The Duke Blue Devils have been off to a very solid start this season and freshman Jabari Parker has been as good as advertised and the team will now play against the Alabama Crimson Tide on Wednesday night in the NIT Season Tip-Off and the game will be at Madison Square Garden and starts up on ESPN2 and the WatchESPN website streaming at 9:30 pm and comes after a close win for Duke at home.
The Blue Devils come into the game after starting 5-1 on the season and they last won over Vermont by one at Cameron Indoor Arena and that is the closest the team has come to having their historic home winning streak snapped and now they hit the road against Alabama. The team has a tough game coming up against Michigan on Tuesday and that is the next game against a ranked opponent for the team since playing against Kansas in the second matchup of the year and that was a great battle between two top five teams and the top freshmen in Parker and Andrew Wiggins and both showed why they likely will be top picks next season. Parker is leading the team in scoring and Rodney Hood has been excellent since debuting with the team after transferring and he has been great, averaging 21 points to rank second on the team and now they will face off against Bama, who comes into the game 3-1.
Check here for the Duke and Alabama stream.
Parker and Hood have been playing very well for Buke and the two young stars are also ranked one and two in rebounding and they are one reason why the team has won five of six games this season. The ACC schedule hasn't started up yet, but Syracuse and Pittsburgh are both playing very well at 6-0 and Wake Forest is also undefeated at 5-0 and behind them are a handful of teams at 5-1, including Duke. The Blue Devils are averaging just under 93 points per game and the team is ranked third overall in field goal percentage at over 50 percent and the team is also ranked 20th in assists per game.
The team has won four games in a row since losing to Duke and the team has a tough schedule ahead with the Wolverines and then after that they have a looming matchup with the UCLA Bruins and then later against Notre Dame and Clemson. Jabari Parker starred for the team with 26 points and nine rebounds against Vermont and those all turned out to be huge based on the way the game played out. The Blue Devils have performed historically well at the tournament and they have won 13 straight games and they are looking for another one and winning would put them into the finals for the tournament and Parker has been playing well all season, as he has scored 20 points in his first six games of the season and he has shown why he is such a unique player and great prospect.
