Men's Basketball | 7/19/2018 11:00:00 AM

MONTREAL -- The upcoming Duke Canada Tour, which will feature a men's basketball game against McGill University on Aug. 19, will be both televised and streamed live on TSN and RDS in Canada, as well as on ESPN+ in the United States.

Duke will face the Ryerson Rams (Aug. 15) and the Toronto Varsity Blues (Aug. 17) at the Paramount Fine Foods Centre, a 5,395-seat venue previously known as the Hershey Centre, in Mississauga, Ont. Two days later, the Blue Devils will wrap their five-day cross-border tour against the McGill Redmen at Place Bell, a 7,960 seat facility in Laval, Que., located about 16 kilometres north of the downtown campus.

ESPN play-by-play commentator Dan Shulman and lead college basketball analyst Jay Bilas will call all the action on the English broadcasts. The French-language on-air crew includes Mathieu Jolivet (host), Will Archambault (analyst)m Alexandre Tourigny (sidelines) and Jean-Christophe Bertrand (reporter).

All three games are expected to draw capacity crowds to see Duke, which boasts the No. 1 incoming class according to ESPN Recruiting Nation, including their freshman phenom R.J. Barrett, a native of Mississauga, who will be making his college debut. The 17-year-old is a projected No. 1 pick in the 2019 NBA draft after a stunning senior season at Florida's Montverde Academy, where he named the Naismith Prep player of the year and the Gatorade national player of the year.  He led the team to an undefeated record en route to winning a national championship.

Duke posted a 29-8 record overall last season, falling 85-81 to Kansas in an NCAA regional final. Ryerson registered a 24-12 mark and reached the U SPORTS national final, losing 79-77 to Calgary in the gold medal game. Toronto went 16-11 overall, ending their campaign with an 85-80 loss to Laurentian in the opening round of the OUA playoffs. McGill, which captured their third consecutive RSEQ conference title, had a 26-12 record. The Redmen qualified for the U SPORTS Final Eight tournament, where they went 1-2 and finished fourth.

In addition to game coverage of Duke's tour, ESPN+ will feature an eight-episode, all-access series, Earn Everything, documenting the Blue Devils' preparation for the 2018-19 season to be released this fall. The series, produced by Intersport, will follow the team from their first time together on campus, through their trip to preseason exhibitions in Canada and into the final preparations leading up to their State Farm Champions Classic matchup against the Kentucky Wildcats. Along the way, college basketball fans will get an inside peek at how head coach Mike Krzyzewski and his staff mold a group of talented basketball players into a group of "Duke Basketball Players."

For additional details on Duke's Canada Tour, visit dukecanadatour.com.

BROADCAST SCHEDULE FOR THE 2018 DUKE CANADA BASKETBALL TOUR
 

Date	Time (ET)	Opponent	Network
Wed, Aug 15	7 p.m.	vs. Ryerson (Paramount Fine Foods Centre, Mississauga, Ont)	ESPN+/TSN4
Fri, Aug 17	6 p.m.	vs. University of Toronto Paramount Fine Foods Centre, Mississauga, Ont)	ESPN+/TSN2
Sun, Aug 19	3 p.m.	vs. McGill (Place Bell, Laval, Qué.)	ESPN+/TSN1/TSN4/TSN5/RDS2

NOTE: All games are available via the ESPN app and TSN Go

SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman, McGill Athletics & Recreation (514) 398-7012
Anna Negron, ESPN (860) 766-2233