The Champions Classic is often a good early-season indicator of which of the four college basketball blue bloods in attendance have a chance to be elite. The games can reset narratives — remember Zion Williamson’s explosion onto the scene in 2018 or Kentucky making Bill Self wish he could turn water to vodka in 2014? — and introduce the nation to new stars.
Tuesday night’s doubleheader provided a little of everything. A lot can change over the long season, but after rewatching the film of both games, these were my biggest takeaways for each team.
Kentucky may be way better than everyone thought
The player most in control of Kentucky’s ceiling is Amari Williams. Center is such an important position in new coach Mark Pope’s offense. As an initiator in a lot of three-man actions on the perimeter, that spot ideally requires a player who can pass and is comfortable handling the ball. Pope’s BYU offense was a thing of beauty last season when versatile big man Aly Khalifa was on the floor.
Williams is up to the task, which we saw early against Duke when he found Lamont Butler for a backdoor feed.
Williams can elevate this offense even more by taking advantage of slower centers in space. Kentucky’s movement is going to open up gaps, even sometimes clearing one side of the floor and eliminating help defense.
But Williams struggled finishing around the rim — he was just 3 of 12 from the floor — and some of the credit goes to Duke’s 7-foot-2 center Khaman Maluach, who might be the best shot blocker in college basketball. It was an encouraging sign that Williams was able to get deep paint touches off the dribble. If he can punish smaller defenders and eventually draw help, the Wildcats should be able to make the recovering defense pay.
This is smart offense from the Cats, realizing a smaller defender has been switched onto Williams, getting him the ball and then Williams finding the open man Andrew Carr once Cooper Flagg loads to the ball.
Pope can mix and match a lot of different lineups with this roster, and he may have stumbled into a dangerous one late when he moved Carr to the five for the first time this season, as the hub with four shooters surrounding him. Kentucky proceeded to get three great shots in a row: a wide-open 3 that Jaxson Robinson missed, a backdoor layup for Otega Oweh and an and-one at the rim for Carr.
The Cats wear you down with their actions and the constant fear of the 3. Notice in the clip below how Duke is stretched out defensively. Duke’s Caleb Foster is hugged up to Koby Brea in the corner, even though in a basic shell drill he should be in help position near the midline. Brea is arguably the best shooter in the country (75 percent from 3 so far this season), and Foster wasn’t going to risk giving him a shot. That allows Kentucky to get a wide-open layup when Duke miscommunicates a switch.
On the next possession, Carr’s one-on-one matchup is made easier by the fact that Kentucky’s movement distracts Duke’s off-ball defenders. Look at the eyes of the Duke defenders once Carr starts to make his move: No one is looking at the ball.
The one offseason question I had with Pope’s roster construction was whether he had any guards who could make plays off the bounce. That lack of creators was the weakness of his BYU team last year. Well, San Diego State transfer Lamont Butler is that guy. He has been excellent at putting pressure on the rim off the bounce, especially in transition.
Oweh has also provided a slashing presence, and both provide a toughness on the other end that gives Kentucky’s defense some teeth.
This looked like a top-10 offense on Tuesday. The Blue Devils had some miscommunications and weren’t great getting back in transition, but they were really physical on the perimeter getting around screens and could be one of the best defensive teams in the country. What’s so impressive about the Wildcats is no one seems to care who shoots and they’re willing to wait for a defensive breakdown. They also seem to understand their roles. For a completely new team to be this far along in the second week of the season is a huge compliment to Pope and his players for buying into his vision.
Cooper Flagg was as good as advertised, but Duke got predictable
Duke is going to be one of the best teams in college basketball simply because of its talent. There have been years during the one-and-done era when either Kentucky or Duke have been so talented that the team is going to succeed regardless of how good its scheme is.
Duke’s defensive ceiling is high. It can improve its communication and hustling back, and Flagg has a tendency to gamble (see Butler’s transition pass above), but there’s just too much talent on that end to fail.
The main concerns are on the offensive end. Head coach Jon Scheyer tried to control the game from the sideline, which is understandable because he has such a young team and will have more talent than his opponent every night. Scheyer is running simple actions to get his best players the ball in space. Most nights it’ll work out better because Kon Knueppel isn’t usually going to shoot it so poorly (5 of 20). Foster (2 of 9) should also be better.
But the Blue Devils are not always taking high-percentage shots, and Duke’s complementary players were in a tough spot in the second half because everything was designed for Flagg (and sometimes Knueppel) to take the shot.
Kentucky was switching everything, so Scheyer usually tried to get Flagg in the middle of the floor and set a ball screen for him to create a mismatch.
There aren’t many 6-foot-9 fours who are getting ball screens set for them. Duke’s centers set 12 ball screens for Flagg on Tuesday. Kentucky’s centers move their feet well and were mostly able to keep up, but Flagg’s ability to pass makes the roller really dangerous. And this is why Maluach is seen as such a high-upside prospect: The big man can get out of a ball screen quickly and catch on the move.
Because Kentucky’s guards know they’re switching, there’s no one in the paint tagging the roller. It’s understandable why Scheyer kept going to this two-on-two game. He’s going to trust Flagg to win there. And even when Maluach doesn’t get the ball, the switch gives him rebounding position. He was able to get a putback of one of Flagg’s misses because he had a runway to the rim.
What eventually cost Duke was its predictability. In the second half, Duke had only four possessions that included at least three completed passes. On most trips, only one or two players touched the ball and everyone else stood around.
Sometimes Flagg’s gravity is so strong that simply putting the ball in his hands is going to generate wide-open shots like this one.
Eventually, Kentucky knew exactly what was coming. So on the biggest possession of the game, Oweh was able to bring help and get the steal when Flagg spun because the Cats weren’t worried about anyone else being a threat.
Go back and watch Kentucky’s possessions down the stretch. The Wildcats’ movement created breakdowns or occupied the help.
Right now, Duke is an easy scout. Stopping Flagg and Knueppel is not so easy, but you know what’s coming. And sometimes basketball is simply a make-or-miss game, but there’s a psychological component to riding one or two players. Yes, Foster missed a wide-open 3 above, and Flagg got him a great shot. But it can also be hard to make a shot when you’ve just been standing around for a while. It’s a lot easier when everyone is involved.
The Blue Devils have a lot of firepower. Eventually, they need to get to a point where the ball sees the second or third side of the floor and there are multiple attacks in one possession, forcing the defense to scramble. Right now it’s one action, maybe one pass or two, then a shot.
It’s easy to teach and it keeps the turnovers low — they had just seven in this game — but it’s a tough spot for anyone not named Flagg or Knueppel.
Kentucky won with team ball, Duke lost with iso ball, and it was almost as simple as that.
A second look at Kansas’ Hunter Dickinson sidekicks
The good news for Kansas is that Bill Self says Hunter Dickinson hasn’t quite got his timing back yet coming off an ankle injury, and if he’s going for 28 points without his timing, then good luck dealing with him when he’s really in a rhythm. You know Dickinson is feeling good when he’s making hook shots like this one:
Dickinson made that shot twice, and there’s not much a defense can do there. That’s just a talented post player doing his thing.
On rewatch, I think I went a little too far with my postgame column on Dickinson needing a sidekick for KU to be elite. I do believe Kansas’ perimeter will determine how good this team can be. Self got Zeke Mayo, Rylan Griffen, AJ Storr and David Coit out of the transfer portal to have more firepower. The stretch of the middle of the first half when Kansas couldn’t make a shot — part of which Dickinson spent on the bench — is when those guys really need to step up. But watching again, I thought Griffen played really well. Mayo didn’t shoot it well but played a smart floor game. Storr is the one who is struggling to find his place, on both ends.
It could help the perimeter guys down the road to try to get them good looks early. In the first four minutes, neither Mayo nor Griffen attempted a shot. Realizing this, Self ran something for Mayo, and he made the right play, not forcing anything and finding an open Dickinson.
Michigan State wasn’t going to double Dickinson, and the Jayhawks would have been silly not to take advantage of that. But Self may need to be intentional in getting his newcomers going early.
The first time someone outside of KU’s veteran trio (Dickinson, KJ Adams and Dajuan Harris Jr.) got a good look was Storr, fresh off the bench:
The screen that sets this 3 up is why Adams is in the game. (Freshman Flory Bidunga had spots where he could set these screens and isn’t seeing them yet.) Ideally, this would be a shot for Mayo or Griffen. Mayo shot 43.9 percent on catch-and-shoot jumpers last season, per Synergy; Griffen shot 40.1 percent and Storr 35.1 percent. This would be a good play to run early to get Mayo or Griffen feeling good. That’s was I was trying to get across in my column: Those three scorers need to be playing with confidence and making shots for Kansas to take the leap.
On the rewatch, Griffen was aggressive and mostly picking the right spots to attack, like this one.
And this.
Self wants quick decisions, and Griffen is processing the game pretty well. He hit this huge shot below when he noticed his man go behind a dribble handoff from Adams.
If you’re wondering why Griffen is getting more minutes than Storr, these are great examples. He’s getting a feel for where he fits faster. Storr is also making mistakes on the defensive end. He seems to be in the wrong spot often when he’s what KU calls the MIG (most important guy) in ball screen coverage. As the low man on the two side, it’s his responsibility to tag the roller.
Storr is not the only one making these mistakes — all three new wings are guilty — but he’s showing up in the wrong spots more than anyone else defensively, and he also has 10 fouls in 55 minutes over the first three games. A few of those are tough whistles, but sometimes it’s a result of being a step behind.
Harris and Adams also had poor shooting games — a combined 3 of 14 — and KU needs them to be more efficient. Harris missed three wide-open 3s, and Adams didn’t finish as well as he usually does (Self said afterward he had not practiced since the North Carolina game when he hurt his ankle).
The Jayhawks executed better than I thought watching live, and their depth makes their ceiling a lot higher than last season. They just need their shooters to make shots. Between the North Carolina and Michigan State games, they’re 11 of 38 from 3. The threat of Mayo and Griffen has helped Dickinson, but eventually, opponents will sell out to stop him, and that’s when the shotmakers will need to be shotmakers.
Michigan State’s search for an identity
Tom Izzo has mostly stayed out of the transfer portal and leaned on old-fashioned development, but this season it has left him short on weapons.
The Spartans would very much benefit from a breakout from sophomore Xavier Booker. The four man in the Michigan State offense can be dangerous if he can make open shots. The Spartans run a lot of roll-and-replace action, and when the four can shoot — like Joey Hauser could — it puts a lot of stress on the defense.
This is the role that the Spartans seem to want for Booker, the former five-star, but unfortunately, Booker is off to a bad start and not helping himself by contributing in other ways.
Booker is 1 of 11 from 3 so far, yet he spends the majority of his time spotted up beyond the perimeter. If he were a knockdown shooter, then he should be exactly where he is when he takes these shots.
But Booker is missing badly. He is 6-foot-11 and bouncy, and these are situations where he could be looking to cut. In the play above, Adams has his head turned with his eyes on the roller. If Booker cuts as soon as Jeremy Fears comes off the ball screen, an alley-oop would be there.
Later on, Fears drives baseline and Booker is on the opposite wing. That 45-degree cut should be automatic on a baseline drive when his man (Bidunga) has his back to him. Instead, Booker stays put, and Fears makes a great pass to get him another open 3.
Had Booker cut, he likely gets a layup.
Unless Booker starts making these shots, he needs to redefine who he is as a player. He has the athleticism to be a rim-rolling center, but that would require him to start playing with more force and physicality. Watch what he does when he sets this screen for Jaden Akins.
Booker pops out quickly, looking for his shot. If he stays committed to the screen, Griffen isn’t likely to get through so easily and Akins gets an open shot. Akins is also struggling with his jumper, but he has a track record of making shots, and the Spartans need him to score. This could have been a good clean look to help get him going. Instead, it was contested.
Izzo opted for undersized Coen Carr in the second half, and Carr seems like a much better option because he is a willing cutter. Instead of spacing out to the corner in the pick-and-roll, he gets to the short corner.
Even though the spacing is tight, it leaves Kansas’ MIG in no-man’s land and Carr gets a dunk. Carr got the ball again on the next possession in a spot where Booker would settle for a 3. Instead, Carr attacked the space and got to the rim.
Because the Spartans clearly aren’t a good shooting team, they need to take advantage of what they do have, and that’s speed. Izzo needs to run actions to get guys like Fears and Jase Richardson going downhill, because their speed can be a problem.
Even transfer wing Frankie Fidler excels when he’s on the move and catches to drive. The priority for the Spartans should be attacking the rim as much as possible.
It would also help to find a consistent low-post scorer. Izzo’s best teams usually have a dominant post player, and that’s been missing since Xavier Tillman left for the NBA in 2020. Early on, Jaxon Kohler and Szymon Zapala have at least looked competent with their back-to-the-basket moves, and getting Kohler more post touches could be worth exploring.
Kohler had a mini-run in the second half, and it’s not difficult to run set plays like this one:
The Spartans found more of a rhythm in the second half as they tried to attack the paint in the pick-and-roll, and that’s what they need to lean into. They also need to play fast and try to get easy baskets, which is usually an Izzo specialty. Credit to Kansas for getting back and mostly taking that away.
Michigan State was clearly the least talented of the four teams at the Champions Classic, but other than the Maui Invitational, the rest of its pre-Christmas schedule isn’t too daunting. The Spartans need to find an identity by the new year, and considering some changes to roles and the rotation could be in order.
Photo of Kentucky’s Amari Williams (left) and Jaxson Robinson (right): Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images
