The Duke Blue Devils and the UCLA Bruins are two of the most storied schools in college basketball and on Thursday night the teams will go at it at Madison Square Garden in a matchup of teams with a combined three losses and the matchup will start at 7:30 pm and the game will also be streaming live from the WatchESPN website.
Duke comes into the game ranked in the top 10 this season with an 8-2 record, while the Bruins have a better record at 9-1 and are not in the top rankings. Duke comes in after a dominating win against Gardner Webb and they next will play against Eastern Michigan in a set of easy games and now the team has a challenge with UCLA and the game will be at MSG where the Blue Devils often play very well. The team is ranked eighth in the nation and Jabari Parker has been great for the team as a freshman with Jabari Parker after he scored 21 points in the last game and Rodney Hood has been playing very well for the team alongside him. Duke comes into the matchup scoring nearly 90 points per game and the team is connecting on over 60 percent of their shots, ranking sixth in the nation and they are also in the top 30 in assists per contest. Duke has won two games in a row since falling to the Arizona Wildcats and the team has tough matchups coming up with Notre Dame and Clemson.
Check here for the Duke and UCLA live coverage.
The Bruins come in after a win over Prairie View and they play Weber State next and the team has been playing very well overall this season, scoring 89 points per game and ranking third in the nation in scoring. The Bruins are the top ranked team in the nation in field goal percentage and they are making 54 percent of their shots so far and they are also ranked third in the nation in assists per game and they could be in the top 25 soon, especially if they knock off Duke. The team has won one game since losing against Missouri and the team won eight games in a row to open the season and they have some big conference matchups looming.
The Bruins are playing against the Arizona Wildcats in January and they also have games against ranked teams in Colorado and Oregon on the road in the coming weeks as well. The team ends the season with two games on the road and they also have matchups with Stanford, Washington and Oregon State down the stretch.
Parker has been excellent for Duke this season, scoring over 20 points in eight games and he has been just as good as advertised and head coach Mike Krzyzewski has praised his hard work in practice and in games. The Bruins are a good matchup with Duke and the Blue Devils are allowing opponents to shoot over 44 percent from the field and that has been an issue and the team comes in with a 9-6 record against the Bruins and many of those wins have come under Krzyzewski, as he has gone 7-1 against the team in his tenure and chances are the Bruins will be in the top 25 at some point this season.
