Tonight’s Kentucky Wildcats vs Duke Blue Devils basketball game on ESPN sports live TV and Watch ESPN3 live streaming is an early gift from the NCAA basketball schedulers.
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The last time Kentucky and Duke matched up it was 2012 with the Blue Devils having won the last three games.
So fans shouldn’t need much encouragement to get pumped up when the teams do battle in Tuesday night’s Champions Classic (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).
But Kentucky decided not to take any chances and put together an 82-second hype video to ensure people would be off their feet before tipoff.
“You’re going to have two driving teams”, said Calipari.
Duke is 6-0 against the spread in their last six neutral site games, 6-1 against the spread in their last seven games, and 5-0 against the spread following a win.
Hardly going out on a limb with this prediction, but Kentucky head coach John Calipari is calling for a lot of fouls to be called in tonight’s game vs. Duke. He might be evolving into the go-to guy for the Dukies this season, though they do have five guys averaging double figures, including freshmen Brandon Ingram and Luke Kennard. Through two games he is averaging 17.5 points on 77 percent from the field but this game will present a whole new challenge for him as Duke will be throwing a few very good defenders at him. He is mixing up their defense like I’ve never seen. It’s early in the season. Like his squad, Calipari said the Blue Devils have been searching for an identity in the first week of the regular season. Both teams are hopeful this is a March Madness matchup and it easily could be if they can meet expectations placed on them in the preseason.
“We just have to come out ready to fight”, he said.
“I don’t think they will understand yet, but once they start playing they will realize it”, Poythress said.
My athleticism is always going to be the “con” of my game, but I just have to improve that with lifting, agility drills, conditioning.
Calipari is anxious to see how freshman center Skal Labissiere performs against veteran Duke post player Marshall Plumlee.
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Sophomore guard Grayson Allen leads Duke in scoring at 27 points per game. We don’t do a great job of that now. “This is a grit game, a grinding game”. “But they’re really talented and in that type of environment, you can’t get practice in that”.
