The Duke Blue Devils will be back in action on Friday night after a long layoff, as the crazies will be out and about at Cameron Indoor Stadium as the team takes on Davidson starting up at 7 pm on Watch ESPN and ESPNU.
The Blue Devils come into the season after having a very solid year in the ACC in 2012-13, including going 30-6 on the year and finishing 14-4 against the conference. The team started things off right with a win at the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas, taking the title after starting off the season at the tournament and it was another great season at Cameron, as they finished undefeated there and they even defeated eventual champions Louisville in the tournament back in the Bahamas. Mike Krzyzewski has his team ready to play against Davidson and he never lets his team overlook an opponent and this team likely won't as Seth Curry's brother played there, so the school will be on the radar.
Check here for the WatchESPN coverage of the Duke and Davidson game online.
The team ended up winning four games against top five teams last season and they also ended up second in the conference in the ACC and finished with a loss to the Maryland Terrapins in the ACC tournament before getting a number two seed in the main NCAA tournament, where they ended up defeating Albany as well as Creighton and then in a huge matchup with Michigan State in the Sweet 16 they won that to head into the Elite Eight, but after defeating the Cardinals earlier in the season, they ended up losing to Louisville, who went on to win it all. As usual, the team doesn't rest lightly at the beginning of the season, as they will play the Kansas Jayhawks for their second game of the year after playing Davidson and that game against the number five ranked team in the nation will be at a neutral location next Tuesday.
Last season the starting five included Seth Curry, Ryan Kelly and Mason Plumlee, but now all those guys are gone and the team must restock and reload and they appear ready to do that after snagging Jabari Parker as a top recruit. The team has a tough test this season in the ACC, as they have teams like Notre Dame, Syracuse, North Carolina and Virginia ranked in the top 25 and there are plenty of other talented teams to watch out for, including Miami, NC State and Boston College. Duke has been one of the perennial teams in college basketball for many years and after bringing in some highly touted recruits, Krzyzewski could have one of his best young teams yet.
The team plays some tough games before starting up conference play, as they will have Kansas and Andrew Wiggins as well as Michigan coming in December and the team also has the UCLA Bruins and Notre Dame in January. The team doesn't play any real road games until later in December and heading into that the team has games against the Bruins and the Wolverines. The team has a tough stretch with road games against Miami, Pitt and Syracuse later in the season and they also have some very anticipated matchups with North Carolina, as those games are always exciting.
The two teams in Duke and Davidson will play at Cameron on Friday night starting up at 7 pm and the game will be streaming on WatchESPN and will be live on ESPNU.