Navigating Duke's Challenging Non-Conference Schedule

The Slate Breakdown

The Blue Devils have another tough non-conference slate, as per usual under Scheyer. The fourth-year coach in Durham has scheduled aggressively outside of the ACC. He has not been afraid to schedule matchups with top teams to boost their resume, while running the risk of losing and hurting themselves in the process.

After Texas, Duke will see No. 19 Kansas at Madison Square Garden in the Champions Classic on Nov. 18. They'll also face off with John Calipari's No. 14 Arkansas at the United Center in Chicago on Thanksgiving.

The Blue Devils will then get to host the defending champion No. 3 Florida Gators on Dec. 2, before traveling to East Lansing and seeing No. 22 Michigan State. Duke will finally wrap up a daunting non-conference lineup against No. 10 Texas Tech back at Madison Square Garden.

In late February, in the midst of ACC play, Duke will meet Michigan in our nation's capitol at Capital One Arena.

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

Under Scheyer, Duke's strength of schedule has ranked at 43rd, 44th and 34th in the country. However, in the non-conference with Scheyer, the strength of schedule has bumped up to 16th, 25th and fifth just last season.

Facing six ranked teams in the AP preseason poll, as well as physical Texas and Army squads, might just be the toughest slate yet from Scheyer.

“Several nights, I stay up a little bit later thinking, ‘What did I do?’” Scheyer said at ACC Media Day. “In the moment, it definitely made sense. I think it makes sense. But there's no question it's going to be challenging and exciting.”

The Blue Devils will have their depth tested early facing some of the best teams in the country. While many eyes will be on the freshman mix of Boozer, Nikolas Khamenia and Dame Sarr , Duke is slated to face some teams with talented guards, making the rotation between Caleb Foster and Cayden Boozer interesting.

There is definitely a balance Duke will need to strike between it's reliance on threes from Isaiah Evans other guards, and letting Boozer go to work down low, which worked well in exhibition play. It's similar to the balance Scheyer strives for in scheduling, trying to boost a resume and still keep the team afloat.