I know we're a little less than three months away from this game, but watching the Bahamas games had to get you thinking about how the 2018/2019 season is going to open up.
Kentucky should be 10 points or so better than Duke. We have more returning experience for one, and I really don't think the recruiting classes are all that far apart.
With Duke a lot's going to come down to how much their centers have improved. When things go bad for Duke, it's usually because of team defense, or they have a disproportionate amount of perimeter players and not much inside. (Duke went for years and years in the post-Laettner/pre-Battier era where K just wasn't recruiting any game-changing bigs.) Javin DeLaurier and Marques Bolden have always been back-ups in the past; this year one of them is going to have to take the mantle as a starter, and both are going to probably log a lot of minutes. Their stats last year were eerily identical, so it's impossible to say which one will get the nod. But Kentucky should have a noted advantage at the center spot assuming Travis's size isn't an issue.
Duke is also going to go as its best player goes, and this season it will be Canadian superstar R.J. Barrett. Barrett will most assuredly be an All-American, and he's a guy who has been known in high school for having these electric, almost otherworldly games. Kentucky will have to keep him from getting 30+, and with the stage as big as it's going to be for that game you know he'll be amped to try and build his brand.
Another guy for Duke that I like is sophomore Alex O'Connell. I think he could have a big year for Duke. He only had 22 makes from three last year, but his percentage was sort of staggering. He's kind of their version of Tyler Herro, and that will be a good battle.
Offensively Duke doesn't appear to have the kind of attack that they usually have. Coach K has been big on the drive-and-kick system for almost 20 years, but I'm not sure Duke has the team shooting to play that way. What they're going to be is more athletic, with Williamson, Reddish, and of course Barrett being more of the floor-runner types that you usually see at a place like Kentucky. If our guys aren't getting back in transition Duke could make life tough, because Zion Williamson is a guy who is going to be hard to handle when he gets a head of steam.
Kentucky as we've seen is going to have a lot of weapons. Significantly more, IMO, than Duke. But as far as top-end talent, Kentucky doesn't have an R.J. Barrett. So as always in these marquee November match-ups, it's going to be a fight.
Kentucky should be 10 points or so better than Duke. We have more returning experience for one, and I really don't think the recruiting classes are all that far apart.
With Duke a lot's going to come down to how much their centers have improved. When things go bad for Duke, it's usually because of team defense, or they have a disproportionate amount of perimeter players and not much inside. (Duke went for years and years in the post-Laettner/pre-Battier era where K just wasn't recruiting any game-changing bigs.) Javin DeLaurier and Marques Bolden have always been back-ups in the past; this year one of them is going to have to take the mantle as a starter, and both are going to probably log a lot of minutes. Their stats last year were eerily identical, so it's impossible to say which one will get the nod. But Kentucky should have a noted advantage at the center spot assuming Travis's size isn't an issue.
Duke is also going to go as its best player goes, and this season it will be Canadian superstar R.J. Barrett. Barrett will most assuredly be an All-American, and he's a guy who has been known in high school for having these electric, almost otherworldly games. Kentucky will have to keep him from getting 30+, and with the stage as big as it's going to be for that game you know he'll be amped to try and build his brand.
Another guy for Duke that I like is sophomore Alex O'Connell. I think he could have a big year for Duke. He only had 22 makes from three last year, but his percentage was sort of staggering. He's kind of their version of Tyler Herro, and that will be a good battle.
Offensively Duke doesn't appear to have the kind of attack that they usually have. Coach K has been big on the drive-and-kick system for almost 20 years, but I'm not sure Duke has the team shooting to play that way. What they're going to be is more athletic, with Williamson, Reddish, and of course Barrett being more of the floor-runner types that you usually see at a place like Kentucky. If our guys aren't getting back in transition Duke could make life tough, because Zion Williamson is a guy who is going to be hard to handle when he gets a head of steam.
Kentucky as we've seen is going to have a lot of weapons. Significantly more, IMO, than Duke. But as far as top-end talent, Kentucky doesn't have an R.J. Barrett. So as always in these marquee November match-ups, it's going to be a fight.
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