The Duke Blue Devils and Presbyterian are playing live on the NCAA men's college basketball schedule on Friday for the coaches vs Cancer Classic and the game has the Blue Devils coming back after a big season with Jabari Parker and this matchup comes ahead of a big matchup with Michigan State in a few days and Duke comes in as one of the favorites in the ACC.
Duke is ranked fourth in the nation coming into the season and they will play against Fairfield next and the team comes in as one of the top squads in the nation. The talent on the roster is there with Jahlil Okafor, Tyus Jones, Justise Winslow and Grayson Allen coming in and Mike Krzyzewski has to find a way to get everyone going early and often this season. The Blue Devils went 26-9 last season and 13-5 in the ACC last year and they are looking to make a deep run this season.
Duke has North Carolina, Syracuse and Virginia in the ACC and coming up they will play against Michigan State in the Champions Classic next week. Duke has an easy schedule to start the season like everyone else and after playing against number 18 Michigan State, the team has games with Temple and Army before another ranked matchup with Wisconsin. The Badger are expected to be very good as well and they are ranked number three in the nation.
Over the first couple months of the season the team has matchups with ranked opponents and they also will play against UConn in that time and they are also ranked. The ACC schedule picks up later in the season and they will have Boston College, Wake Forest and NC State to open things up. The back stretch of the schedule gets much tougher and the team has two matchups with Syracuse and North Carolina towards the end of things and they end the season on the road against the Tar Heels.
The Duke Blue Devils know they have a number of players coming in and they will have to get adjusted to each other quickly this season. Okafor is one of the top players coming in and he averaged a double-double last season in high school, while point guard Quinn Cook is coming back and is a senior and will be the leader of the team. Coach K has the team back in the mix once again in his 35th year as the head coach and that is a crazy run for the Devils. This should be an easy matchup for Duke and they have another easy game before playing against MSU.
Check here for the Duke Blue Devils and Presbyterian live coverage.
