Blue Devils to face Cardinals tonight in championship game; Flagg will not play due to injured ankle
No. 1 Duke Blue Devils will face No. 13 Louisville Cardinals Saturday in the ACC championship. The game starts at 8:30 p.m. on ESPN.
Bottom Line
The Blue Devils are 21-1 against ACC opponents and 8-2 in non-conference play. Duke has a 1-1 record in games decided by less than 4 points.
The Cardinals are 20-2 in ACC play. Louisville is third in the ACC with 25.2 defensive rebounds per game led by J'Vonne Hadley averaging 5.2.
Duke scores 83.3 points, 14.6 more per game than the 68.7 Louisville gives up. Louisville has shot at a 45.7% rate from the field this season, 7.3 percentage points higher than the 38.4% shooting opponents of Duke have averaged.
The teams meet for the second time this season. The Blue Devils won 76-65 in the last matchup on Dec. 8. Cooper Flagg led the Blue Devils with 20 points, and Terrence Edwards led the Cardinals with 21 points.
Will Cooper Flagg play tonight?
Duke's head coach Jon Scheyer confirmed Friday that Flagg will not play in Saturday.
The star freshman left Thursday's win over Georgia Tech late in the first half after rolling his ankle. Flagg has a severe sprain that will keep him out of the title matchup.
"He's doing better," Scheyer said. "All the imaging came back negative, but he sprained it pretty good. It's a good sprain. I'm not breaking any news. He's not going to play (Saturday)."
ESPN and Associated Press contributed to this report.