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Duke Basketball: 3 keys to beat Kansas in 2019 Champions Classic

By Matthew Travis

OMAHA, NE - MARCH 25: The Kansas Jayhawks and Duke Blue Devils huddle during the first half in the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Midwest Regional at CenturyLink Center on March 25, 2018 in Omaha, Nebraska. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
OMAHA, NE - MARCH 25: The Kansas Jayhawks and Duke Blue Devils huddle during the first half in the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Midwest Regional at CenturyLink Center on March 25, 2018 in Omaha, Nebraska. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /
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DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA – FEBRUARY 05: Tre Jones #3 of the Duke Blue Devils moves the ball against the Boston College Eagles during their game at Cameron Indoor Stadium on February 05, 2019 in Durham, North Carolina. Duke won 80-55. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA – FEBRUARY 05: Tre Jones #3 of the Duke Blue Devils moves the ball against the Boston College Eagles during their game at Cameron Indoor Stadium on February 05, 2019 in Durham, North Carolina. Duke won 80-55. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) /

1. Tre Jones vs. Devon Dotson

This game is going to be very interesting because both Duke and Kansas have a point guard who you could make the argument for being the best returning player in the nation, Tre Jones and Devon Dotson.

Last season Jones averaged 9.4 points, 5.3 assists and 3.8 rebounds per game, notably with three top ten picks. Now that he will be stepping into a bigger role in Durham, you can fully expect those numbers to go up.

Dotson last season averaged 12.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.5 points per game, very similar to Jones’ numbers. That being said these are both guys who don’t turn the ball over much and also guys who if you don’t guard them properly, will hurt you in many different ways.

This matchup is going to be very intriguing and there is a good chance that the winner of this game will be determined based off of who wins the point guard matchup.

The question is however, with both teams being much different than they were last season, how much of an impact will these two have on their respective offenses?

As mentioned earlier, Jones didn’t have a huge impact on Duke’s offense last season when it came to putting the ball in the basket, but he contributed in other ways. Dotson on the other hand was a bit more of a scorer than Jones was as he also had a higher three-point percentage than Jones.

The talk of the offseason regarding Jones was about whether or not his three-point shooting would improve heading into the 2019-20 season. Through two preseason games, I think it’s fair to say it has not.

In Duke’s two preseason games this year, Jones went a combined 0-6 from beyond the three-point line and 9-21 overall with 24 total points. In the first game, Jones was much more of an impact with a total of 18 points, five rebounds, two assists and no turnovers.

Obviously though both of these games were against no-name teams so the Kansas game will the first test. Through this game we will find out just how much Jones has improved since last season.

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