The men’s college basketball scene gets its first mega matchup on Tuesday night as the No. 6 Duke Blue Devils (2-0) take on the No. 19 ranked Kentucky Wildcats (2-0) as one half of the doubleheader for the State Farm Champions Classic in Atlanta, Georgia.
Duke entered the season as one of the favorites to win the 2025 NCAA Championship after locking down one of the best recruiting classes in the country. Led by future NBA lottery pick Cooper Flagg, the Blue Devils have easily defeated Maine and Army to start the season.
Kentucky is a high-flying squad heading into this intriguing matchup, too. The SEC school has blown out Bucknell and Wright State to start their first season under new head coach Mark Pope, and the Wildcats appear primed for a deep postseason run this year.
In the battle of two blue bloods, which team will leave State Farm Arena with the early season victory? We’ll cover this contest and the three top player prop bets from tonight’s contest.
Pope used the transfer portal to rebuild Kentucky’s roster this season, grabbing several players who could make an instant impact for the Wildcats. One of those players is 6-foot-6 guard Jaxson Robinson.
Kentucky will be Robinson’s fourth stop in the past five seasons, and his experience under Pope at BYU makes him an instant plug-and-play option for the Wildcats. Robinson will increase his minutes from his first two games, scoring at least 13 points to cover his player prop bet tonight.
If you’re looking for player props for Duke’s top recruit – Cooper Flagg – good luck. Oddsmakers are being cautious to start the season, and Flagg’s body of work consists of 15.5 points, 9.0 rebounds, and 4.0 assists in two outings.
Still, oddsmakers are avoiding the future lottery pick against Kentucky. Instead, we’ll propose bettors take the over on freshman guard Kon Knueppel’s player prop bet as he’s hit that mark in both games thus far by hitting 50 percent of his 14 three-point attempts through two games.
Under former coach John Calipari, Kentucky was not known for its player development. Instead, the championship coach was known for his one-and-done athletes, players who came in and left the following season for the NBA Draft.
That’s not the case for seven-footer Amari Williams. The senior center from Nottingham, England developed his craft at Drexel, averaging 12.2 points and 7.8 points last season for the Dragons.
Williams will be one of the biggest athletes on the floor for either team, and he should be a dominant force in the paint for Kentucky. Expect Williams to finish with at least 17 combined points and rebounds, easily eclipsing his player prop bet mark.
Both Kentucky and Duke are averaging over 98 points per contest, but the four wins are against teams meant to warm up the schools. Beating the likes of Maine and Bucknell are not noteworthy victories, nor have any of these two teams’ combined opponents offered much challenge.
With elite athletes across the board, it’s hard to expect these two teams will both post nearly 80 points against each other. A more realistic expectation for this early-season matchup is that these two squads score in the 70s in a close game that could go either way.
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