It will be interesting to see who else Duke drops; now that we are a b-ball team again; they are quick to weasel out. This late change makes it difficult to book a "big" team and you have to see who needs the money guarantee with no return game.
While there are some cupcakes on the schedule; it might be good to boost confidence, experiment with pairings and give everyone some time. I don't consider the St Francis game a bad one given the historically significant rivalry between the schools and the location as St John's returns to its roots in Brooklyn.
if you look at last season's schedule, it was similar with Wm. & Mary, UMBC and Texas Pan Am.
What is good is there are no out of conference games during January/February right now. This is something Boeheim does at Accuse. Last year the Duke/UCLA games, while good for exposure, wore the team down and that hurts with our in conference record.