Duke Basketball

Duke is back at No. 1 in The Associated Press' preseason college basketball poll while defending champion North Carolina failed to even make the Top 25.  Any Duke fan has to love that sentence.

Here we go with another season of college basketball and once again Duke is ranked number 1 in the country.  Bolstered by the return of All-America guard J.J. Redick and all-conference center Shelden Williams from a team that went 27-6 and reached the third round of the NCAA Tournament, Duke received 61 first-place ballots and 1,785 points from the 72-member national media panel.

Mike Krzyzewski has reloaded once again with a faboluous freshmen class that includes

• Eric Boateng
• Jamal Boykin
• Jordan Davidson
• Josh McRoberts - arleady being called the best freshman in the country
• Greg Paulus - ready to take the mantle from JJ for the most hated Duke player throughout the country.

Usually when Coach K. has the combination of senior leadership and great talent, you can start making reservations for the Final Four.  Did I mention that North Carolina is not even ranked this year.  That is only the second time in history that the defending national champion is not ranked in the pre-season top 25.

Key non-conference games this year include:

Duke-Texas
Duke-Indiana
Duke-Georgetown
Duke - St. Johns

Duke also has the traditional great conference match-ups in what is argualbly the best college basketball conference in the country.

Duke-Carolina
Duke-Maryland|
Duke-Georgia Tech