Baylor @ Duke preview
Lenovo Center
Last Meeting ( Dec 20, 2023 ) Baylor 70, Duke 78
RALEIGH, N.C. -- There should be a familiar feel for top-seeded Duke in its NCAA Tournament second-round game with ninth-seeded Baylor on Sunday afternoon.
The Blue Devils will encounter some old friends, adding to their experiences just a half-hour drive from campus.
Baylor guard Jeremy Roach was a Duke standout in the backcourt, playing a key role on the team's 2022 Final Four team. He opted to play his final college season with the Bears.
"I coached him for four years, two as an assistant, two as a head coach," Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. "He's given Duke everything he has."
Duke (32-3) and Baylor (20-14) won in vastly different fashions in Friday's first round in the East Region.
Baylor held off eighth-seeded Mississippi State in the site's opener 75-72 before Duke blew out No. 16 seed Mount St. Mary's 93-49.
The Duke game had no drama once it began and star freshman Cooper Flagg was in the starting lineup, back one week after suffering a sprained ankle that caused him to miss all except a few minutes of the Blue Devils' three-game run through the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. He scored 14 points in more than 22 minutes on the court in the 44-point rout.
"I was just making sure he wasn't pacing," Scheyer said. "Obviously giving him a few extra minutes, I'm sure that's going to be helpful for Sunday."
So now all the focus can look ahead to the Baylor game.
Scheyer said there's no sense dwelling on the Roach angle at this time of the season.
"You're playing the NCAA Tournament," he said. "This should be about Duke and Baylor."
While Duke's starting lineup consists of four newcomers this season, junior guard Tyrese Proctor and Roach are former backcourt mates.
"(Roach is) my boy," Proctor said. "He's family and it's going to be great."
The Bears will try to use Roach's presence to their advantage.
"I'm sure we're going to pick his brain," Baylor coach Scott Drew said. "At the end of the day, though, I know he loves Duke and had a great experience. I know from when our past assistants that we coach against, it's bittersweet."
For Baylor forward Norchad Omier, a former Miami player, it's a matchup against a school he has faced previously in ACC competition.
Meanwhile, there's a reunion among former Montverde Academy teammates Flagg and Baylor's Robert Wright III.
"It's just a cool experience being in this environment and this setting having played together last year, so it's just really cool," Flagg said.
Baylor's close call against Mississippi State added to the team's bevy of close results, so the Bears look at that as a good tune-up for what's coming next.
"I think it definitely gets us ready for a (No.) 1 seed and able to go out there and compete," Wright said.
Omier reached a Final Four with Miami two years ago. He doesn't expect anything to come easy.
"It's March," he said. "Anything can happen. We've got to be ready for every game to be a close game."
Duke's 21 assists and two turnovers Friday marked the best single-game assist-to-turnover ratio in program history (10.5).
"Just play our game," Proctor said. "We've said the whole year, no matter who we play, just play our game."
--Bob Sutton, Field Level Media