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Duke Basketball: Blue Devils set for Canadian Tour opener

By Kevin Connelly

PITTSBURGH, PA - MARCH 15: Marques Bolden #20 and Jack White #41 of the Duke Blue Devils defend against Tyrell Williams #44 of the Iona Gaels during the game in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at PPG PAINTS Arena on March 15, 2018 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
PITTSBURGH, PA - MARCH 15: Marques Bolden #20 and Jack White #41 of the Duke Blue Devils defend against Tyrell Williams #44 of the Iona Gaels during the game in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at PPG PAINTS Arena on March 15, 2018 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images) /
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The time has finally come as the Duke Basketball Canadian Tour is here and the Blue Devils will play Ryerson University on Wednesday night.

Well, Duke fans, the time has finally come as the 2018-19 Duke Blue Devils will take the court for the first time on their Canadian Tour against Ryerson University in Toronto.

It will be the debut of freshman R.J. Barrett, Zion Williamson, and Joey Baker as fellow freshman Tre Jones and Cam Reddish will not play due to injury but both are doing basketball related activities.

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Marques Bolden, Javin DeLaurier, and Jack White are entering their junior seasons, while Alex O’Connell, Jordan Goldwire, and Justin Robinson will be beginning their sophomore campaign.

There will only be one senior on the team again as it was Grayson Allen last year, lone senior on the team this season is big man Antonio Vrankovic.

As for the team the Blue Devils will open their Canadian Tour with, they have been no stranger to the bright lights this summer as they hosted the Chinese National Team in July and last week members to Ryerson University traveled down to the Bahamas with Team Toronto to face the Kentucky Wildcats.

Fifth year seniors Filip Vujadinovic and Myles Charvis both played against Kentucky and Team China. Vujadinovic scored three points and grabbed two rebounds against the Wildcats and Charvis added three points and dished out three assists in Team Toronto’s loss to Kentucky.

Ryerson returns four of its top six scorers from last season where the Rams went 17-6. Charvis is the top returning scorer from a year ago where he averaged 12.0 points per game, followed by Jean Victor-Mukama with 11.3 points.

The other two leading scorers that return from the Rams are Keevon Small with 8.8 points per game and Vujadnovic with 8.2 points.

Team Toronto was also coached by the Head Coach of the Ryerson University Rams Head Coach Ray Rana.

Despite the returning talent the Rams are bringing into this exhibition game with the Blue Devils and considering Duke will be missing two of its top players, Duke is still the far superior team and that should show on the court Wednesday night.

It will be great to get a sneak peak at what is to come this winter, but as it is only an exhibition game, Coach K may try to get different players into the game and trying different lineup combinations to see what might work during the regular season.

The Duke Blue Devils and the Ryerson University Rams will take the floor on Wednesday night at 7:00 pm ET at Paramount Fine Foods Centre and the game can be seen on ESPN+.

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