The “Champions Classic” which is usually the sign that the College Basketball season is ready to roll and is still slated to be played amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
The usual participants are Kentucky, Duke, Kansas, and Michigan State. Kansas battles Kentucky on Dec. 1 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, home to the Indiana Pacers. These two teams were supposed to play at the United Center in Chicago on November 10th in what would have been each team’s season opener.
One year ago today, Duke opened up the season with a win over Kansas in the Champions Classic. pic.twitter.com/R7IqC5PNhu
— BlueDevilStop (@BlueDevilStop) November 5, 2020
Duke and Michigan State are still looking for a date and arena to play in during the tournament. There was talk about moving the event to a bubble atmosphere at Walt Disney World in Orlando, the site of the NBA Playoffs, but that was eventually canceled.
Since the Classic began in 2011 each team has reached the Final Four at least once, with Kentucky and Duke winning the National Title in 2012 and 2015, respectively.
The four schools have a combined 18 NCAA titles: Kentucky (8), Duke (5), Kansas (3) and Michigan State (2). They also have a total of 56 NCAA Final Four appearances: Big Blue Nation (17) Cameron Crazies (16) Rock Chalk JayHawk (14) and Sparty (9)
REPORT: @DukeMBB will host Michigan State in this year's Champions Classic:https://t.co/ho1eNLbbam
— Duke Basketball (@dukebasketball) November 6, 2020
Kentucky is 23-9 all-time versus Kansas and 2-1 against them in the Champions Classic.
Duke and Mich St. have had some classic battles but none like the 2019 East Regional Final won by the Spartans 68-67 over a Duke team with Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett and Cam Reddish. Sparty was led by four-year floor leader Cassius Winston and do it all big man Xavier Tillman.
This will be the tenth season of the Champions Classic in 2020. Coach K’s Dukies leads the way with a 6-3 record, followed by Kentucky at 5-4, Kansas at 4-5 and Michigan St is 3-6.
Always two great games yearly and I’m happy they’re still gonna play the games in this current environment.
#PoVMasonSports
