Duke Basketball Has DOMINATED the ACC — Can Anyone Stop the Blue Devils?

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

This is the Locked On Podcast Network, celebrating 10 years of your team every day.

JJ Jackson (0:11)

Everybody's been talking about how difficult this ACC schedule is for Duke Basketball going into the new season, but maybe we're looking at it the wrong way. Maybe we're asking the wrong question. Duke is 36 and 2 in ACC games over the last two seasons. Can anybody even stop them?

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JJ Jackson (0:45)

Hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode of the Locked On Blue Devils podcast. My name is JJ Jackson. So great to have you here with us today on Tuesday, September 15th, 2026, Locked On Blue Devils is your one stop shop where we discuss everything going on inside the life of Duke Athletics. And on today's show, we've got a big time focus with this Duke basketball team. The ACC schedule is here. We'll get into that. We're going to talk about what took place with Pro Devil Weekend on campus, the past few days and so much more. And I cannot wait to break all of this down with you here today with our good pal, Kevin Connelly from Ball Durham, who joins us on the program. Be sure to subscribe to us for free wherever it is that you get your podcast and subscribe to Locked On Blue Devils on YouTube. ACC schedule in front of us, Kevin. And my oh my, we want to talk about the difficulty that may or may not present itself for Duke this season. But we first begin this conversation by saying, man, what a run Duke has been on in conference games over the last two years.

Kevin Connelly (1:46)

Yeah, JJ, they've been dominant. They've been absolutely dominant the last couple of years, not just in conference games, non-conference as well. I mean, we talk about the runs that they've had in each of the last two years to the Elite Eight and then to the final four the previous year. So this is a basketball team that has won a lot of games over the last two, even go back to what, last four years under Jon Scheyer. So the expectations are there again, the roster is there again, the talent is there again. So those expectations aren't changing, that this is a team that is supposed to be right there at the top of the country and of course at the top of the ACC.

JJ Jackson (2:20)

So taking a look at some of the numbers here, you mentioned Duke over the last two seasons. Seventy and seven overall, seventy wins, seven losses for Duke basketball. That's it. And those seven losses over the last two years, the total margin of defeat for Duke, twenty two points. That's silly. That's an average of three point one points per loss for Duke. I mean, they have been in it in each of these games. Thirty-six and two in ACC play in the regular season. Six and O in ACC tournament play. That is forty-two and two their record against ACC opponents over the last two seasons. In regular season games, Duke is winning those games by an average of twenty point two points per game against ACC regular season competition. All those stats, I just said to you, Kevin, any of those in particular, the most impressive, because boy, oh boy, so many of them are really, really superb.

Kevin Connelly (3:19)

You know, it's kind of funny. I don't know if we do this as media members, as fans, as people who, you know, closely follow a basketball team. But those two losses that you mentioned basically came down to buzzer beaters. North Carolina last season on the road, that Seth Trimble corner three ball. And then, you know, that Clemson game two years ago, it wasn't necessarily a buzzer beater.

But it was a game that Duke had a chance to win in the last couple of seconds, and Clemson scores a bucket and gets the victory. So like, those are the two things that immediately came to my mind, where it was like, oh, what are those two games? And you don't have to think very hard about those two games, because Duke had led by double digits. Certainly in the North Carolina game, I don't know if they led by double digits in that Clemson game on the road.

JJ Jackson (4:09)

But yeah, they were in a good spot, though. Yeah, I mean, I'm with you. Those games are super impressive, and there are only two losses that you could come up with. You said both on the road. I mean, that's the thing. Duke hasn't lost a home game the last two years. It is hard to win inside Cameron Indoor Stadium. That's always been the case, but it's been a really fun situation over the last couple of years, where Duke's had another undefeated year in Cameron.