ESPNU To Air Duke Basketball Mini-Series

Pete Gillen must be freaking out. The former Xavier and Wake Forest once famously quipped, “Certainly, Duke is Duke, they’re on TV more than ‘Leave it to Beaver’ reruns.” The Duke Men’s Basketball program will actually be on the air more than Law & Order for the first week of November, as ESPNU will provide a rare behind the scenes look at the Duke Men’s Basketball Program with ESPNU All-Access: Training Days with the Duke Blue Devils. The show will air on ESPNU and ESPN2 with an hour-long special Tuesday, Nov. 9, at 9 p.m. ET on ESPNU and Thursday, Nov. 11, at 8 p.m. on ESPN2.  Look for re-air opportunities at the end of this post and if you haven’t set your DVR already, do it!

According to this press release, ESPN spent 9 days with the players and staff as Coach K “gives a rare look at the inner workings of his program, as he runs practices, breaks down film and inspires players through a variety of leadership-driven activities. Follow the Hall of Fame coach on a guided tour of his office through 30 years of history.”

Let me start by saying this is an absolutely amazing thing for Duke to increase its already overwhelming visibility on a national stage, and will do more for the program on the recruiting trail than anything other than on-court performance could. I was very happy to see the news, but also quite surprised, as Coach K was just on the Dan Patrick Show in September and the following happened:

- Dan asks Krzyzewski whether he’d let a camera in on practices, like a college hoops Hard Knocks. Coach K says no and feels it would be artificial anyway because the coaches would change their behavior due to the presence of the camera.

This is something you likely would not have seen 10, even 5, years ago but as we have all seen recently, Coach K and the entire Duke Men’s Basketball program have adapted to the changing college athletics landscape and adopted a more public approach. Whether it was an introspective change, something that came about from talks with his wife and daughters, or just the fact that he has people around him that he trusts to lead him the way he has led for so many years doesn’t really matter. What does is that things like this media blitz, DukeBluePlanet.com being a trendsetter in providing outstanding video content for a college basketball team site, the Elite Camp that Duke conducted last summer, the switch from Midnight Madness to Countdown to Crazieness, and Coach K’s own radio show on XM all put Duke and Duke Basketball in front of the eyes and ears of the mass public more often. Not only does this pay dividends immediately, it helps the Duke program be in a stable position for years to come.

Duke is clearly capitalizing on its success from last year, the momentum that Coach K has built up from his title winning stretch, having an outgoing personality like Nolan Smith as a senior captain, and the hype surrounding incoming freshman Kyrie Irving and the team being preseason #1. What a difference a year makes!

What You’ll See

All-American Duke players Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith give a day-in-the-life synopsis as the cameras rolled with the duo relaxing off the court, and highly touted freshman Kyrie Irving attends class and shows how an 18-year old basketball phenom adapts to life on campus. Smith also provides a tour of Duke’s basketball facilities and analyzes the end of the national championship game against Butler.

Additional segments feature Coach K wearing a microphone for a full practice, and a look at assistant coaches Chris Collins, Steve Wojciechowski and Nate James, all former Duke players and captains. The trio wore microphones during practice, broke down film and relaxed at home with their families.

When You’ll See It

ESPNU All-Access: Duke Men’s Basketball (Each episode is 30 minutes; schedule subject to change)

ESPNU All-Access: Training Days with the Duke Blue Devils (Each episode is one hour; schedule subject to change)

Re-air Schedule (Schedule subject to change)