Game Preview: Duke Blue Devils vs the Louisville Cardinals

Duke returns home to Cameron Indoor Stadium for a two game home stand beginning Wednesday night against the 18-9 Louisville Cardinals.

The Cardinals have an 8-6 record in the ACC and currently sit 6th in the conference. With so many teams still in contention for the 2 seed in the ACC Tournament the season and potential spots for the double-bye will come down to the wire.

First year head coach David Padgett has done a spectacular job in the face of program turmoil of keeping his guys focused on each game. One has to wonder with the recent news of Louisville being stripped of their 2013 title, how this team will respond. I would expect a spirited effort and a team wanting to prove something - not that going against Duke in Cameron doesn't provide enough motivation.

Quentin Snider may be the most dangerous man on this Cardinal team, leading the team in assists at 4 per game, Snider is their main distributor. If Snider is the most dangerous, then Deng Adel is the most versatile and toughest matchup. Adel, a 6'7 forward out of Australia, leads the Cardinals in scoring at 15.6 points per game. He also averages 5.1 rebounds and just under 3 assists per game. His last game out, in a loss to UNC, Adel scored 20 points in 30 minutes and dished out 6 assists. Adel is recently back from a sprained ankle so whether or not he will be in the starting lineup is still questionable.

Duke at 22-5 and 10-4 in the conference have a lot of things still left to accomplish. With the ACC Tournament 1 seed already a done deal for UVA. Duke still needs to push for a 2 seed and a possible 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The top of the standings have been a tumultuous place with no team playing consistently well aside from Michigan State and UVA. Duke still has an outside chance to make a move if the top ten shakeups continue to manifest as the season winds down.

Duke is looking to maintain consistency in these last days of the regular season and depending on the status of freshman Marvin Bagley, try to incorporate him back into a flow that has been working nicely in his absence. Grayson Allen has seemed to flourish with Bagley being unable to play, whether that uptick in his play is due to having a more defined role or just the natural progression and the senior busting out of a long slump - its really hard to say. It's come at the right time for the Devils who have been much more active on both ends of the floor. Speaking of well defined, Coach K has decided to publicly state that Duke will be primarily a zone team with some man-to-man sprinkled in here and there. It has seemed to work so far as Duke has been able to put teams in situations they are not accustomed to being in and shots they aren't used to taking. It's by no means a perfect zone but has seemed to help spur this recent run.

In facing the Cardinals Duke will need to be aware of the shot-blocking prowess of the Louisville, 4th in the nation in blocked shots. Led by Anas Mahmoud who averages 3 bocks a game Duke will have to understand how to drive on a shot blocker and also the power of internal passing to get a noted shot blocker out of position. Duke has done a good job of interior passing and also big-to-big passing, that should definitely come into play against Louisville.