Kentucky basketball snaps 9-year drought with win vs. Duke
11/13/2024 01:55 AM
Kentucky basketball got a huge win to jump start its season on Tuesday night. Mark Pope and the new-look Wildcats knocked off Cooper Flagg and Duke 77-72 at the State Farm Champions Classic in Atlanta to improve to 3-0 on the season.
With the win, Kentucky snapped a nine-year drought without beating the Blue Devils. The last win for the Wildcats came in the 2015 Champions Classic, when they were led by the dynamic backcourt of Jamal Murray and Tyler Ulis. The two teams had only met twice since then: in the 2018 Champions Classic in the infamous Zion Williamson coming out party, and in 2021 when Paolo Banchero and Trevor Keels led Duke to victory.
Of course, it’s always a huge confidence boost for one of these teams to get a win over a fellow blue blood, especially early in the season. However, that has to be especially true for a Kentucky team that is working with a new head coach in 2024-25.
The Wildcats also have a large cast of new players that stepped up in a big way to pull off this minor upset. Forward Andrew Carr, a Wake Forest transfer, scored 17 points to lead the team, and Oklahoma transfer Otega Oweh added 15 points while collecting a huge steal in the final minute of the game.
Mark Pope era off to a great start at Kentucky
The biggest domino on the college basketball coaching carousel fell this offseason when John Calipari left Kentucky to go to Arkansas. The Wildcats hired former BYU head coach Mark Pope to replace him, which drew mixed reviews from Kentucky fans.
Of course, replacing Calipari’s recruiting was the top concern for any coach who was filling his shoes. Pope obviously wasn’t able to bring in a class loaded with five-star freshmen, but he did rebuild the roster through the transfer portal. Of course, the early returns are very promising, as the Wildcats picked up a win over Cooper Flagg and Duke.
Pope played 10 players on Tuesday night, and exactly zero of them were on Kentucky’s roster a season ago. Reserve guard Collin Chandler is a freshman, and the other nine players all transferred in this offseason. Despite that, Kentucky played together all night against a very talented Duke team. They moved the ball well, defended well in the big moments of the game and pulled off an upset.
Now, the expectations for Pope and company will continue to rise as they move through the non-conference schedule. This win will almost certainly move Kentucky into the top 10 in the AP poll, so they will be under the spotlight the rest of the way.
The rest of November should be manageable for this Kentucky team, as it has four games against teams from mid-major conferences. In December, however, the road gets much tougher. Kentucky will play on the road against Clemson to open December before traveling to Seattle to take on No. 4 Gonzaga in a neutral site game that will be anything but neutral. Later in the month, they play a neutral site game against No. 21 Ohio State.
It’s still very early, but Pope appears to be settling in nicely in Lexington.
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