Duke basketball schedule: Fingers crossed as new foe arises

Indeed, the Duke basketball schedule-makers deserve overtime pay this week.

Barring any further relevant positive tests for COVID-19, the Duke basketball squad will square off against the Elon Phoenix at 4 p.m. ET Saturday in Cameron Indoor Stadium. And as was the plan for the originally scheduled game against the Cleveland State Vikings and then the temporarily scheduled game against the Loyola (Md.) Greyhounds, the contest will air on the ACC Network.

Worth noting, patrons may use their tickets and parking passes that were for the Duke-Cleveland State game to gain entry into the Duke-Elon game.

Both Cleveland State and Loyola had to cancel trips to Durham in light of positive COVID-19 tests within their program this week. In turn, the Blue Devils have been in scramble mode, trying to find an opponent for what will be their final non-conference game this regular season before their ACC slate begins on Wednesday night at home against the Virginia Tech Hokies.

A relatively weak Duke basketball opponent

The Duke basketball program enters with a 7-0 mark in its all-time series against Elon. All seven matchups occurred between 2010 and 2017. Although the Phoenix put up a fight a few times, they didn’t come within single digits of the Blue Devils in any of those games.

This go-round, the No. 2 Duke Blue Devils (9-1), fresh off Thursday night’s 92-67 home win over the Appalachian State Mountaineers, will face an unranked Elon squad that sits at 3-8 this season. And only one of its victories was against a Division I opponent.

All of the Phoenix’s losses were against unranked teams at the time, and all but one were by double-digit margins.

Before Wednesday night’s 63-61 home win over the Winthrop Eagles, Elon lost on the road against the UNC Tar Heels on Saturday, 80-63.