Per Duke Sports Information:
PORTLAND – The Duke men’s basketball program will participate in PK80 – Phil Knight Invitational, a 16-team early-season men’s college basketball tournament honoring the Nike co-founder and 2012 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee in advance of his 80th birthday.
Set for Thanksgiving week 2017 from Portland, Ore., PK80 will be one of the largest regular-season tournaments in college basketball history and will be played Thursday, Nov. 23, Friday, Nov. 24, and Sunday, Nov. 26 from the Rose Quarter’s Moda Center and Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Duke will be joined in the field by Arkansas, Butler, Connecticut, Florida, Georgetown, Gonzaga, Michigan State, North Carolina, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oregon, Portland, Portland State, Stanford and Texas.
Two eight-team events – consisting of three games per team – will run simultaneously in the two buildings with the crowning of two bracket champions.
“Phil Knight has been a visionary and innovator for a long time,” Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “PK80 is a unique way we can honor him and the contributions he has made not just to the game of basketball, but to all of sport.”
The schools in the PK80 field have combined for 23 national championships and nearly 90 Final Four appearances. Nine of the past 13 NCAA champions will be part of the PK80 field, and 10 of the programs in the event have won at least one national title.
All games from Portland will be televised on the ESPN family of networks. Ticket information and tournament brackets will be announced at a later date.
