On Saturday evening, university basketball will be entitled to something commonplace for decades, but has become the exception of the rule in the past 15 years: a marked non-conference game between two large-scale programs.
This is the No. 3 Duke against Illinois at Madison Square Garden and it is an excellent bonus for a sensational weekend of university basketball.
These types of major matches outside the rhythm of the heart of the conference season were a coherent characteristic of male university basketball while sport increased from the 1960s to the early 2000s. They became an endangered species During the previous generation due to the expansion of conferences and constraints around planning due to television contracts.
Fortunately, Duke and Illinois prove – just as Gonzaga and Kentucky did it a year ago, when they managed to do the same – there can be a means.
For what Does it happen? More like: why not? Duke hunted a big program to play a big match after the football season where more eye globes are looking to watch university hoops. It didn’t take long to find an impatient partner in Illinois.
“I had talked a lot about the way last year it was cool Gonzaga and Kentucky played late in the season, and said and if we can take the opportunity, we have to look for this,” said the ‘Illinois coach, Brad Underwood, at CBS Sports.
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The opportunity arose at the end of last summer. Duke Jon Scheyer’s coach was consistent to try to plan notable matches non-conference for Duke in a way that can strengthen Duke’s preparation for the NCAA tournament. The two coaches wanted the match and wanted it in the middle of the conference season. The programs worked for more than a month with the ACC and the Big Ten to make sure that a weekend was released for everyone to get there.
“The garden said they expected it to be one of the best crowds they have ever had for a university match,” Scheyer told CBS Sports. “Said that the interest was out of the graphics.”
Earlier Thursday, during the availability of local media, Scheyer added: “Madison Square Garden is also special in a place where you can play in the world. … It’s a little different, I would lie, the fact That we are in February and that you prepare for someone you have not looked at the same way as you would for a conference opponent.
The organizers of Madison Square Garden were eager to do so too. Illinois still draws well in New York, while Duke fans call MSG “Cameron North” each time the Blue Devils get a match in the most famous arena in the world.
“I would play every year there,” said Underwood. “I always consider him as an atmosphere of NCAA tournament, far from the monotony of the league game, a different attitude, a different opponent. We will never avoid playing very good people.”
It is not unique for one or the other program. Underwood and Scheyer both declared that they would seek to do so in the future, even if it is not against the other.
“We need these matches throughout the year,” said Underwood about High-Majors, finding ways to play big games in regular season beyond November and December.
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Previously classified, Illinois has been prohibited lately, and this is partly due to a brutal virus that has followed the program. Underwood told CBS Sports that the cadence of the disease for most people was for about four days, some in Illinois are still not entirely healthy. Nevertheless, the illini fights are clearly a team at the tournament and this game arrives at a very desired moment for Duke, which is by far the best team of the ACC and could use another Quad 1 opponent to improve their chances of Obtain a seed n ° 1.
“I think it was really smart from us,” said Scheyer. “Now we just need to win.”
Scheyer already has an unknown opponent in mind for February 2026. These details will probably be finalized in the spring.
“The environment, the opponent, these things must be correct, but we work for this to happen for next year,” he said.
The scene on Saturday evening should be great, and I hope that the game will be too. The more attention there is and the better the competition for these types of games, the more other coaches will want to follow.
