Duke men’s basketball bounced back from its first loss since November with a comfortable 78-57 win over California. The Blue Devils had fallen to Clemson four days earlier and lost their No. 2 spot in the national rankings.

Cooper Flagg kept his National Player of the Year campaign rolling with 27 points on 8/14 shooting. The superstar freshman hit all nine of his free-throw attempts and logged five rebounds, three assists, and three steals.

Despite his team’s decisive win, Duke head coach Jon Scheyer was not satisfied with the Blue Devils’ performance – particularly on the defensive end.

“I’m still not pleased, I just feel we can be better (on defense),” Scheyer said in his postgame presser. “I thought California missed some open looks, I thought they were in our paint way too easily. I thought the effort and the readiness was there, but the attention to detail wasn’t … It doesn’t come from lack of effort or anything like that, but it’s just that attention to detail we have to have. I thought it was a good step but not where we need to be.”

Scheyer’s emphasis on detail-oriented execution has fueled Duke’s dominant season. The ACC juggernauts have gone 21-3 overall with a 13-1 conference record. They currently own the No. 3 defense and No. 5 offense in the KenPom college basketball rankings.

Once the Blue Devils built a big enough lead against Cal, they started putting on a show. Flagg gave the fans of Cameron Indoor one of the highlight dunks of the year with a flashy reverse slam in transition.

With seven games left of the regular season, the No. 3 Blue Devils will look to gain more momentum heading into March. They are set to claim a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament for the 15th time in program history and the first time since 2019.

Duke will return to action on February 15 against Stanford.