No. 5 Duke visits Donald L. Tucker Center on Saturday to take on Florida State. The game gets underway at 2:00 EST and it can be seen on ESPN. The Blue Devils are 5-3 against the Seminoles over the last four years. They fell 62-59 on 3/10/2012, the last time they met.

Duke is 2nd in the ACC and Florida State is in 5th. Both teams continue to jockey for position.

The Blue Devils got past Wake Forest 75-70 on January 30th with the help of 32 points and 9 rebounds from Mason Plumlee. He contributes a team-high 18.1 points per game and 11.1 rebounds per game. In a 73-71 victory over Maryland on January 30th, Michael Snaer put up 19 points for the Seminoles. With 14.2 points per game and 2.5 assists per game, he has team-best marks in both categories.

There is a single key statistical area where Duke can exploit Florida State, scoring, where the Blue Devils have an edge over the Seminoles, 78 points per game to 69 points per game.

Florida State StatSmack

  • Duke has a better conference record than Florida State this season (5-2 vs 4-3).
  • Even computers respect Duke more. We have a better RPI this season than Florida State (RPI: #1 vs #60).
  • We win when it counts, too. Duke has more NCAA Tournament wins over the last 10 years than Florida State (21 vs 3).
  • The Duke steals leader (Quinn Cook) has more steals than the Florida State steals leader (Terrance Shannon).
  • The Duke rebounding leader (Mason Plumlee) has more rebounds than the Florida State rebounding leader (Okaro White).
  • Duke has more Final Four appearances over the last 10 years than Florida State (2 vs 0).
  • You'll do better on next semester's exams, right? Duke currently has a higher Academic Progress Rate (995 to 946) than Florida State, per the NCAA.
  • The only thing that matters. Duke has more NCAA Championships over the last 10 years than Florida State (1 vs 0).
  • Duke is better at defending the three (30.7% allowed vs 33.8% allowed) than Florida State this season.