The Toledo men’s basketball team (7-4) will face its biggest challenge of the 2014-15 campaign when it takes on No. 2 Duke (10-0) Monday, Dec. 29, at 7 p.m.
The contest will be played at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, N.C., and be televised on ESPN2.
The Rockets are riding a season-high five-game winning streak following an 83-69 road victory over McNeese State Dec. 20.
The Blue Devils have been idle since a 66-56 triumph over Connecticut Dec. 18 and have an NCAA-best 38-game home-court winning streak.
Toledo is in its 100th year of basketball and the preseason pick to win the Mid-American Conference by numerous publications. UT is in search of its first NCAA Tournament berth since 1980 after posting a school-record 27-7 win-loss mark last year.
UT Head Coach Tod Kowalczyk has guided the Rockets to a 68-41 (.624) win-loss mark since the start of the 2011-12 season.
Four of five Rocket starters possess double-figure scoring averages to help Toledo rank second in the MAC with 77.5 points per game.
A member of the 2015 Bob Cousy Award Watch List, senior guard Julius Brown leads the Rockets and ranks second and third in the MAC, respectively, with a 52.5 three-point field shooting percentage (32 of 61) and 15.9 points per game.
Also scoring in double figures for UT are senior forward J.D. Weatherspoon (12.6), senior guard Justin Drummond (12.6) and sophomore guard Jonathan Williams (10.9).
As of Dec. 25, Toledo ranked sixth nationally with a MAC-best 76.7 free-throw percentage. Freshman guard Kurt Hall leads the league with a 95.2 mark and is followed by junior center Nathan Boothe (90.9) and Brown (89.5).
The Blue Devils rank third nationally with their plus-25.2 scoring margin and fourth with a 52.3 field-goal percentage and 1.59 assist/turnover ratio.
