga.
Romeo Langford leads the Hoosiers in scoring at 18.5 ppg, while shooting 52% from the field. Langford has done most of his damage inside the paint so far this season. He looks to improve his outside shot along with a sub-par FT% currently at 65.9%. It won’t be an easy task to accomplish that inside Cameron Indoor, but the talented Freshman hasn’t looked shaken yet when called upon. Duke is led in scoring by fellow freshman, RJ Barrett. Barrett is currently averaging 22.8 ppg while shooting 40.8% from the field. He is certainly not afraid to put up some shots. We all know the danger the other two freshman present from Duke as well. Zion Williamson and Cam Reddish will certainly pose problems for the Hoosiers. But the one thing IU has going for them so far this season is their defense. The Hoosiers are currently allowing only 60 points per game, while Duke is scoring almost 92 a game. Something will have to give tonight’s matchup. I am curious to see how Indiana responds to an atmosphere that is most certainly going to be more electric than what they experienced at Arkansas. Not as many fans can fit inside Cameron Indoor, as the almost 20,000 Arkansas fans packed into Bud Walton Arena. But Cameron Indoor can be very loud. Looking forward to see how Indiana’s freshman handle it and how Juwan Morgan, Justin Smith, and maybe Devonte Green and Zach McRoberts lead the Hoosiers through the challenge.
Prediction:
Duke - 82
Indiana - 68