ADVERTISEMENT

Duke will beat UK in Champions Classic

bignish

Well-Known Member
Gold Member
Feb 15, 2016
3,567
4,118
113
Team
Duke
I think this will be a good year for both teams but I don't see UK beating Duke with its current roster this early in the season. Duke has a better player at every position besides Center and I don't see Reid Travis as the type of alpha that will take over this game.

I think Zion will overwhelm PJ Washington in the post and it"ll be tough for UK to respond in this spot.

What say you?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dward13
What? This is wayyyyy different than what I've been hearing.
 
I think this will be a good year for both teams but I don't see UK beating Duke with its current roster this early in the season. Duke has a better player at every position besides Center and I don't see Reid Travis as the type of alpha that will take over this game.

I think Zion will overwhelm PJ Washington in the post and it"ll be tough for UK to respond in this spot.

What say you?
That well could be the case. I would prefer a win in March than in November.

I actually think that UK may have an advantage in depth of quality guards. However, that may be me just believing the propaganda as I have only seen the four games in the Bahamas and that was without one star player.

About Zion overwhelming PJ Washington: he may out play PJ and have a better game but he will not overwhelm PJ.
 
I think UK will have a better team. This team has been gelling like 2012. KJ is no slouch and I doubt who ever is matched up with him will not be better. 8 5*s and 10 deep. I also doubt who ever is matched up with Nick Richards will be better than him. PJ and RT will definitely hold their own. 2 really physical players. Depth is going to be a real problem for Duke this game.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bert Higginbotha
Kentucky has the better mix of talent and experience. They will win in November. Duke will struggle shooting and won’t be good at all defensively this early.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ioliva
OP is right. This Duke team SHOULD win the title and only slip up a couple of times throughout the season.
Just like the last 2 seasons for duke, there is no reason they shouldn't win the title. They have the most talent and it isn't even close. Best team doesn't always win, but it's laughable to think they won't win it all this year.
Combine that with a HOF coach that has 5 titles already and it's easy to see that this is duke's year, they're in a league of their own.
Think about it, they have the best three hs recruits and 4 of the top 8.
UK doesn't stand a chance on 11/6.
 
Ehhh... while that would be nice, Kentucky has a pretty deep team this year, with a bit of experience. I don't think they have the talent that Duke has on a one-for-one basis (I think at least the three most talented players will be Duke guys), but overall, that's a talented group at Kentucky. Love Travis; there is no replacement for a grown ass man. I think I am picking UK, but honestly nobody knows.
 
Kentucky has the better mix of talent and experience. They will win in November. Duke will struggle shooting and won’t be good at all defensively this early.

I agree. I don’t see us having a chance at winning this game. Our reserves looked awful in the Canadian trip. The experience uk has over us is huge. By the way, who do I email about it not letting me post?
 
  • Like
Reactions: JimboBBN
I think this will be a good year for both teams but I don't see UK beating Duke with its current roster this early in the season. Duke has a better player at every position besides Center and I don't see Reid Travis as the type of alpha that will take over this game.

I think Zion will overwhelm PJ Washington in the post and it"ll be tough for UK to respond in this spot.

What say you?
Really. Fake News. Prepare to be disappointed. Go brag about Duke on the Duke board.
 
I can’t wait to watch Zion play 30+ minutes in an early November college basketball game.

It won’t be a “platoon”, but Cal would be dumb not to go 9 deep and run that Duke team up and down the floor for 40 minutes.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bert Higginbotha
I say The Blue Devils win by 4-5 points. Funny how some people’s predictions ITT doesn’t match their predictions on their home board.
 
  • Like
Reactions: KisteK
There's no way Duke can lose with all that talent, right? I mean, their fans have repeatedly told us that Cal is a failure for not winning it all with the most talented teams haven't they? Surely they won't fall victim to that same problem?
 
I agree. I don’t see us having a chance at winning this game. Our reserves looked awful in the Canadian trip. The experience uk has over us is huge. By the way, who do I email about it not letting me post?
Go to the football board and post in the thread that's pinned, titled something along the lines of "post here and tag a mod if having posting issues.."

They will take care of it for you
 
Let’s wait until we see Zion against non-Canadian competition before he’s declared the edge.

How about we wait until both teams play each other before declaring the edge? I mean it's not like either played great college level competition during their trips.
 
The starting five is definitely not a push. Duke has probably the three most talented players on the floor.
Are you at all concerned with defense, depth and outside shooting?
I like what I have seen out of UK's defense so far (I know the Bahamas opponents weren't duke calibre), they apply a lot of pressure on the ball and play the pick and roll really well.
But I didn't get to see Duke play over the summer, so I wasn't sure how good your guys looked.
I think this is going to come down to who can hit outside shots to open up the paint. If Duke gets open and burns the nets, that will allow Zion and Barret to go one on one in the paint with less talented UK forwards.
The other thing that would worry me if I were a Duke fan would be Boldon. I don't know if your big 3 can overcome his lack of production.
K is the best coach in the land though and he will have the 3 most talented guys on the floor. So duke should win fairly easily.
However, if duke's defense isn't up to par, they don't hit outside shots and a key player gets in foul trouble, it could go the other way in a hurry.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bert Higginbotha
Are you at all concerned with defense, depth and outside shooting?
I like what I have seen out of UK's defense so far (I know the Bahamas opponents weren't duke calibre), they apply a lot of pressure on the ball and play the pick and roll really well.
But I didn't get to see Duke play over the summer, so I wasn't sure how good your guys looked.
I think this is going to come down to who can hit outside shots to open up the paint. If Duke gets open and burns the nets, that will allow Zion and Barret to go one on one in the paint with less talented UK forwards.
The other thing that would worry me if I were a Duke fan would be Boldon. I don't know if your big 3 can overcome his lack of production.
K is the best coach in the land though and he will have the 3 most talented guys on the floor. So duke should win fairly easily.
However, if duke's defense isn't up to par, they don't hit outside shots and a key player gets in foul trouble, it could go the other way in a hurry.

Not worried by defense. We've got a lot of size, length, and athleticism, and the freshmen are generally good enough defenders.

Not really worried about depth. Bolden, White, OConnell, and Goldwire are good enough. If those guys are playing 20 a game, sure, but I would expect them to contribute closer to 5-10 (maybe OC a bit more.)

Outside shooting, yeah... the issue is that our best outside shooters aren't necessarily starters. We'll see how that goes.

Bolden is a head scratcher, but honestly Javin DeLaurier has shown enough that he can play there. K has been talking about running a five out offense, so I think Bolden is not being thought of as a starter. I think it will be the four freshmen and either Alex OC (moving Zion to the 5) or Javin DeLaurier (at the 5, moving the freshmen to 1-4.) I think the four frosh + AOC bring enough offense that we only need another 10ish pts from everyone else.

I don't imagine Duke winning easily... in fact, I think UK takes it.
 
ADVERTISEMENT