Good to have a nice break between those two games. Now if the Duke mini-tournament is in between let's not kid ourselves on the level of competition for that. Also thank heavens we still get our 500th game vs Michigan St. this century. In fact since Duke and MSU are destined to play each other as much as possible maybe just have MSU be the Big10 challenge team.
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
They could switch the home/road designations around, given covid-19's lessened effect on home-court advantage and the past practice of not 100 percent rigidly enforcing the goal of not having teams play road games in consecutive years. If they don't, then Duke, U.Va., Iowa and Wisconsin are all due home games. That would suggest something like:
Duke-Illinois
Virginia-Michigan St.
Iowa-North Carolina
Wisconsin-Louisville
I'm confused as to why. We haven't played them since Maui 2007. NCAA 2004? We won both by double digits. They did win in Cameron my sophomore year to end the '83-'95 non-conference win streak, but the current non-conference win streak is 3. That would be equivalent to adding a Helms or NIT 3rd place feather to your cap.
Illinois hasn't had a team that would have been expected to really compete with Duke since about 2005. We are the big boy that everyone wants to measure against. This year, for the first time in a loooong time, Illinois would appear to be back to being a significant player on the national stage. Of course they would froth at the mouth for the chance to play the gold standard and show they really do belong in the national title conversation.
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
Bring back the Big Four classic from years ago. Duke, Wake, State and the Cheats fighting it out. Better, bring back the Dixie(different first name?) Classic. But State and Wake would have to do some outstanding recruiting to compete with the top teams from across the country.
GoDuke!
I'm with you on that. Call it something else and revive this great tradition. In a more typical setting, some would be worried about having to pay the Cheats too many times in a season. Everything is up for grabs this year, it is not at all clear that Duke will be able to play the Cheats twice more during regular season NCAA play. I, for one, am not reluctant to play the Cheats 3 or 4 times before the NCAA tournament.
Many Illini, including then Illini Coach Bruce Weber, will never forgive Jon for choosing Duke over Illinois.
Jon was regarded as Illinois' best HS b-baller at the time, and many Illini assumed/hoped that he would go to Champagne-Urbana. There was shock, disappointment and anger when Jon chose Duke.
Making it especially painful: Bruce Weber is David Weber's brother -- David being Jon's HS basketball coach. Ouch. Evidently, the Webers thought they had a lock on Jon's future.
For fun, and to see how high the hopes were, and how deep the disappointment was, I have clipped some excerpts from Wikipedia about Jon's HS career:
Scheyer led his high school team to an Illinois state basketball championship as a high school All-American, and was one of the starters on the 2009–10 Duke Blue Devils that won the 2010 NCAA Basketball Championship, as a college All-American. He was a prolific high school scorer, and later an Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) leader in numerous statistical categories, ranging from free throw percentage and three point shots/game to assists/turnover ratio.
In high school, he once scored 21 points in a game's final 75 seconds of play in an attempt to spark a comeback. The 4th-leading scorer in Illinois high school history, he led his team to a state championship in 2005, and was named Illinois Mr. Basketball in 2006. Also in 2006, Scheyer was voted as one of the 100 Legends of the IHSA Boys Basketball Tournament, a group of former players and coaches in honor of the 100 anniversary of the IHSA boys basketball tournament.
His HS coach David Weber said: "I call him a combination of Larry Bird and 'Pistol' Pete (Maravich). He's got the flair, the passing abilities. He's got good size. He's a rare player in this day and age."
One example of his dogged pursuit of excellence is that while in high school, Scheyer refused to leave the gym one night until he made 50 consecutive free throws.[30] After finally hitting 49 in a row, he missed on his final attempt.[30] His father encouraged him to join him and go home, but – as his coach recalled – "Jon looked at him and said, 'No. I'm starting over.' Then he stayed until he made 50 in a row."[30]
Scheyer is the 4th-leading scorer in Illinois history, behind Charles McElvain, with 3,034 points, and he is the only player in state history to finish his career ranked in the all-time top 10 in points (4th), rebounds, assists (6th), and steals (7th).[19][23] He was named Illinois Mr. Basketball in 2006 by an overwhelming margin (receiving 217 votes, to 17 for the 2nd-place finisher), a high school All-American, a two-time Gatorade state Player of the Year, and a three-time All-State selection.[2][20][25] He had a reputation as an exceptional 3-point shooter, a good defensive rebounder, and a big-game performer.[31] In naming him to the Illinois First-Team for the decade, ESPN wrote that he was "one of the greatest Illinois high school players of all-time". He was also named to the century-list, the "100 Legends of Illinois Basketball (1908–2007)".[25] Illinois Warriors coach Larry Butler said: "Jon Scheyer is one of the most prolific scorers I've seen in Illinois high school basketball. He was just the ultimate team player. Jon Scheyer would take the shirt off his back to win a game."[32] A Chicago Sun-Times article observed:
Scheyer's offensive game is amazing ... He hits jumpers from all manner of pogo-stick angles. He can hit runners while shooting back across his body. He can drive and finish in acrobatic ways. His offensive repertoire of ways to score is like a magician's bag of tricks. Offensively, he is a modern-day 'Pistol' Pete Maravich.[33]
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So, it would be fun to play Illinois and I hope that Coach K lets Jon coach much of the game!
“I love it. Coach, when we came here, we had a three-hour meeting about the core values. If you really represent the core values, it means diving on the floor, sacrificing your body for your teammates, no matter how much you’re up by or how much you’re down by, always playing hard.” -- Zion
As we is jv001!
Nothing incites bodily violence quicker than a Duke fan turning in your direction and saying 'scoreboard.'
Why not Howard?@TheDukeNation
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17m
Duke will host an event in early December. The teams will include Howard, Elon, and Bellarmine.
Duke will only play Elon and Bellarmine.
That's a major bummer. If the purpose of this event is to bring awareness to social justice, why not give a HBCU a shot at beating one of the big boys, or at a minimum give them a nationally televised game? Instead we're playing a program that is in its first year as a D1 school. Pretty weak if I'm being honest.
Two more exhibition-quality games on the (likely shortened) regular season schedule. Color me disappointed. The home non-conference schedule seems to get weaker and weaker every year.
Brendan Marks of The Athletic (who is terrific - I would encourage people on this board who go to trash sites like Ball Durham to instead pony up for The Athletic) pretty much explained the thinking on this last week:
Considering the lost revenue the athletic department is likely to incur due to the lack or absence of fans, it makes sense that Duke doesn’t want to be flying all over the place and spending money for those games. Also, the pandemic is still going on last I checked. So I’d expect more buy games against lower-level opponents, who come to Cameron and collect their check. Duke gets games, small schools get some necessary financial reimbursement. Win-win, no?
My take, as I explained up thread, is that Duke isn't throwing a tough game onto their schedule in the week between Michigan State and the Big10 challenge.