Duke Wrote a Check Their Butts Couldn't Cash

The Duke Blue Devils were confident entering Tuesday night’s matchup with Kentucky in the Champions Classic. Who could blame them? After all, they have the future No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft, a guy who played in the Olympics, and a bunch of McDonald’s All-Americans. Were they worried about little old Kentucky? Of course not.

The trash talk was coming from all corners of State Farm Arena. It wasn’t just the fans in the stands.

Prior to tip-off, KSR’s Jack Pilgrim was in the tunnel when Duke shared a message that was loud and clear for the Kentucky Wildcats.

Duke players were shouting “They can’t play with us” from the locker room.

Mark Pope was listening. https://t.co/BjmkqPrxkR

— Jack Pilgrim (@JackPilgrimKSR) November 13, 2024

The Duke players were correct. Kentucky couldn’t just play with them. They had to beat them.

That future No. 1 pick had a few chances to hit the big shot that gave Duke the win. That big shot was never even attempted. Otega Oweh ripped the ball from his hands. On the following possession Amari Williams forced Cooper Flagg to dribble the ball out of bounds.

Days before Kentucky’s 77-72 win over Duke, Kerr Kriisa made headlines by congratulating Flagg for being the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft. The back-handed compliment was heard by Duke fans who chirped at Kriisa throughout the game in Atlanta.

“I had these Duke people talk crazy on me the whole game about my stash, and then when I went to say something after the game, they left,” Kriisa told the Field of 68. “If you were the Duke fan who was by the courtside, the stash did the work.”

Kerr Kriisa is never too shy to speak his mind. He developed that reputation over the years during his time at Arizona and West Virginia. Like many of his teammates, he played in a lot of games, but he didn’t win many big ones. Tonight was the first chance for many on this team to win a big one, and when the going got tough, they never shied away from the moment, even though it was the first one they experienced together.

“It’s easy, because everybody wants the same thing. Everybody wants to play in the last weekend, the last Monday. That’s what everybody — nobody came in for (the) wrong reasons. Nobody came in, you guys already know what I’m talking about, nobody came chasing bags, etcetera. Like everybody literally came together to win games,” said Kriisa.

This was a big one. Duke thought they had it in the bag, but it was Kentucky who was victorious, securing the first signature win of the Mark Pope era and giving Big Blue Nation plenty of reasons to be excited about what the future holds for these Wildcats.