The #5 Duke Blue Devils will travel to South Bend, Indiana on Wednesday night for a clash against #8 Notre Dame Fighting Irish in ACC conference play. Mike Krzyzewski’s squad features a quartet of players ready to give Notre Dame a fit. The combination of Quinn Cook, Justice Winslow, Tyrus Jones, and highlighted by freshman sensation Jahlil Okafor currently accounts for a total of 54 points per game. On the other hand, Notre Dame currently has the second best field goal percentage in the nation at .526. The Fighting Irish can also score points galore, as they rank 11th nationally in points per game.
According to TiqIQ, the average price for tickets is currently $121.34 on the secondary market, which is down 11% since last week. That is good news for Fighting Irish or Duke fans looking to get in the arena since the minimum price is a modest $68, a good value to watch two top ACC teams squaring off.
It will be quite costly for Duke’s fans to travel to South Bend, according to the Raleigh flights guide at our friends Hipmunk. The cheapest flights to Chicago from Raleigh cost a minimum of $549 for day of airline tickets. That’s a pretty penny for a regular season game, though only a handful of times per season do two top ten ranked conference teams match up.
While all the hype will be about Duke and Coach Krzyzewski’s recent 1000th career victory, Notre Dame has some key players that can pull the upset against Duke. Senior guard Jerian Grant is the leader of the offense, scoring 16.8 points per game. He is assisted by forwards, Pat Connaughton (14 points per game and 8.4 rebounds per game) and Zach Auguste (13.8 points and 6.3 rebounds per game). Furthermore, this game has the making of a potential shootout, as Duke also can shoot the basketball (5th in field goal percentage) and score points (12th in points per game) about as well as Notre Dame.
The last time these two teams met on the court was January last year in ACC conference play. The unranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish, without Jerian Grant who had been suspended due to academic issues, upset the #7 Blue Devils 79-77. Notre Dame’s Eric Atkins led the way for the Fighting Irish with 19 points. Pat Connaughton and Garrick Sherman also contributed with 16 and 14 points respectively. Duke’s Rodney Hood and Quinn Cook were the only scorers of note for the Blue Devils. Hood scored a game-high 27 points and Cook had 22 points.
