The biggest name is Duke's Thaddeus Lewis, who sprained his left foot at Clemson, missed practice Tuesday, and has been limited the rest of the week. If he doesn't start, it would break a string of 33 consecutive starts.

Michigan upset UCLA on Thursday night in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic meaning the Wolverines will play Duke tonight in New York City.

It also means the Backdoor Beileiners will do something N.C. State won't — play Duke twice.

The 1992 finalists had already scheduled a game on Dec. 6 in Ann Arbor.

Duke overwhelms Southern Illinois 83-58 in New York.

AP photo

NEW YORK — Duke earned the right to play in its first title game of the season by beating Southern Illinois 83-58 in the semifinals of the 2K Sports Classic benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer at Madison Square Garden on Thursday.

NEW YORK —Only Madison Square Garden could be big enough for Mike Krzyzewski, Dean Smith and Bobby Knight.

The trio of coaching legends are in the house on Thursday for Duke's Coaches vs. Cancer Classic game with Southern Illinois.

That's 2,545 career wins, and and eight national titles, in one room.

NEW YORK — Duke traveled to New York on Tuesday for the 2K Sports Classic Benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer without a key member of its program, senior associate athletic director Mike Cragg.

Cragg, 44, had triple bypass heart surgery on Thursday. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski talked about Cragg's health during his pre-game radio show. Cragg went in for a regular exam on Monday and has been hospitalized since then.

Cragg, who was recently promoted to the senior AD post, has been Krzyzewski's right-hand guy dating back to his days as Duke's sports information director. Cragg has also served as director of the program's successful fundraising arm — the Legacy Fund — for the past eight years.

DURHAM — Duke QB Thad Lewis is listed as "doubtful" for Saturday's ACC tilt at Virginia Tech. He injured his left foot during the dismal loss at Clemson. Lewis did not practice on Tuesday and has been limited the past two days. Game time is 5:30 p.m.

Since emergency QB/starting RB Clifford Harris is out for the game, Duke coach David Cutcliffe said WR Austin Kelly would slip in should anything happen to backup QB Zack Asack and third-stringer Mike Cappetto.

DURHAM — Listening to Duke coach David Cutcliffe talk about how hard it is to play at Virginia Tech on Tuesday, you'd think he had a case of both home-crowd and recruiting class envy.

“Obviously, not many people go in there and win, and the reason is two-fold," Cutcliffe said during his regular press conference.

DURHAM — Duke junior QB Thaddeus Lewis is still day-to-day after injuring his ankle in Duke's loss at Clemson on Saturday. Junior backup QB Zack Asack, took his place during Duke's weekly press conference and said he hadn't been told who would start at Virginia Tech later this week.

Lewis has started 33 straight games. The only other time he missed time due to injury was when he got knocked out of the Virginia Tech game at Lane Stadium two years ago. Marcus Jones, now the starting strongside linebacker, replaced him then.

DURHAM — Duke senior guard Greg Paulus was feeling better than he did while playing limited minutes and making just one shot with an injured right forearm — he's right-handed — on Sunday, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said Tuesday.

"You could tell he was not close to being 100 percent [against Rhode Island]," Krzyzewski said. "He was going on guts alone. If he doesn’t get worse in today’s practice, we'll see if he can keep coming. We need him. We already feel he'll be much better on Thursday."