ACC Basketball Schedules

[Jarhead]

Goduke.com has us playing Georgetown at CIS. I could have sworn the word on the board was that we'd play them in D.C. this year. Am I remembering this incorrectly? That's quite possible.

The ACC .pdf file has it at CIS, also.

[Olympic Fan]

Just a few observations:

-- I think you are wrong if you think this schedule hasn't been crafted with as much care as recent Duke schedules as far as the RPI rating of the team's non-conference ratings. Based on last year's ratings, Duke's non-ACC foes were:

4. UCLA
8. Georgetown
9. Xavier
35. Davidson
45. Purdue
62. Southern Illinois
77. Rhode Island
130. Duquesne
132. Georgia Southern
141. Loyola (Md)
143. UNC Asheville
156. St. John's
173. Michigan
181. Duquesne
229. Montana

Obviously, these are going to change this year with graduation losses and additions (Xavier loses Lavender and Burrell in the backcourt; Georgia Southern loses a lot; Purdue, St. John's and Michigan all expect to be a lot better), but what's beautiful is that there are no or few BAD teams on it. Counting conference games, Duke will play five games against 2008 top 10 RPI opponents, nine against top 50 (although No. 52 Virginia Tech should move up to give us two more in 2009), 20 against top 100, 27 against top 150 and 30 (of 31) against top 200 -- and Montana at 229 is a lot better than last year's stinker against NCCU ... BTW Montana played just one so-so senior last year and should be the preseason favorite in the Big Sky)

-- Looking at the conference breakdown, I think Duke got a fairly rough ACC schedule. Obviously, preseason projections are not written in stone, but I see:

2 games against the best team in the conference, UNC (no surprise, but the teams that play UNC once ... and Duke once ... are going to be at a big advantage).
6 games (out of a possible eight) against the four teams that are likely to share the first division with No. 1 UNC and No. 2 Duke (in preseason predictions) -- home and home with Virginia Tech and Wake; home against Miami; at Clemson
3 games (out of a possible six) of the three teams expected to finish at the bottom of the league -- single games with NC State and Virginia at home and at Boston College.

-- I was also surprised to see the Georgetown game in Durham, but when you look at the series (since we started playing them almost every year in 2003) you see an odd pattern:

2003 -- Durham
2004 -- Washington
2005 -- no game
2006 -- Washington
2007 (actually Dec. 2006) -- Durham
2008 -- no game
2009 -- Durham

So its home/away/away/home/home ... I assume the next two games in the series will be away/away

-- I think that Purdue is a great opponent -- the best Duke will play outside the league (with the possible exception of UCLA in New York). Great season last year with an extremely young team. Martin, who might have been their top-rated recruit, left because he was squeezed out of the starting lineup. Hummel was a freshman stud, while Moore and Johnson were outstanding. Painter is doing a great job coaching this team -- they are tough, well-disciplined and will be playing at home. I'm not sure they will be preseason top 10, but they'll be close. They'll be one of the favorites in the Big 10 -- ahead of Michigan State? I don't know that -- but even if they are No. 2, Duke's the No. 2 preseason pick in the ACC, so it's a perfect matchup.

[pfrduke]

That's hardly fair. You and I could team up and beat Indiana two on five this year. I also think you're overrating Davidson a little bit (or underrating Pitt?), but they're still a quality opponent.

And don't forget about Southern Illinois when listing our quality non-conference opponents.

My point was only that people shouldn't look down on our schedule because the good teams that we play are not the more "traditional" good teams who may have more name recognition but may not be as good a team. There's a tendency to look at the name on the jersey and say "oh, they're playing Kentucky, that will be a tough game" without bothering to know just how good a team like Kentucky will be that year. No one should be dissatisfied with the quality of our non-conference opponents (at least their expected quality from a preseason perspective).

[bigj4194]

in response to my own post above...i have created a .ics file since i couldn't find one out on the internet, however DBR posts do not allow for that type of file upload as an attachment. If you would like me to send you a copy PM me your email and i will be happy to.

Cheers
bigj4194

[JasonEvans]

Kenny George recently had surgery on his right foot and will almost certainly not be available for the Duke game. In fact, he may miss the entire season.

It is not uncommon for people this big to have serious health issues with feet, knees, and backs. I hope Kenny George can buck the trend but I would not be at all surprised if his basketball career was riddled by injuries.

--Jason "he is currently listed at 7-9, that is just sick!!" Evans

[speedevil]

anyone have the schedule out on palm yet?