The Duke Blue Devils travel to Texas for a road game against the SMU Mustangs on Saturday afternoon, and ACC basketball fans will be treated to a best-on-best showdown amid conference contenders.
The Mustangs and Blue Devils, both off to 11-2 starts, have each won their past seven games. SMU’s done so on the strength of its offense, averaging a conference-leading 87.2 points per game, while the Blue Devils have given up an ACC-best 59.0 points per game.
While the matchup promises fireworks on paper, Duke fans around the country should know those numbers aren’t created equally. According to KenPom’s advanced efficiency metrics, the Blue Devils rank 33rd in strength of schedule through Saturday morning with the Mustangs all the way down at 219th.
[autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] and his Duke teammates held the Auburn Tigers, KenPom’s top-ranked offense, to just 78 points, and the Blue Devils have only let three opponents score more than 65 despite facing four of the site’s top 21 teams.
SMU, in its first season under former USC Trojans coach Andy Enfield, has only faced four of KenPom’s top 100 teams with a 2-2 record in those showdowns. The Mustangs averaged just 75.0 points in those battles, and while scoring would obviously be harder to come by against better opponents, it’s worth questioning whether SMU can find similar production against a tenacious Duke defense.
Due to that schedule disparity, the Blue Devils actually rank higher on KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency leaderboard than the Mustangs. Duke sits 11th in the nation with 121.1 points per 100 possessions while SMU sits 21st with 118.8, but hypothetical points won’t matter after the opening tip.
Saturday’s game tips off at 2:15 p.m. Eastern time and can be watched on The CW.