Next Up – Virginia Tech. Will Duke Shut Down Schutt?

Date 12/31 || Time 4:30 || Venue Cameron Indoor Stadium || Video ACCN

Next up for Duke is 5-7 Virginia Tech in a rare weekday afternoon game on New Year’s Eve.

The obvious headline here is the return of Jaden Schutt to Cameron. The former Blue Devil transferred to Virginia Tech after last season. He would have been down the depth chart regardless, but injuries forced him to redshirt and then, like most of the team, he left.

He’s done reasonably well in Blacksburg. He’s starting and leading the team in minutes played with 28.8 per game. He’s averaging nearly double figures (9.3) in points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.0 assists. He’s not shooting particularly well – 37.5 percent on threes and 36.8 overall – but clearly he’s valuable to the team.

Schutt has taken 96 shots total and of those, 76 were three point attempts which makes sense in Mike Young’s three-point happy offense.

His backcourt mate is Brandon Rechsteiner, scion of an athletic family though he took a very different route there. His father and uncle are both professional wrestlers and his brother, Brock, is apparently heading that way as well.

He’s not shooting particularly well – 33.3 percent overall and 22.2 percent for threes – but his primary role is to run the offense and he’s doing okay there with 5 apg.

Toby Lawal, a 6-8 transfer from VCU, is getting 10.7 ppg and 5.8 rpg.

Sophomore Jaydon Young (6-4) is also starting. He’s putting up 7.1 ppg.

Mylyjael Poteat, a candidate for the All-Name team, is 6-9 and a bruising 260. He’s averaging 10.1 ppg, 4.4 boards and hitting 51.4 percent of his shots.

Tyler Johnson, Ben Burnham, Ben Hammond, Rodney Brown and Patrick Wessler make up the rest of the rotation.

Since the Hokies joined the ACC, they’ve periodically given Duke fits. Remember the Sean Dockery game? That was great because Coleman Collins was taunting Duke when the Hokies looked like they had the game won only to see Dockery hit a near-half court shot to steal the win from Virginia Tech (Collins then begged the referees to overturn the shot).

In their first visit to Cameron, the fiery Seth Greenberg left angry, partly because he got jostled by the Cameron Crazies on the way out after losing.

The real trouble has come in Blacksburg, where the Hokies have given Duke fits. But this one isn’t in Blacksburg.

As it has every game this season, Duke has a major size advantage and will try to dominate the smaller Hokies inside.

Virginia Tech has a key to Duke’s system in Schutt, who knows the ins-and-outs of what Jon Scheyer will want to do. That’s a valuable asset when you think about it.

Our guess is that he comes back to Duke ready to prove a point and he may indeed go off.

However, consider this too: Tyrese Proctor and Caleb Foster know Schutt very, very well. They know when he’ll go left, when he’ll pull up and what makes him balk. That, too, is a very valuable asset. Sion James, Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel can all take a turn on Schutt or whoever the hot hand turns out to be.

Our sense of this rivalry usually is that it’s going to be Young’s three point offense vs. Duke’s very tough defense. This year feels a bit different though. Duke’s size and outstanding defense has been smothering opponents. Khaman Maluach, Cooper Flagg and Maliq Brown make it very difficult to do much inside and Duke’s pressure can extend out farther than most teams.

If the Hokies – Schutt or otherwise – get hot from three point range, well, that’s the wild card. It happens.

If it comes down to a more defensively oriented game, then Duke is in the driver’s seat.