Next Up - Duke and Louisville Should be Fun But

Date 1/26 || Time 7:00 || Venue Cameron Indoor Stadium || Video ESPN

Duke and Louisville are scheduled to play Monday night but that’s not guaranteed given the weather in the Triangle and Louisville, among other locales. Nashville: we feel for you!

As of this writing, there is a serious amount of sleet and ice on the ground and more due on Sunday evening. So it’s entirely possible they may delay it. As for Louisville, if they’re able to get out at all, they won’t be flying until Monday.

And no matter what happens, it won’t be like the earlier game in the Yum! Arena. Why? Because it looks like Mikel Brown should play, and he makes a huge difference for the Cardinals.

In the first game, about three weeks ago, Louisville was missing Brown, and it showed. The Cards started a perimeter of Ryan Conwell, Adrian Wooley and J’vonne Hadley. It’s a fairly tall group – Conwell is 6-4, Wooley is also 6-4 and Hadley is 6-7.

None of them are natural point guards though and at that time, Louisville was also missing back up point Kobe Rogers.

And while it might have been nice to have had Rogers, Brown is by far the best of that group.

Brown was back against Virginia Tech and he had 20 points, 3 rebounds and 6 assists. He is clearly on the NBA radar as a first round pick and he’s probably going to be good when he gets there.

Against Virginia Tech, Pat Kelsey went with the 6-5 Brown, Conwell, Hadley, 6-11 Sananda Fru and 6-5 Isaac McKneely.

That’s likely to be met by Duke with 6-9 Carlos Boozer, 6-11 Patrick Ngongba, 6-8 Dame Sarr, 6-6 Isaiah Evans and 6-5 Caleb Foster.

At Louisville, remember, Kasean Pryor head-butted Ngongba in the chest and suckered him into responding, resulting in his third foul and a few seconds later, on Duke’s end of the court, he picked up his fourth.

From the cheap seats, it looked like Pryor got into Ngongba’s head and basically took him off the chessboard in about 20 seconds.

Fortunately for Duke, it didn’t much matter.

Louisville started that game incredibly hot behind a great first half from Conwell, who hit three quick threes and finished the half with 16 and helped the Cardinals take a 47-38 lead into halftime.

But Dame Sarr, who has emerged as an unbelievable defender, ultimately took him out of the equation. Conwell finished with 24 but wasn’t nearly as effective in the second half, a half that saw Duke outscore Louisville 46-26.

Brown’s return makes defending Louisville a more complicated affair. Presumably, Foster will get the basic assignment and of course, Duke switches a lot even if less so recently, so everything is a team response. Still, you have to deal with Brown and Conwell, not to mention Wooley, who is capable of explosive streak shooting, and Fru, who is also quite good. This group is no joke.

Duke, as you have probably noticed, tends to start slow this season. It’s gotten to the point where you don’t really worry about it because Duke seems to factor it in. They might start slow, but after spotting a team a lead, they start chopping into it and either in the first half, as we saw against Wake Forest Saturday, or in the second, the Blue Devils tend to adapt and prevail.

That’s worked 18 times so far and barely failed against Texas Tech, with Duke losing that game, 82-81. It’s not ideal, but it is a clear pattern and it has worked out pretty well so far.

Cameron Boozer is obviously going to be the focus for Louisville. He’s had two 30 point games in a row and people have gotten used to him being great. His lowest scoring game of the season was 14 against Niagara and he only played 21 minutes in that one. He’s probably the leading candidate currently for Player of the Year. He’s a lot to deal with for anyone.

Boozer’s great, but Ngongba has to be a concern for Kelsey and company too. He only played 10 minutes at Louisville and as noted, he let Pryor bait him into two consecutive mistakes.

However, he has played well since that game. He had 17 points and 5 rebounds at SMU, 8 points and 7 rebounds in an easy win at Cal, 13 points and 1 board in a blowout win over Stanford and 13 points and 7 rebounds against Wake Forest 7 Saturday. He’s also got plenty of motivation for this one. It won’t surprise us if Pryor tries another stunt; it would surprise us if he succeeded again.

Duke has a size advantage obviously but offensively, you can’t overlook Isaiah Evans. He had a weak effort against Texas Tech in December, only taking 4 shots and hitting just 1 of those.

Since then, he’s averaged 14.8 points and has done so even while not shooting as well as he might from three point range (he’s hit 20-53 in his last seven games for 37.7%).

The nice thing about this team is that so many parts are interchangeable. There is only one Boozer – okay, there are two – but Cameron is the most unique and important player on this team.

Otherwise, Duke doesn’t lose much when Maliq Brown comes in for Ngongbo, and improves defensively. Cayden Boozer is not as good a defender as Foster yet, but he’s come along and he’s a solid distributor who tends to make winning plays. Nik Khamenia replaces Sarr’s defensive intensity with offensive versatility and had a solid defensive showing against Wake’s Juke Harris, and while Darren Harris is the last guy in the rotation, he has become a hard-nosed hard worker. The Blue Devils lose little when he comes in.

Duke is almost certainly not going to finish the ACC play with a single loss. It could happen, but given the improvement in the ACC and the talent of rivals like Clemson, Virginia, NC State and UNC twice, not to mention the hazards of the ACC Tournament, it’s a big ask.

A healthy Louisville represents a major challenge. Like last time, injuries are an issue for the Cards. Khani Rooths, a promising 6-10 sophomore, is out with an illness and Ali Khalifa, who gave Duke some problems in the first game, is listed as probable but it’s not clear what his issue is.

Again though, it won’t matter if the game is postponed. We’ll update when we hear the final verdict.

• Then and now: What has changed since Duke men’s basketball first played Louisville? 
• Pat Kelsey provides update on Louisville’s travel plans vs. Duke amid historic winter storm
• ACC Releases Preliminary Injury Report for Louisville vs. Duke
• Will Khani Rooths play in Louisville basketball game vs. Duke?
• With Mikel Brown Jr. back in fold, No. 23 Louisville turns to No. 5 Duke
• Duke, Louisville Rematch Slated for Monday at Cameron – Duke University
• Vegas oddsmakers are sleeping on Louisville basketball ahead of huge Duke showdown
• Tale of The Tape, Predictions: Louisville vs. Duke
• Duke basketball quickly shifts focus to playing Louisville, weather or not