Cooper Flagg and the Duke Blue Devils head to Clemson, South Carolina on Saturday, Feb. 8 to face a Tigers team that just suffered a devastating triple overtime loss to Georgia Tech. Clemson is still right behind Duke in the ACC standings and have a complete team. Could Duke be on the verge of losing their first ACC game of the year, or will this high-flying Blue Devils team be too much to handle?

Cooper Flagg has been the big story for Duke all year. Freshman phenom, projected first overall pick and most likely Wooden Award winner. Flagg is a problem to stop for any team that faces him, so Clemson will need to score at a high rate to have a shot.

Clemson isn’t necessarily a deep team. All five starters average at least nine points, but then there is a noticeably steep drop-off. Chase Hunter, who has been with Clemson for six years now and is leading the team in scoring with 17.7 points per game, will need to be the leader and show up to help Clemson capture their biggest win of the year.

Ian Schieffelin, Clemson’s leading rebounder, will also be an important factor for Clemson. He averages 9.5 rebounds per game, which ranks No. 20 in the nation, and he will have to control the paint. Schieffelin is a big time player, as you could see during March Madness last year when he dropped double-digit points in all four of Clemson’s games and double-digit rebounds in two of them. I predict that he will have a big impact on this game.

Duke is an analytical sweetheart, ranking No. 6 in offensive adjusted efficiency and No. 6 in defensive adjusted efficiency according to Kenpom. Houston is the only other team to rank top-10 in both of those categories. Clemson ranks No. 30 and No. 42 in those categories, which makes them an above-average team on both sides of the floor.

The deal breaker for Clemson will be how well they shoot the three-ball and how well they guard it. The Tigers shoot 38% from deep as a team, and if they get hot in a game like this that number could go up. Duke shoots 36% from three, but in their last challenging road game where they snuck away with a 63-56 win over Wake Forest, they were held to 28% from three. Kon Knueppel, who is Duke’s best shooter, was held to 3-7 from deep in that game, which caused Duke problems. Clemson should aim to do the same.

One side note, legendary broadcaster Dick Vitale, who has been battling cancer for three and a half years, will be on the call for this game. Dick has had so many legendary calls and has called countless upsets. That being said, I do believe that Clemson will upset Duke and hand the Blue Devils their first loss in ACC play.

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