Duke basketball season could start off in Disney World

Next Duke basketball season might begin where the NBA is currently playing.

What does the Blue Devil have in common with Mickey Mouse? Childish “ratface” references to Mike Krzyzewski aside, they share the possibility of spending a chunk of November inside the Walt Disney World Resort. Extrapolating from CBS Sports insider Jon Rothstein’s Wednesday tweet, one could conclude the 2020-21 Duke basketball team will tip its season on an ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex court:

“Sources: Following the success of the NBA restart, Orlando has emerged as a prime location to play multiple early-season college basketball tournaments in a bubble-type setting.”

Though not a tournament, per se, the Champions Classic is a four-team event that has jumpstarted NCAA hoops each fall since 2011 and always includes Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, and Michigan State. One would think if this NBA-like Orlando bubble indeed comes to be with the moneymakers calling the shots — they will — then those four programs, all of which are likely to once again be among the top 15 in the AP Preseason Poll, will be the first to receive invites.

At the moment, the 2020 Champions Classic is on the schedule to take place in Chicago on Nov. 10 with Duke facing Michigan State at 7 p.m. and then Kentucky taking on Kansas in the nightcap.

Another November event involving Duke basketball

Two weeks later, the Blue Devils are, as of know, supposed to be one of eight squads competing in the Bahamas for a Battle 4 Atlantis trophy, which Duke won last time it was there in 2012. But at least for the moment, in light of current world conditions, it doesn’t seem realistic that any school will be flying student-athletes away from the United States just to play games.

However, the Battle 4 Atlantis, currently set for Nov. 25-27, does fit the type of Disney-bound tournament that Rothstein described in his tweet. Of course, unless this potential bubble is put on hold until January, one of the original invites, Utah, would need a replacement due to the Pac-12 already shutting down all sports through the end of 2020. Others still in the field alongside Duke are Creighton, Memphis, Ohio State, Texas A&M, West Virginia, and Wichita State.

Outside of the Champions Classic matchup, the Battle 4 Atlantis group, the agreements to host both Appalachian State (no date set) and Cleveland State (Dec. 18), and the home-and-away ACC rotation, specifics about the 2020-21 Duke basketball schedule largely remain unknown.

And based on what Rothstein later tweeted on Wednesday, the entire non-conference slate could end up in a bubble somewhere:

“Source: Many college basketball coaches and administrators believe that current non-conference schedules will dissolve due to COVID-19 and teams will look to play regionalized games in pods or bubbles to fulfill any hope of non-conference basketball before league play.”

In other words, we pretty much just have to wait and see how this all plays out without letting ourselves get our hopes for anything.

Stay tuned to Ball Durham for more Duke basketball news and views.