Both Notre Dame and Duke have just three losses on the year as they continue their way to through ACC play. As a result, both teams have gotten ranked inside the top ten, but Duke sits at No. 4 thanks to their strength of schedule. The Duke/Notre Dame is not the only matchup between two ranked ACC teams on Saturday which shows just what each team has had to go through in order to get where they are today.
Duke and Notre Dame have two of the best college basketball players in the country to work with. The Fighting Irish have Jerian Grant who is leading the team with 17.3 points per game. On the other side, Duke has Jahlil Okafor who is putting up 18.1 points per game along with 9.3 rebounds. In the first matchup between the two teams, it was Grant that was the better player, leading a late-game rally that got the Irish the win. Notre Dame trailed by 10 at one point, but managed to hit a jumper and a 3-point shot to get the ultimate 77-73 win. This time Duke is hoping home court works in their advantage.
Grant continues to be one of the best players in the league. His stat line against Duke was 23 points, 12 assists and six rebounds. Okafor was impressive as well after he finished with 22 points and 17 boards. Grant and Okafor rank fourth and third in the ACC in scoring respectively and their teams are taking advantage of it. Notre Dame has gotten the best of Duke in their past two meetings. The Irish beat Duke 79-77 back in January during their first year in the ACC, but the team is 0-6 when playing Duke at home.
Notre Dame had a hard time following up their win against Duke. The team fell to Pittsburgh after the win while beating Boston College afterwords. Duke meanwhile beat Virginia and Georgia Tech following their loss to the team.
