It has been nearly 15 years since Kentucky, Michigan State, Duke and Kansas first played in the Champions Classic.
It seemed a bit far-fetched at the time, the idea of inviting just four programs to the same high-profile event, year after year. What if one of college basketball's marquee programs suddenly began to struggle? What if the games became blowouts?
Turns out there's been no need to worry. In just three of the 28 games over the past 14 years
has one of the teams not been ranked, and that continues Tuesday night, when the quartet gathers once against at Madison Square Garden. It will be No. 17 Michigan State against No. 12 Kentucky in the opener and No. 5 Duke against No. 24 Kansas in the nightcap in New York.
“It's going to be a big-boy game. They're good,” Jayhawks coach Bill Self said. "They're young again. Somebody asked me if they're better than last year, and I said, ‘Well, it’s too early to tell, but this early in the season, I think they may execute their stuff better than last year.' Now, last year, what did they have? Four or five fist-round draft picks, and three lottery picks?
“Certainly they're loaded again,” Self said, “and then they got a guy that could foul out a whole team.”
That guy is Cameron Boozer, the Blue Devils' star freshman, who has lived up to the billing this season. He's averaging 22.5 points and 10.3 rebounds, and is coming off a 35-point, 12-board effort in a rout of Indiana State.
That matchup should have been a showdown between potential No. 1 draft picks. But the Jayhawks could once again be without their own star freshman, Darryn Peterson, who has missed their past two games with a hamstring injury.
“We got some, some things to discuss,” Self said. “He’s getting the best treatment. But he’s got tightness in his right hamstring. He wants to be out there so bad. But I’m not going to put him out there until he feels well. You can say or think, ‘Well, we’re trying to win the battle.’ Well, yeah, we are, but the battle is not near as important as the long term. We got to get him where he’s not hesitant to play. We have seen him play, and he’s pretty good. We still haven’t seen him whole yet. Think about that.”
Michigan State has already picked up a marquee win over Arkansas, thanks in part to another standout freshman, Cam Ward. And the Wildcats lost their first big-time test when they were beaten by No. 6 Louisville last week.
Kansas has the best record in the Champions Classic at 9-5. Duke is 8-6, Kentucky is 6-8 and Michigan State is 5-9.
Arizona and UConn haven't been shy about scheduling tough this season. Now, the two top-five teams will be facing each other.
The fourth-ranked Wildcats head to Gampel Pavilion on Wednesday night for a true road game against the third-ranked Huskies, a showdown of teams that each earned two first-place votes in the Top 25 this week.
Arizona opened the season by beating No. 10 Florida and topped No. 19 UCLA last week, and it still has non-conference games against No. 22 Auburn and No. 11 Alabama in December. UConn is coming off a win over No. 9 BYU that begins a stretch that includes a game against No. 14 Illinois in New York and a December visit to Allen Fieldhouse to face the Jayhawks.
Speaking of Alabama and Illinois, they face each other in another marquee matchup Wednesday night in Chicago. And in the only other game involving ranked teams this week, No. 23 Wisconsin faces ninth-ranked BYU on Friday night in Salt Lake City — a neutral-site matchup that should feel very much like a home game for the Cougars.
There are only a handful of Top 25 matchups this week, but it sets the stage for next week's so-called “Feast Week,” when the Players Era Festival will bring a bunch of top teams to Las Vegas for a series of games. There are also numerous tournaments, such as the Fort Myers Tip-Off and Rady Children’s Invitational, that involve teams in the Top 25.
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