The preseason officially gets underway for men's basketball Wednesday night, as the Blue Devils play the EA Sports All-Stars in Cameron Indoor Stadium at 7 p.m.
The EA Southeast All-Stars squad includes former Wake Forest guard Broderick Hicks, along with former Missouri big man Johnny Parker. They are coming off a victory over Penn State Sunday and a twenty-point loss to Hicks' alma mater Monday night.
The Blue Devils, especially guard Chris Duhon, have some familiarity with Hicks. He graduated last year from Wake Forest, meaning Duhon has matched up against him the past three seasons.
Wednesday night's game marks the first chance for the Blue Devils to play against someone besides themselves since last year's NCAA tournament, and the players are excited about it.
"We have a really good team right now, and we're just going to keep building," Duhon said. "I think we have a chance of becoming special. We already at this point have a great foundation, and we just want to keep building from here."
The EA Sports All-Stars have some height, with 6-foot-8 forward Matt Howser and 6-foot-10 center Kevin Burns, which may present a problem to Duke's frontcourt. However, the big men were impressive in the Blue-White scrimmage, especially sophomore Shavlik Randolph.
"We have a really unselfish team, and other teams can't afford to double us, because guys like J.J. [Redick] and Daniel [Ewing], they're not going to miss too many shots," Randolph said. "So we're going to have some one-on-one looks in the post."
After facing EA Sports, Duke ends the preseason with a matchup against Nike Elite November 12th. The regular season starts against Detroit in Cameron Indoor Stadium November 22nd.
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