Kentucky gets early signature win at Champions Classic against Duke | Opinion

ATLANTA — We’re going to have plenty of time, like maybe a decade or two, to talk about Cooper Flagg. And in the aftermath of Tuesday’s Champions Classic, the presumptive No. 1 pick is going to get his first real taste of what the world of sports takes is all about.

That’s how it works when you live up to the hype for 39 minutes but mishandle a ball in a crowd and then dribble it off your foot with the game on the line. Better get used to it.

But Flagg is 17 years old and Duke is still Final Four caliber team. It’s way too soon to start nitpicking.

It is not, however, too early to render a judgment on the other big storyline from a remarkable night of college basketball.

Mark Pope? Yeah, he’s the real deal, too. Just a couple weeks into the college basketball season, he’s already made Kentucky basketball fun again.

It’s been awhile.

“This group is special,” Pope said after Kentucky’s 77-72 victory, giving him a signature win right out of the gates and at a time when there was — and probably still is — some uncertainty about whether he’s up to this mammoth job.

Time will tell. But one thing you can already see: There’s a major vibe shift around Kentucky basketball.

Freed from the tension of John Calipari’s stubbornness, his deteriorating relationship with Kentucky’s administration and his antagonistic posture toward a fan base that cares like no other in sports, Big Blue Nation will not find this kind of basketball difficult to embrace.

It’s beautiful, it’s energetic, and most of all its drama-free.

Kentucky players react after defeating Duke in the Champions Classic at State Farm Arena in Atlanta.

Yeah, Kentucky needed a change. They got it. And it looks as if they’re really, really going to like it.

Nothing against Calipari, a Hall of Fame coach whose first 10 years there were phenomenal. But the whole operation got stale, it got contentious, and his last four seasons were a slow-motion train wreck that ended with some embarrassing NCAA…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/kentucky-gets-early-signature-win-061757699.html

Author : USA TODAY Sports

Publish date : 2024-11-13 06:17:00

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