It’s hard to tell why, but Virginia Tech has always been more accommodative of Duke when it comes to success at the foul line. As demonstrated once more at Cameron Indoor Stadium on New Year’s Eve. Since the first basketball game between the colleges from adjacent states in February 1912, the Blue Devils have won 54 of 67 games, or.806 times.
In three of their meetings the Devils were flawless at the free throw line, most notably the last game of calendar year 2024. That’s out of just five times in Duke history one of its teams converted all 10 or more foul shots. In December of 1966 Duke made every one of its 29 free throws against the Hokies. The Devils went 15 of 15 against Virginia Tech on December 31, 2024, and 24 of 24 against Davidson in 1978. Otherwise, Duke won 10 of 10 against Virginia Tech in December 2019 and 14 of 14 against South Carolina in December 1961.
In 2005, Wake Forest defeated North Carolina to set the ACC men’s record of 32 of 32 free throws made without a miss in a single game. The Tar Heels only lost once between November 22 and February 9 when they fell to Duke, which was one of UNC’s four losses en way to winning Roy Williams’ first NCAA championship. That game at the Smith Center went to triple overtime. Surprisingly, Duke’s performance against Virginia Tech wasn’t the only flawless free throw effort the ACC has seen this year. Louisville lost against Tennessee by 22 points, making all 13 of their foul shots. Additionally, Pitt upset Virginia Tech by making all 12 of his free throws, seemingly taking advantage of a foul line error that was most obvious to
On the flip side of the foul shooting coin, Louisville missed 14 of 39 free throws against UNC last week (.641) and won by 13 points.
And if you want to indulge in a little foolishness, there’s Syracuse’s flawless 2-for-2 performance in the Gotham Classic at Brooklyn earlier this season in a loss to Maryland. By the way, as of January 3, the league’s most accurate free throwers were Clemson (second) and Pitt (third) out of these sporadic dead-eye teams.
ENJOYING A FOUL BALL
Best Team FT Accuracy, Single Game,
Current Season, Minimum 10 Attempts
(Through Contests Of 1/3/25)
FT% FT-FTA ACC Team v. Opponent
1.000 15-15 Duke (W) v. Va. Tech
1.000 13-13 Louisville (L) v. Tenn.
1.000 12-12 Pitt (W) v. Va. Tech
.938 15-16 Clemson (W) v. Wake
.917 11-12 Notre Dame (W) v. G’town
.917 11-12 Virginia (W) v. Coppin St.
.917 11-12 Virginia (L) v. SMU
.917 11-12 Stanford (L) v. Clemson
.909 19-21 Clemson (L) v. So Car. (OT)
.909 10-11 Duke (W) v. Wofford
.909 20-22 Wake (W) v. NC A&T
.903 28-31 UNC (L) v. Kansas
.900 18-20 Stanford (W) v. Cal.
.900 9-10 Virginia (L) v. Florida
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