The Duke basketball program has finalized an agreement with Michigan basketball to face off on a neutral court during the 2025-26 season. The game will be played at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., and is expected to be played in February.
NEWS: Duke and Michigan are finalizing an agreement to play a neutral site game at Capital One Arena in Washington D.C. in February of 2026, according to multiple sources.https://t.co/5guiaeXmWj
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) April 23, 2025
This is a similar game in the middle of the conference slate that the Blue Devils had this past season when they took on Illinois at Madison Square Garden in February. Duke demolished the Fighting Illini, winning 110-67.
Jon Scheyer has made sure, since becoming the Duke head coach, to put his guys through a gauntlet of a non-conference slate, and the Wolverines will be a tough team to play in year two of the Dusty May era in Ann Arbor.
Michigan is coming off of a season where it made it to the Sweet 16 as a 4-seed before falling to 1-seed Auburn, and May has been putting in work in the transfer portal this offseason to reload for 2025-26.
The Wolverines landed Yaxel Lendeborg, the #1 overall player in the portal, and have the second-ranked portal class in the nation per On3. In addition to Lendeborg from UAB, Michigan has sealed commitments from Aday Mara (UCLA, #5 center in portal), Morez Johnson (Illinois, #10 power forward in portal), and Elliot Cadeau (North Carolina, #14 point guard in portal).
In ESPN's most recent "way-too-early" top 25 rankings for next season, Michigan is slotted at #7. Duke sits at #10, making next season's clash between the two programs a potential top-ten matchup on a neutral floor.
Duke has gotten more news as of late as to which players are staying and which are leaving the program. Kon Knueppel, Tyrese Proctor, and Cooper Flagg have all declared for the 2025 NBA Draft while Caleb Foster, Darren Harris, Isaiah Evans, Maliq Brown, and Patrick Ngongba II have all announced their returns to Durham in 2025-26.
The Blue Devils didn't lose anyone to the transfer portal and have yet to make an addition, but top remaining transfer Cedric Coward has Duke in his final two options, along with Alabama, if he were to return to college next season.