The 2020–21 Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team represented

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

during the

2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season The 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 25, 2020, and concluded on March 14, 2021. The 2021 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament culminated the season and began on March 18 and concluded on April 5. Season ...

. They were coached by 41st-year head coach,

Mike Krzyzewski Michael William Krzyzewski ( , ; born February 13, 1947), nicknamed "Coach K", is an American former college basketball coach. He served as the head coach at Duke University from 1980–81 Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team, 1980 to 2021� ...

. The Blue Devils played their home games at

Cameron Indoor Stadium Cameron Indoor Stadium is an indoor arena located on the campus of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. The 9,314-seat facility is the primary indoor athletic venue for the Duke Blue Devils and serves as the home court for Duke Duke Blue ...

Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...

, as a member of the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the ACC's eighteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athlet ...

. Known for consistent high-level performance under Krzyzewski's tenure, the Blue Devils struggled to match their norm this season. Duke fell out of the AP and Coaches Poll rankings within the first few weeks and struggled to maintain a winning record. The Blue Devils finished the 2020–21 season 13–11, and 9–9 to finish in tenth place in ACC play. Duke spent much of the late season on the bubble, according to bracketologists, and ultimately their season ended when a positive

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

test forced them to drop out of the ACC tournament ahead of the quarterfinals. Duke missed the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1995.

Previous season

The Blue Devils finished the 2019–20 season 25–6, and 15–5 to finish in a tie for second place in ACC play. The team was scheduled to play

NC State North Carolina State University (NC State, North Carolina State, NC State University, or NCSU) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina sy ...

in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament before the tournament was canceled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020 NCAA tournament was also canceled due to the pandemic.

Offseason

Departures

2020 recruiting class

The 2020 recruiting class was ranked third in the nation by 247 Sports' Composite Ranking.

2021 recruiting class

Roster

Depth chart

Schedule and results

Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the start of the season was pushed back from the scheduled start of November 10. On September 16, 2020, the NCAA announced that November 25 would be the new start date. Matchups for

ACC–Big Ten Challenge The ACC–Big Ten Challenge (or Big Ten–ACC Challenge as it was called in alternating years) was an in-season NCAA Division I men's college basketball series that matched up teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and the Big Ten Confer ...

were released on October 30. The Champions Classic, which was originally to be held on November 10, was later moved to December 1 and was to be held in

Orlando Orlando commonly refers to: * Orlando, Florida, a city in the United States Orlando may also refer to: People * Orlando (given name), a masculine name, includes a list of people with the name * Orlando (surname), includes a list of people wit ...

. However, due to disagreements between ESPN, who was staging the event (and others), over health and safety protocols related to COVID-19, the event was canceled. It was hoped that the event could be still held elsewhere. It was later reported that the Blue Devils would play their Champions Classic game at Duke while

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

and

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

will play in

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

due to conflicting COVID-19 protocols by the respective schools. Prior to the start of the season, it was announced that Duke would not play its scheduled season opener against Gardner–Webb, which had a positive coronavirus test within its team. On December 10, 2020, the school announced that it would cancel the remaining non-conference games, meaning games already postponed would not be made up. , - !colspan=9 style=, Regular season , - !colspan=12 style=, ACC Tournament Source

Rankings

On January 18, 2021, Duke fell out of the AP Top 25 ranking for the first time since February 8, 2016. This marked the first time since December 25, 1961 that Duke, Kentucky and North Carolina were all out of the Top 25 ranking. ^Coaches did not release a Week 1 poll.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team 2020–21 Atlantic Coast Conference men's basketball season 2020-21 2020 in sports in North Carolina 2021 in sports in North Carolina