The Blue Devils’ dominant defense was again on point against Pittsburgh, and freshmen Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel were active on offense.

With winter break coming to a close, No. 4 Duke men’s basketball takes on Pittsburgh at home Tuesday evening. In a battle of ACC heavyweights, the Blue Devils have a 34-24 lead after 20 minutes.

Cooper Flagg had 19 points and 10 rebounds in a double-double performance as one of five Blue Devils to reach double figures. Kon Knueppel had 17 points and Tyrese Proctor tallied 13 points. Khaman Maluach added 11 points and eight rebounds, and Sion James finished with10 points with seven boards.

The SMU game is the first game Scheyer, who is in his third season as Duke’s head coach, missed since taking over the program following Mike Krzyzewski’s retirement in 2022. He never missed a game during his Duke playing career from 2006-10, when he appeared in 144 games.

Pitt visits Duke on Tuesday! Let's continue our College Basketball odds series with a Pitt-Duke prediction and pick.

Cooper Flagg’s fifth double-double of the season allowed the Duke Blue Devils to overcome head coach Jon Scheyer’s absence and beat SMU on Saturday.

The Duke Blue Devils picked up their fifth Quad 1 win of the season on Tuesday night with a 76-47 blowout of the Pittsburgh Panthers, leaving the team from Durham second in the men's basketball NET rankings as of Wednesday morning.

Cooper Flagg Joins Four Duke Stars on Exclusive List. He still sits atop the composite rankings. But that may soon change, as McCoy fell two notches in the On3 rankings