While the NBA might have had some dips in television ratings during the regular season, the Duke Blue Devils actually saw their ratings increase throughout their televised games.
According to the Duke basketball program via Real GM, Duke averaged 2.23 million viewers per ESPN telecast, which is slightly higher than the 1.99 million that the NBA averaged on ESPN.
Obviously, the sheer amount of talent that Duke had on its roster is the likely culprit for this, as Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett, and Cam Reddish are all expected to be drafted in the first round of the upcoming NBA Draft.
Of course, the reason for the dip in NBA ratings on ESPN could be explained, thanks to the fact that LeBron James is no longer on an Eastern Conference team, and therefore isn’t playing at what would be primetime games on the east coast.
Thanks to that, his injuries, and the Lakers generally playing poorly throughout the year, the NBA as a whole has seen some rating dips, but while they’ve been struggling, the NCAA and one of its blue-chip programs seem to have reaped the benefits.
Unfortunately for them, Duke found itself outside of the Final Four, with the team failing to make it into the biggest weekend in NCAA basketball this year.
With Williamson, Barrett, and Reddish all declaring for the NBA Draft, Duke will likely not be seeing any sky-high ratings like that again, but it will undoubtedly give the program something to brag about to future recruits, as well as proof that its fanbase – and interest in their players – is extremely large.
Follow Us
Subscribe