Two interesting scheduling articles

[zingit]

Andy Katz reports that some of this year's bubble teams aren't going to change their scheduling philosophies to curry favor with the selection committee. Andy Glockner makes a convincing argument that this is a mistake, saying that playing solid mid-majors can mean the difference between being on the bubble and being in.

Interestingly, the teams he uses as examples of mid-majors that high-majors should want to play are all ones that Duke has played/will play: Bucknell last year, and Davidson this year and next. I think Davidson is on our schedule partly because they're from North Carolina and we have a history of playing them, but still, it looks like here is another good reason to schedule them. Not that we're going to be a bubble team next year!

[dball]

I think Davidson is on our schedule partly because they're from North Carolina and we have a history of playing them,

The Duke-Davidson series is indeed a long one.

Duke's ties with Davidson go well beyond basketball however. Davidson is also one of the 'other' schools under the Duke endowment. Both schools are noted for academic rigor.

[Indoor66]

Do you recall that Duke was involved with Davidson back in the 60's. Bill Bradley was committed to Duke and Duke was also interested in Fred Hetzel (6'8" from DC area). Vic ran out of scholarships so, as the story goes, guided Fred to Davidson and it's non ACC program. Incidentally, Lefty Drisell (a Duke grad) was the coach at Davidson.

The rest is history. Bradley went to Princeton (failing to show up at Duke) and Hetzel led Davidson to the NCAA's and was an All-American. Lefty then moved on to Maryland and Vic just picked up dirty sticks! The irony.