Blue Devils open ACC tournament with authority

GREENSBORO – The six-game winning streak to end the regular season taught us enough about Duke’s ceiling as we move into March.

Until Thursday, that is.

The Blue Devils opened the ACC tournament by demolishing Pittsburgh 96-69 at the Greensboro Coliseum, shooting a season-high 62.1% and making 11 of 26 3-pointers.

That 3-point clip was 11-for-21 before the final nine minutes, which became a formality after Duke (24-8) raced out to a 36-point lead. It’s the second time in 2023 that Duke has made double-digit 3s; the Blue Devils had six at halftime, which was as many as they had in the last two games combined.

So what does that level of 3-point shooting, coming at a time when the Blue Devils were already looking so much improved over the last few weeks, do for Duke’s ceiling?

“That’s a championship team right there,” was the answer from freshman Kyle Filipowski, who led Duke with 22 points on 8-for-10 shooting and recovered from an ankle injury. “That’s how we’re going to keep playing.

“Even if they don’t fall, moving forward we’re still going to keep shooting with confidence and getting the ball in the right spots.”

Moving forward means the Blue Devils set up a rematch against Miami (25-6) in the first semifinal game on Friday night, which starts at 7 p.m. It’ll be the third game of the season between those two, with the Blue Devils squeezing out a 68-66 win in Durham and losing 81-59 in Miami about a month ago.

The blitzing of Pittsburgh (22-11) was vaguely similar to what the Hurricanes did to Duke back on Feb. 6. Now Duke gets a rematch, and the season series will see somebody take a 2-1 lead.

“Having the double bye was great, but also you don't get to get a feel for the arena and the feel of the tournament,” coach Jon Scheyer said. “For the job that these guys did, to come out just ready to go right from the start was incredibly important. The way we shared the ball was beautiful.”

Duke set an ACC tournament record with 27 assists; remedying one of the strange developments over the past week, as the Blue Devils had a combined 11 assists against N.C. State and UNC. Tyrese Proctor had a season-high 10 assists, Jeremy Roach had six, and nine of the 10 Blue Devils who played at least eight minutes recorded an assist.

Whatever word you want to attach to this one — dominant, devastating, demonstrative — probably applies.

“I think it’s evident we can make a really deep run in March with that level of shooting,” grad transfer Ryan Young said. “Obviously we can’t rely on that, it’s not going to happen every game. We’re going to have to rely on our defense and gut things out offensively.

“Shot-making and moving the ball becomes contagious when you’re playing like that.”

So much for any potential double-bye malaise.

Filipowski drained 3s on Duke’s first two possessions. A couple of minutes later, the only real drama of the day for the Blue Devils came when he landed on the foot of Pitt’s Blake Hinson.

The freshman forward limped to Duke’s bench without putting weight on his left leg. After getting his ankle re-taped, Filipowski returned to the game.

That was that. And this wasn’t a competitive game when the Blue Devils scored the first 12 points of the second half to open up a 60-32 lead.

“Lucky enough, it wasn’t anything too bad,” Filipowski said in Duke’s locker room, his left foot propped on a chair with ice taped to his ankle. “Once I was able to start walking on it and jumping on it again, after I got it re-taped — it wasn’t that bad.”

Fellow freshman center Dereck Lively II, who matched his season-high with 13 points, didn’t have a doubt that Filipowski would return.

“Oooh, you know, I know he’s going to bounce back up,” Lively said. “As a big guy, I know how it can be to get an ankle tweak. But he came back in and was still firing 3s up and hitting them, I was loving it.”

Filipowski was the only Blue Devil to attempt double-digit shots, and he was 8-for-10 from the field. Duke made 34 of 50 shots until the last six minutes, when the lineup included Max Johns and Kale Catchings.

TIP-INS: This was Duke’s 100th all-time win in the Greensboro Coliseum. … Proctor’s double-double was his second of the season, but the first involving assists. He had 13 points and 10 rebounds in the fourth game of the season. … Mark Mitchell scored 12 points, marking his fifth straight game in double figures and running Duke’s record to 14-1 when he hits that plateau. … Freshman Christian Reeves scored six points, as he played the final six minutes. He hadn’t played that many minutes since Duke’s only win against an ACC by a larger margin, which was the 86-43 win at Georgia Tech on Jan. 28.