Scouting the opponent: Kentucky brings a wealth of experience to Champions Classic matchup with Duke

The Blue Devils are rolling. They’re rolling past the mid-major programs that they scheduled to open their regular season, at least. 

After an impressive 103-47 conquering of Arizona State in an exhibition, head coach Jon Scheyer’s team opened regular-season play against Maine and Army, confidently overtaking both teams by wide margins. The opening matchups served as the debuts of the highly-anticipated freshman trio of Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel and Khaman Maluach, and also showed the spectators at Cameron Indoor what Duke’s veteran transfers have to bring to this year’s squad.

Now, it's time for the Blue Devils to leave the comfortable confines of Cameron to play their first ranked matchup against No. 23 Kentucky at the State Farm Champions Classic in Atlanta. 

Through their first two games of the 2024-25 season, graduate guard Koby Brea has led the Wildcats in scoring with 19.0 points per game. Brea transferred to Kentucky after four seasons at Dayton, where he was named Atlantic 10 Sixth Man of the Year twice and led the NCAA in 3-point percentage last season with an impressive 49.8% percent clip. Through the first two games, Brea has knocked down 10-of-12 3-pointers and will pose a significant threat to the Duke defense from deep. Watch as he terrorizes Bucknell with his hot hand. (0:42, 1:51, 2:45)

Another veteran presence on this year’s Kentucky squad is graduate transfer Amari Williams. After four years at Drexel — where he earned CAA Defensive Player of the Year honors in three straight seasons — the 7-foot center committed to play his fifth year in Lexington, Ky. Williams will represent the most dominant big man that the Blue Devils have faced thus far into the season. After only two official games of college basketball, Duke’s own 7-foot-2 freshman, Maluach, will be matched up against a four-year veteran, and Williams is likely to give the Blue Devils trouble. 

Next up is San Diego State graduate transfer Lamont Butler, who tallied over 1,000 points in his four years with the program and earned Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year honors. In his junior season as an Aztec, Butler led his team in steals and assists to help bring San Diego State to a National Championship game appearance. Watch Butler’s buzzer beater that boosted the Aztecs past Florida Atlantic in the Final Four.

Finally, graduate guard Jaxson Robinson will likely start alongside Butler as a veteran presence in the Wildcats’ backcourt. In his senior season at BYU, Robinson was the Big-12 Sixth Man of the Year and led his team in scoring with 14.2 points per game. The Ada, Okla., native is a versatile scorer and has the ability to hurt defenses from any area of the court. Watch as Robinson’s pull-up jumper and driving ability leaves Bucknell helpless on defense. (0:07, 0:30).

It’s notable to point out that this year’s Kentucky squad is the Ship of Theseus reimagined as a basketball roster. Not a single one of the team’s six fundamental players this season played for the Wildcats last season, and head coach Mark Pope begins his first season with Kentucky after the departure of John Calipari. 

Of the starters, four of the five are playing in their fifth year of eligibility as graduate students, possessing significant collegiate experience relative to the Blue Devil starters. At the State Farm Arena Tuesday, college basketball fans will finally get a chance to see what No. 7 Duke is really made of.