Duke got a slap on the wrist back in the early 70's because of recruitment issues involving David Thompson. Carolina was involved in the point shaving scandals in the late 50's and early 60's, which brought about the hiring of Dean Smith in the first place.
So yes, it can happen, although I'd say the probability is lower than it would be at another Div I school. A place where Duke would be particularly vulnerable would be a place that is out of Coach K's control. This would include booster violations (although we could hope that Duke boosters would be far too smart for such transgressions:)), and more currently, violations by players getting benefits from their AAU teams prior to enrolling at Duke.
The AAU teams have been a major issue for some time now, and finally this year the NCAA is waking up to the issue. Unfortunately, the NCAA is overreacting big time, IMO because all this action was going on right under their nose for many years and they were too happy counting tournament money to see it. As an example of how close these AAU issues come to Duke, note that Kareem and JaRon Rush were suspended this year for receiving benefits from their Kansas City, MO AAU team prior to going to Missouri and UCLA, respectively. They were AAU teammates of Corey Maggette. And although there is absolutely ZERO evidence that Corey received anything improper, when you're a 17 year old kid and your teammates are getting all kinds of cool stuff, it is hard to turn it down. |
