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NCAA Basketball: 2019 2K Empire Classic preview and predictions

By Jason Burgess

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 05: The Duke Blue Devils celebrate their 68-66 win over the Kansas Jayhawks at Madison Square Garden on November 05, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 05: The Duke Blue Devils celebrate their 68-66 win over the Kansas Jayhawks at Madison Square Garden on November 05, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Chris Covatta/Getty Images)
(Photo by Chris Covatta/Getty Images) /

Participating teams

Duke Blue Devils (4-0)

Duke strolls into MSG on fire, ranked No. 1 and since defeating Kansas on opening night, Mike Krzyzewski’s team has steamrolled their next three opponents by a combined 96 points. Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the Blue Devils have four guys averaging double-figures and are led by three freshmen. Vernon Carey, Jr. leads the way for the freshmen with 14.8, Cassius Stanley and Matthew Hurt are right behind him with 13.0 and 10.8 respectively. Tre Jones, who leads the team at 17 and Alex O’Connell are the last two Duke guards averaging more than 10 points per game, but defensively is where they have improved, they have given up 59.5 points per game, compared to the 66.5 they gave up over their first four games last season.

Texas Longhorns (4-0)

Texas also enters the tournament undefeated at 4-0, which includes a road win at then No. 23 Purdue along with wins over Northern Colorado, Cal Baptist, and most recently Prairie View A&M by a combined 51 points. Matt Coleman leads the way with 14.5 points per game and the returning Andrew Jones is right behind him with 13.3. The biggest surprise for Texas so far is probably the emergence of freshman forward Gerald Lidell who has averaged 9.3 points, five rebounds, 1.3 assists in the three games he’s played.

Georgetown Hoyas (3-1)

Georgetown sits at 3-1 prior to their first-round matchup with Texas. Statistically, the Hoyas have been led by senior transfer Omer Yurtseven. The 7-0 big man who spent his previous two years at N.C. State has averaged a double-double over the first four games of the season with 17 points and 12.5 rebounds. The anchor in the paint has been a nice complement to the backcourt duo of Mac McClung and James Akinjo have netted a combined 24.6 points per game.

California Golden Bears (4-0)

After winning just eight games last season, the Golden Bears begin the Empire Classic with a record of 4-0, coach Mark Fox has his team playing better, at least early on. They began the season 2-0 with wins over Pepperdine and UNLV, then finished their three-game homestand with wins over California Baptist and Prairie View A&M. Sophomore guard Matt Bradley has been huge for Cal so far this season with 20 points and 4.8 rebounds per game while shooting a solid 56% from the field and knocking down 11 of his 21 three-point attempts. In the frontcourt, another sophomore, Andre Kelly has averaged 8.8 points and his 5.8 rebounds per game are 2nd on the team.

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