Champions Classic: 3 things we learned

The Champions Classic taught us a lot about four college basketball blue-bloods.

We have been left without a lot of usual sports events thanks to the coronavirus pandemic but the ones that have happened certainly look a bit different. This was the case for the Champions Classic, usually an epic doubleheader featuring Michigan State, Duke, Kentucky and Kansas, but the pandemic led to the event being split.

Duke jumped out early but Michigan State wore down the Blue Devils en route to a 75-69 win at Cameron Indoor Stadium while Kansas extended Kentucky’s skid by rallying from a halftime deficit to win 65-62 in Indianapolis. Let’s take a look beyond the box score and examine what we learned about these programs in the process.

Michigan State is deeper than we thought

Everyone knew that the Spartans would need to replace their two top scorers after Cassius Winston graduated and Xavier Tillman went pro. Tom Izzo’s latest team doesn’t feature a ton of star power but it is a very deep unit, which could prove to be quite advantageous given the unique nature of this season.

Aaron Henry and Rocket Watts made their presences felt, facilitating the offense and combining for 34 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. The key to the win tonight, however, was the contributions that Michigan State got from their secondary players.

Malik Hall and Joey Hauser played big minutes and contributed on both ends of the floor, but the biggest surprise was the emergence of sophomore forward Julius Marble. Few expected Marble to be a significant rotation player, but he went 5-for-5 from the floor to contribute 12 points in 12 minutes, earning himself more playing time in the future. The emergence of key depth for the Spartans will give them a shot to compete at the top of the Big Ten with the likes of Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa.

Duke’s pieces are nice but need work to fit together

Mike Krzyzewski is a Hall of Fame coach for a reason but he certainly has his work cut out for him. Duke came out of the gate hot against the Spartans, dominating on both ends of the floor for the first five minutes of the game, but they weren’t able to put a complete effort together for the rest of the night.

Jalen Johnson showed flashes but had a muted second game, scoring just 11 points and grabbing four rebounds after putting up a 19 and 19 double-double in the opener. Wendell Moore and D.J. Steward went a combined 0-16 from the floor, playing a key role in Duke’s pitiful 32.3 percent shooting performance on the night.

There is no doubt that the Blue Devils have plenty of quality basketball players but with a freshman- and sophomore-heavy rotation it will take time for Krzyzewski to get this group playing cohesive team basketball. Michigan State exposed some flaws for Duke to work on ahead of conference play.

Kentucky can defend but has trouble putting the ball in the basket

The Wildcats have a lot of freshmen, but unlike Duke’s crop, this team has a chance to be extremely dynamic on the defensive end. The key to all of this is the incredible length that Kentucky’s roster has, as evidenced by this incredible graphic during the first half of their matchup with Kansas.

All five of Kentucky’s starters had a wingspan of at least 6-foot-7, with four close to a 7-foot wingspan, which wreaked havoc on the Jayhawks early and often. Kansas struggled early on to deal with the Wildcats’ length, falling behind 26-13 with 6:13 left in the first half before rallying to make it a six-point game at the half.

The problem was that Kentucky has had major issues putting the ball in the basket the past two games, committing 36 turnovers against just 13 assists, which has been problematic. The fact that Kansas rallied to win despite shooting just 29.9 percent from the floor is a direct indictment on the issues the Wildcats have offensively.

John Calipari will need to get to the root of his team’s offensive inefficiency quickly in order to avoid squandering a potentially lethal defense this season. With non-conference matchups against Georgia Tech, UCLA and Louisville looming before SEC play there is a chance things get worse before they get better for the Wildcats.

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