Duke Home-and-Home with Memphis?

[BlueintheFace]

http://collegebasketball.rivals.com/...asp?CID=869778

Calipari added that Duke wanted a third game, a neutral-site game to be played in 2009 in Chicago.

"They want to get (Jon) Scheyer home (the Blue Devils' guard is from nearby Northbrook) and I want to recruit Chicago, so it's good for both of us," Calipari said.

Reached Wednesday by Rivals.com, Duke senior associate athletic director Mike Cragg acknowledged that his school would be interested in playing the Tigers.

"I would say we've had good discussions, but we're not prepared to make any announcements," Cragg said.

Very interesting...

[BD80]

Looks like Coach K and Mike Cragg are trying to get the "home" games for Elliott Williams and Jon Scheyer. Chicago is easy, we can get any other team that wants to recruit Chicago to play a neutral site game. To play in Memphis, we probably need to play the Tigers.

I hope we have to schedule a game in Broward County Fl next year!

[BlueintheFace]

it feels a little... i dont know... "icky" to me. I feel like playing Calipari voluntarily in the regular season is like playing Calhoun voluntarily. It just feels dirty. Still, it'd be great to get Jon a game near home and it can't hurt recruiting...

[weezie]

I guess Calipari has a hankering to see the finest, most sacred temple of basketball up close. And maybe he likes being spanked!

[RainingThrees]

it feels a little... i dont know... "icky" to me. I feel like playing Calipari voluntarily in the regular season is like playing Calhoun voluntarily. It just feels dirty. Still, it'd be great to get Jon a game near home and it can't hurt recruiting...

Its like your legitimizing him as a coach if you play him.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

I guess Calipari has a hankering to see the finest, most sacred temple of basketball up close. And maybe he likes being spanked!

What I found interesting was that he would play both Duke and carolina at home in 2010/2011 and away in Durham and chapel hill in 2011/2012. He's either a masochist or insane - I'd think he'd want to split those up and play one at home and one away each year.

[trinity92]

Count me as one of the "Duke should play more premiere program home/home matchups during the regular season" crowd-- I think it's good for college basketball and good for our program.

The recent Duke at Indiana in the ACC/Big 10 challenge gave me goosebumps before the clock ever started. I would love to see our guys at the Allen Fieldhouse and the Jayhawks in Cameron, ditto for UCLA, Syracuse (maybe replace our annual St. Johns at Madison Square Garden and have them visit Greensboro/Charlotte the next year), Texas, Arizona (if/when they get the program back to premier level), Notre Dame, Louisville (letting bygones be bygones), Ohio State . . .

You'll notice the glaring omission of UK and UCONN-- too much heat to those matchups. I think it would be unfair for the kids at either program to be exposed to such virulent hatred. I also omitted Florida. Sort of for the same reason, but mostly because I don't think Donovan's haircut should ever be legitimized/encouraged/allowed in Cameron.

[houstondukie]

Count me as one of the "Duke should play more premiere program home/home matchups during the regular season" crowd-- I think it's good for college basketball and good for our program.

The recent Duke at Indiana in the ACC/Big 10 challenge gave me goosebumps before the clock ever started. I would love to see our guys at the Allen Fieldhouse and the Jayhawks in Cameron, ditto for UCLA, Syracuse (maybe replace our annual St. Johns at Madison Square Garden and have them visit Greensboro/Charlotte the next year), Texas, Arizona (if/when they get the program back to premier level), Notre Dame, Louisville (letting bygones be bygones), Ohio State . . .

You'll notice the glaring omission of UK and UCONN-- too much heat to those matchups. I think it would be unfair for the kids at either program to be exposed to such virulent hatred. I also omitted Florida. Sort of for the same reason, but mostly because I don't think Donovan's haircut should ever be legitimized/encouraged/allowed in Cameron.

IIRC, we played Kentucky during the 2001-2002 season. Jason Williams. Tayhsaun Prince. It was a great game.

Calipari is clearly acknowledging the weakness of Conference USA by scheduling such great out-of-conference teams year after year, even willing to play them away.

In my opinion, this is a great recruiting tool for Calipari.

[Billy Dat]

UConn and Kentucky would be fantastic series - I think "the kids" could handle it. Memphis would be great, too, so would Florida. Last time I looked, Callipari and Calhoun had not been in trouble with the NCAA as oppossed to some of our other past out of conference coaching opponents like Brian Ellerbee, Kelvin Sampson, etc. Mike Jarvis, a good friend of K and regular season series foe, was running a pretty loose ship up in Queens before he got the boot. But, I guess that was a case of the kids being bad and the coach being taken advantage of? K doesn't seem to have a problem with Calhoun and Callipari, I am not sure why we should.