Who's ready for Kentucky vs. Duke in the Champions Classic this year?

Coach K’s farewell tour is set to begin this fall, and the University of Kentucky will help get it all started on November 9.

After COVID-19 pushed the event back to December in 2020, the State Farm Champions Classic will once again tip off the college basketball season in 2021, with Kentucky set to take on Duke at Madison Square Garden in the first game of Mike Krzyzewski’s final year of his historic coaching career.

Stadium’s Jeff Goodman was the first to break the retirement news on Wednesday, later adding that upcoming name, image and likeness rules and the transfer portal “being out of control” pushing Coach K to this decision.

“He is obviously nearing the end of his career, but name, image and likeness coming into college basketball, and the transfer portal being out of control definitely sped up his timeline,” one source close to Krzyzewski told Goodman.

Now 74 years old going into his 42nd season at Duke and 47th as a head coach, Coach K didn’t have the time or energy to embrace the new era of college basketball, one that will see players make money and move freely from school to school with the one-time immediate transfer rule. And to open his final season at Duke, he’ll be taking on the coach that has embraced and taken advantage of both changes in John Calipari.

“Obviously, we have to wait to see exactly what the rules state,” Calipari said of the upcoming NIL rules expected to pass. “But no one should be able to do it better for men’s basketball than our program. Two years ago, TV-wise, our ratings before the pandemic would have ranked fourth in the NBA – Golden State, the Lakers, Cleveland with LeBron (James) – would have been above our ratings. So, all the social media stuff and all the stuff we do, and we can do, in my mind it should be the best in the country.”

And while he wasn’t a fan of the transfer rules from the start – he openly fought the addition of grad transfers when Bruiser Flint was fired at Drexel for going 6-25 in 2015-16, just one season after losing his best player, Damion Lee, to Louisville – he understands that if he doesn’t adapt to the changes, the game will leave him behind. As a result, Calipari has added nine transfers over the last four years, including four in 2021 alone.

“All of this stuff, the transfer stuff, I was never for,” Calipari said last week. “Right now, transfers should not panic anyone in college basketball. Can anybody tell me how many schools have had six or more players transfer this year? It is over 130 schools. One hundred and thirty schools have had over six players transfer. It may be higher now; that was two weeks ago. It could be 150 now.

“Kids transferring, it is almost like, who is going to do it? OK, I understand and who are we getting? When two years ago if five players transferred from a team everybody would go crazy. ‘The program is crumbling.’ Well, then 150 programs are crumbling. It is a different day really how you evaluate what is going on.”

Two programs coming off historically poor seasons that resulted in missed NCAA Tournament opportunities, both in desperate need of a drastic turnaround in 2021-22. One side boasts arguably the greatest coach in basketball history in Krzyzewski, one who has led the Blue Devils to five NCAA titles, 12 Final Fours, 15 ACC Tournament championships and 12 ACC regular season titles in 41 years with the program. The other is a Hall of Famer and three-time Naismith College Coach of the Year who has won one national title, 16 conference regular seasons titles and 15 conference tournament championships. Coach K is the traditionalist, while Coach Cal puts an emphasis on thinking one step ahead and adapting to the times — one-and-done, transfers and NIL rules being just a few examples.

Two undeniable coaching legends, two completely different styles.

As individual programs, Kentucky is the all-time winningest team in history with 2,327 total wins, with Duke coming in at No. 4 overall with 2,214 wins. The Wildcats have eight total championships in history, behind only UCLA with 11 titles, with the Blue Devils sitting at No. 4 with five total. In head-to-head matchups, UK leads the all-time series 12-10, though Krzyzewski is 6-2 against Kentucky since arriving at Duke.

What better way to open the 2021-22 college basketball season than with two of the greatest programs and coaches in history squaring off at Madison Square Garden on ESPN?

More importantly, what better way to open Coach K’s farewell tour than by handing the Blue Devils a loss on the big stage?