Fans excited by the lofty expectations surrounding the Duke basketball team and curious about the heralded freshman class will have to wait one more week to see the Blue Devils in action.
Duke will not be staging a Midnight Madness-style opening event for the second consecutive year when practice begins Friday, even though a new NCAA rule would allow the team to begin the practice earlier than the traditional midnight start. The Blue Devils will instead be hosting a coaches' clinic this weekend with nearly 1,000 coaches from high schools and small colleges coming to observe the team's first three practices.
"The Blue-White game has always been the opening celebration for us," assistant coach Chris Collins said. "We like having it on parents' weekend in conjunction with the football game."
The team will hold a practice open to the public at 1:30 p.m., Oct. 21, with the Blue-White game being played the following day at 1 p.m. The open practice will be the first time fans can watch the 2005 recruiting class, ranked No. 2 by Scout.com, and the rest of the Duke squad, picked to win the NCAA title by many national publications, in action. Collins also said the coaching staff was planning to organize a "Sixth-man" night similar to the one put on last year, but so far no date has been set.
Whether or not they are hosting an opening event, nearly all Division I teams are taking advantage of a new rule that allows the season's first practice to start earlier. Previously, practices were not permitted to start until midnight of the Saturday closest to Oct. 15. The rule change now allows practices to begin five hours earlier, at 7 p.m. on the Friday night closest to the 15th. The amendment was submitted by the Board of Directors in the summer of 2004, but the proposal did not take effect until this year. The board cited safety concerns as the primary reason for the change.
"Obviously, there are a number of boosters and students attending this event, and before they would be getting on the road at 1:30 or 2 in the morning," NCAA spokesperson Crissy Schluep said. "By pushing the start forward to seven, they could be on the road by 8:30 or 9 and not at such late hours."
Although television coverage was not a stated goal of the change, ESPN is airing the start of some college basketball practices for the first time since 1997. Kansas, Kentucky, Memphis, Michigan St. and Oregon will all have live one-hour events televised on ESPNU Friday Oct. 14.
Many coaches use the Midnight Madness events as a recruiting tool, as it allows them to show prospects a game-type atmosphere without having to focus on normal preparation. Dave Telep, national recruiting analyst for Scout.com, said Duke, however, would likely not be affected by its decision to hold off on opening festivities.
"Duke has traditionally not used it as much in terms of recruiting-they have the August alumni game and a number of events throughout the year where they bring in recruits," Telep said. "One of the drawbacks of using Midnight Madness as a recruiting weekend is you lose the personal attention you might be able to give a recruit on another weekend."
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