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2022 Champions Classic Preview

Publish Date: November 15, 2022

The 2022 Champions Classic is tonight starting at 7:00 PM with Kentucky vs Michigan State and a 9:30 matchup between Duke and Kansas. This is the twelfth Champions Classic. It will be played inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, IN.

The newest AP Poll was released on Monday, and features Kentucky at No. 4, Kansas at No. 6 and Duke at No. 7. Michigan State is still unranked, but is the first team out, missing the top 25 by 5 points. The event has had at least three of the participating schools ranked all 12 times, and this is the eleventh time that three of the schools are ranked in the top 10.

Michigan State is coming off of a disappointing loss to Gonzaga on Veterans Day. The two teams clashed on an aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, in the Armed Forces Classic just off the coast of San Diego, CA. The Spartans led by 12 a few minutes into the second half, and even though the Bulldogs started to make a comeback MSU kept the lead up until 3:15 left to go and eventually lost 64-63. Joey Hauser was a non-factor in the game against the Bulldogs, after an 18-point showing in the Spartans first game. If he can be similar to what he showed in the first game, and others like AJ Hoggard, Malik Hall and Tyson Walker perform well, Tom Izzo’s team has a great chance to redeem itself tonight and knock off the No. 4 Wildcats.

Kentucky looked well in their first two games last weekend against Howard and Duquesne. The Wildcats won those games by a combined 57 points, even without reigning NPOY Oscar Tshiebwe. Tshiebwe is reported to be playing tonight against the Spartans to start his 2022-23 season. Illinois St. transfer Antonio Reeves is lighting up opponents off the bench, leading the Wildcats in scoring so far with 20.0 points per game on a 55.6% 3-point percentage. Jacob Toppin and Sahvir Wheeler are also having goo dstarts to the season as well. John Calipari has a great team this year, and with Tshiebwe back, it will be the first look at how good the Wildcats could really be.

Duke has had a strong start to the Jon Scheyer era. The freshmen are beyond talented, including Mark Mitchell who has averaged 15.5 points per game so far. Jeremy Roach has improved his stats thus far from last season, now averaging 13.0 points and 6.0 assists a game. Five-star freshman Dariq Whitehead will be out tonight again after dealing with a foot injury in the preseason. Five-star freshman Dereck Lively II made his debut in Duke’s second game vs SC Upstate, but only played 14 minutes and scored four points. If he starts, or at least plays more minutes, he will likely have a better showing in his second game for the Blue Devils.

Kansas scored over 80 points in both of their first two games, in thrashings of Omaha and North Dakota St. Returning forward Jalen Wilson has looked terrific averaging 20.0 points and 10.0 rebounds a game to start the season. Five-star freshman Gradey Dick has shown outstanding potential and has been one of the best freshmen in the country so far. He is averaging 17.5 points per game while shooting 58.3% from the field and 50.0% from 3-point range. The Jayhawks are still without head coach Bill Self, as he is serving a self-imposed suspension due to the ongoing IARP investigation. This will be one of the toughest tests for Kansas all season. It will be a good eye test to see how the Jayhawks can play against Duke’s young talented core.

Although it is not the start to the season this year like in years past, it is still the best night of college basketball so far to start the season. These are four of the premier programs in the sport and always provide great games on this night.