Kansas basketball: Jayhawks’ experience a serious advantage vs. Duke
The 2019-20 Kansas basketball roster has lots of experience in big games, and it’ll impact the Jayhawks’ matchup with Duke in the Champions Classic.
After Kansas basketball learned it would get both Udoka Azubuike and Silvio De Sousa back this season, the Jayhawks’ chances to make a run deep into March increased significantly.
The two big men are seasoned vets when it comes to big games, with both having played on the 2018 Final Four team. Junior Marcus Garrett also played significant minutes in the Final Four and saw his role increase dramatically last season.
After Duke lost Zion Williamson, Cam Reddish, RJ Barrett, and Marques Bolden to the NBA draft, head coach Mike Krzyzewski had to pull in a good recruiting class to replace all of the lost talent, and he certainly did that.
The 2019 class was ranked third in the nation by 247 Sports and featured two of the top 15 rated recruits in the country, so the freshmen that play significantly for Duke are the cream of the crop. Still, this will be the freshmen’s first true college basketball game of their career.
The Duke starting five is really up in the air right now, with Tre Jones, Mattew Hurt, and Vernon Carey being the only locks. Both Hurt and Carey are freshmen, and the Blue Devils are also going to rely heavily upon other freshmen like Cassius Stanley and Wendell Moore. This is where Kansas basketball may have an advantage of the Blue Devils.
The Kansas Starting lineup will probably feature sophomores Devon Dotson, and Ochai Agbaji, as well as junior Silvio De Sousa and senior Udoka Azubuike. The last spot is up for grabs, but will probably feature junior Marcus Garrett in place of injured grad transfer Isaiah Moss.
The Duke youth probably won’t mean as much down the stretch, but in the first game of the season at Madison Square Garden, the advantage of experience has to go to Kansas basketball.
The game is basically a pick ’em at this point, so experience could easily be the tipping point considering both teams are well-coached and feature talented players. As things get tight down the stretch it’ll be interesting to see how the young Blue Devils respond.
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Kansas basketball and Duke are set to tip-off at 6:00 PM central time. The game may not mean that much considering it’s the first of the season, but it’s still an important tone-setter for the rest of the year. Plus, who doesn’t love beating Duke?