Duke travels to Purdue tonight as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. After that, they'll shoot up to Ann Arbor to play the Michigan Wolverines again.How rare is it to see the Blue Devils on a non-conference road trip? Heck, how rare is it to see the Blue Devils play any non-conference road games?
It is very rare. Duke doesn't like to play too many true road games against non-ACC schools. Oh, they will face them in East Rutherford, NJ or Madison Square Garden, but rarely at the other team's gym.
Technically the didn't play any last year. They did go to Philly to face Temple, but that game was in the Wachovia Center and not at Temple's home gym. They also went to Charlotte to play Davidson ... but that was at the Time Warner Cable Arena which could house Davidson's enrollment for two decades.
In 2006-2007, they did play one true road game: in Madison Square Garden against St. John's. That was Duke's second trip to the World's Most Famous Arena that year.
In 2005-2006, Duke did travel to Indiana for the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. They also took the long trip west to Greensboro to take on UNC-Greensboro. They did head up to Georgetown and Temple (again, at the Wachovia Center) late in the season. Most schools would never do that. In 2004-2005, their only true road game was at St. John's.
Last season, rival North Carolina took a true road trip to Ohio State, Kentucky, Penn and Rutgers. They went a month without playing a game at the Dean Dome. This year, they've already played at UC-Santa Barbara and will head to Reno to face Nevada on New Year's Eve.
This has been one of those things that Duke fans have heard over the years and none of them care. Still, you'd think Mike Krzyzewski would like to have a few true road games to challenge his guys. You know the atmosphere in West Lafayette will be awesome tonight.
