The Duke Blue Devils will play Arizona in the Wildcats’ home stadium on Friday night, and they’ll take the court at McKale Memorial Center in front of a packed crowd.
According to a photo from the Blue Devils official team account on Friday afternoon, the Wildcats declared the game sold out nine full hours before tipoff.
Both teams hope to come back from a loss in their most recent game against prominent opponents. Arizona lost a 103-88 game to the Wisconsin Badgers last week after John Tonje scored 41 points, making four of his six 3-point attempts and 21 of his 22 free throws.
Duke, on the other hand, gave up a nine-point halftime lead against the Kentucky Wildcats in Atlanta last Tuesday. Superstar freshman [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag], still just 17 years old, scored 12 of the team’s last 14 points to finish with a game-high 26, but two turnovers on the last two possessions set up the winning free throws on the other end.
The Blue Devils will also face former North Carolina Tar Heels star Caleb Love for the ninth time. Love, who transferred to Arizona ahead of the 2023-24 season, most notably scored 28 points when UNC beat the Blue Devils in the Final Four three seasons ago, ending legendary coach [autotag]Mike Krzyzewski[/autotag]’s career. He’s won five of the previous eight battles with Duke, averaging 16.9 points, 4.3 assists, 3.3 rebounds, and 0.8 steals in those contests.