#1 Kansas Nips Duke, 75-72

Duke and Kansas had a heavyweight matchup in Las Vegas on Tuesday night and while #1 Kansas won 75-72, so did Duke.

It’s just that it will take longer to realize what the Blue Devils accomplished in Sin City.

Kansas is a really good and smart basketball team. They have three players who really push the team forward – Hunter Dickinson, KJ Adams and Dajuan Harris. There are other important Jayhawks, of course, but these three really drive the bus. And they do it in a pretty free way.

Kansas started out red hot, shooting 80 percent for part of the first half, but as the announcers correctly understood, that wouldn’t last and Duke would start hitting some shots as well. And it happened. Duke fell behind early, 16-3, but battled back to tie the game at 32-32 with 3:37 left in the first half.

Kansas made it clear they wanted to aggressively defend Duke’s freshman phenom, often double-teaming him in the first half.

But when Duke started finding the open shooters, Kansas had to back away from that strategy. Flagg didn’t have a phenomenal offensive game, but he wasn’t completely suppressed either.

Kansas pushed back in front after halftime, but they weren’t going to dominate Duke again like they did in the opening minutes. Duke pushed back and the game was back and forth the rest of the way, not least because of the rough play of Maliq Brown and Sion James and, to a lesser extent, Mason Gillis. The experienced transfers really helped stabilize Duke during some tough stretches.

In the end, despite their excellent contributions and some very good plays from Tyrese Proctor, Duke fell short in the end. Cooper Flagg, who turned the ball over twice against Kentucky near the end, spun late into inbounds traffic and was stripped. It reminded us of Kyle Filipowski as a freshman. He has one of the fastest spin moves we’ve ever seen, but he kept spinning into guards. He learned, and so will Flagg.

Duke didn’t necessarily handle the winning time well. Flagg had his turnover and then Kon Knueppel had one too when he drove and was caught off the ground with nowhere to go.

Khaman Maluach set up Rylan Griffen with :02 left and he made both of his free throws to give KU a 75-72 lead. Duke got the ball over the half court line and immediately called timeout, and Jon Scheyer made a play that gave Knueppel a clean look on a three that would have tied the game. However, it fell out and that was it.

Still, there were many positives about this one. The younger Devils – Flagg, Maluach and Knueppel – got to see what it was like to play against a physical, older team. Dickinson tutored Maluach in particular, tossing him around at times like a rag doll. Flagg and Knueppel also took some pictures. Nothing dirty, mind you (except for Dickinson’s header), just some hard-nosed basketball. They’re going to have to learn to deal with it sooner or later, so sooner is better.

Flagg eventually figured out how to do it, finishing with 13 points, five rebounds and three assists. Knueppel was blank from three-point range and shot 0-8, but still had 11 points and eight assists. He didn’t shoot well, but he competed. And while Brown outscored Maluach for most of the game, Maluach didn’t stop competing.

And don’t overlook the veterans: Proctor shot 5-7 from deep and had six rebounds. Brown was sensational at times on defense, James was tough everywhere, and Gillis was reliable and smart.

In short, this is not the worst loss in the world. A team with three freshmen took the No. 1 team in the country to the top. Kansas was better Tuesday, but the Jayhawks are an older, more experienced team.

Duke needs these kinds of games to gain their own experience. The loss was disappointing, of course, but not the effort. The mistakes were disappointing, but they will become fewer and fewer as the season goes on. Duke’s future remains incredibly bright.