Non-Conference Schedule

[BlueDevil2K]

There's been some discussion recently about how strong Duke's non-conference schedule was this year. Now that everybody has wrapped up their regular season (except for Penn, since the Ivy has no conference tournament), I decided to look at how all of our opponents fared. It's pretty remarkable:



Kansas 26-5 16-2 Big 12 - 1st
Ohio State 25-6 13-5 Big 10 - 1st
Michigan State 24-7 13-5 Big 10 - 1st
Michigan 23-8 13-5 Big 10 - 1st
Washington 21-9 14-4 Pac 10 - 1st
Temple 24-6 13-3 Atlantic 10 - 1st
Belmont 27-7 16-2 Atlantic Sun - 1st
Davidson 23-7 16-2 Southern S - 1st
Penn 19-11 11-2 Ivy - 2nd*

UNC-Greensboro 13-18 10-8 Southern N - 1st
Tennessee 18-13 10-6 SEC - 2nd
Western Michigan 12-19 6-10 MAC West - 3rd
Colorado State 19-10 8-6 MWC - 4th
Presbyterian 14-15 8-10 Big South - 6th
St. John's 13-18 6-12 Big East - 11th


(hopefully the formatting holds up...)

Overall, 9 of our 15 opponents finished at least tied for first in their division or conference, with Penn becoming the 10th if they defeat Princeton. Of those 10 opponents, 8 (all but UNC-G and Penn) finished with single-digit losses. 11/15 had winning records overall, and 12/15 had winning records in their conference.

We'll see how the rest of the season shapes up, but you can't argue that this year's squad isn't battle-tested!

Brian

[Wander]

Whoa, Tennessee finished tied for 2nd in the SEC?!

[DukieTiger]

Duke played (and mostly beat) some solid competition this year, that's for sure. 2 of 3 against the B1G (strongest conference this year) co-champs.

Regarding Tennessee, it should be noted that they improved significantly mid-year when they added Jarnell Stokes. Not that this takes away from Duke's schedule, but helps explain how they did so well in-conference.