Duke basketball coach Jon Scheyer during the college basketball exhibition game against Tennessee on October 26, 2025, in Knoxville, Tenn. Saul Young/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Challenging Non-Conference Matchups Ahead for Duke

Originally posted on Duke Blue Devils on SI
By Michael Canelo | Last updated Oct 31, 2025 4:00 PM ET

The Duke Blue Devils basketball program is putting its final plans together for the start of the season. This season, this team is looking to do great things and bring back a National Championship to Duke. That is something that has not happened in a well.

They know they play for championships at Duke, and anything else would be considered a failure. Whether that is fair or not does not determine what the reality is when you bring up this great basketball program.

Duke will once again have a great basketball team for the upcoming season. They have a great freshman group once again, and this year they will have returners who will have a huge role for this team.

That is a good mix to have, and head coach Jon Scheyer is getting them to create great chemistry with one another that is going to help this team win. That is one major key this season for Duke if they want to make a run and win a National Championship this season.

Duke's Non-Conference Schedule

Duke is going to have to build that chemistry early on in the season. It might not look like Duke in the first half of the season, but that will change as the season goes into the important stretch. That is one reason they wanted to play tough non-conference games.

“Our schedule we have this year is one of the craziest, if not the craziest schedule I’ve ever seen,” senior forward Maliq Brown said.

"As a part of ESPN’s Basketball Power Index — the prediction of a team’s success throughout the season — each team in Division I is given both a non-conference strength of Schedule (NC SOS) and a pure strength of schedule (SOS) ranking," said Elle Chavis of The Chronicle. "In an era where the strength of the ACC varies greatly, Duke’s SOS has ranked at 43rd, 44th and 34th nationally over the past three years."

"During the first two years of Scheyer’s tenure in Durham, the Blue Devils played a typical non-conference schedule, headlined by games against then-No. 6 Kansas in 2022 and then-No. 12 Arizona in 2023. Duke’s NC SOS checked in at 16th and 25th those years, respectively."

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This article first appeared on Duke Blue Devils on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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