Duke basketball set for long-awaited season opener against Coppin State

The Duke basketball program is finally set for its long-awaited 2020-21 season opener.

After one postponement, the Duke basketball program is finally set to open the 2020-21 season against Coppin State on Saturday afternoon in Durham.

The Blue Devils were slated to open their year against Gardner-Webb in Cameron Indoor Stadium, but the Runnin’ Bulldogs found a COVID-19 positive within their program and had to call off the season opener and subsequent games.

There was also a potential COVID scare with Coppin State, who also had its first two games postponed because of positive tests, but the Eagles are now ready to go and give Duke a warm-up game before Michigan State comes to town.

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Coppin State returns its second-leading scorer from a season ago, Koby Thomas, who posted 13.3 points per game on 47.0 percent shooting from the field but struggled shooting the 3-point ball, only finding the bottom of the net on 18.9 percent of his shots.

The Eagles finished with an 11-20 (7-9 MEAC) record last season and did not play a game in their conference tournament.

How will this young Duke basketball team look?

Coming in at No. 9 in the Associated Press Preseason Top-25 Poll, the Blue Devils got a chance to see what teams look like before ever stepping on the floor.

Duke will be young, as always, but its experience is there with sophomores Wendell Moore and Matthew Hurt, paired with junior Joey Baker and senior Jordan Goldwire.

The values of practice and scrimmages are one thing for Duke, but playing another opponent is an entirely different story, despite the quality of the opponent.

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Who will be in the starting lineup? How will the freshmen adjust to their first collegiate games?

There are many questions begging to be answered for the Blue Devils, and Saturday will give us the first look at a handful of those answers.

Tipoff is scheduled for 2:00pm EST on the ACC Network Extra.

PREDICTION: Duke 93, Coppin State 65