Duke remains atop poll; Kansas slips to No. 7

A matchup fit for a Final Four is on tap Tuesday when top-ranked Duke takes on No. 8 Kansas in the State Farm Champions Classic at Madison Square Garden. Additionally Duke, Kentucky and Michigan State each boast a 3-2 record.

“This was more of a must win for us than it was for Duke”. As good as Allen is, I think it’s fair to say he will be guarded a lot harder on Tuesday than he had been during the first two games.

“The thing that impresses me most”, Self said, “is just how aggressive they are especially whether it be freedom offensively to shoot the ball, but (also) to drive it and put pressure on you”.

“We know the big guys that we do have in the game, they’re going to be battling, boxing out the other bigs, so the perimeter, we need to crash in and rebound and clean up all the loose stuff”, Krzyzewski said. We may play the best two shooting teams that we’ll play all year in the first two games. “Yeah he’s a stud”.

Fizzle406: Fetch has made several comments on Twitter on how even with Duke being shorthanded on players, KU will get beat because of the travel. That effort helped the Blue Devils stay in the game despite a subpar effort from preseason ACC Player of the Year Grayson Allen, who scored 12 points on just 4-of-15 shooting from the field. Kansas guard Frank Mason III delivered a strong second-half performance, including the game-winner with 1.3 seconds left.

“(Winning) is the goal, but we can obviously get something out of losing”, Mason said. “The only thing I was anxious about was my balance”, Mason said. “It felt good when it left my hand and I just thank God that it went in”.

Mason led Kansas with 21 points.

Although Duke led 11-6 on the scoreboard at the first media timeout, the officials dominated the first five minutes of this one and kept up that pace most of the night. Jackson scored 15 points on 7-for-9 shooting.

Which is actually pretty terrifying for the rest of college basketball, if you think about it. If the Blue Devils were at full strength, I would probably give them the nod. That can’t be what you’re doing. The most obvious examples were in the last minute of the game as Frank Mason drove again and again to score a layup and draw a foul.

And there never was any doubt about where the ball was going and who would get the opportunity. “It’s what he did in the last few minutes”.

The Jayhawks shot 50.8 percent overall, and caught fire in the second half of the game to finish 20 of 33 in the final 20 minutes. Adebayo has blocked three shots in the Wildcats’ first two games, which is respectable but certainly not outstanding for someone hoping to be a rim protecting, rim running center in the National Basketball Association.

Tough break for No. 1 Duke, sure, but there are enough accomplished Blue Devils healthy and raring to go against No. 7 Kansas. That’s the fourth-longest stretch in Division I history. The Blue Devils were without three of their star freshmen – Harry Giles, Jayson Tatum and Marques Bolden – who wore matching suits and sat at the end of the bench.

Kansas, who was ranked third, fell to seventh while Virginia, Wisconsin and Arizona held serve to round out the top ten.

USC (+8, 140) at Texas A&M: USC junior Elijah Stewart had 30 points on opening night as the Trojans started with home wins over Montana and Nebraska-Omaha. The result, a 103-99 victory in overtime for an in club that wanted to make a statement in a big time game. The Spartans also opened their season on November 11 in Honolulu, losing at the wire to Arizona.

Duke retains its No. 1 ranking with 27 first-place votes.