The Duke Blue Devils open the season by hosting the Maine Black Bears on Monday November 4th at 7pm on the ACC Network. Duke and Maine have met on the hardwood just once, a 94-55 Blue Devils’ victory on Dec. 3, 2016, in Durham. Luke Kennard scored 35 points in the win, while Amile Jefferson added 20 points.
Broadcast Information
TV/Video
Stream ACCN
Play-by-Play Doug Sherman
Analyst Chris Spatola
Producer Will Black
Director Chad Lampman
Radio
Blue Devil Sports Net.
Varsity Network
Play-by-Play David Shumate
Analyst John Roth
Engineer John Rose
In Durham 96.5 FM & 620 AM
SiriusXM 84
This Series
Overall: Duke leads, 1-0
In Durham, NC: Duke leads, 1-0
at Cameron Indoor Stadium: Duke leads, 1-0
In Orono, Maine N/A
at The Pit in Memorial Gymnasium: N/A
Neutral Sites: N/A
Last Meeting: @Duke 94, Maine 55 (Dec. 3, 2016)
Maine Black Bears
The Maine Black Bears are coached by Chris Markwood who got the job in the 2022 season. Maine is coming off a season where they went 15-17 and 7-9 in conference but boasted a home record of 8-4. This is a transition year for the Bears having to replace 3 starters from last years squad including 2 grad students and a senior, including their leading scorer and rebounder – Peter Filipovity.
The Black Bears are bringing back their starting backcourt in Kellen Tynes and Jaden Clayton as well as senior guard AJ Lopez and senior guard Quion Burns who played over 15 minutes per game each. Tynes is the most productive of the returners averaging 12.6 points her game and 3.6 assists while Clayton led the Black Bears last year in assists with 4 per game. Maine brought in three transfers in Christopher Mantis, Killian Gribben and Ridvan Tutic, along with a trio of freshmen in Amare Allen, Caleb Crawford and Darius Lopes to pair with four of their top seven returning scorers from a season ago. Tynes is the back-to-back America East Defensive Player of the Year, and remains the only player in program history to win the award. Tynes is also a back-to-back All-Conference Third Team Member. Meanwhile Clayton leads the America East in assists (247) since his debut in the 2022-23 season. Maine was picked to finish 4th in the America East Conference
Maine was 47th in the nation in steals last season and 4th in their conference in free throw attempts and 5th in blocked shots.
Duke Blue Devils
Duke returns two starters from last season’s Elite Eight squad, junior Tyrese Proctor and sophomore Caleb Foster, while also signing the nation’s top-ranked recruiting class and also making four additions through the transfer portal. Duke welcomes the No. 1 recruiting class of six freshmen, which consists of five five-star, top-20 players in 247Sports’ rankings, including two of the five youngest players in Division I men’s basketball with Cooper Flagg (12/21/2006) second and Khaman Maluach (9/14/2006) fifth. The Blue Devils also boast veteran experience with non-freshmen combining for more than 500 games played (523), 300 starts (324), and 13,000 minutes (13,201), including Mason Gillis with 132 games played and Sion James with 107 starts.
The Blue Devils find themselves having to replace their top 4 scorers responsible for 56.3 points per game. Duke will also be tasked with replacing their top 3 rebounders, responsible for 19.3 rebounds per game. Duke does retain 2 of their 3 top assist men responsible for 5.8 assists per game in Tyrese Proctor and Caleb Foster. Foster is looking to build on his injury shortened freshman season that saw him score 7.7 points per game and shoot 40% from 3, good for 3rd on last year’s season. While Tyrese Proctor, who was often injured this past season is looking for consistency and improved shooting in this his 3rd season.
Duke Projected Starters
PG Caleb Foster 6’4, 202lbs – Sophomore
SG Tyrese Proctor 6’6, 183lbs – Junior
SF Kon Knueppel 6’7, 217lbs – Freshman
PF Cooper Flagg 6’9, 205lbs – Freshman
C Khaman Maluach 7’2, 250lbs – Freshman
Maine Projected Starters
PG Jaden Clayton 6’1 – Junior
SG Kellen Tynes 6’3 – Graduate Student
SG AJ Lopez 6’5 – Senior
SF Keyon Burns 6’6 – Senior
PF Keelan Steele – 6’10 – Junior
Final Thoughts
Maine will be an interesting opponent for a Duke squad where the balance of their production may very well come from freshmen. It’s probable that the Black Bears start 2 seniors, a grad student, and 2 juniors – a much older starting 5 than the Blue Devils. Maine’s backcourt of Tynes and Clayton are a handful and both are experienced and can put the ball in the basket. Tynes is a tough defender on the perimeter and Duke will need to be crisp with their passing and make the correct reads to stave off his expertise there. Duke’s shooting alone would be tough for Maine to deal with but Duke also has the size and strength advantage as well. Despite lofty expectations for the Blue Devils there will be many times that a roster of new players is going to experience growing pains. I would expect Maine to challenge the Blue Devils for the first 5-10 minutes but the talent disparity will be more than the Black Bears can overcome. Chris Markwood is an excellent coach and I would be surprised if Maine does not challenge in the America East conference but the Blue Devils should control this game.
