NC State basketball opponent scouting report: Duke

NC State basketball is 11-4 overall and 1-3 in the ACC after a road loss at Clemson last Friday. Now the Wolfpack returns to PNC Arena for the first time since before Christmas. NC State is hosting No. 16 Duke for a 7 p.m. tipoff on Wednesday.

The game can be seen on ACC Network.

Here is a rundown of what to expect from Duke.

Duke overview

A new era has begun for Duke, and for many NC State basketball fans, for the first time in their life a different head coach will be on the Blue Devils’ bench.

Legendary Hall of Famer Mike Krzyzewski retired after coaching at Duke for 42 seasons and winning a college basketball record 1,202 games overall, with 1,129 of them coming for the Blue Devils. He won five national titles, 15 ACC Tournaments and went to 13 Final Fours while at Duke.

In 2010, Duke won both the ACC and NCAA Tournaments behind a backcourt that included All-American senior guard Jon Scheyer, who averaged 18.2 points per game. After a brief professional stint overseas, Scheyer returned to Duke in 2013 and was promoted to full-time assistant a year later. As part of the transition to the post-Krzyzewski era, Scheyer was named coach-in-waiting before the 2021-22 season.

In Year 1 under Scheyer, the Blue Devils enter Wednesday’s contest with NC State at 11-3 overall and 2-1 in the ACC. All three defeats have been away from Durham, including an 11-point setback at Wake Forest in the Blue Devils’ only true road contest.

The other defeats have been to Kansas and Purdue on neutral courts. NC State also lost to the Jayhawks in a neutral setting. Both Kansas and Purdue are currently on pace to be No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament. The Blue Devils played Kansas close, losing a late lead in the second half, but lost in lopsided fashion to the Boilermakers.

Rankings

NCAA’s NET rankings: Duke checks in at No. 16 (out of 362 teams). NC State basketball is No. 64.

ESPN’s BPI: The Blue Devils are No. 18. The Pack is No. 53.

KenPom.com: Duke is No. 14. The Wolfpack is No. 59.

Three Duke players to watch against NC State basketball

Freshman forward Kyle Filipowski: Among the seven-member freshman class for Duke, Filipowski has been the most productive thus far. He leads Duke in scoring and rebounding with 13.8 and 8.6, respectively, per game.

The 7-footer also is part of one of the biggest challenges NC State will face against Duke: the Blue Devils’ imposing size. Filipowski’s skill set allows Duke to go big. He has three-point range, having made 14 shots beyond the arc this year.

Freshman forward Mark Mitchell: The headliners of Duke’s top-ranked recruiting class were Filipowski, center Dereck Lively II and forward Dariq Whitehead, each of whom was in the On3 Consensus top five.

However, Mitchell, who was rated No. 24 in the On3 Consensus rankings, has been the most consistent next to Filipowski. The 6-foot-8, 220-pounder has scored in double figures seven times and is averaging 9.7 points per contest.

Mitchell is one of the better shooters that NC State will have to account for on defense. He shoots 51.5 percent from the field, including making 12 of 26 threes (a team-high 46.2 percent).

Junior guard Jeremy Roach: An extremely young team coming to a hostile PNC Arena against NC State will be led by a veteran point guard presence in Roach.

Thus far, Roach is averaging career-bests with 12.5 points and 3.4 assists per game for the Blue Devils. Although his percentage is only 33.3 percent from long range, Roach has seven games in which he had made multiple three-pointers.

Three things NC State basketball should expect from Duke

1. A tall lineup: Duke will likely start a pair of 7-footers in Filipowski and Lively, with the 6-foot-8 Mitchell at small forward. That compares to NC State, who uses a three-guard lineup with a trio of players 6-foot-4 or shorter.

Duke also regularly plays two players off the bench who are 6-foot-10 or taller, and the Blue Devils feature two reserve wings who are 6-foot-5 and 6-foot-6 respectively. Compared to the seven players Duke uses in a given game 6-foot-5 or taller, NC State is likely to use just four who can make that claim.

The Blue Devils will have a significant size advantage over the Wolfpack.

2. A strong defensive effort: In Scheyer’s debut season, Duke is playing some of the Blue Devils’ best defense in years.

They lead the ACC in lowest three-point percentage allowed (27.8 percent) and rebounding margin (+9.36) and are second in points per game allowed (60.9), fourth in defensive rebounding percentage (74.9 percent) and fifth in field goal percentage allowed (40.6 percent) and blocked shots a contest (4.3).

NC State cannot afford to have a cold shooting night versus a team that will already be a challenge to score against.

3. A so-so shooting team: What has hurt Duke most this season is the Blue Devils are not efficient, yet, on offense. Duke shoots just 44.4 percent from the field and 32.6 percent on three-point range, both of which are 11th in the ACC.

However, NC State will need to be strong on the glass to take advantage of any poor shooting from Duke. The Blue Devils grab rebounds on a league-best 38.7 percent of their misses.