ACC Basketball: Pitt makes finalist of two top prospects, Duke scheduling
Duke doing good things
The Duke men’s basketball team has partnered with a former team manager to help support people affected by COVID-19, according to Sports Illustrated’s BlueDevilCountry. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and Kevin Marchetti, who was a manager for the Blue Devils from 1996-2000, are donating $225,000 to the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. Marchetti is the co-founder and co-executive chairman of Lineage Logistics, which is the world’s largest temperature-controlled warehousing and logistics company. Several former Blue Devils’ including Shane Battier, Kyrie Irving, J.J. Redick, Jayson Tatum, Josh Hairston, Nick Arison, Mike Dunleavy Jr., and Trajan Langdon are also part of the project.
“This is going to make a huge impact in the work we’re doing right now,” said Jennifer Caslin, Marketing and Project Manager for the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. “We couldn’t be more grateful. Thank you for everything you are doing at Duke, and that you have done in the past. Thank you for the wonderful gift, and we hope that you can get back on the court soon.”
More Duke news
Duke will host D-II Walsh College (North Canton, Ohio) in an exhibition game on October 31. This will be Walsh’s first game against a D-I opponent since 2016. The game was pretty much organized by Walsh’s assistant Kevin Hacke and Duke assistant Nolan Smith.
“Kevin is very close friends with Nolan Smith, who is an assistant at Duke,” Walsh head coach Jeff Young told Mike Popovich of CantonRep.com. “They were in each other’s weddings. Without me even knowing about it, they were discussing it for the past three weeks. It kind of gained some steam.”
“Kevin and I were communicating through Zoom, text messages, and phone calls daily. Then he called me this week and said, ‘I think we’re going to play Duke.’ I thought he was kidding.”
The Cavaliers went 25-6 last year and earned an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament as the winners of the G-MAC Tournament. The Cavs were one of the best offensive teams in D-II as they ranked 39th in scoring (83.1), 19th in field goal percentage (49%), and sixth in 3-point percentage (41.50%). They are expected to return three of their top four scorers from a year ago, led by Darryl Slaughter, who averaged 17.5 points and 3.5 trifectas while shooting 49.4% from the field and 46.2% from beyond the arc.
Duke will host Cleveland State in a nonconference contest on Dec. 18. This will be the first game between the schools. Cleveland St. went 11-21 overall and finished seventh in the Horizon at 7-11. The Vikings are expected to return their top three scorers from a year ago — Algevon Eichelberger, Torrey Patton, and Craig Beaudion.