The first game of the 2022-23 college basketball season was the Champions Classic in Indianapolis, where the No. 6 Kansas defeated the No. 7 Duke 69-64 on Tuesday night in a showdown between the top 10 teams. done in a sensible way. The Jayhawks were without his coach Bill Self, who was serving his third game in his self-imposed four-game suspension in response to alleged NCAA violations.
But even without last season’s National Title Team Self and some key players, the Jayhawks looked like National Contenders again. University of Kansas freshman Grady Dick came to life in his two-and-a-half minutes in the final when he crunched three clutch buckets into his time, two of which gave the Jayhawks the lead.
His diving, twisting layup with 1:04 remaining gave the Jayhawks a 65–62 lead as they recovered from a six-point deficit late in the second half. Dick scored 14 points in the game after being scoreless until the late finishing rush.
For most of the second half, the Jayhawks basically force-fed junior wing Jaren Wilson, the leading return scorer, after losing star players like Ochai Agbaj and Christian Brown to the NBA draft. Wilson scored a game-high 25 points to help the Jayhawks weather the storm in the second half.
Duke trailed by 11 points early on, but calmed down as the game progressed, with freshman forward Kyle Filipowski standing out for second-half aggression. He led the Devils, but had 6-of-18 RBIs. Jeremy Roach added his 16 points to Duke.
Both teams suffered from shooting problems
Duke had 34% of his 3-point attempts in the two games going into Tuesday, but the Blue Devils held cool over the arc against Kansas. Jeremy Roach and Tyrese Proctor went 1-5 each from the deep, Filipowski went 1-6 with him, and Jaylen Blakes and Jacob Grandison went 0-5 combined.
Kansas didn’t do much better as the Jayhawks only hit 3 of 19 attempts from 3-point range, but KU had more success in attacking the rim. Overall, Kansas shot him 46.3% from the floor, while Duke he shot 35.8%. The diminutive big man KJ Adams Jr. quietly off the field without being the focal point of KU’s offense as he made 4 of 4 attempts. His work against Duke’s much taller Big was enviable, but he handled it so well that the Jayhawks could profit in other ways.
Kansas with wings
How the KU utilized was due to the versatile Wing Legion attack. Wilson got into the lane against whoever was guarding him and Dick escaped at the crucial moment. Kevin McCuller, who moved to Texas Tech, also provided a big lift in the first half. McCuller scored 8 of 12 goals in the first half. He had an early 6 as the Jayhawks extended a 17-6 lead less than seven minutes later.
The size and versatility of the Wilson, Dick, and McCuller trio were outstanding in Kansas. Only three games into his career, Dick looks like he could play a similar type of role to the role Christian Brown played with the Jayhawks on his way to a national title last season. Replacing Agbaj will be a little more difficult, but it’s clear that KU has the perimeter weapon needed to become a matchup nightmare once again.
Key Players Missing
Neither team had their full roster available. One of his five-star freshmen at Duke University, multi-talented winger Darik his whitehead is recovering from offseason foot surgery and has yet to make his debut. A 6-6 wing would have given Duke another versatile defender to deploy against Wilson and Dick.
However, Kansas also lacked two players. Freshman guard MJ Rice (ill) and his sophomore Zach Clemens (injured) were not available. Rice is a McDonald’s All-American and played a big role off the bench last week. Clemens is a sophomore battling in the frontcourt for a few minutes.
