Home United States USA — Sport Three things to watch as Duke and Virginia clash in a battle...

Three things to watch as Duke and Virginia clash in a battle of No. 1 teams

343
0
SHARE

The Duke Blue Devils will play the Virginia Cavaliers at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Saturday, Jan. 19,2019.
Duke, North Carolina and Syracuse own the ACC’s most recent Final Four appearances.
The Tar Heels (2017) and Blue Devils (2015) have delivered the conference NCAA championships over the last five seasons.
Virginia, though, has established itself as the league’s best team in the regular season.
The No. 2-ranked Cavaliers (16-0,4-0 in ACC) are in first place in the league standings by themselves ahead of Saturday’s showdown with No. 1 Duke (14-2,3-1).
This comes after Virginia went 17-1 in league play last season. Over the last five seasons, Virginia has 73 ACC regular-season wins, compared to 63 each for Duke and UNC.
While their upset loss to Maryland-Baltimore County in last season’s NCAA tournament is noteworthy, it doesn’t change what the Cavaliers have accomplished in league play.
On Saturday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium, Duke hopes to knock the Cavaliers down a peg when they meet at 6 p.m. on ESPN.
It’s a monumental matchup. The Cavaliers are ranked No. 1 in the coaches poll, while Duke is No. 1 in the Associated Press media poll. It’s just the fourth time the top-ranked teams in the two polls have met.
Virginia won the ACC tournament title last season. Duke won it the year before.
“We are looking forward to the challenge as they are a great team,” Duke junior forward Jack White said, “one of the best in the country and obviously undefeated so it is going to be a big game for us and a big game for us to prove ourselves and prove our maturity.

Continue reading...