The lights go down and the curtain goes up on the year's most talked-about show when the men's basketball team hits the floor tomorrow night for its first dress rehearsal of the year.
But while Mike Krzyzewski and his coaches have one eye on Saturday's main attraction, the annual Blue-White Scrimmage, they're keeping the other on a recruiting sideshow that's growing hotter by the week.
Mike Dunleavy, a 6-foot-7 wing player from Portland, Ore., visits Duke this weekend to take in the exhibition game and, the Blue Devils hope, move a step closer to joining what could be Krzyzewski's second major recruiting haul in three years.
The son of NBA coach Mike Dunleavy, Sr. has narrowed his list of schools to Duke, Stanford and North Carolina and will make his decision after visits to Duke and UNC (next weekend). He has already been to Stanford, but recent speculation has him leaning slightly toward the Blue Devils.
"Duke is the team to beat; that's my prediction," said Clark Francis, analyst for the recruiting publication Hoop Scoop.
The Blue Devils already have commitments from three high school seniors and are hot in pursuit of Dunleavy and Alaskan phenom Carlos Boozer, a 6-8 power forward ranked among the top five overall players nationally.
Two other consensus top-10 players, 6-11 Casey Sanders and point guard Jason Williams, have made verbal commitments to Duke. Add to that 6-9 Nick Horvath, a top-100 player who picked the Blue Devils over the summer, and Krzyzewski may be on the brink of equaling, or even bettering, the monster group landed in the fall of '96.
Dunleavy and Boozer are the final pieces to the puzzle.
"Dunleavy is the perfect player for Duke," Francis said. "He's not the greatest athlete out there, but he shoots the heck out of it and he's one of the most skilled players in the class."
A consistent three-point shooter and outstanding ballhandler, Dunleavy has grown from 6-5 to 6-7 in high school and is now best suited as a wing forward, rather than a guard.
"He can put it on the floor, and he's a great look-away passer, especially on the break," The Sporting News' Brick Oettinger said. "He seems excellent at making those tough open floor passes.... And if he's open, he drills it."
Dunleavy averaged nearly 20 points and nine rebounds a game last year in leading private Jesuit High to the Oregon 4-A state playoffs. He won All-State first-team honors, despite playing for his third school in three years, an unfortunate result of his father's changing NBA teams.
Oettinger rates Dunleavy as the 20th-best overall player in the nation, slightly below another West-coast wing player, Casey Jacobsen, who recently chose Stanford over Duke and several other schools. Jacobsen's decision may be giving Dunleavy second thoughts about joining the Cardinal.
"Some people think I'm wrong, but I think it affects it a lot," Francis said of the possible position logjam at Stanford. "They're essentially the same players, the same position. If you're Stanford, sure you bring them both in. They're great kids, they can match up in practice and so on.
"But if I'm the kid, I don't go there."
Meanwhile, a similar situation may be developing at UNC, where Bill Guthridge has his sights set on both Dunleavy and Joe Forte, an athletic wing guard from DeMatha, Md.
"UNC's number one is going to be Forte," Francis predicted.
Most observers agree that if Forte chooses the Tar Heels over Georgia Tech and N.C. State, Guthridge will drop out of the Dunleavy race.
In the meantime, though, Carolina is getting by with a little help from an old friend.
"Dean Smith and Mike Dunleavy, Sr. go way back," Oettinger said. "Dean tried to recruit him at UNC, but Dunleavy eventually chose Frank McGuire at South Carolina. I don't doubt that Dean has put the word in to Mike Sr. that his son should play for Guthridge."
Francis agreed that Smith, even in retirement, is still dueling Krzyzewski on the recruiting path.
"As long as Bill Guthridge is there, Dean is still a major influence," Francis said. "You're still choosing Dean Smith, essentially.
"If you were choosing between Dean Smith and Mike Krzyzewski, could you go wrong?"
Of course, Krzyzewski has other things on his mind tomorrow night in Cameron Indoor Stadium. Namely, he'll be getting his first look at highly touted freshman Corey Maggette in a game situation. And the question of who will fill departed point guard Steve Wojciechowski's leadership role takes center stage.
Saturday's scrimmage consists of, for the first time, two separate halves. Krzyzewski has not yet decided between 12- and 15-minute periods, but he's hoping the new format will create a more realistic game environment.
An alumni game will precede the scrimmage at 6:15. The exhibition game starts at 7 p.m.
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