Game Day: Duke

Duke Blue Devils (14-3, 2-2) vs Louisville Cardinals (14-3, 2-2)

Saturday, Jan. 14

12:04 p.m. ET

KFC Yum! Center

Louisville, Ky.

Television: ESPN

Radio: WKRD (790 AM)

GAME LOOK

Louisville will play its second of three straight at home in the KFC Yum! Center as the Cardinals face the Duke Blue Devils on Saturday.

Louisville won for the ninth time in its last 11 games in beating Pittsburgh 85-80 on Wednesday as Quentin Snider led the Cardinals with 22 points and five assists and Donovan Mitchell added 15 points, eight rebounds, three assists and three steals.

UofL had a 45-30 rebounding advantage and led by as many as 26 points early in the second half. Duke (14-3, 2-2 ACC), ranked seventh by both AP and USA Today, has won 12 of its last 14 games, but lost 88-72 at Florida State on Jan. 10 in its last game.

The Blue Devils had won 10 straight before falling at Virginia Tech on Dec. 31 in their only other ACC loss.

About Duke

Louisville will play its second of three straight at home in the KFC Yum! Center as the Cardinals face the Duke Blue Devils on Saturday. Duke (14-3, 2-2 ACC), ranked seventh by both AP and USA Today, has split its last four games, falling 88-72 at Florida State on Jan. 10 in its last outing. Luke Kennard (23 points) and Jason Tatum (21 points) led the Blue Devils at Florida State, where they shot 41.1 percent from the field and were outrebounded 38-30.

Duke is seventh in the nation in scoring margin (+18.6), 18th in scoring offense (84.5 ppg), 10th in three-point field goal defense (.291), 15th in three-point field goal percentage defense (.291), 29th in free throws made (306), 36th in rebounding margin (+6.1) and 29th in field goal percentage (.483).

Duke has won its home ACC games against Georgia Tech and Boston College while falling at Virginia Tech and Florida State. The Blue Devils had won 10 straight before falling at Virginia Tech on Dec. 31.

Assistant coach Jeff Capel is serving as acting head coach while Mike Krzyzewski recovers from lower back surgery. Capel was the head coach at Oklahoma when the Cardinals beat the Sooners 78-48 in the 2008 NCAA Tournament second round in Birmingham, Ala. (3-23-08).

UofL went on to reach the NCAA Elite Eight that season. Duke is No. 13 in the RPI, No. 6 in the Sagarin Ratings and No. 9 by Ken Pomeroy through Jan. 11.

Duke has a 7-5 series edge over Louisville and the teams split last year’s two meetings: Duke won 72-65 in Durham when Donovan Mitchell led UofL with 17 points off the bench (2-8-16); and the Cardinals prevailed 71-64 in Louisville (2-20-16) as Damion Lee scored 24 points and Chinanu Onuaku added 10 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots for the Cardinals.

The Cardinals earned their second national title as they prevailed 72- 69 over Duke in the 1986 NCAA Championship game behind Final Four Most Outstanding Player Pervis Ellison’s 25 points, 11 rebounds and two blocked shots (3/31/86). Louisville beat the Blue Devils 85-63 in the 2013 Midwest Region championship in Indianapolis, Ind. en route to the Cardinals’ third NCAA title (3-31-13).

UofL Coach Rick Pitino has a 2-4 record vs. Duke (2-3 at Louisville, 0-1 at Kentucky). Saturday’s game against Duke opens a stretch with six of the next eight weekends in which the Cardinals will play at home in the KFC Yum! Center.

Father/Son Ranking

UofL Coach Rick Pitino and his son, Minnesota Head Coach Richard Pitino, became the first fatherson duo to ever have their respective teams ranked at the same time in the Associated Press 25 poll on Monday.

The Cardinals are 14th in the latest AP ranking while the Golden Gophers (15- 3) debuted at No. 24 in this week’s ranking. Richard is in his fourth season at Minnesota and his fifth overall as a head coach

Statistical Milestones

Mangok Mathiang needs three blocked shots to reach the UofL career top 10 in blocks (132 now).

Mathiang needs 16 points for 400 in his career.

Louisville is second to North Carolina for the national lead with 67 all-time 1,000 point career scorers. Snider is the next closest Cardinal to that milestone with 641 career points.

Snider’s next free throw made will be the 100th of his career.

Ray Spalding needs 17 points for 300 in his career.

Anas Mahmoud needs 14 blocked shots for 100 in his career.

CARD FILE

 Louisville posted a collective 3.18 grade point average for the recently completed 2016 fall semester, with 10 men’s basketball studentathletes achieving a 3.0 or better GPA.

 Louisville is second in the nation in blocked shots (6.8 bpg). UofL had 12 blocks at Ga. Tech.

 Louisville has won at least 14 of its first 17 games for the fifth straight season. The Cards’ best start in that stretch was 16-1 during UofL’s 2012-13 NCAA Championship year.

 Donovan Mitchell is tied for the ACC lead and is 18th in the nation in steals (2.2 per game). He had five steals at Notre Dame, the second-most of his career. His 38 steals in 17 games is 13 more than he had his entire freshman year.

 Louisville has a 35-16 record during the month of January over the last seven years, including a 19-7 record in the last four years.

 Louisville has a 30-8 record in its conference home games over the last five years (.789), including an 8-1 record last season in ACC games in the KFC Yum! Center.

 UofL Coach Rick Pitino, who has a 405-137 record in his 16th season at Louisville, won his 400th victory with the Cardinals on Dec. 10. He won his 750th career collegiate victory when the Cards beat Wichita State on Nov. 24. He is one of five active coaches with at least 750 victories.

 Louisville’s 160 victories over the last six years are the fifth-most wins in the nation in that stretch. The Cards are one of just three teams to win at least 30 games in three of the last five seasons (30-10 in 2011-12, 35-5 in ‘12-13, 31-6 in ‘13-14).

 Louisville is one of just four schools which have won 20 or more games in each of the last 14 seasons (also Kansas, Duke and Gonzaga).

Cards 2-2 in ACC

In dropping games to two nationally-ranked ACC foes, Louisville opened its conference schedule 0-2 for the first time since 1991-92. UofL has had at least two losses among its first five conference games 11 of the last 20 years, including its 2013 NCAA Championship season when it started 3-3 in Big East games.

The Cardinals fell at No. 23 Notre Dame on Jan. 4, the first time in 10 years that UofL has lost its first conference road game.

Cards’ Duo Rare in Top 15

Louisville is one of four schools in the nation with its men’s and women’s basketball programs each ranked among the Associated Press’ top 15 teams (women’s basketball: No. 9; men’s basketball: No. 14 through Jan. 9).

Duke, Baylor and Florida State are the other three schools with those combined lofty rankings. The Cards have five additional sports ranked among the nation’s top teams in men’s soccer (8th), field hockey (8th), women’s swimming (11th), men’s swimming (8th) and football (21st).

UofL’s men’s soccer team was the No. 4 overall seed in the NCAA Championship and advanced to the Elite Eight. UofL’s women’s cross country team advanced to the NCAA Championship for the first time in school history and the Cardinals’ field hockey team competed in the NCAA Tournament.

Block Birds

UofL’s 116 blocked shots (6.8 per game) ranks second in the nation. The Cardinals have blocked at least four shots in 13 of their 17 games this season, including 12 at Georgia Tech two games ago, the fourth double-digit blocked shot total of the season (also 14 vs. Eastern Ky, 10 vs. Evansville, 11 vs. William & Mary).

UofL has had 10 or more swats in a game seven times over the last six years, four of which that have occurred this season. Anas Mahmoud is second in the ACC and 16th nationally in blocks (2.6).

Four Cardinals have set career highs in blocked shots: Mahmoud with six vs. Wichita St. and Notre Dame, Mangok Mathiang with five vs. William & Mary, Jaylen Johnson with six vs. Southern Illinois and Donovan Mitchell with four swats vs. W&M. Mathiang has blocked a shot in 69 career games, Mahmoud in 39 career games.