COVID-19 wiped out a Bahamas trip, so Blue Devils will host Duke Classic
After the coronavirus pandemic caused the Battle 4 Atlantis basketball tournament’s cancellation, Duke will instead play its own multi-team event at Cameron Indoor Stadium next month.
The Blue Devils have organized the Duke Classic, which it is co-hosting with Howard. Bellarmine, a former NCAA Division II power now in its first Division I season, and Elon round out the four-team field.
Duke is scheduled to play Bellarmine on Dec. 4 and Elon on Dec. 6. Howard, coached by former Blue Devils player Kenny Blakeney, will also host two games on its Washington, D.C., campus, playing Bellarmine Dec. 6 and Elon on Dec. 8. TV coverage and game times have not been set.
Mako Medical, which has supplied and processed Duke’s COVID-19 tests, is sponsoring the event. The event also honors the late Dr. Onye E. Akwari, the first African-American surgeon on Duke’s faculty who died in Durham at age 76 last year.
“Dr. Akwari not only did amazing things medically for Duke University, but he really helped our program, starting in the 1980s when I arrived,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said in a statement. “Dr. Akwari was a mentor to some of our young men like Tommy Amaker, Johnny Dawkins, Billy King and many others. He is one of the great human beings in the history of our university and although he has passed, his wife Anne remains a vibrant member of our Duke and Durham communities.”
NCAA scheduling rules allow teams to participate in one regular season, multi-team event per season. Duke normally participates in neutral-site tournaments, like the Maui Invitational in Hawaii, the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas or the 2K Classic or the NIT Season Tip-Off, which both conclude in New York.
Duke hasn’t played its own multi-team event at Cameron since the Iron Duke Classic was held three consecutive seasons from 1979-81.
Though the Blue Devils will not face Howard in this year’s event, Krzyzewski still wanted that HBCU program as a co-host for the Duke Classic to continue spotlighting racial injustices, in addition to the ties between the two coaching staffs. Blakeney has two other former Duke players on his staff in assistant coach Tyler Thornton and director of basketball operations Thomas Hill.
“Howard University, coached by one of our former players, Kenney Blakeney, is a co-host, and we felt it important at this time to have one of the great historically Black colleges and universities,” Krzyzewski said. “It gives us and the other teams an opportunity for two additional games, and gives all an opportunity to honor such a great man in Dr. Akwari.”
Blakeney, one of 10 of Krzyzewski’s former players who’s a Division I head coach, said Dr. Akwari influence him during his time at Duke in the early 1990s
“The connections for so many of us trace back to our time at Duke, and to those who invested in me not only as a player, but as a person and as a man,” Blakeney said in a statement. “Dr. Akwari was one of those people who showed incredible kindness and support while serving as an exemplary model, scholar, administrator, and African-American male. I welcome the opportunity to extend his legacy by expanding those roots from Nigeria to Duke and now to Howard, often referred to as ‘The Mecca.’ I believe Dr. Akwari would be proud to see myself, as well as fellow Duke alums Thomas Hill and Tyler Thornton together at Howard while training the next generation of student-athletes in a similar fashion.”
The remainder of Duke’s schedule has yet to be announced. The Blue Devils are expected to open the season at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Nov. 25, the first day the NCAA is allowing teams to play games in the pandemic-altered season.
The ACC has yet to finalize its basketball schedule, which is expected to include 20 league games for each team.