Up next for the Virginia basketball team are the No. 7 Duke Blue Devils, who the Cavaliers knocked off 69-68 in Cameron Indoor Stadium on Feb. 7. The Hoos look to sweep the regular season matchup against Duke after sweeping the season matchup against Miami on Saturday.

Although the winning basket the first time with Duke was a Reece Beekman three, the Cavaliers did not win the game because of their perimeter shooting. They shot 2 of 12 from beyond the arc, but they dominated the interior and outscored the Blue Devils 52-28 in the paint. Duke is 4-0 since the upset, and the Devils have been able to limit some of the inside scoring from opponents.

How will UVA adjust its game plan to pull off another upset?

Duke’s Mark Williams leads the ACC with 2.9 blocks per game. Virginia’s big men in Kadin Shedrick and Francisco Caffaro are certainly not paint beasts with traditional post-up moves, so how did UVA get the job done on the inside? Screens and ball movement. With the way Duke is set up, not many teams are going to rival the Blue Devils on talent so isolations and going toe-to-toe with a defender will not fare well. However, using screens to expose mismatches or mistakes in man to man and infiltrating the heart of a 2-3 zone can put this defense on its heels.

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