Game Preview: Duke vs Hartford

The 3-6 Hartford Hawks will travel to Cameron Indoor Stadium to face the 7-1, number 3 ranked Duke Blue Devils Wednesday night.

The Hawks are fresh off of a 13 point win against Bowling Green that saw the Hawks despite not shooting well hold the Falcons to under 40% shooting. The Hawks turned Bowling Green over 18 times while only committing 7 of their own. Jason Dune poured in 19 points going 5-9 from beyond the arc to lead them in that game. The Hawks at the beginning of he season were concerned about their presence defensively and set out to improve their numbers at that end of the floor. The results have been varied and vastly different from game to game. Duke will be the toughest test for this Hawks team with the amount of weapons they bring to the table.

The Hawks generally start a lineup of 5 seniors lead by forward John Carrol who averages 18 points a game and 5.6 rebounds, the leading assist man is J.R. Lynch, who averages 3.8 assists to go with this 13.7 points. The high man on the boards is George Blagojevic with 7.1 rebounds per game; Blagojevic averages 12 points per contest.

Duke is well within the tuneup portion of their schedule having faced Stetson most recently and Yale coming up after Hartford. The Blue Devils are led in scoring by freshman R.J. Barrett who comes in at 23 points per game, 6.3 rebounds and 4 assists. Zion Williamson, a freshman also, leads the Blue Devils on the boards with just under 9 per game to go with 20.8 points. Tre Jones comes in as Dukes best on ball defender and assist leader averaging 6 assists per game and 9 points. Duke starts 4 freshmen along with Junior Marques Bolden.

As mentioned earlier the Devils are looking to improve in several key areas before their marquee matchup with Texas Tech in NY, then the beginning of ACC season. The Duke offense tended to stall at times in their lone loss to Gonzaga and the Blue Devils did not execute at a high level. This young team is in need of repetition and consistency and as in their game against Stetson, playing the opponent as opposed to the score. Coaches will look for sharpness, execution and good habits; I can also see them going heavy to the bench to build on the success players like Jack White, Javin DeLaurier and Alex O'Connell have had during this early part of the season. Getting rest for Tre Jones who has been battling nagging injuries off and on will also be important. I can see Jordan Goldwire getting more minutes than usual in this game as well in relief of Jones. The earlier Duke can put this game away with regard to score the better it will be for players who have had those nagging injuries.