Duke Basketball: 3 takeaways from Blue Devils’ win over Kentucky

Duke Basketball made a major statement to the rest of the country with a blowout win over Kentucky. Here are the biggest things we learned from the game.

The Duke Blue Devils rolled to a dominant 118-84 victory over Kentucky in the Champions Classic, building a double-digit lead in the opening minutes and never looked back.

The most highly anticipated matchup of college basketball’s opening night was a showdown between these two programs and two loaded freshmen classes with some hyping it as a national championship preview – but the Blue Devils were not willing to have things go according to script.

Duke’s three top freshmen (R.J. Barrett, Zion Williamson, Cam Reddish) combined for a jaw-dropping 83 points and took this game over right from the jump.

Head coach Mike Krzyzewski heaped praised on his team after the game, saying in his press conference that even he was surprised at just how dominant they were.

"“They were magnificent tonight. I shouldn’t say I’m surprised at how well they played, but to play this well on this stage against Kentucky was a little surprising.”"

This was a statement victory in the most real way and, as unexpected results such as this tend to do, told us a lot about who the Blue Devils are. Here are the three biggest things we learned from the game.