Duke’s D Is Dominant Again

Jon Scheyer has Duke’s defense at a different level

Wait a minute. This is Virginia territory. Or was. Or may well be again. But right now this stat reflects a remarkable strength of the 2024-25 Duke squad.

Through 70 ACC years, Duke posted the best scoring defense in the ACC just five times, all under Mike Krzyzewski. The last time Duke did it was 2006-07, a season that ranked as a major disappointment.

The Blue Devils had finished among the top three teams in the league without interruption for a decade, from 1997 through 2006. Seven times in that span they finished atop the ACC standings. But in ’07, behind inconsistent big man Josh McRoberts, Duke was 22-11 and came in tied for sixth in the ACC. Yet Duke did better than anyone else in the then-12 team league in stifling scoring by opponents, holding them to 62.0 points per game.

Four ’07 Duke starters – DeMarcus Nelson, McRoberts, freshman Jon Scheyer, and Greg Paulus — plus reserve David McClure each averaged at least one steal per game.

That year, Duke led the ACC in no other major statistical category.

Soon after Tony Bennett’s 2009-10 arrival at Charlottesville, Virginia teams began laying claim to ACC leadership in scoring defense. By 2012, and for a dozen straight years afterward, the Cavaliers led ACC teams in stinginess yielding points. Six times they led all Division I squads in scoring defense, including four consecutive seasons from 2017 through 2020, by which time UVa was notorious for throttling opponents’ attacks.

Then, prior to the current season, Bennett retired and Duke stepped into the breach. Not by a lot, mind you – Virginia ranks just behind the Blue Devils in scoring defense.

Scheyer in his third year as head coach has quietly restored the Devils to legitimate status among the nation’s top defensive squads, second in adjusted defensive efficiency according to KenPom. Duke held opponents to 58.73 points in all games through Dec. 20 compared to Virginia’s 60.56. Simultaneously Duke led the ACC in scoring margin (+19.9). UVa ranked 16^th (+0.9).

The current Devils are stingier than any squad in program history about a third of the way through the season. Last weekend they topped themselves, holding Georgia Tech to 56 points in a Duke victory at Atlanta.

This Duke team also leads the conference in field goal percentage defense at 35.6 percent, reflected in opponents’ scoring. The Devils haven’t asserted ACC leadership in field goal percentage defense since 2005, one of four times along with 1963, 1971, and 1989. (Only the two most recent efforts came under Krzyzewski.)

Duke also is second in the ACC in steals with 8.64 per game, led by Malik Brown with 19. Brown is among four members of the current squad who’ve already recorded double-digit steal totals.