Duke and Kentucky will battle it out in the Champions Classic doubleheader. What are the biggest questions heading into this game?
Two of the most famous college basketball programs will face off on Tuesday night with hopes of starting off the season on a high note. The Duke Blue Devils and Kentucky Wildcats once again come into this season with national championships aspirations, ranked No. 2 and No. 4 respectively in the AP preseason polls.
Both programs are coming off heartbreaking defeats in the most recent NCAA Tournament. Duke fell in overtime to Kansas in an instant classic, while Kentucky lost in an upset to Kansas State, who didn’t have their best player available in the game. What makes it hurt even worse for Wildcat fans is that their side of the bracket opened up rather nicely to make it all the way to the title game.
This game will be an introduction for all the five-star freshmen making their debuts for their teams. Both programs lead the nation in the amount of players they send to the NBA on an annual basis, so expect a good amount of pro scouts to be present for this game.
Due to the high number of freshmen, there’s going to be a fair amount of speculation heading into this game. Who will be the biggest star? Or who isn’t as good as many originally thought? Keep in mind that this is everyone’s first game, so expect some early jitters and mistakes from the youngsters. There are a ton of questions that’ll be asked regarding this game in particular, so here are my top five that I have in mind.