The Arkansas Razorbacks (4-3) will face off against the No. 7 Duke Blue Devils (5-1) as part of the ACC/SEC Challenge on Wednesday inside Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville.
Led by second-year head coach Jon Scheyer, the Blue Devils finished the 2022-23 season with a 27-9 (14-6 ACC) record and lost to Tennessee in the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament.
Heading into the season, the Blue Devils were selected to finish first in the ACC by the league's media. Duke had two players selected to a preseason all-conference squad in center Kyle Filipowski and guard Tyrese Proctor. Filipowski was also selected as the ACC Preseason Player of the Year.
Duke has won four straight games — including a victory over Michigan State — after losing a hard-fought battle against No. 12 Arizona on Nov. 10.
Arkansas is coming off of a 1-2 performance in the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament that saw the Hogs defeat Stanford before losing to Memphis and No. 14 North Carolina last Wednesday-Friday.
Head Hog Eric Musselman gave fans a good preview of what to expect against the Blue Devils.
"You look at this team and their center [Kyle Filipowski] is a lottery pick," Musselman said Monday. "[Tyrece] Proctor, one of their guards slash wings is a lottery pick. So we’re playing against two lottery picks. And No. 1, [Caleb] Foster is an early Mid-20 type pick based on mock drafts. So we’re playing against three draft picks that’ll all probably happen before 20.
"So we’re playing against a really good basketball team with some guys that made a decision to come back and play college basketball. They’ve got some guys on their team that would have been first-round picks last year. And they came back to get better."
Here's a closer look into Duke's stats, efficiency ratings, projected lineups and more ahead of Wednesday's game, which is set to tipoff at 8:15 p.m. CT on ESPN:
