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INDIANAPOLIS The most frighteningly dominant season in college basketball history may have taken place on Tuesday night.
It's mathematically impossible, and yet it is entirely conceivable that this issue is hmm, 55 spots too low in the polls? No. 1 feels like an insult after the display of the Clbadic Champions.
We are just one day in the college basketball season, so yeah, yeah let's not go too much to the Blue Devils' 118-84 victory over No. 2 Kentucky.
But what was that that?
It's Duke … and then the stratosphere below Duke … and then everybody else. That's where the conversation holds at the moment. Zion Williamson, R.J. Barrett, Reddish Cam and Tre Jones on Tuesday night?
Second-ranked Kentucky, with its second-tier recruiting clbad and its veterans troupe, Williamson, Barrett and Reddish trio by one point.
"Things went great," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
They went supernatural, Mike.
What the Blue Devils did to a UK team rumored to be built for eliteness should be rendered illegal in the lower 48 states. A bulldozing of the Wildcats – and an arrival that detonated like dynamite within the first few minutes of the opening tip.
Duke will look at this season, but so what if so? We should be keen on it, because we are looking for the crystallization of elite recruitment and elite coaching, and we look forward to seeing you again in the next few years. Duke could pick up the top picks in the 2019 draft. This sure looks like the evolutionary endgame of the one-and-done ideal.
The Blue Devils looked like an NBA team playing in an NBA arena – only the uniforms said Duke. (Which, frankly, feels interchangeable at this stage.)
"Krzyzewski said, then added," but to play on this stage, right away, against Kentucky, was a little bit surprising. "
Krzyzewski has had more than his fair share of great teams across his four decades of coaching. In recent seasons, he's had freshman-laded clubs dripping with talent. There's been some sweet one-and-done talent to don Duke threads over the past decade. But from a game-one reaction and perspective, there's never anything like this at Duke. Maybe there's nothing like this in college basketball.
It would be horrifying if it was not so mesmerizing. Duke's 118 points for the John Calipari-coached Kentucky team. It was the most points scored in the game by Duke in at least 16 seasons. It has never been a season-opener that brought out this much potential and evidence of greatness so immediately. Consider that the schedule is the best matchup on the biggest stage right away. Normally Duke opens up against Elon Gold Marist or Siena Gold Presbyterian (those are literally the four previous opponents in the last four season-openers).
Kentucky brought out a new opportunity for immediate overreaction – which should be the only reaction. All of the Blue Devils' hyped fab oven freshmen showed up, showed up and embarrbaded their Kentucky counterparts.
Duke treated UK like a directional NAIA school. It was a shot across the bow to the rest of the sport. And for those accustomed to hating Duke regardless of the circumstance, good luck doing so with players that look this entertaining.
Williamson, who is surely set to become the brightest light in college hoops this season, with expectations and hype that would cripple most players. Instead, he broke the Duke record for most points in a freshman debut with 28.
Oh, wait, except fellow freshman R.J. Barrett – who looked for most of the night who was playing against guys who have no business being on the same court – 33. So that's now the record.
"They were magnificent tonight," Krzyzewski said.
In the locker room afterward, they pranked each other as they took interviews from the media. It was a refreshing reminder that these are only 18-year-olds – and they really do not have any concept of just unveiled.
It's impossible to condense the efficiency, power and talent of Duke's performance on Tuesday, but this one does the best job of getting there. A one-handed Zion block, he takes the ball in transition, slices pbad on an angle through Kentucky's defense and gets it to Barrett for the deuce. I'm laughing again watching this. Come on.
I asked Williamson about this play in the postgame press conference. As I did, he could not help but flash his megawatt smile. He knew what he did there, above. He knew how it looked. How must it have felt? That's LeBron James-like stuff, and you know it. Toss in a 3-pointer to start the game and 11-of-13 shooting to boot, and yeah, Williamson's got all the goods.
"That's why I came to Duke," Williamson said in the afterward locker room. "Coach K saw so much more than just dunker, let me play loosely, be able to showcase my jumper."
Williamson and his teammates are all capable of bringing the ball up to the floor. All can be playmakers. All look comfortable commanding an offense. Duke team you've ever seen before. There's a magnetism here.
"We're playing very well, but I'm not sure what our peak is – that's just one game," Williamson said. "We've gotta keep playing hard, we'll find it."
It might not take long. Duke was playing with a full meter almost all night long. Now we see how the team adjusts to become the biggest attraction in the sport.
"We're trying to stay level-headed," Jones told CBS Sports in the locker room afterward. "This game is not played until April." This game, it's a good start to the season.
Keeping up with this place will be impossible, but we're going to love to watch Duke try. We've never seen anything like this team, and it's all about the unpredictable extravaganzas that we're looking at. Duke – they're a best-case scenario for college basketball.
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