Report: Two headliners revealed for 2022 Jimmy V Classic
Every year, ESPN Events hosts the Jimmy V Classic, to raise money and awareness for the V Foundation for Cancer Research, which is named after famous coach and former broadcaster Jim Valvano. The 2022 edition will take place at Madison Square Garden, with two top programs reportedly participating.
According to Jon Rothstein, both the Duke Blue Devils and the Texas Longhorns will headline the Jimmy V Classic. There will be two other teams participating as well and will be announced at a later date. As to when the games will be played is to be determined as well.
For Duke, they will be playing in the post-Mike Krzyzewski era, with Jon Scheyer taking over once the Blue Devils’ 2021-2022 season is over. They will have quite the recruiting class coming in as well, ranking No. 1 in the On3 Consensus — a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting services.
The top three players have all signed with Duke, with power forward Kyle Flipowski headlining the group. Center Dereck Lively II and small forward Dariq Whitehead will be heading to Durham as five-star prospects while four-star shooting guard Jaden Schutt has signed his national letter of intent as well. Four-star mall forward Mark Mitchell and three-star center Christian Reeves are considered hard commits.
Texas will be in the early stages of a new head coach as well with Chris Beard. He worked the transfer portal well last offseason and could be looking to do the same after this year. Nonetheless, two of the best prospects in the country will be wearing burnt orange in five-star small forward Dillon Mitchell and five-star shooting guard Arterio Morris. Four-star point guard Rowan Brumbaugh has not signed his letter of intent yet but will join the squad.
For some history, this will be the fourth time the Longhorns have participated in the Jimmy V Classic and the first since 2012. Their record is 1-2, beating Villanova and dropping games to Arizona and Georgetown. Duke will be making their fourth appearance as well, dating back to 1998 and as recently as 2016. The Blue Devils are 3-0, defeating Kentucky twice and Florida. Nobody has more wins in the event than Duke.
If Duke-Texas ends up being the matchup at the Jimmy V Classic, it will be the sixth all-time meeting between the two programs. All have come since the turn of the century, with Duke winning all five. The most important matchup came during the 2009 NCAA Tournament second round, where future Blue Devils head coach Jon Scheyer had 13 points.