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Champions Classic preview: No. 10 Kentucky vs. No. 9 Duke
The Kentucky men’s basketball team opens its 2021-22 season Tuesday in New York City against longtime rival Duke in the State Farm Champions Classic. Click below to view all the stories previewing the game that have been published on Kentucky.com.
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When No. 10 Kentucky burns the midnight oil against No. 9 Duke in the second game of the State Farm Champions Classic late Tuesday night, it will be the opening chapter of the Mike Krzyzewski farewell tour.
The legendary Blue Devils head man, 74, announced last summer that 2021-22 will be his final season calling the shots from the Duke bench.
That means Tuesday’s game in Madison Square Garden could very well be the final matchup between UK and Coach K.
“I’m hoping this isn’t the last time we play him,” Kentucky Coach John Calipari said Monday during a digital news conference held via a video-conferencing app. “Don’t make any mistakes about that. I hope we play him one more.”
That, presumably, would come in the 2022 NCAA Tournament — an event from which both Kentucky (9-16 a season ago) and Duke (13-11) were absent in 2021.
From the UK perspective, a victory Tuesday night over the Dookies would carry deeper significance than merely earning what could be a final victory over Krzyzewski.
Until the next NCAA tourney tips off, there is nothing better Calipari and the Cats can do to signal the Big Blue Nation that Kentucky basketball is set to bounce back from last year’s slog than for UK to return to vanquishing its most-intense rivals.
Kentucky enters 2021-22 in an unusual position vis-a-vis its most-loathed foes: UK has lost its most recent contest against every one of its top-tier rivals but one.
Duke: Kentucky lost, memorably, 118-84 on Nov. 6, 2018, in the Champions Classic in Indianapolis.
Florida: Kentucky lost 71-67 on Feb. 27, 2021, in Rupp Arena.
Kansas: Kentucky lost 65-62 on Dec. 1, 2020, in last season’s Champions Classic, also in Indy.
Indiana: The teams are not presently playing on a regular basis, so the Hoosiers’ 73-67 upset of Kentucky on March 19, 2016, in the NCAA Tournament round of 32 still stands as the most recent meeting.
Louisville: Under Calipari, UK has dominated its intrastate rival (11-3) but U of L beat UK 62-59 last Dec. 26 to claim a rare year of bragging rights.
North Carolina: Kentucky lost 75-63 in the CBS Sports Classic in Cleveland on Dec. 19, 2020.
Tennessee: Among primary UK rivals, the Volunteers are the only one that Kentucky defeated in its most recent meeting. That came on Feb. 20 of this year, a 70-55 Wildcats victory at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville.
It’s hard for Cats backers to feel super-chesty about that, however, since Vols head man Rick Barnes is 8-6 as UT coach vs. UK.
Kentucky’s recent rivalry malaise even extends to foes I would consider “secondary” rivals:
Our Lady: Kentucky lost 64-63 on Dec. 12, 2020, in Rupp Arena.
Ohio State: Kentucky lost 71-65 on Dec. 21, 2019, in the CBS Sports Classic in Las Vegas.
UCLA: Kentucky lost 83-75 on Dec. 23, 2017, in the CBS Sports Classic in New Orleans.
With games scheduled this season against Duke (Tuesday), Notre Dame (Dec. 11), Ohio State (Dec. 18), Louisville (Dec. 22), Tennessee (Jan. 15, Feb. 15), Kansas (Jan. 29) and Florida (Feb. 12, March 5), UK will have ample opportunity to launch a “rivalry retribution tour” against many of the teams the Big Blue Nation most yearns to beat.
In an iconic coaching career, Krzyzewski has, arguably, put Duke atop UK fans’ “most-want-to-defeat” list.
Overall, Coach K has gone 6-2 vs. Kentucky.
Krzyzewski and Duke were the foils in two of the most memorable contests in Wildcats basketball history.
A genuine college hoops masterpiece in the 1992 NCAA Tournament round of eight ended when Duke’s Christian Laettner fired a buzzer-beating dagger right into the hearts of a beloved Kentucky senior class known ever since as “The Unforgettables.”
Six years later, Tubby Smith and a veteran team of over-achievers delivered UK’s payback, rallying from 17 down in the final 10 minutes to wrest an NCAA tourney region finals from the grasps of Krzyzewski and Duke.
After each contest, in exhilarating victory and crushing defeat, Krzyzewski was gracious toward Kentucky. He famously came on the UK Radio Network postgame show with Cawood Ledford after the 1992 NCAA tourney classic to express his admiration for the Wildcats’ performance directly to Cats’ fans.
In recent years, much of the competitive friction between UK and Duke has come on the recruiting trail, as both Krzyzewski and Calipari have fought to control the top of the “one-and-done” market.
“He’s made me a better coach. He’s made me sharper,” Calipari says. “We did things (in recruiting) those first five, six years and Duke started (recruiting) the same kind of guys. It became that competition, back and forth. But I never lost respect for him.”
If 2021-22 is to be a year of restoration for Wildcats basketball, righting rivalry “wrongs” is the place to start.
For the BBN, there would be nothing to better say “Kentucky is back” than a season-opening victory over Duke in Coach K’s final go-around.
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