Dating back to Jon Scheyer’s 2006-07 Duke basketball freshman campaign, the Blue Devils have lost their first ACC road test in nine of the past 18 seasons.
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Looking at that stat alone, the No. 9-ranked Blue Devils (6-2, 0-0 ACC), fresh off Wednesday night’s 84-78 statement home win over No. 2 Auburn, mustn’t underestimate the unranked Louisville Cardinals (5-3, 0-0 ACC) in the KFC Yum! Center at 6 p.m. ET Sunday (ACC Network).
Toss in the fact that Scheyer is 0-2 as head coach in season-first ACC road games. Moreover, those upset defeats came at the hands of unranked opponents: 81-70 at Wake Forest in 2022-23 and 72-68 at Georgia Tech in 2023-24.
“I feel like this is the year, you know, we’ve got to break that,” breakout freshman wing Isaiah Evans, a 6-for-8 sharpshooting showman from downtown against Auburn, noted to Duke basketball sophomore guard Caleb Foster during the latest episode of The Brotherhood Podcast released on Friday.
“Showtime Slim” couldn’t quite recall the exact stat that Scheyer relayed to the team regarding the program’s undeniable struggles away from home in early ACC outings. Either way, the 6-foot-6 innate bucket-finder sounds like he’s not taking his first conference foe lightly.
“We’ve got to lock in,” Evans, who turned 19 on Friday, added. “[The Cardinals] have a whole new team, a new coach [Pat Kelsey], and they’re feeling confident. And again, it’s a road game. You know the way it goes.
“So, we know there’s gonna be challenges with that.”
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