Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s loss to Duke in the Champions Classic
Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s 79-71 loss to Duke in the Champions Classic on Tuesday night in New York:
1. Duke obviously has an early head start on a long race
Mike Krzyzewski’s pair of freshmen are really good. A dynamic duo. Paolo Banchero, second only to Gonzaga’s Chet Holmgren among most rookie ratings, scored 22 points. Trevor Keels, overshadowed a bit by all the praise heaped on Banchero, went his teammate three better. He scored 25. Combined, the two were 17 of 29 from the floor. As a team, Duke shot 50.8 percent.
Weird thing here. Maybe you haven’t heard, but this Coach K’s final season as the head coach. He’s retiring at year’s end. Assistant coach Jon Scheyer has already been named is successor. So Krzyzewski has not been on the road recruiting. He left that to Scheyer. Instead, K has been back in Durham bonding with his team, directing his team, teaching his team. It showed. As far as development goes, the Blue Devils have a head start on Kentucky.
Will it be the same in March? We’ll see. Judging by Tuesday, Duke is really good, a potential Final Four team, a team good enough to send Coach K out with yet another national title. But it’s a long time until March. Duke was better than Kentucky on Tuesday. But it’s one game. Said Coach K, “We’re 1-0.”
2. TyTy Washington will have better nights, we promise
While Duke’s freshmen had big opening nights, UK’s best freshmen had one struggle of a night. Washington was 3-for-14 from the floor. He missed his only two three-point attempts. He appeared to be pressing early. Never got in the flow. Never made an impact.
Afterward, John Calipari took the blame. Washington was Kentucky’s top scorer in its two exhibition games, but took only 22 shots. Cal said he told his freshman guard to be more aggressive. Told him he needed to score. And, said Cal, that might have messed with the Phoenix native on his first night.
“I’ll take responsibility for some of the plays he made,” Calipari said. “He was just missing a bunch of shots. If you’ve watched him, that’s not him.”
Washington’s running mate had an up-and-down night. Point guard Sahvir Wheeler scored 16 points and dished 10 assists, but he committed seven turnovers. Again, Calipari took the blame, saying he played him too much. “Thirty-eight minutes is too many minutes this early in the season,” said the coach.
Still, the turnovers are a concern with Wheeler. He averaged 4.4 per game last year at Georgia. He turned the ball over five times in the second half last night. And most of those came when the 5-foot-9 guard was trying to do too much.
3. Oscar Tshiebwe needs some help from his new friends
The former West Virginia Mountaineer can’t do it all by himself, though last night he tried. Tshiebwe scored 17 points and grabbed 19 rebounds. He collected 12 offensive rebounds. That’s a ridiculous number. He also made eight of 14 shots.
But considering the output of his frontcourt supporting cast, Tshiebwe was going it alone for much of the night. Tasked with guarding Banchero on the defensive end, Keion Brooks struggled offensively. The junior grabbed just three rebounds to go with his nine points. Freshman Daimion Collins wasn’t strong enough to handle Duke’s physicality. Fellow freshman Bryce Hopkins played less than a minute.
Playing in front of his brother Obi, the New York Knick, Jacob Toppin did grab six rebounds in his 23 minutes. He fought. And, as Calipari noted, Toppin made Banchero work for his points. That was an encouraging sign.
“I think we fought, to be honest,” Toppin said. “We shot 37-something percent from the field, that’s not good, and we were in the game.”
Indeed, UK shot 37.7 percent to Duke’s 50.8 percent. That was pretty much the game right there. The Cats were 1-for-7 from three-point land in the second half, while Duke was 1-for-13 for the night.
And, remember, it was the first night. Duke is 1-0. Kentucky is 0-1. We’re just getting started.
This story was originally published November 10, 2021 at 1:19 AM.
