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🚨 Official Gameday Thread- Duke vs Kentucky- champions classic 🚨

pisgah101

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Dec 26, 2005
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Big boy game number 1 as our number 6 blue devils take on the number 19 wildcats in this matchup of Goliaths. I’m always extra excited for a Kentucky matchup as my maternal side of my family are all Kentucky fans.

Kentucky is coached by Mark Pope, a 1996 national champion from UK and former BYU coach. Pope I’m sure has had this game circled since being hired as his prime time introduction. Nothing would be better then starting his Kentucky career with a dub over the blue devils.

Prediction- we show up big time and give the national an introduction to cooper, kon, and mal

Duke- 102
UK-73

We are favored by 6.5
 
I read over at Rupp Rafters and they have me scared. They are going to run Cooper to death and he’s going to have craps from his chin to his calves. They might even hurt us with some zone D. We just have a bunch of freshmen and they have a bunch of upper classmen that are grown a$$ men.

That said, Duke 92 Kentucky 81 😁
 
I read over at Rupp Rafters and they have me scared. They are going to run Cooper to death and he’s going to have craps from his chin to his calves. They might even hurt us with some zone D. We just have a bunch of freshmen and they have a bunch of upper classmen that are grown a$$ men.

That said, Duke 92 Kentucky 81 😁
Cramps we can deal with. No doubt playing Kensucky can give one the craps. 👍
 
Duke by 3

Even though UK is just a team mashed together from the portal, they got a nice mix and a lot of different pieces that a few Duke fans were tracking. Butler is an elite defender but struggles offensively. Brea elite shooter, poor defender. Kriisa excellent facilitator but struggled against pressure at UA and WVU and is flat-footed on D. Then you got the interior guys…Williams an excellent rebounder and defender but couldn’t see the floor for long periods of time at Drexel (conditioning? And now he’s in a high tempo offense?). Carr who can go long spurts but disappeared at times at Wake. It really is an odd team but they def can beat anybody on any given night.

To state the obvious, this is really going to be Cooper’s game. I could be wrong but I don’t see anyone over there giving him fits so he should have plenty of room to operate. Just hope he doesn’t force the issue.
 
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LFG, Duke defense wins this game. 88-78 Duke. Just find a way to get the W. I think Foster has a breakout game tonight.
 
Our upper classmen need to play well tonight since It'll be our freshman first big game. Our defense keeps us in the game until our offense comes around. As long as Coop doesn't have cramps, we pull away.
 
I think tonight we be a bit of a reality check for us, but I believe we will play well and pull away with a win after a sluggish start. I am most curious how our frontcourt will perform against bigger, stronger, competition than they have faced so far. Someone other than Cooper or Kon will shine tonight.

Duke 85
KU 70
 
I think tonight we be a bit of a reality check for us, but I believe we will play well and pull away with a win after a sluggish start. I am most curious how our frontcourt will perform against bigger, stronger, competition than they have faced so far. Someone other than Cooper or Kon will shine tonight.

Duke 85
KU 70
I think Duke wins by 10 or more. I'm more concerned about our experienced guards being consistent and hitting open looks. I think our transfers play well tonight.
 
The only thing I'm concerned about is Cooper reacting to some bad calls, or some chippy play by a guy 6 years older than he is, and losing his cool. He is pretty tightly wound and he hasn't seen pressure like this before. He's always been on the far superior team in high school.

If that happens, it will be a good learning experience for him, but I'm hopeful that he gets over his initial tightness very quickly and leads us to a win.
 
Duke by ten plus. Only worried about the front court matchup and if Mal and Brown get into foul trouble.

Really think we see an all the guys play. If you want to run we can .
 
The only thing I'm concerned about is Cooper reacting to some bad calls, or some chippy play by a guy 6 years older than he is, and losing his cool. He is pretty tightly wound and he hasn't seen pressure like this before. He's always been on the far superior team in high school.

If that happens, it will be a good learning experience for him, but I'm hopeful that he gets over his initial tightness very quickly and leads us to a win.
I’d like to think that the USA Olympic team applied some pressure on him. I’m not at all worried about how he handles this. The attached ESPN story on him is excellent - all his life, he’s been playing against older, more experienced players. I think he enjoys that. https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id...0s-nba-boston-celtics-team-built-cooper-flagg
 
What’s up fellas!!! Been awhile but I think Duke struggles early. Duke will come out in the second half a little more aggressive. They’ll have to stop Kon from 3 but it will open up Coop and Man to dominate down low.


Duke - 83
UK - 75
 
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If it wasn’t for Kentucky shooting so well from 3- this is a 15 point lead. Keeping playing hard on both ends of the court boys…
 
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