The Duke Blue Devils steamrolled the Kentucky Wildcats in the Champions Classic, but what can we glean from the marquee season-opener?
The Champions Classic is intended to showcase four of the best college basketball programs in the country, pitting them against one another in two marquee games to start a new season. On Tuesday night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, however, the nightcap between the Duke Blue Devils and Kentucky Wildcats did not live up to that billing. Instead, it was a trio of freshmen bullies showing up on the block of college basketball and taking the lunch money of John Calipari’s team.
Boasting the top-three recruits in the 2019 class, Duke had a ton of hype and expectations coming into this season. Against Kentucky on Tuesday night, however, they surpassed that. They were impeccable not just for spurts, but from start to finish, unfurling 40 minutes of utter domination on the Wildcats.
From the tip, the Wildcats tried to shoot 3s with the Blue Devils and push the pace, and were quickly finding themselves in quicksand because of it. With the uber-athletic and skilled trio of Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett and Cam Reddish running the show for Duke, they got up and down the floor with ease and were seemingly filing up the cup at will, this while still coming up with big stops on the defensive end.
This then allowed the Blue Devils to build a massive lead early on and never relinquish it, stifling any feeble attempts by Kentucky at trying to come back. In the end, the 118-84 final score was the worst loss for the Wildcats under Calipari’s watch on the sidelines, putting into perspective how historic of a beatdown Mike Krzyzewski’s team laid down on Tuesday night.
In the end, Barrett led the Duke trio with 33 points, but Williamson added 28 of his own (on 11-of-13 shooting) while Reddish had a “quiet” night with 22 points. The freshman arrived, they conquered, and now they appear ready to rule college basketball. And looking at what we learned from Tuesday’s game, you have to start there.
Duke might just be a juggernaut
There was no denying the upside and talent of the Blue Devils star trio of freshmen entering the 2018-19 season. If there was anything that could hold them back — especially early in the year — though, it was learning to play together and perhaps taking some time to get used to the college game. What’s more, the lack of depth seemed like a potential concern behind them.
Against the Wildcats on Tuesday night, we saw these young guys take the floor for the first time in regular season action. What’s more, we saw Williamson get into foul trouble in the first half and Duke have to go into their bench earlier than they surely would’ve liked to. The thing is, it didn’t matter.
No matter the situation, pace of play or anything else, Duke was completely in control and dominant against the second-ranked team in the country. Sure, that might be the preseason poll, but this Kentucky team is legitimately good. And the Blue Devils made them look like a junior high team. If this is what Coach K’s team is going to look like each time out and if they can keep this level of play up, there might not be a team in the country that can stop them.
Kentucky’s early-season search for an identity shows up again
Particularly in recent seasons, we’ve seen Calipari’s Wildcats team start slow in the regular season. Oftentimes, it has a lot to do with a completely new group of young players trying to gel with one another and get going. Having said that, the hope was that the early-season woes would be quelled this year with an experienced grad transfer in Reid Travis and sophomores PJ Washington and Quade Green instead leading the way.
Pretty quickly, however, it became clear that the early-season issues could be back once again for Kentucky. From the opening tip, it was obviously that the Wildcats have no sense of identity. They went out and started trying to run and shoot 3s with Duke’s trio of youngsters and the Blue Devils jumped on that immediately and built a monstrous lead right from the jump. What’s more, the Wildcats also shied away from getting Travis, arguably their biggest overall force, the ball on the offensive end early on in the game.
There is undeniable talent under Cal’s watch in Lexington this season and, if they get clicking, they can likely put up a better fight against this Duke team. However true that may be though, they first have to find out who they are and establish the on-court hierarchy. Without that, they showcased on Tuesday night the ugly results that will come about.
Duke’s depth still looks quite concerning still
Yes, in a game where the Blue Devils took on the second-ranked team in the country and ran them into the ground, we’re going to say something negative about what Duke put on display.
Again, if the group of freshmen play like they did on Tuesday night, the Blue Devils could well win a National Championship this season. However, it has to be somewhat concerning that the trio of Williamson, Barrett and Reddish combined to score 83 of the 118 points that were put up by Coach K’s team.
Moving forward in the season, you have to wonder if a group of young stars can put forth that kind of effort every night, because the bodies around them don’t appear terribly capable of stepping up to the degree that they would need to should one (or more) of the three have an extremely off night. Maybe they don’t have an off night and, after the Champions Classic, we can’t rule that out. But if it were to happen, the Blue Devils could face some adversity.