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00:00Now let's get on to the marquee matchup in the night cap in the A. It's Duke and Kentucky.
00:09A first time to really introduce himself to the nation as the Cats head coach.
00:14That is Mark Pope.
00:15And of course for John Shire and the Blue Devils, it is the full debut of this incredibly
00:21talented young freshman class.
00:24John, let's start with Duke.
00:26What do you think the Blue Devils will show tonight in Atlanta booked as a six and a half
00:29point favorite against the Wildcats?
00:32Positional size and the ability obviously to take away maybe some of that free-flowing
00:37offense that Mark Pope said he's going to unveil this season.
00:40Look, you know, I spent some time in the triangle during the preseason and the biggest thing
00:46that really had John Shire excited about this Duke team in addition to his talented freshman
00:51class was the positional size that Duke had.
00:55Duke has everybody on its roster been standing six foot four or taller.
00:59This has a chance unequivocally to be the best defensive team that John Shire has had
01:05in three years at Duke and that's better than the team two years ago that had Derek Lively
01:09in the pivot.
01:10I think another thing you need to look at too is Duke went out and added experience
01:15in the transfer portal with obviously Sion James, Malik Brown, and also Mason Gillis
01:23who had a big role in that Purdue team last year that went to the national championship
01:26game.
01:27Those three players will be paramount tonight in defending a Kentucky team again, that is
01:31really shooting the ball at a high level through two games against opponents though were played
01:36in by games.
01:37Yeah, Duke has looked the part they've been booked as at least a 30 point favorite in
01:42their first two games against Maine and Army easily covering the numbers quickly on the
01:46cats John you mentioned the offense for Mark Pope Kentucky has scored at least a hundred
01:52in its first two games of the year.
01:54What will the nation know about Big Blue Nation following tonight's game in Atlanta?
01:59It's going to be a completely different style of basketball for people that follow Kentucky
02:04versus what we saw under John Calipari and even prior to that Mark Pope is an innovative
02:09offensive coach who doesn't want the ball to stick.
02:11He wants the ball to move.
02:13He wants obviously things to be free flowing offensively.
02:16It's going to be fascinating to see and just how unselfish Kentucky can be and how players
02:22who were recruited out of the transfer portal who played at a lower level now step up away
02:27class Lamont Butler was a terrific player at San Diego State.
02:31He is now going from the Mountain West to the Champions Classic Kobe Brea was arguably
02:37the best shooter in college basketball last year at Dayton a hundred made threes forty
02:42nine point eight percent from three-point range.
02:44He is going from the Atlantic 10 to the Champions Classic Amari Williams at from Drexel was
02:51going from the CAA to the champions and Champions Classic then I quote Tim Robbins in the Shawshank
02:56Redemption get busy living or get busy dying Andy Dufresne.
03:02Don't tell no lies as you'll see John as you look at the national championship odds Duke
03:06remains the favorite at a short price at plus 950 but plenty of the teams tonight in Atlanta
03:12will be on display quickly John 30 seconds left the other games on this Tuesday, which
03:17one catches your eye Villanova St. Joe is five o'clock Eastern a standalone game on
03:22a Tuesday afternoon.
03:24This was circled when the schedule came out because it was a big five rivalry game.
03:29It is now in bold print because these two bitter rivals will try and avoid a second
03:34loss in the first nine days of the season Ben.
03:37I've said it before I'll say it again.
03:40This is only November.