{"id":163208,"date":"2025-10-18T11:42:25","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T15:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=163208"},"modified":"2025-10-18T11:42:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T15:42:25","slug":"five-biggest-duke-basketball-games-2025-26-florida-kansas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/10\/18\/five-biggest-duke-basketball-games-2025-26-florida-kansas\/","title":{"rendered":"What Are the Five Biggest Duke Basketball Games of 2025-26?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Duke Blue Devils are nearly ready to tip off<\/a> their 2025-26 schedule. Let’s take a look at the biggest games of the year and how Duke matches up with those opponents.<\/p>\n

Five Biggest Games For Duke Basketball in 2025-26 Season<\/h2>\n

5. Kansas Jayhawks – 11\/19, Madison Square Garden<\/h3>\n

The first big matchup of the 2025-26 season for Duke will be at Cameron North against the Kansas Jayhawks. Kansas is preseason number 19 but the reason this matchup is so big is because of star Kansas freshman Darryn Peterson. Cameron Boozer and Peterson were two of the most sought-after incoming freshmen and will battle for number one pick in the NBA draft<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kansas has a lot of moving parts on this roster this year but one of the constants is the return of Flory Bidunga<\/a>. He is appearing across many lists of most likely to be a breakout player this year. The other big addition is Tre White<\/a> who comes from Illinois and Louisville to add a nice scoring punch.<\/p>\n

Duke matches up well with the Jayhawks. The key matchup will be Peterson versus Dame Sarr. Duke has a ton of length to throw at Peterson from the wing. It would not be surprising to also see Cayden Foster take some time in the matchup. Duke will be favored and will also like to get some revenge for a bad loss last season.
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4. Texas Tech Red Raiders – 12\/20, Madison Square Garden<\/h3>\n

The Texas Tech Red Raiders will also meet Duke at Cameron North this season. Texas Tech returns their best player, JT Toppin<\/a>, from a very good team last season. Toppin the preseason Big 12 Player of the Year and is a matchup nightmare. He is mostly limited to the paint in terms of scoring but can occasionally extend the defense. He is quick, bouncy, can handle the ball, and has an elite second jump.<\/p>\n

Texas Tech also has Christian Anderson<\/a> who is poised for an explosive sophomore jump. He is a quick guard that can flat out shoot it. Anderson also has a knack to make huge shots in clutch moments.<\/p>\n

The Red Raiders are ranked number 10 in the preseason poll. They are also likely to contend with Houston to win the Big 12. The big matchup with Duke will be Toppin vs Cameron Boozer. This is an electric positional battle of two lottery picks with a ton of talent. Duke has more talent but Texas Tech has a great roster. The better superstar may be the deciding factor in this one.
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3. Michigan Wolverines – 2\/21, Capital One Arena<\/h3>\n

The Wolverines are early in the Dusty May era but the returns have been great. Michigan has a loaded roster and they enter the season ranked number 7, one spot behind Duke. Michigan does lose talent from last year’s roster but they had one of the best transfer classes of the year.<\/p>\n

Michigan added Yaxel Lendeborg<\/a> who is the number one ranked player in the transfer portal. He strongly considered the NBA but opted to come to Michigan for one season. He is joined by several other bigs including Morez Johnson<\/a> and Aday Mara<\/a>. The other transfer portal addition is Elliot Cadeau<\/a> who will run the team from the guard spot.<\/p>\n

Michigan certainly has to mesh quickly but teams that have added several veteran portal players have faired well. Dusty May can also flat out coach. This is a tough matchup for Duke because Michigan is a big, physical team. Lendeborg is going to be a very tough matchup for the wings of Duke. Foul trouble will likely dictate this matchup and Cadeau has a knack for drawing fouls.
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2. Arkansas Razorbacks – 11\/27, United Center<\/h3>\n

John Calipari has created another loaded roster. Arkansas knocked Duke off in 2023 and now the Blue Devils are ready for revenge. Arkansas comes in ranked 14th in the country with a ton of returners. Karter Knox<\/a>, DJ Wagner Jr, and Trevon Brazile<\/a> are back. They also added several big name freshmen including Darius Acuff and Meleek Thomas.<\/p>\n

The big question for Arkansas will be how reliable the backcourt will be. Acuff is a true freshman and Wagner has had his ups and downs in college. If those two mesh well, the ceiling raises exponentially. The depth is certainly there for the Razorbacks but that is often the case with Calipari who has drastically underperformed over the last five years.<\/p>\n

Duke and Arkansas have very similar rosters. Duke has slightly more talent top to bottom and a better coach. This game just falls in the middle of a difficult holiday season stretch for Duke and it occurs in Chicago. On Thanksgiving, we have to hope the Tryptophan is out of the system early.
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1. Florida Gators – 12\/2, Cameron Indoor Stadium<\/h3>\n

Without a doubt, the biggest game of the season is the matchup against the reigning National Champions. Duke should have met Florida in the National title game last season but the basketball gods disagreed. Florida brings an elite frontcourt back with a ton of size. The big loss is Walter Clayton<\/a> but they replace him with Xaivian Lee and Boogie Fland<\/a> who are both excellent guards.<\/p>\n

Florida will be able to beat teams in a variety of ways this year. The one thing that they will lack slightly more is floor spacing. Florida loves to play multiple bigs and this year it seems like they will play three guys 6’10 or taller at all times. They play fast, attack the rim, and get putbacks regularly. They also have the two transfer guards who are so shifty and excel at breaking down defenders.<\/p>\n

Duke will have their hands full in this one. The big plus is it will be in Cameron Indoor as part of the ACC\/SEC Challenge. Without a doubt, this game will draw massive ratings. For Duke to win, the Crazies must live up to their namesake. Duke will also need to avoid foul trouble in the frontcourt and have the backcourt play well.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Jaylynn Nash-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Duke Blue Devils are nearly ready to tip off their 2025-26 schedule. Let’s take a look at the biggest games of the year and how Duke matches up with those opponents. Five Biggest Games For Duke Basketball in 2025-26 Season 5. Kansas Jayhawks – 11\/19, Madison Square Garden The first big matchup of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3244,"featured_media":163215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,773],"tags":[779,49715,49782,861,777,881,866,1508],"class_list":["post-163208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-college-basketball","tag-arkansas-razorbacks","tag-cameron-boozer","tag-darryn-peterson","tag-duke-blue-devils","tag-florida-gators","tag-kansas-jayhawks","tag-michigan-wolverines","tag-texas-tech-red-raiders"],"modified_by":"Zach Kircher","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3244"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163208"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":163219,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163208\/revisions\/163219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}