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28.11.2019 13:59
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The schedule is the schedule, simple and plain. On Tuesday night in midtown Manhattan, under the low-light glow at Madison Square Garden, No. 13?Michigan State will play No. 2 Kentucky. When they finish, the court will clear, layup lines will ensue and then No. 7?Kansas, the 12-times-running Big 12 champions, will tip off against the prohibitive preseason national title favorite, No. 1 Duke.At best, Duke and Kentucky might run past each other in the tunnel leading to the floor. Or maybe Mike Krzyzewski and John Calipari, with their staffers and assistants and future NBA talents in tow, will shoulder by one another in the Gardens narrow concrete bowels. Maybe they wont see each other at all.Forget all that. Forget the schedule. Forget the logistics. Forget, for a moment, that at the Champions Classic on Tuesday night Duke isnt playing Kentucky, and Kentucky isnt playing Duke.Because on Tuesday night, Duke is absolutely playing Kentucky, and Kentucky is totally playing Duke.This is the state of college basketball, and the state of these two programs. They compete not merely in actual games of basketball -- how trite -- but on a grand hegemonic scale, where wins and losses are scored across seasons and measured in national title odds and NBA lottery picks and rewarded with sheer overwhelming mindshare ... and, in turn, more future NBA lottery picks.Duke and Kentucky are competing against each other Tuesday night because at this point they are always competing against each other -- in-season and in the offseason -- in a way no other programs can sustainably match.This dynamic is nowhere more visible than in the rolls of new talent each program brings to campus each season. It has never been more glaring than right now.Since 2007, when ESPN Recruiting Nation debuted its ESPN 100 rankings, just four incoming classes have boasted at least four top-20 players. Kentucky was the first, in 2011-12, when?Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist?led the Wildcats to a national title; they promptly went No. 1 and No. 2 in that summers NBA draft. The second? Duke, in 2014-15, when?Jahlil Okafor, Tyus Jones, Justise Winslow?and Grayson Allen scored 60 of the Blue Devils 68 points in a national title win over Wisconsin -- just two days after a?Karl-Anthony Towns-led Kentucky team lost for the first time all season.But, hey, what about those other two classes? Those also belong to Kentucky and Duke ... this season.Were in competition, Calipari told ESPNs Myron Medcalf in October. Were competing. Not really for every kid. There are kids I think should go to Duke that should not come here. Im fine with that. I mean there are other kids that theyre the kind of kids that need to come here and do their thing. We get those kids.In an incoming class many NBA scouts believe is the best in a decade, six of the nations top 10 freshmen -- and half of its top 16 -- will play at just two schools.So, how did we get here?It started, of course, with Caliparis hiring at Kentucky in 2009. Of Caliparis many gifts -- his media savvy, his salesmanship, his insatiable coaching style -- his ability to see three moves ahead may be his strongest. He recognized, immediately, that sending?John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins?(his first 1-2 NBA draft punch) to the league and celebrating their departures as his ultimate goal was a way to ensure that prospects who might be NBA draft-bound would see Kentucky as their fastest route to the pros in the NBAs post-age-limit era. The strategy paid off immediately, over and over again; since Calipari moved to Lexington, Kentucky, the Wildcats have never ranked lower than No. 2 in ESPNs yearly recruiting class rankings.Duke has always recruited well, of course; Krzyzewski isnt the only 1,000-game winner in college basketball history for nothing. But the Blue Devils path to modern one-and-done recruiting dominance has come about more recently. Jon Scheyer and Kyle Singler, key components in the Blue Devils 2010 national title run, were elite prospects in their own right, but neither was a cant-miss NBA prospect.Two factors seem to have led to Dukes rise. One, which has received an outsized share of attention, is the advantage, perceived or otherwise, that Coach K derives from his place atop USA Basketball. Whether its access to the talented teenagers piping into youth teams, or the cachet accrued from coaching?LeBron James and Kevin Durant?in the Olympics, theres no doubt the association has helped him remain plugged-in in ways that arent always the norm for those pushing 70 years old.The other, less-discussed factor, is the hiring of former Duke star and Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel. Capel was fired after two losing seasons (and an improper benefits scandal) at Oklahoma in March of 2011. He joined Dukes staff that May. The Duke staff was already ahead of the game by then;?Kyrie Irving led the 2010 class, and Austin Rivers?(and four other top-100 players) showed up in 2011. But Capel was in full stride by the time he got?Jabari Parker?to?commit in 2013, and was just as instrumental in putting together Okafor, Jones and Winslow in that star-studded, title-winning 2014 class. Capel is now Dukes associate head coach.For years, Kentuckys recruiting primacy went more or less unchallenged. But in the past three seasons, Dukes class ranked No. 1 twice -- and this season, when it landed two of the top three players, it might as well be 1B.Even by this time last year -- a summer removed from his fifth national title, on the eve of an actual matchup with Kentucky -- we marveled at how Krzyzewski seemed to have replicated Caliparis one-and-done blueprint.We dont copy anybody, Krzyzewski said at the time. If you try to be someone else, youll be, at best, second best.Calipari, for his part, has noticed the similarities. And as someone who once had to stump constantly to make the case for the theory of the self-sustaining recruiting cycle, and who openly bristled against crusty criticism of one-and-done mercenaries, the sudden acceptance irks anew.It took Duke to do it for it to become OK, Calipari told ESPN in October. And thats, everybody knows ... Im not saying it to be nasty or mean. It is what it is. The minute that happened, they said, You know, Coach K adjusted to the times, and it was great.This barely disguised rivalry has occasionally dropped all pretense. Like, for example, the now-infamous fishing-rod-emoji-gate, when Dukes official Twitter account briefly subtweeted Calipari after his blog post in reference to a recruits quote about the two schools differing pitches. The details of this mouthful are not worth recounting again, except to say that the whole thing was really funny.The larger point is this: Rarely have two programs that dont share a traditional geographic or conference-oriented rivalry been so intensely focused on each other -- and rarely have the stakes been so high.Which is not to say the national title game is destined to come down to Duke and Kentucky. Of course it isnt. Dukes real-world opponent on Tuesday night, No. 3 Kansas, has its own remarkable freshman star (potential 2017 No. 1 draft pick Josh Jackson) joining?Frank Mason III and Devonte Graham, perhaps the nations best (or at least most experienced) backcourt (and what could be a monstrous perimeter defense).Villanova, lest we forget, just won the national title in historically mind-blowing fashion, and returns a huge chunk of its minutes and production -- including All-American candidate Josh Hart. North Carolina was a shot away, and returns most of its own core as well.Virginia is one season removed from back-to-back ACC titles; Tony Bennett has built his own version of self-sustaining success, and is recruiting better than ever because of it. Wisconsin brought everybody back from a team that finished 13-4; Oregon and Arizona will be strong out west; Louisville will guard like crazy.Most of all, college basketball will be college basketball. No matter how talented you are, theres no such thing as a guarantee. As Calipari once said, the best a college coach can hope for is to get up to bat -- to increase his late-tournament odds just by being there in the first place.Duke and Kentucky have done just that, in a way that more or less assures that once every few years one, or both, will be favored to win the only title either really cares about. Theyve done so in similar, if not identical, ways, and have lifted themselves to an altogether different plane than their peers.Kentucky and Duke dont play each other Tuesday night, but they dont need to. In this sweeping strategic clash, winning and losing is bigger than wins and losses, and competition need not be dictated by schedule. You dont even need to be on the same floor. Jeurys Familia Jersey . Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek defeated Nenad Zimonjic and Ilija Bozoljac 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 (4) on the indoor hard-court at Belgrade Arena. The victory improved the Czech pairs impressive cup doubles record to 14-1. Kevin Mitchell Jersey .Y. -- Syracuse has turned up the defence at the right time all season, and when High Point threatened to pull off a monumental upset the second-ranked Orange did what they do best with their quick hands and savvy play. https://www.cheapmetsjerseys.us/1840l-pedro-martinez-jersey-mets.html . By having more great seasons. Manning was the only unanimous choice for the 2013 Associated Press NFL All-Pro team Friday. Gary Carter Jersey . The International Olympic Committee released the official list of bid cities on Friday after the deadline for applications had passed. The candidates -- all previously announced in their own countries -- are: Almaty, Kazakhstan; Beijing; Krakow, Poland; Lviv, Ukraine; Oslo, Norway; and Stockholm. Bruce Berenyi Jersey . Once again Jordan Cieciwa (@FitCityJordan) and I (@LynchOnSports) go head to head in our picks. Last weekend at UFC Fight Night 32 my #TeamLynch got the best of #TeamJC by a score of 9-6. Let us know which side youre on for UFC 167 use the hashtag #TeamLynch or #TeamJC on Twitter. ESPN NRL expert Brett Kimmorley looks at round 25 and says the smell of finals football has seen cracks appearing in one of the leading teams while injury threatens to decide the fate of another title contender.1. Sharks strong season is in danger of sinking.Three losses in a row, havent won over the last four weeks, Sam Tagataese will not play until the Grand Final qualifier and that means they lose some physicality of a big frontrower going forward - but they do get Paul Gallen back.I think theyre struggling, I think there is a little bit of nervousness starting to creep into the belief of the Sharks fans and possibly the Sharks players and theyre playing a red-hot Roosters side this weekend.Its their last game at Southern Cross Group Stadium this year and theyre desperate to get a win before the semi-finals because youd hate to go into the Melbourne game in round 26 not having won in your previous five weeks. Its a massive game for the Sharks and its important they get out of the hole and celebrate what has been a wonderful year so far with their home crowd.Im seeing some small things that make me think that theyre not quite the same team as the one that won 15 straight games and I think James Maloney showed some of their frustration with a couple of careless tackles in the loss to Souths.How they end this season will also have some impact on next year - theyre a club that has never won a Grand Final and theyre club that struggle to lift in those big games - the Cowboys gave them a spanking in their semi-final last year and they probably already carry a little bit of scarring from that game.2. Will Blake Austins injury slow the Green Machines momentum?Blake Austin will probably play again this year but what does his injured hand mean for the Canberra Raiders season? What does it do to the players mindset?They were flying, they had all the momentum, things were going their way but now their star five-eighth, who can score freakish tries and is an amazing player, will be missing - my concern is how they go now. Sam Williams is a good pplayer but a totally different football player so does that change everything else for the team, do they lose the trust and the belief?Its a few weeks until they play their first semi-final and I reckon hell play but the other thing is - can he play with pain? There are some players that are great playing injured and there are others that literally cant play when theyre not 100 percent and Im not sure which category he falls into.ddddddddddddIm also unsure whether resting Junior Paulo is a good thing. I would sell it by saying I am rotating my squad because we might need match-fit players in the finals. That way the players mindset will think theyre only going to Manly so we can afford to rest players.Its a danger game for the Raiders this weekend against the Sea Eagles - its Jamie Lyons farewell at Brookvale Oval so thats a huge reason why Manly will turn up to play.3. Brisbane playing for credibility against Melbourne.The Broncos were horribly embarrassed and spanked on their own turf by the Storm about eight weeks ago - it was a flogging and a great game plan execution that saw Anthony Milford concede a lot of points around him.Its a big game for the Broncos defensively, probably one that will prove if they really are back this season, and its also a great opportunity for the Storm to wrap up that minor premiership and send a fair statement that theyre the team to beat this year.Sam Kasianos incident with Corey Parker last week has the potential to turn Brisbanes season around - that last five minutes showed physicality in how they defended and the pride they have in each other.In a game of football, 90 percent of it is in the head - theyre all talented, theyre all skillful, they all do the same weights and strength but its just that one little bit of confidence that makes you tick, that can convince you that youre back and I think that last five minutes against Canterbury couldve done that for Brisbane. 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