I’m sort of there with you. My brain wants Duke to win but my head wants Sparty to lose.
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MSU always felt like an outlier to me when it came to the Champions Classic.
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I feel like we said the same about Ayo last year. Maybe Illinois/Underwood have something special in the water to stop guys from going pro early.
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Agreed, in reality that event should probably look like Duke-Kentucky-Kansas-UNC. But obviously having two teams from the same conference kinda screws up the potential matchups so I guess it is what it is. I’d say MSU makes the best sense out of Big Ten teams so it’s really between them and Arizona/UCLA (neither are better than MSU for the challenge IMO)
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Without looking it up I’m assuming that Mark Hollis had a hand in putting together the inaugural event, hence MSU’s inclusion.
Duke looked like supreme garbaggio against Coppin State, I think MSU will blow them out. This is not a vintage Duke team.
Duke has some dudes, but I think experience is really going to be more important in these crowd-less games. Really gives an advantage to the more prepared team.
Jalen Johnson, DJ Steward and Jeremy Roach are all going to be really good players – probably the best players in this game on either team. But it is their second game. Duke’s experienced pieces are basically just “guys”.
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I’m notorious elsewhere for my hatred of the Duke/Kentucky model and part of it is that it basically funnels all program depth elsewhere. Guys who are talented, but not one and done good often just get insta buried and have no reason to stay (in many cases they get forced out due to over recruiting) or would prefer a fresh start to try again (Charles Matthews). You rarely have people who are willing to play a 4 year foundation role like Terrance Williams in this class or Chedder/Barnes in the next.
That’s a Joe Dumars special - he made it look very cool.
Marcus Carr with a lethal step back 3 for the win
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He’s gonna put up some high scoring numbers all year
Marcus Carr got put where on the big ten players list?
Carr is a really good player. If I’m building a team I’d take him over probably any player outside of Garza and Ayo. Not his fault that Minnesota has a terrible coach and less talent around him than other guys.
I like Moore and Hurts although they aren’t exactly “experienced”. I actually think they have a good shot to win that game.
Solid win for Indiana. Lander only gets nine minutes. Feel bad for Hunter. Really can’t believe how derailed that guys career has gotten, not sure if its been all injuries or not but I thought he was a stud when we were recruiting him.
I think Hurt and Moore are more than just guys. Both were top 20 recruits and had decent frosh years I can see them taking a bigger step this year.
Yeah I was referring more to Goldwire/Baker. I think Hurt will have a huge year.
Texas-Indiana about to tip. Dare I watch another one of these?
Let’s suffer together.
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I can say with reasonable certainty that it will be more entertaining than the Providence game. Then again, I sat through BOTH LMU/Minnesota games. (It’s a sickness.)
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