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luburch
02-12-2014, 02:32 PM
Starting in 2018 Michigan State, UNC, Texas, and Florida will play three games each in 8 days. Pretty interesting. I wonder if Duke was asked to play and declined due to classes?

Also of note, they will travel on the same charter airplane.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/10444857/michigan-state-north-carolina-florida-texas-new-4-team-event

Dev11
02-12-2014, 03:03 PM
Starting in 2018 Michigan State, UNC, Texas, and Florida will play three games each in 8 days. Pretty interesting. I wonder if Duke was asked to play and declined due to classes?

Also of note, they will travel on the same charter airplane.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/10444857/michigan-state-north-carolina-florida-texas-new-4-team-event

They'll never criticize Michigan State for poor scheduling. They regularly go above and beyond to schedule every worthwhile team in the country, and they've stated repeatedly that they'll play good games just about anywhere in the world.

I bet Duke wasn't part of it because MSU already had the Champions Classic with Duke scheduled and couldn't double up on Blue Devils for a season. What a shame, this sounds even better than the Classic, because it removes even more cupcake games from the schedule.

TexHawk
02-12-2014, 03:21 PM
They'll never criticize Michigan State for poor scheduling. They regularly go above and beyond to schedule every worthwhile team in the country, and they've stated repeatedly that they'll play good games just about anywhere in the world.


I know it *seems* that way, because it's mentioned every time Tom Izzo's face is on my TV screen, but here are the NCSOS rankings for MSU over the last 5 years: 181-41-185-171-155. (Interesting to note that their best SOS came with one of their worst teams, they finished 19-15 in 2011 with a 1st round tourney loss).

A noncon in the upper 100s isn't awful, especially for a team from the Big10 who is going to get challenged a lot in conference. Don't get me wrong, MSU does schedule good opponents, but they also like their cupcakes as much as other schools do. (They had five opponents with 200+ Kenpom rankings this year.)

MCFinARL
02-12-2014, 05:03 PM
They'll never criticize Michigan State for poor scheduling. They regularly go above and beyond to schedule every worthwhile team in the country, and they've stated repeatedly that they'll play good games just about anywhere in the world.

I bet Duke wasn't part of it because MSU already had the Champions Classic with Duke scheduled and couldn't double up on Blue Devils for a season. What a shame, this sounds even better than the Classic, because it removes even more cupcake games from the schedule.

That makes sense. Also, if whoever set this thing up approached UNC first (not an unrealistic assumption as UNC, like Duke, draws a lot of viewers), obviously Duke would not be included--these events don't work with teams from the same conference.

Henderson
02-12-2014, 06:48 PM
The level of detail agreed in the itinerary is pretty funny. Right down to what's for supper in Chicago (pizza -- Tom Izzo will read the menu to the UNC players) and which Broadway musical they'll catch in NY (Motown "if it's still playing"). And they're already scheduled to go to comedy clubs in both NY and Chicago (meaning the Knicks are playing at home while the college teams are there and against the Bulls when the college teams are in Chicago).

Not announced (but I presume) is the assumption that after hitting In-N-Out Burger in LA at 6:13 pm, the teams will board busses to Riverside, where they are scheduled to watch from the edge of the San Andreas Fault as LA finally drops into the sea and we don't have to watch any more Matthew McConaughey films.

Scorp4me
02-12-2014, 07:49 PM
I can't find the link to where to contact the DBR anymore, but someone should contact them and have them correct their newest post about "Duke To Participate In Major Event Scheduled For Next Season" since we aren't. Very strange, no one in the article they linked is Duke mentioned so strange mistake.

Edouble
02-12-2014, 08:12 PM
I can't find the link to where to contact the DBR anymore, but someone should contact them and have them correct their newest post about "Duke To Participate In Major Event Scheduled For Next Season" since we aren't. Very strange, no one in the article they linked is Duke mentioned so strange mistake.

I tried to contact them via the "Contact Me" link. I hope they get it.

If anyone does get in contact, they might also mention that the Al Featherston article has a fact check kind of error. Chris Duhon was not on the 2005 Duke team (game #10).