A Look At Duke’s Best Non-Conference Games

Over at CBSsports.com, Kyle Boone takes a look at Duke’s top five toughest non-conference opponents.

Not surprisingly, the toughest is the first, Kentucky. We don’t much like UK, but the culture is powerful and the basketball is usually pretty good. That’ll be fun.

#2 is the Maui Invitational with a hoped-for final against Gonzaga which would also be pretty good. There’s also a good chance Duke could see Arizona in the finals if the Blue Devils make it that far.

#3 is Indiana in the second year of Archie Miller’s reign. Indiana is one of those programs that it’s an honor to play. They may have been to Cameron at some point but we can’t remember it if they have (we have since been reminded that they came in 2015 but clearly it didn’t make a deep impression. We’re looking forward to looking forward to playing Indiana again as a great college power).

Miller is immensely promising and we expect he’ll make Indiana a power again. That’s going to be a fun game. And of course he’s very familiar with Cameron, having played just down the road in Raleigh. He’ll really want this one.

#4 is St. John’s, also rebuilding. Chris Mullin had an incredible hot streak last season before falling back again but we saw a glimpse of what his Johnnies program could be.

#5 will be Texas Tech. Chris Beard did a tremendous job in his first season and like Coach K was heavily influenced by Knight, who was his boss at Texas Tech for 10 years. He’s showing signs of being a really superb coach so this could be fun. It’ll be in the Garden.