U of L readies for historic Duke matchup

Terry Rozier walked into the Louisville basketball facility's press room on Friday afternoon and widened his eyes. The room was packed with reporters with laptops and cameramen with those big, bulky TV cameras.

"Whoa," Louisville's 6-foot-1 sophomore guard said. "This is a lot of people."

As he settled into his seat in front of the crowd, Rozier was reminded of the matchup at hand: Fourth-ranked Duke vs. sixth-ranked Louisville, 12 p.m. Saturday at the KFC Yum! Center and on national television.

This game pits two of the current top-six teams in college basketball against each other. It pits college basketball's winningest program over the past four years (U of L) and its Hall of Fame coach vs. the winningest coach in Division I college basketball history (and Hall of Famer) and his powerful team hoping to win its fifth national title since 1991. Oh, and it pits two perennial national powers against each other in their first-ever Atlantic Coast Conference game against one another.

This game is, by all accounts, a big deal.

"Oh, yeah -- is it?" Rozier asked, smiling.

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Like the Louisville football team's games against Clemson and Florida State last fall, the matchup on Saturday against Duke is one of the perks of Louisville's new conference.

It's not that U of L (15-2, 3-1 in the ACC) isn't used to playing name-brand competition -- the Cards play Kentucky every year and navigated the powerful Big East Conference for eight years. And it's not that Louisville itself hasn't been among college basketball's elite before, either.

But Duke represents the biggest fish in Louisville's new pond, and that big ol' fish is coming to town for the kind of January matinee that throttles college basketball into the sports spotlight in the days after the college football season ends.

"It'll be exciting because you have the premier coach in college basketball coming in, you have one of the premier programs in college basketball (and) we're new to the ACC," U of L coach Rick Pitino said.

"I'm excited to get Duke in here to see what we can do against their size as well as their quickness."

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Duke (14-2, 2-2) arrives in Louisville with some questions, despite all that size, quickness and talent.

The Blue Devils have lost two consecutive games for just the third time in the past six seasons. The 87-75 loss to NC State and the 90-74 loss to Miami were the first back-to-back, double-digit losses that Duke has suffered since its final two games of the 1995-96 season, according to ESPN's research department.

Coach Mike Krzyzewski's team, the preseason ACC favorite, has particularly struggled on defense. Miami and NC State shot a combined 53.4 percent from the field in their wins against Duke, making 20 of 36 3-pointers. Miami led by as many as 20 points in the second half on Tuesday; NC State led by as many as 19 in the second half on Sunday.

Those two losses derailed what could've been another big story line coming into Saturday's game. Krzyzewski has compiled 997 career wins as a college coach, and 924 of them have come during his 35 seasons at Duke.

Related:U of L-Duke story lines change as game approaches

Had Duke won the Miami and NC State games, Saturday's contest at Louisville could've been Krzyzewki's first shot at his 1,000th career coaching victory.

"I'm very happy," Pitino said, grinning. "I'm sad to see Mike lose, but very happy that I wouldn't be part of a trivia question."

Humor aside, he may still be part of a trivia question, at least around here. Saturday's game is historic. It's the first meeting between two of college basketball's top-flight programs when they're in the same conference, and it's a conference loaded with tradition. The beginning of a new in-league, Louisville-Duke rivalry just adds to that tradition.

That's a big deal.

"It's going to be a lot of fun," Rozier said on Tuesday. "It's something I can't wait for."

For up-to-the-minute U of L updates, follow beat writer Jeff Greer on Twitter (@jeffgreer_cj).