Observations from College Basketball’s Opening Weekend
By: MIKE McCURRY After a tumultuous offseason for
By: MIKE McCURRY After a tumultuous offseason for
By JACOB POLACHECK
For the second consecutive year, the Duke Blue Devils will open the season as the No. 1 ranked team in the AP Preseason Top-25 poll, with Michigan State, Arizona, Kansas, and Kentucky rounding out the rest of the top-five. Duke had 33 of 65 first-place votes.
“It is an honor to be picked No. 1 in your sport,” Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski told the Associated Press Wednesday. “At this time of the year, it truly is a prediction, so you haven’t earned No. 1 yet. More than likely, past teams that have played at Duke have put this team in a position where people might say, ‘How is that team going to do?’ or ‘They have a lot of talent’ and all of the sudden, you’re No. 1. Certainly, it’s an honor and we’ll look forward to trying to achieve and earn that ranking at some time during the season, hopefully at the end.”
By: MIKE McCURRY NEW YORK—Duke head coach Mike
By: MIKE McCURRY NEW YORK — Duke co-captain Matt
By: MIKE McCURRY
NEW YORK — The box score from Duke’s nine-point loss at Louisville on January 14th most closely resembles an artifact.
Grayson Allen dropped 23 points and 9 boards. Frank Jackson logged ten minutes. Amile Jefferson was absent, nursing a bruised right foot. Ditto for head coach Mike Krzyzewski and his surgically repaired back.
Flash forward to Wednesday, when Duke secured a 79-72 win over Clemson in the second round of the ACC Tournament, clinching a rematch with Louisville on Thursday in the form of a quarterfinal date (approximately 2:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).
By: MIKE McCURRY NEW YORK—Greensboro is only the
By MIKE McCURRY Remember in late January, when
