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The #4 Blue Devils ring in the new year with a new ACC opponent in a new ACC city: they fly to Dallas to face the SMU Mustangs this Saturday afternoon, airing on The CW (listen, live stats). You can watch the game by finding your local CW affiliate or streaming on The CW app.
While the Mustangs are new to the conference, they have played Duke before... but it's been a while. According to GoDuke, the two teams have met 4 previous times; the Devils are 3-1, losing once in Honolulu in 1983, but winning on the road in 1977, at home in 1978, and in the 1988 NCAA Tournament (a second round game in Chapel Hill).
That 1977 road win would have taken place in Moody Coliseum, SMU's 7,000-seat arena, which first opened in 1956 and is still their home floor. Mike Gminski was a sophomore on that Duke team, and while he does call games for Raycom Sports on The CW, I don't know if he's available and/or assigned to Saturday's game. (If he were, that would be quite something. Pep talk?)
Last spring SMU let go of second-year head coach Rob Lanier despite a 20-13 record; he's coaching at Rice now. This set off a bigger chain reaction in the coaching carousel that anyone could have imagined: Andy Enfield left USC to take the SMU job, Eric Musselman left Arkansas for USC, John Calipari left Kentucky for Arkansas, Mark Pope left BYU for Kentucky, and Kevin Young left his assistant job with the Phoenix Suns for BYU. What else might have happened because a mustang flapped its wings? Duke's loss in the Champions Classic? The college commitment of top 2025 recruit AJ Dybantsa? The fight on the Auburn plane that forced the team to turn back? I'd argue that all of those events took place because of the coaching change at SMU.
Coach Enfield rose to fame in 2013 by giving the world Dunk City, his high-flying Florida Gulf Coast team that reached the Sweet Sixteen as a 15 seed, upsetting 2-seeded Georgetown and 7-seeded San Diego State. He parlayed that into an 11-season stay at USC, making 5 NCAA Tournaments, including an Elite Eight appearance in 2021. And now he has SMU at 11-2 overall and 2-0 in the ACC, with a home win over Virginia and a big road win at Boston College (103-77: recap, box score, highlights, full replay).
It's sad that I have to note this, but SMU joins Duke, Clemson, and Pittsburgh in having one of the conference's 4 wins this season over an SEC team. They beat LSU by 10 on a neutral court in December. Well, that's slightly misleading; it was the Compete 4 Cause Classic at the Comerica Center in Frisco, Texas, which is in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area, and about 30 minutes from Moody Coliseum. The players presumably awoke from their own beds that morning, so it's more like a semi-home situation. Still, it's a rare win for our league. The Mustangs did not participate in the ACC-SEC Challenge (SMU and Stanford were the extra men's teams left out), but they did lose at home to Mississippi State just before Thanksgiving.
Coach Enfield did not have to rebuild the entire SMU roster from scratch, like Pat Kelsey did at Louisville. It's more like a renovation project; the Mustangs squad is composed of 5 returning players, 7 incoming transfers, and 4 freshmen. Welcome to the ACC.
PROBABLE STARTERS
6-0 redshirt junior guard Kevin "Boopie" Miller #2 (15.4 pts, 3.3 reb, 5.9 ast, 1.5 stl)
6-7 grad forward Matt Cross #33 (10.7 pts, 8.2 reb, 1.8 ast, 1.0 stl)
6-3 junior guard B.J. Edwards #0 (10.2 pts, 3.9 reb, 3.5 ast, 2.4 stl)
7-2 freshman center Samet Yigitoglu #24 (9.8 pts, 6.0 reb, 1.3 ast, 1.0 blk)
6-11 junior forward Yohan Traore #21 (8.9 pts, 5.1 reb, 0.6 ast)
TOP RESERVES
6-4 fifth-year guard Chuck Harris #3 (12.2 pts, 2.3 reb, 1.9 ast)
6-4 fifth-year guard Kario Oquendo #8 (10.2 pts, 2.9 reb, 0.8 ast, 1.0 stl)
6-9 grad forward Keon Ambrose-Hylton #22 (4.6 pts, 2.5 reb, 0.3 ast)
6-10 junior forward Jerrell Colbert #20 (4.2 pts, 2.5 reb, 0.2 ast, 1.2 blk)
6-6 junior guard AJ George #10 (2.3 pts, 1.3 reb, 0.3 ast)
6-9 grad forward Tibet Görener #5 (2.0 pts, 1.2 reb, 0.2 ast)
BENCH PLAYERS
6-2 grad guard Jackson Young #35 (2.0 pts, 0.0 reb, 0.0 ast)
6-0 junior guard Trey Utter #31 (0.0 pts, 0.0 reb, 0.5 ast)
6-11 freshman forward Mitchell Holmes #13
6-4 freshman guard Niccolo Kalischer-Stork #23
6-7 freshman forward Chance Puryear #1
Actually, two of their players are already familiar with the ACC. Kevin "Boopie" Miller played at Wake Forest last season, while Matt Cross was a Miami freshman and Louisville sophomore. Many of their teammates also have power conference experience from the Big 12, Big East, Pac-12, or SEC: fellow starters BJ Edwards and Yohan Traore were freshmen at Tennessee and Auburn, respectively; among the reserves, Keon Ambrose-Hylton spent his first two seasons at Alabama, Jerrell Colbert was at LSU and Kansas State, Tibet Görener began his career at Arizona, Chuck Harris spent three seasons at Butler, and Kario Oquendo previously played for Georgia and Oregon.
As the Mustangs begin the bulk of their inaugural ACC schedule, their scoring offense is 1st in the league and 13th nationally, while their bench scoring is among the top 20 in the sport. (Stampede?) Coach Enfield has 3 starters and 2 reserves averaging over 10 points per game, while the two big men in their starting frontcourt are not far from joining them as the team's 6th and 7th double-digit scorers. Still, Bart Torvik projects Duke's top 10 scoring defense to dictate the game and win 79-70.
The following tables compare SMU and Duke, mostly with team stats from Basketball Reference.
TABLE 1
TABLE 2
While the Mustangs are new to the conference, they have played Duke before... but it's been a while. According to GoDuke, the two teams have met 4 previous times; the Devils are 3-1, losing once in Honolulu in 1983, but winning on the road in 1977, at home in 1978, and in the 1988 NCAA Tournament (a second round game in Chapel Hill).
That 1977 road win would have taken place in Moody Coliseum, SMU's 7,000-seat arena, which first opened in 1956 and is still their home floor. Mike Gminski was a sophomore on that Duke team, and while he does call games for Raycom Sports on The CW, I don't know if he's available and/or assigned to Saturday's game. (If he were, that would be quite something. Pep talk?)
Last spring SMU let go of second-year head coach Rob Lanier despite a 20-13 record; he's coaching at Rice now. This set off a bigger chain reaction in the coaching carousel that anyone could have imagined: Andy Enfield left USC to take the SMU job, Eric Musselman left Arkansas for USC, John Calipari left Kentucky for Arkansas, Mark Pope left BYU for Kentucky, and Kevin Young left his assistant job with the Phoenix Suns for BYU. What else might have happened because a mustang flapped its wings? Duke's loss in the Champions Classic? The college commitment of top 2025 recruit AJ Dybantsa? The fight on the Auburn plane that forced the team to turn back? I'd argue that all of those events took place because of the coaching change at SMU.
Coach Enfield rose to fame in 2013 by giving the world Dunk City, his high-flying Florida Gulf Coast team that reached the Sweet Sixteen as a 15 seed, upsetting 2-seeded Georgetown and 7-seeded San Diego State. He parlayed that into an 11-season stay at USC, making 5 NCAA Tournaments, including an Elite Eight appearance in 2021. And now he has SMU at 11-2 overall and 2-0 in the ACC, with a home win over Virginia and a big road win at Boston College (103-77: recap, box score, highlights, full replay).
It's sad that I have to note this, but SMU joins Duke, Clemson, and Pittsburgh in having one of the conference's 4 wins this season over an SEC team. They beat LSU by 10 on a neutral court in December. Well, that's slightly misleading; it was the Compete 4 Cause Classic at the Comerica Center in Frisco, Texas, which is in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area, and about 30 minutes from Moody Coliseum. The players presumably awoke from their own beds that morning, so it's more like a semi-home situation. Still, it's a rare win for our league. The Mustangs did not participate in the ACC-SEC Challenge (SMU and Stanford were the extra men's teams left out), but they did lose at home to Mississippi State just before Thanksgiving.
Coach Enfield did not have to rebuild the entire SMU roster from scratch, like Pat Kelsey did at Louisville. It's more like a renovation project; the Mustangs squad is composed of 5 returning players, 7 incoming transfers, and 4 freshmen. Welcome to the ACC.
PROBABLE STARTERS
6-0 redshirt junior guard Kevin "Boopie" Miller #2 (15.4 pts, 3.3 reb, 5.9 ast, 1.5 stl)
6-7 grad forward Matt Cross #33 (10.7 pts, 8.2 reb, 1.8 ast, 1.0 stl)
6-3 junior guard B.J. Edwards #0 (10.2 pts, 3.9 reb, 3.5 ast, 2.4 stl)
7-2 freshman center Samet Yigitoglu #24 (9.8 pts, 6.0 reb, 1.3 ast, 1.0 blk)
6-11 junior forward Yohan Traore #21 (8.9 pts, 5.1 reb, 0.6 ast)
TOP RESERVES
6-4 fifth-year guard Chuck Harris #3 (12.2 pts, 2.3 reb, 1.9 ast)
6-4 fifth-year guard Kario Oquendo #8 (10.2 pts, 2.9 reb, 0.8 ast, 1.0 stl)
6-9 grad forward Keon Ambrose-Hylton #22 (4.6 pts, 2.5 reb, 0.3 ast)
6-10 junior forward Jerrell Colbert #20 (4.2 pts, 2.5 reb, 0.2 ast, 1.2 blk)
6-6 junior guard AJ George #10 (2.3 pts, 1.3 reb, 0.3 ast)
6-9 grad forward Tibet Görener #5 (2.0 pts, 1.2 reb, 0.2 ast)
BENCH PLAYERS
6-2 grad guard Jackson Young #35 (2.0 pts, 0.0 reb, 0.0 ast)
6-0 junior guard Trey Utter #31 (0.0 pts, 0.0 reb, 0.5 ast)
6-11 freshman forward Mitchell Holmes #13
6-4 freshman guard Niccolo Kalischer-Stork #23
6-7 freshman forward Chance Puryear #1
Actually, two of their players are already familiar with the ACC. Kevin "Boopie" Miller played at Wake Forest last season, while Matt Cross was a Miami freshman and Louisville sophomore. Many of their teammates also have power conference experience from the Big 12, Big East, Pac-12, or SEC: fellow starters BJ Edwards and Yohan Traore were freshmen at Tennessee and Auburn, respectively; among the reserves, Keon Ambrose-Hylton spent his first two seasons at Alabama, Jerrell Colbert was at LSU and Kansas State, Tibet Görener began his career at Arizona, Chuck Harris spent three seasons at Butler, and Kario Oquendo previously played for Georgia and Oregon.
As the Mustangs begin the bulk of their inaugural ACC schedule, their scoring offense is 1st in the league and 13th nationally, while their bench scoring is among the top 20 in the sport. (Stampede?) Coach Enfield has 3 starters and 2 reserves averaging over 10 points per game, while the two big men in their starting frontcourt are not far from joining them as the team's 6th and 7th double-digit scorers. Still, Bart Torvik projects Duke's top 10 scoring defense to dictate the game and win 79-70.
The following tables compare SMU and Duke, mostly with team stats from Basketball Reference.
TABLE 1
Category | SMU (11-2, 2-0 ACC) | Duke (11-2, 3-0 ACC) |
Points Scored | 87.2 (13th nationally) | 79.6 (96th) |
Points Allowed | 70.8 (172nd) | 59.0 (8th) |
Scoring Margin (NCAA.com) | 16.4 (30th) | 20.6 (13th) |
Bench Points (NCAA.com) | 33.1 (18th) | 22.7 (189th) |
Total Rebounds | 40.8 (27th) | 39.6 (47th) |
--- Offensive Rebounds | 13.4 (38th) | 11.7 (129th) |
--- Defensive Rebounds | 27.5 (59th) | 27.9 (40th) |
Assists | 16.5 (66th) | 16.4 (69th) |
Assist/Turnover Ratio (NCAA.com) | 1.35 (94th) | 1.59 (29th) |
Steals | 7.8 (117th) | 8.2 (88th) |
Blocks | 4.1 (88th) | 3.6 (141st) |
Turnovers | 12.2 (185th fewest) | 10.3 (39th fewest) |
Personal Fouls | 17.2 (208th fewest) | 15.8 (105th fewest) |
Field Goal Percentage | 49.6% (26th) | 46.9% (105th) |
2-Point FG Percentage | 55.3% (101st) | 57.4% (54th) |
3-Point FG Percentage | 39.1% (21st) | 35.6% (108th) |
Free Throw Percentage | 74.9% (86th) | 75.1% (79th) |
TABLE 2
Category | SMU (11-2, 2-0 ACC) | Duke (11-2, 3-0 ACC) |
NET Ranking (NCAA.com) | #30 | #3 |
--- Quad 1 | 0-2 | 3-2 |
--- Quad 2 | 2-0 | 1-0 |
--- Quad 3 | 4-0 | 2-0 |
--- Quad 4 | 5-0 | 5-0 |
KenPom (Ken Pomeroy) | #43 | #2 |
--- Offensive Efficiency | 21st | 9th |
--- Defensive Efficiency | 92nd | 3rd |
--- Tempo | 68th | 259th |
Fastbreak Points (NCAA.com) | 16.0 (22nd) | 11.8 (124th) |
T-Rank (Bart Torvik) | #54 (T-Page) | #3 (T-Page) |
--- Experience | 2.205 (122nd) | 1.015 (357th) |
--- Talent | 58.888 (29th) | 81.357 (3rd) |
NET quadrants explained:
The quality of wins and losses will be organized based on game location and the opponent's NET ranking.
Quadrant 1: Home 1-30, Neutral 1-50, Away 1-75
Quadrant 2: Home 31-75, Neutral 51-100, Away 76-135
Quadrant 3: Home 76-160, Neutral 101-200, Away 135-240
Quadrant 4: Home 161-353, Neutral 201-353, Away 241-353
Ken Pomeroy defines efficiency as an extrapolated measure of points scored (offensive) or allowed (defensive) per 100 possessions against an average opponent. The more points you score and the fewer points you allow, the better. Tempo refers to the number of possessions per 40 minutes against an average tempo: the higher the rank, the faster the tempo. Faster isn't necessarily better; Houston is among the 5 slowest teams, and is KenPom #3.
Bart Torvik offers some clarification on Experience and Talent in the comments here. Experience "is based on class year (3 for senior, 0 for freshman) with caveat that it actually counts how many years a guy has played 10 games in, so if a guy is listed as a soph even though he's played two full years already, he'll count as a junior." Talent "is based on composite recruiting ranks weighted for minutes played."