Once again, Duke has added an impressive opponent to its preseason schedule.
For the second-straight season, the Blue Devils will take on a prospective top-10 team behind closed doors in the leadup to the winter season, this time at Houston Oct. 29, per reports from The Devil's Den's Adam Rowe and Stadium's Jeff Goodman. The scrimmage date falls between Duke's annual Countdown to Craziness event Oct. 22 and its season debut Nov. 7 against Jacksonville.
The matchup serves as the first of Duke's two exhibition matchups, with the other coming in a public game Nov. 4 in Durham against Division II side Fayetteville State.
In 2021-22, both Duke and Houston reached the late stages of the NCAA tournament, with the Cougars bowing out with a 50-44 Elite Eight loss to Villanova and the Blue Devils reaching the Final Four before falling to rival North Carolina 81-77.
The scrimmage will mark a first for both sides as the first meeting between Duke and Houston.
This time a season ago, Duke was gearing up for a similar closed-doors scrimmage against Villanova in Washington, D.C. That matchup wound up being a preview of two of the nation's very best, and with the Blue Devils and Cougars both among the preseason favorites to reach the 2022-23 Final Four in Houston, this year's scrimmage could provide a similar preview.
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Jonathan Levitan is a Trinity senior and was previously sports editor of The Chronicle's 118th volume.