The Duke basketball program has announced that it will open up the 2025-26 season against the Texas Longhorns on November 4th at Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The matchup hasn't been confirmed as the season opener for the Blue Devils, but it most likely will be.
NEWS: Duke and Texas are finalizing an agreement to meet on November 4th at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, according to a source.https://t.co/1zt5fkXF3B
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) May 2, 2025
This is the third big-time non-conference matchup that Jon Scheyer has scheduled for his squad next season. The Blue Devils have already announced that they will face Michigan State in East Lansing next December and Michigan next February on a neutral floor. Now, the program is adding a SEC foe to the mix.
The Longhorns are in a new era with Sean Miller, as Miller was announced as the next Texas head coach this offseason. The veteran coach spent the last three seasons at the helm for Xavier, his second stint as head coach of the Musketeers.
Duke will now play at least three teams through the non-con slate that have great chances of being ranked in next season's preseason poll. Michigan is a projected top ten team at ESPN's "Way-Too-Early" top 25 rankings, and Michigan State along with Texas are also projected in the top 25.
The Blue Devils have won their last five contests against Texas, most recently in 2017 when Duke won 85-78.
Miller is reloading a Texas program that had a lackluster 2024-25 season, and there's lots of optimism in Austin with the experienced coach now at the helm. The Longhorns boast the #2-ranked transfer class per the On3 Team Transfer Portal Rankings. Miller is bringing in Simeon Wilcher (St. John's), Lassina Traore (Xavier), Camden Heide (Purdue), and Dailyn Swain (Xavier). Wilcher and Swain are primed to be one of the best backcourt duos in the SEC next season.
Scheyer is continuing to put his guys through a gauntlet of a non-conference schedule, and it's paid off as of late with the ACC being fairly mediocre as a conference across the last two seasons.
Typically, teams open up the regular season with "buy games," but the Blue Devils are wasting no time gearing up for a primetime matchup against a top-tier opponent.