Four of college basketball’s most distinguished programs converge in midtown Manhattan. Tuesday’s neutral-site invitational is a historic winner’s circle. This quad combines for 19 national championships — eight for Kentucky, five for Duke, four for Kansas and two for Michigan State. This pair of games should rip. Cue the Cam’ron.
Champions Classic viewing guide (Tuesday, Nov. 18)
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Michigan St. vs.Kentucky
6:30 p.m.
ESPN
Kansas vs. Duke
9 p.m.
ESPN
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This is the 15th installment of the Champions Classic. These four schools have participated every year. In the inaugural 2011 run, Duke topped Michigan State thanks to Andre Dawkins (26 points) and Seth Curry (20); Kentucky survived Kansas off the strength of Anthony Davis’ seven blocks.
Other Champions Classics sites have included United Center (Chicago), Gainbridge Fieldhouse (Indianapolis), Georgia Dome and State Farm Arena (Atlanta). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Duke and Michigan State played their 2020 game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
This year, the event returns to Madison Square Garden for the fifth time. In between the games, the latest College Football Playoff Top 25 rankings will be revealed.
No. 17 Michigan State vs. No. 12 Kentucky
Each side already accepted one nonconference challenge to jump-start November. MSU survived Arkansas 69-66 at the Breslin Center. It got the W despite going 1-for-14 (7 percent!) from behind the arc, which was hard to believe and even harder on the eyes. Freshman Cam Ward and third-year forward Coen Carr salvaged the game with a combined 33 points on 20 shots for the Spartans.
Kentucky went into the chicken bucket that is the KFC Yum! Center and lost 96-88 in an intrastate battle with Louisville. While the Wildcats shot a solid 47 percent from the floor, they were done in by 14 giveaways and a massive free-throw attempt disparity (31 to 16). Senior Florida transfer Denzel Aberdeen had 26 points, but that was countered by inefficiency from Otega Oweh (4-for-13) and Jaland Lowe (2-for-8).
Tom Izzo directs the Spartans with pugnaciousness and emphasizes box-out dominance off the glass. Mark Pope coaches up his Wildcats through new-age positivity and perimeter movement. Senior bigs Jaxon Kohler and Carson Cooper are the leading scorers for this inside-first Michigan State group, while Aberdeen and Oweh pace the fleet Kentucky crew. Tuesday opens with a truly diametric program pairing.
The Athletic’s CJ Moore on Kentucky: “Mark Pope built this roster with the hope of significantly improving his defense, which in early February last year was on pace to be the worst in-conference SEC defense in terms of efficiency in the KenPom era (dating back to 1997). At Kentucky, you want to compete for national titles and a defense like that wasn’t going to cut it.
“On paper, Pope got more team speed and athleticism. It’s too early to judge how this will turn out, especially with center Jayden Quaintance yet to play, because he has the ability to make a difference. But two things need to improve significantly. One, the Cats need to work on their communication. They had several communication errors in transition and were sloppy in their ball screen and dribble handoff coverage. There were also several “know your personnel” mistakes, where help-side players either over-helped on a non-threat or were not in a position to help when hugging a non-shooter. But the biggest thing that needs to happen for the Cats to be a real contender is a mentality and intensity shift.”
No. 24 Kansas vs. No. 5 Duke
Freshman Cameron Boozer is living up the hype in early returns. He enters Tuesday’s action with averages of 22.5 points, 10.3 boards, 4.3 dimes and 3.6 stocks (steals+blocks). Granted, three of those four games were absolute blowouts for Duke. And Texas, the No. 40 team in KenPom rankings entering Tuesday, held him to 3-of-12 shooting. Now comes his biggest test so far.
Kansas starts the week with the 11th-best defense, per KenPom. Sophomore Flory Bidunga, at 6-foot-10, is an elite rim protector with impeccable timing. The Jayhawks lost to UNC in Chapel Hill on Nov. 7, but they had a double-digit lead in the first half and sunk 12 of their 25 tries on the 3-ball (48 percent). Sadly, ultra-hyped newcomer Darryn Peterson is expected to be out of Tuesday’s game due to a hamstring injury.
Peterson’s absence would mean more looks for senior Tre White (on his fourth team in four years) and freshman forward Bryson Tiller (no, not that one). To support Boozer, Duke has sophomores Isaiah Evans (23 points versus Texas) and Patrick Ngongba II (a rim-running center).
Moore has Bill Self as the No. 1 coach of the 2000s: “Self is one of the game’s all-time bests with a clipboard and you can never count his team out. The Jayhawks have had some of the greatest comebacks ever under his watch, two of those coming in the national title game …
“While the others in consideration have also been incredibly consistent, everyone else in the top six has missed at least one NCAA Tournament this century. Self hasn’t. There’s been some slippage the last two years, but even this past season, with his worst Kansas team ever, the Jayhawks were comfortably in the field as a No. 7 seed. You could knock Self for not winning more in the NCAA Tournament — his teams have been a No. 1 seed 11 times — but he has won more games in the NCAA Tournament than any coach this century. Add his regular-season success on top of that, and he’s the choice.”
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