Can Duke beat Kentucky? That’s the question everyone’s asking after the Blue Devils advanced to the national championship game and the Wildcats one win away
All season the question has been asked if any team is capable of beating the juggernaut team that John Calipari has assembled at Kentucky. With two games remaining in the college basketball season, the answer has been no as the Wildcats remain undefeated in their pursuit of perfection.
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But with the way Jahlil Okafor, Justise Winslow and this Duke team is playing, can the Blue Devils do what no other team has done and defeat Kentucky?
It is the matchup that everyone wants to see, apologies to Frank Kaminsky, Sam Dekker, Bo Ryan and the Wisconsin Badgers, but no one outside Madison, WI wants to see your brand of basketball on the game’s biggest stage. This is no slight to them, but they aren’t the national brand and don’t bring the cache that a Duke-Kentucky final brings.
If you’re like me, you filled out your bracket a couple of weeks ago with a Duke-Kentucky final on tap and we’re one game away from that.
That matchup would be a classic strength vs strength matchup with Duke’s potent offense that ranks fourth in the nation in points per game with 80.6 points per game while shooting 50.2 percent from the field, the third best percentage in the nation against Kentucky’s impenetrable defense.
Willie Cauley-Stein, Karl-Anthony Towns form a twin towers in the Kentucky frontcourt and limited teams to 53.9 points per game, third stingiest defense in the country and rank second in blocks with 6.9 per game.
The old adage is that offense sells tickets but defense wins championships, so if the old saying rings true, Kentucky will turn aside Duke just as they have all 39 of their previous opponents this year.
But they haven’t played a player like Duke’s Jahlil Okafor who may be the top pick in the NBA Draft later this year and a player who can cancel out the production of Cauley-Stein and Towns and neutralize Kentucky’s biggest advantage they’ve had all season.
Okafor isn’t the only player they need to contend with as Justise Winslow has taken his game to hew heights in the NCAA Tournament with an average of 17.25 points and nine rebounds since the opening game against Robert Morris. With Quinn Cook and Tyus Jones manning the ball-handling duties, they are more than capable of ruining Kentucky’s pursuit of perfection.
Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski is the ultimate trump card too and is a better x’s and o’s coach than AP coach of the year, John Calipari who is the nation’s best recruiter but takes a back seat to Coach K when it comes to the in-game chess match.
Yes, Duke can beat Kentucky and they won’t be intimidated by them as others were this season. Now, if only Kentucky can get past Wisconsin, we will get the game that everyone wants to see and college basketball fans deserve.
If we’re only going to see players like Okafor and Towns for one season, we may as well get them playing against each other with the national championship hanging in the balance.
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