UConn to visit Duke Jan. 18

Duke and the ACC announced the Blue Devils’ 2009-2010 schedule Friday, and the slate of games is highlighted by a date in Cameron Indoor Stadium with the defending national champions. Connecticut travels to Durham for a high-profile matchup against Duke Jan. 18, in the middle of the ACC season. The Huskies went 39-0 last season and reached the Final Four unchallenged. There, they defeated Stanford by 19 and Louisville by 22 to earn the national title. The game with UConn will be shown on ESPN2. The Blue Devils will have four games total to air on national television. Duke’s other marquee nonconference game is a West Coast trip to Palo Alto, Calif. to face Stanford Dec. 15. The Blue Devils beat the Cardinal at home last season, 56-52, in one of their biggest victories of the season. In other non-ACC competition, Duke plays at Maine-- one of head coach Joanne P. McCallie’s former teams-- and hosts power conference teams Ohio State and USC in Cameron. The Blue Devils will also take part in the Caribbean Challenge in Cancun over Thanksgiving weekend. In the ACC, meanwhile, Duke faces a typically challenging calendar that includes home-and-home series with both Maryland and North Carolina. But the Blue Devils won’t have to travel to Tallahassee, where they collapsed late in the game in a loss to Florida State last season. —from staff reports