The Duke Blue Devils have been one of the best teams in the nation in the early goings this season and they will be going up against a team in the Arizona Wildcats that has also been very impressive and the matchup on ESPN Friday for the finals of the NIT Season Tip-Off will be at Madison Square Garden and is a nice top 10 game and will be starting up on TV and streaming on WatchESPN at 6:00 pm from MSG.
Jabari Parker has been as good as advertised for the Blue Devils and after the team lost an early matchup with the Kansas Jayhawks, coach Mike Krzyzewski;s team is ready for another big test against a top team. The Wildcats come into the game as the higher ranked team at number four in the nation and they are undefeated at 6-0, while Duke is 6-1 on the season and now the two sides will try and continue their solid play as they try and win the early season tournament. Duke has played very well at the Garden in the past and the team has won 14 straight games at the event and now they have a very talented Arizona team to take care of with freshman Aaron Gordon, who has put himself up there with Parker as some of the young stars in the game. Parker could potentially be the top overall pick in the draft and he also is a potential player of the year candidate, as he is averaging over 20 points per game with nearly nine rebounds and he will be the focal point again on Friday night.
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Duke and Arizona have had quite a few memorable matchups in the past, including back in the 2001 national title game and of course in the 2011 tournament and now they will play in another tournament finals. Arizona comes into the game after a tough matchup against Drexel and the Wildcats have been playing some stellar defense this year and that makes the matchup with Duke very interesting, as Parker has helped the team to 90 points per game through seven games and now they will try and get past the Cats. Duke has been very impressive to start the season and they are coming off of a win against Alabama on Wednesday and that game saw Parker score 27 points and he also grabbed eight boards and after playing against Arizona, Duke has another bit matchup against a ranked team with the Michigan Wolverines coming to Carolina to Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Duke is ranked 12th in the nation in point per game and they are also ranked 23rd in assists per game, while they are shooting very well and are eighth in field goal percentage and they are shooting over 53 percent through the early part of the schedule. The ACC conference is looking to be very strong at the top this season and apart from Duke, North Carolina and Syracuse are both ranked in the top 25 and with the Orange joining the conference, it should make the postseason tournament very interesting.
Parker and Gordon know each other from playing ball in high school and each of those two players will be the main focus of the defense for Arizona and Duke. Gordon has been very impressive with 12.5 points per game and nearly 10 rebounds and he had 13 in the victory over Drexel and the team will next play at home against the Texas Tech Red Raiders after dealing with the Blue Devils. The team is ranked 21st in the nation in rebounding and 17th in field goal percentage with over 51 percent and they also have a looming matchup against Michigan. The Blue Devils and the Wildcats are playing at Madison Square Garden and Arizona and Duke will be playing for the NIT final starting up at 6 pm on ESPN.