Date 12/10 || Time 7:00 || Venue Cameron Indoor Stadium || video ACCN

Next up for Duke is Incarnate Word, which leads to the inevitable question: Who?

Of course, Krzyzewski’s answer is that it doesn’t matter, you respect and honor your opponent by preparing thoroughly and playing hard. Just because we don’t know much about Incarnate Word doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be taken seriously, which we’re about to prove.

So who are these guys?

Well, Incarnate Word is a Catholic school in San Antonio with about 9,200 students. In terms of sport, they take part in the Southland Conference.

Southland…Southland…who else is in Southland?

So, does the name Stephen Freakin’ Austin sound familiar?

Of course it is: The Lumberjacks came to Cameron in 2019 and pulled off a wild upset against Duke with a last-second fastbreak. We can still see Jack White flying across the field to try and catch the shooter.

Southland. So don’t you dare take Incarnate Word lightly.

UIW is coached by Shane Heirman, who was formerly the head coach at La Lumiere and sent several players from there to the NBA.

So far his Cardinals are 5-4. They have two graduate students, three seniors, one junior, five sophomores and five freshmen, including one name that may sound familiar to you, sophomore TJ Ford. His father was a great player at Texas and also had a solid NBA career.

Heirnan uses an eight-man rotation, with seniors Dylan Hayman and Davion Bailey leading the way.

Hayman, 6-5, is posting 14.3 ppg, 4.7 rebounds and 1.6 apg. Bailey, 6-4, averages 17.7 ppg and 2.9 rebounds. He’s also hitting 55.2 percent of his threes – and that’s him third best Three-point shooter on the team.

Jalin Anderson, 6-3 and also a senior, is averaging 14.7 points, 3.6 boards and 6.2 apg.

Jordan Pyke, a 6-7 freshman from Greensboro, is posting 11.9 ppg and 5.8 rebounds. He’s hitting threes at a clip of 63.6 and yes, that leads the team.

Lamin Sabałly, a 6-8 senior from Germany, is averaging 3.7 points and 3.7 boards. Jayden Williams, a 6-9 freshman, is managing 6.6 ppg and 5.7 boards. And Shon Robinson, a 6-9 senior, is a rarity in that he shoots nearly 60 percent overall and tops that at 62.5 percent behind the line.

The final rotation player is Marcus Glover, who averages 1.8 ppg and a game-best 3.2 rebounds.

Ford is a little deeper in the rotation.

The Cardinals – the second game in a row that pits Duke against the Cardinals – are shooting well overall at 49.4 percent, but are really outstanding from deep at 42.6 percent. Duke will have to defend this carefully.

Duke is now ranked No. 4 ahead of Kansas and Kentucky, the two teams that defeated the Blue Devils. We can assure you this hasn’t gone unnoticed in Lexington, but we digress.

Duke is getting better quickly. The win in Arizona was impressive, the win over Auburn even more so, and while the win in Louisville doesn’t carry the same weight, the Blue Devils were impressive, especially in the second half and especially on defense. Cooper Flagg is the best candidate and a very good defender, and now Maliq Brown has also developed into a super defender. But actually most rotation players defend very well.

Duke has shown great potential early on, but there is still work to be done. The Blue Devils have a tendency to start slow and it would be nice if that stopped. It would also be nice if the Blue Devils shot a little better overall.

Teams develop at their own pace (or not), and we expect Duke to continue to improve. If the Devils find this to be an easy game – and there’s no guarantee of that – it would be a chance to work on some things, iron out some rough edges and put some guys in different situations to see how they perform hit.