No. 9 Duke open the season by beating 10th-ranked Kentucky 79-71 on Tuesday night in the nightcap of the Champions Classic.
Team Notes
- Mike Krzyzewski is in his 42nd season as Duke’s head coach, and his record is now 1,098-302 at Duke, and 1,171-361 overall in this, his 47th season overall.
- Tonight marked Coach K’s 1,400th career game as Duke’s head coach.
- Duke improved to 7-4 all-time when playing in the Champions Classic, the best record of the four blue bloods that play in the annual event. Kansas is now 6-5, Kentucky is 5-6 and Michigan State is now 4-7.
- Duke is now 40-2 in season opening games under Coach K, 93-24 all-time in season opening games and 4-0 in season-openers vs. Kentucky.
- The Blue Devils have won 22 consecutive season-opening games.
- Duke has won nine of the last 11 meetings vs. Kentucky, and the overall series now stands at 12-11 in UK’s favor.
- Coach K improved to 7-2 vs. Kentucky.
- The game marked Duke’s 100th all-time when playing in the greater New York City area, and the Blue Devils improved to 73-27 in those games, including 45-25 in NYC (all at Madison Square Garden), 7-1 in Brooklyn and 21-1 in
East Rutherford, N.J.
- Coach K is now 34-11 all-time as Duke’s head coach in games played at Madison Square Garden.
- Duke improved to 88-63 in the Coach K era in top-10 matchups, and 237-155 under Coach K when playing against a ranked team.
- Duke led for 35:46 of game time, while Kentucky led for just 2:07.
- Duke held Kentucky to 1-of-7 from three-point range in the second half, after the Wildcats hit 6-of-11 from three in the first half.
- Duke has now connected on at least one three-point field goal in 1,115 consecutive games – the nation’s second longest active streak.
Player Notes
- Freshman Trevor Keels scored a game-high 25 points on 10-of-18 shooting with two assists and three steals.
- Freshman Paolo Banchero scored 22 points on 7-of-11 shooting and 8-of-9 at the free throw line with seven rebounds in 32 minutes.
- The only other time in history multiple Duke freshmen scored 20+ points in their debut game was Nov. 6, 2018 vs. Kentucky when three scored 20+ (RJ Barrett had 33, Zion Williamson had 28 and Cam Reddish had 22).
- Keels’ 25 points are tied for the third-most by a Duke freshman in a debut game – Barrett (33), Williamson (28) and Marvin Bagley III (25) vs. Elon on Nov. 10, 2017.
- Junior Wendell Moore Jr., was Duke’s third-leading scorer with 12 points, four rebounds and three assists on 6-of-10 shooting.
- Jeremy Roach was one of three Blue Devils with a team-high seven rebounds – a career high for the sophomore.
- Banchero, Keels, freshmen AJ Griffin and Jaylen Blakes and graduate transfer Theo John each made their Duke debut Tuesday night.
Per Release
