With their 69-55 victory over the Arizona Wildcats on Friday night, the Duke Blue Devils held fast at second in the ESPN Basketball Power Index.
While the Blue Devils now have the best defensive efficiency rating in the country according to KenPom, another popular college basketball analytics website, BPI thinks the Duke offense is its strength. The Blue Devils’ offensive grade of 12.9 sits atop the entire nation, and with [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] scoring 24 points against the Wildcats, it’s easy to see why.
Through five games, Duke is averaging 84.6 points per game while shooting 37.0% from 3-point range. The gap between the Blue Devils and third in the BPI offensive rankings (Gonzaga, 11.3) is larger than the gap between the Bulldogs and the Kentucky Wildcats in ninth.
Duke’s defense doesn’t lag far behind, however. The Blue Devils held Wofford to 35 points, a program record in the shot clock era, last Saturday, and they’re allowing 57.4 points at a time. Their 9.9 defensive grade from the Basketball Power Index sits in fourth, and the Houston Cougars are the only team above them in the net ranking.
The Blue Devils’ upcoming opponent, No. 1 Kansas, sits at No. 10 in the BPI rankings.