Up Next: Duke in New York. "It's like the biggest game in a decade."

Now that Kentucky Basketball’s two preseason exhibitions are a thing of the past, all eyes are on the Big Apple and the official tipoff of the season in the Champions Classic. It’s coming up Tuesday night against ninth-ranked Duke in New York’s Madison Square Garden, the mecca.

John Calipari knows the spotlight that will be on Kentucky’s opener. “It’s like the biggest game in a decade,” he said of the Kentucky-Duke game after Kentucky hosted Miles in the preseason finale. “The tickets are ridiculous. It’s crazy.”

In preparation for that game, Kentucky will do a run-through of the film from Friday night’s exhibition, then a pre-Duke practice Saturday evening and again on Sunday. CJ Fredrick is expected to return to the mix too.

After Sunday’s practice, the team will fly to New York where they will get an early look at Madison Square Garden by attending Sunday night’s Knicks-Cavaliers NBA game. It will be a reunion for John Calipari and his long list of former players on the Knicks’ roster: Julius Randle, Immanuel Quickley, Nerlens Noel, Kevin Knox, and Derrick Rose. Calipari is also excited to see Kenny Payne, his former assistant at Kentucky, and friends Leon Rose and Worldwide Wes, who are now President and Executive Vice President of the franchise.

“We go to the Knicks game on Sunday night, so I get to see Leon, Wes, and Kenny and the guys, and our players,” Calipari said. “Our team is going to go and eat there and watch the game.”

Jacob Toppin’s brother is also on the Knicks. Not sure if you knew that. It has been mentioned on broadcasts a time or 12.

Coach Cal vs. Coach K one last time

Calipari is probably watching film on Duke as I write this, a late Friday night project on his weekend to-do list. (Note: I already watched Duke.) He’ll have a plan together in time for this weekend’s practices. Until then, he had a few things to say about the Blue Devils in his Friday night press conference.

“They have one of the great coaches ever,” Calipari said of his longtime rival in Coach K, who, you may have heard, will retire at the end of the 2021-22 season. It will be the only thing mentioned more than Jacob Toppin’s connection to Obi.

“It’s his last season, and they got terrific players. The guys that came back are really good. The guys they’ve added are really good. It’ll be a hard game.”

Whatever happens against the Blue Devils, Calipari says he won’t put too much stock in what the outcome means for the long-term futures of either team. Remember the 2018 Champions Classic? Duke beat Kentucky by close to a thousand, yet Kentucky was a bucket away from the Final Four at the end of the season.

“We got beat bad in that game and came back and were an Elite Eight team,” Calipari recalled. “If we made free throws, we would have been in the Final Four and could have won a national title.”

Wheeler headed home to New York

Kentucky point guard Sahvir Wheeler wasn’t a part of Calipari’s 2018 memory but he too had postgame comments about Kentucky’s upcoming trip to the Garden, an arena he knows well.

Wheeler, a New York native, previewed the game as, “You know, two blue blood programs. The great traditions, both respectively. I think I’m a little biased, but I think we’re the greatest.

“But, definitely, Duke has a history of excellence at Madison Square Garden. I’m from New York. I know a lot of my family is going to be there. I remember going to games with my uncle and my dad to Madison Square Garden, watching basketball. So all this, for them to be there, that’s going to be a big game personally. Just, you know, seeing my family. But just the tradition and the name of it. That’s huge. And where else would you want to play that game? In the biggest, the basketball Mecca of the world.”

It’s coming soon to college basketball’s opening night. Let’s give Coach K one last L from Kentucky.