Half A Decade Of Duke vs. Kansas?
This is promising
As you probably know, Duke and Kansas have scheduled a game in Las Vegas this fall, which should be pretty good. Kansas is always a tough out and at Duke, Jon Scheyer has put together an imposing group for next season and he’s done a terrific job of not just maintaining the program that Mike Krzyzewski built but extending it into a challenging new era of college basketball Having these teams play is a big deal for both programs and for college basketball in general.
Well good news: they may be playing a lot more.
According to CBS’s Matt Norlander, Jon Scheyer and Bill Self are working on a five-year arrangement.
Nothing is official yet, but after this year, the two will meet in the Champions Classic in 2025, then a home-and-home series in 2026 and 2027.
Finally, the teams will meet again in the 2028 Champions Classic.
One of the ways that Scheyer is changing things is in his scheduling philosophy. Having Arizona come to Cameron last fall was great, other than the result, and having a home-and-home with Kansas, with Allen Field House and Cameron Indoor Stadium as the venues?
What could possibly beat that?
It has happened before: Duke visited Kansas in 1988 and won 74-70 in overtime, and the Jayhawks came to Cameron the following season, only to get thumped by the Blue Devils, 102-77. Danny Ferry’s jersey was retired that day.
Also notable: the 1988 game was the last meeting between the two of the Larry Brown era and the 1989 contest was Duke’s first-ever matchup against Roy Williams.