Duke basketball must find new opponent for latest cancellation

The Duke basketball program must find a new opponent for Saturday afternoon.

Another game has been postponed for the Duke basketball team following a press release stating that Charleston Southern has paused all basketball operations due to COVID-19 positive cases within its program.

This announcement comes one day after the Blue Devils fell for the second time in four games, all at Cameron Indoor Stadium, against No. 6 Illinois.

Duke has shown that it is nowhere near preseason expectations through four games, and including Saturday’s game, the program has seen three games canceled or postponed so far in the year (Gardner-Webb, Elon, Charleston Southern).

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The scheduled season opener against Gardner-Webb has been rescheduled to Saturday, December 19 at 2:00pm EST while no make-up date has been scheduled against Elon or Charleston Southern.

If the Blue Devils are unable to schedule another game, the next time Duke takes the court will be for its first road game in a trip to South Bend, Indiana against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Wednesday, December 16.

The game time for the Charleston Southern game was originally changed from 8:00pm EST to 2:00pm EST prior to the postponement.

Duke basketball needs to find an opponent for this weekend

One thing that has become prevalent in the early stages of the 2020-21 season is that the Blue Devils need more reps on the court against opponents other than themselves.

With no summer workouts and scrimmages to speak of, a young team like Duke was already behind expectations when practice began in the fall, and the discrepancy between teams like the Blue Devils and Michigan State and Illinois is noticeable and sizable.

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Even in its two victories against Coppin State and Bellarmine, Duke showed significant deficiencies, and they can only be fixed on the court in a game setting.

Teams around the country have been able to schedule games on the fly, and it is time for the Blue Devils to do the same.

Duke needs games, and Mike Krzyzewski has to do the right thing for his team and get it games to play.