#7 Duke and #5 Kansas will square off in the State Farm Champions Classic in Indianapolis Tuesday night. The Blue Devils and Jayhawks comprised half of last season’s Final Four field in New Orleans with Kansas winning the 2022 National Championship.
Here’s everything you need to know about the top-ten matchup.
About Duke
- Duke is 111-78 all-time in AP top-10 matchups (2-0 last year; won four of last six).
- Duke has won four of its last five in the Champions Classic and the Blue Devils’ 7-4 mark leads the four blue bloods that annually compete in the event.
- The Blue Devils have ushered in the Jon Scheyer era with wins over Jacksonville, 71-44, and USC Upstate, 84-38 — the 82 points allowed being Duke’s fewest through the first two games of a season since 1946-47. Duke is second nationally in scoring defense (through Nov. 12).
- Freshman Kyle Filipowski has logged consecutive double-doubles to open his career, joining Marvin Bagley III (2017-18) as the only Duke freshmen with back-to-back double-doubles to open a season. No Duke freshman has opened a career with three consecutive.
- Junior guard Jeremy Roach, a preseason first-team All-ACC pick and a member of the watch list for the Cousy Award, returns after helping lead Duke to the Final Four, an ACC regular-season title and a 32-7 mark last season.
- Roach has hit six of Duke’s 17 three-point field goals this season and is coming off a 10-point, eight-assist effort on Friday. He has 12 assists through two games.
- In total, Duke has 11 newcomers on the roster – seven freshmen – all recruited and signed by Scheyer which comprise the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class, and four graduate transfers.
- Of Duke’s newcomers, freshman Mark Mitchell (right) leads the team in scoring though two games (15.5) with a game-high 18 in the opener, while stuffing the box score with 13 points, seven rebounds and three assists on Friday.
About Kansas
- Last season, Kansas became the all-time winningest program in NCAA Division I, currently at 2,359 victories. The Champions Classic field has three of the top five all-time wins leaders with No. 1 Kansas, No. 2 Kentucky at 2,355 and No. 4 Duke at 2,248. Michigan State is No. 23 at 1,791.
- Having won its final 11 games en route to the 2022 NCAA Championship, Kansas has the longest win streak in NCAA Division I at 13 games. Xavier (7) is next followed by Bellamine (4). It is the 17th time in the Bill Self era KU has amassed a win streak of 10 or more games.
- Through two games, redshirt-junior Dajuan Harris Jr. leads the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio at 13.00. Harris, who led the Big 12 and was 14th nationally last year in the stat, has 13 assists and one turnover this season.
- KU returned two starters and seven letterwinners from last season’s 34-6 team that finished tied for first in the Big 12 with a 14-4 record. KU advanced to its NCAA-record 32nd-consecutive NCAA Tournament, winning the national title, its sixth overall and fourth in NCAA history.
- Through two games, preseason All-America forward Jalen Wilson is averaging a double-double with 20.0 points and 10.0 rebounds per contest.
- Kansas is celebrating its 125th year of men’s basketball in 2022-23.
Duke vs Kansas
Although it only started in 1985, Kansas and Duke have shared a high-stakes series. Duke leads, 8-5, but Kansas has won three of the last four meetings. The most recent battle was a 68-66 Duke win in the 2019 Champions Classic in New York City. The previous was an 85-81 overtime KU win in the 2018 Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament that propelled KU to its 15th Final Four.
Eleven of the 13 match-ups have been on neutral floors, while seven of the games have been NCAA Tournament battles, including three Final Fours and one NCAA title game. The first meeting was the 1985 Preseason NIT championship game in Madison Square Garden, which Duke won 92-86. The same two teams met in Dallas in the Final Four semifinal later that season, a game which was the first-ever game between two 30-win teams. Duke won that contest, 71-67. In 1988, Duke traveled to Lawrence for a February non-conference game and came away with a 74-70 overtime win. Later that season the teams met again, this time in the Final Four semifinal, with Kansas defeating Duke, 66-59, at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri.
The national title was on the line in the 1991 meeting, a Duke 72-65 win in Indianapolis. The Blue Devils ended the Jayhawks’ season in the second round of the 2000 NCAA Tournament in Winston Salem, N.C., while KU returned the favor in the 2003 Sweet 16 in Anaheim, Calif., en route to its Final Four run. Duke won the 2011 Maui Invitational title meeting defeating KU, 68-61, in the championship game.
How to Watch
Time: 9:30 p.m. (ET)
TV: ESPN (Dan Shulman, Jay Bilas, Holly Rowe)
Stream: WatchESPN
Radio: Blue Devils Sports Network (David Shumate, John Roth)
Per Release
