Date || November 18 || Time 9:00 || Venue Madison Square Garden || Video ESPN
It’s almost time for the Championship Classic, the annual event featuring Duke, Kansas, Kentucky and Michigan State, and this year the Blue Devils will see the Jayhawks in Madison Square Garden.
There is an immediate question about this game because star freshman Darryn Peterson may not be able to go for the Jayhawks due to a hamstring issue. He played at UNC but sat out the games against Texas A&M Corpus-Christi and Princeton.
Peterson is a much-admired talent who has been compared to Kobe Bryant, at least talent wise. We can’t know how good he is yet compared to Kobe because what set Bryant apart most was his relentless work ethic, but Peterson has a shot at being great.
As we’ve learned over the years, Bill Self typically is a great coach who gets his teams to work together as well as any coach in the business. So what’s he got this year?
Aside from Peterson, KU poses an interesting challenge for Duke because big man Flory Bidunga (6-10/235) is highly athletic and will be a significant challenge for Cameron Boozer inside. Bidunga leads Kansas in several categories – he’s putting up 17 ppg, getting 7.8 rpg and 2.5 blocks.
You may remember the name Tre White from his brief Louisville sojourn during Kenny Payne’s disastrous tenure. He left there for Illinois and now he’s starting for the Jayhawks. He’s a solid athlete and Bill Self will know how to use him as a defender.
Bryson Tiller, a 6-11/240 lb. redshirt freshman, started against Princeton. He’s getting 9 ppg and 5 boards. He could be a problem on defense at a minimum.
Melvin Council, a 6-4 senior transfer from St. Bonnie’s, has taken over the point guard duties after Dajuan Harris graduated. Like Harris, he’s not a great three point shooter. In fact, he’s shooting .000 from behind the line so far.
In fairness to Council, he’s only taken 9 threes so far and you may remember that a few years ago, Wendell Moore had a terrible slump. What was the lesson we learned there?
Eventually you return to your norm, and for Council, while he’s never been a great three point shooter, he’s not this bad. Don’t be surprised if he gets back on track on Tuesday and also don’t be surprised if his cold streak reverses abruptly and emphatically. He’s due.
The fifth starter, at least while Peterson is out, is Kohl Rosario. You may remember last year he blew up in a big way quite late and a brief recruiting battle ensued with Duke, Baylor, BYU, Miami, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Villanova, among others, which Kansas ultimately won. He’s really gifted. Either Rosario or Tiller will go back to the bench when Peterson is back, whenever that is.
Elmarko Jackson (6-3 sophomore) missed all of last season with an injury. He was a major recruit in high school who is getting back on top of things now.
The rest of the primary rotation is 6-5 senior Jaden Dawson and Jamari McDowell, a 6-5 sophomore.
You may also remember the name Paul Mbiya – he originally signed with NC State and Will Wade. He’s not very polished but he could still be helpful on defense and as a rebounder.
If Peterson is still out on Tuesday, Kansas’ offense could have real problems. Peterson is a dynamic, creative scorer but the other players, so far anyway, lack that knack.
Take Bidunga, for instance. He’s immensely talented but hasn’t fully mastered the subtleties of the game. It’s not surprising – he grew up in the Congo and has only played top flight competition for a couple of years. His upside is huge, but at the moment, he’s still kind of hit and miss.
Rosario is another guy who could go off. He is highly talented but is a freshman and most freshmen take some time to settle in.
Self is a brilliant coach, but with his current roster, he has issues with spacing due to poor three point shooting (presuming Peterson is out) and at times, notably at UNC in the second half, his offense has been stagnant. That’s partly on Council, who has been erratic as point guard, but it’s a real problem for Kansas while Peterson is out.
Another change for Kansas: the Jayhawks typically have a tall roster. They do have three big guys with Mbiya (7-0/245), Tiller (6-11/240) and Bidunga (6-10/235), but none are fully proven in college yet. Bidunga, as noted, is putting up great stats but most of that comes against Green Bay, AMCC and Princeton. When Kansas played UNC and their massive front line, Bidunga shot 4-9 and had just 8 points. It’s interesting to speculate how he’ll do against Brown, who is a superb defender. Bidunga is a better athlete, but you spend seconds in the air and vastly more time on the ground, where Brown will probably have an advantage.
Worth noting: in the three games other than UNC, Bidunga got three fouls in each. Against AMCC, he got those three in 19 minutes.
So Kansas may have some issues. Does that mean Duke is a shoo-in?
Absolutely not.
For one thing, Self is a gifted coach who has proven that he can adapt. He has some real talent, as he usually does, and just because Kansas has struggled offensively in the half court doesn’t mean they have to continue the same tactics.
And of course Duke is, as usual, quite young.
The Blue Devils rely heavily on four freshmen and three sophomores, a junior and a senior. Jon Scheyer has turned out to be a solid strategist and motivator. Cameron Boozer is one of the most skilled players we’ve seen in a long time. You might say, wait DBR…how about Cooper Flagg? And Kon Knueppel?
And that’s a fair point. But Boozer’s fundamentals may be better. He’s unusually sound in a way that reminds people of Tim Duncan. He’s probably not as physically talented as Flagg, but he’s unbelievably smart. He seems to have mastered almost all elements of offense and his defense is pretty good too (though Flagg’s is far better). However, based on what we’ve seen so far, we’re not sure any player in college has a better outlet pass than Boozer. He just has a remarkable grip on the game for a freshman. We haven’t mentioned his brother Cayden, but he’s really coming along nicely.
Duke’s three big men – Patrick Ngongba and Maliq Brown – are all gifted passers. Add the three point shooting provided by Isaiah Evans, Dame Sarr, Darren Harris, Caleb Foster, Nik Khamenia and Boozer too – and that makes it tough to stop everything Duke tries.
However, we can think of two things Kansas could do that would challenge what Duke has done so far.
First, just press like John Wooden or Rick Pitino, try to turn Duke over. The less time you spend in the half-court, the less issues you have with a struggling offense.
And second, the press aside, just shift the focus to the defensive side. IF Kansas’s offensive struggles are real as some Kansas fans seem to think, then make Duke’s just as real.
This has worked before; winning ugly is a thing.
Before John Thompson had elite talent, Georgetown stayed in games by defending like hell to do it. At Virginia, Tony Bennett forced opponents to a crawl and as a result, was in most every game at the end. Shaka Smart has at times relied extensively on his defense for offense.
It doesn’t really seem like the type of basketball we’ve seen from Self over the years, but he’s shown he can adapt.
That’s all predicated on the notion that KU’s offense has struggled and that the Jayhawks may not have Peterson. But this is a big-time game and Kansas is a proud program. This is our sincere expectation: whatever issues his team is having, Self will have his guys ready to play and the magic of the Garden will help. The Jayhawks will play like the proud program they are, and it will be a difficult game for either team to win.
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