NCAA Basketball: Texas, Virginia soar on top 25 ranking ahead of Thanksgiving

11. Duke (3-1)

There are a lot of new faces this year for the Blue Devils and it’s never easy to persevere with such a large amount of roster turnover. Fortunately for Duke, they’ve got a number of blue-chip prospects filling those new roles this year. Jon Scheyer continues his first year leading the program and got his first real test this past week; a test that the Blue Devils didn’t quite fail, but didn’t really succeed in either.

Tuesday night saw the Blue Devils head to Indianapolis to take on Kansas in the Champions Classic. Unfortunately for them, Kansas handed them a 69-64 defeat; their first loss of the year. Kyle Filipowski had 17 points and 14 rebounds and looks like a fantastic frontcourt piece this season while Jeremy Roach had 16 points. They got back in the winning column a few days later with a 92-58 drubbing of Delaware. Though they led by just six at the half, they pulled away in the second half, with another fantastic effort from Filipowski (18 points, 8 rebounds).

Duke’s first major test saw them handed a loss, but they weren’t exactly lost out there. They gave Kansas a real test in Indianapolis and played a pretty solid game. Their defense has been pretty great so far, giving up less than 50 points per game in their three wins to this point. After a home date with Bellarmine, they’ll get a few more chances to prove themselves as they head west for the Phil Knight Invitational, with a Thursday date with Oregon State to start things off.