It’s Duke vs. Kentucky in glamour showdown

Both teams had some reworking to do and now two games into the season, they’ll get to do it against each other. No. 3 Kentucky and No. 9 Duke play in the 9:30 p.m. nightcap after No. 7 Kansas and No. 21 Michigan State tip off in the first game at 7 p.m.

This is the second year of a three-year event, which will conclude with the same four teams next year in Chicago. Last year, Krzyzewski broke Bob Knight’s record for all-time wins by a men’s Division I basketball coach when Duke beat Michigan State at Madison Square Garden and Kentucky edged Kansas in a preview of the national championship game.

As heavy-hitting as those games were last year, both Duke and Kentucky would simply settle for progress this time around.

“Last year’s team, it took time,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said recently, when asked about the development of his young team. “This year’s team may take longer.”

Kentucky signed another four heralded freshmen, led by Nerlens Noel and Alex Poythress. But it was little-known junior guard Jarrod Polson who made the difference in the Wildcats’ 72-69 opening win against Maryland Friday night at the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY. He scored 10 points, including two game-sealing free throws with 7.7 seconds left.

Calipari said he took for granted, with such long and athletic players, that UK didn’t need to spend extra practice time on rebounding. That changed after Kentucky was outrebounded by Maryland 46-34 and gave up 23 offensive rebounds.

“There are so many things to work on because we’re freshmen,” Calipari said. “It makes it hard.”

He’s not going to have too many sympathizers, after taking a freshman-dominated lineup last year to a national title. Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist were taken No. 1 and No. 2 respectively in last year’s draft. Davis is now teammates on the New Orleans Hornets with Austin Rivers, the one Duke underclassman to leave early for the NBA.

Duke forward Mason Plumlee had a chance to go too but decided to return for his senior season after he was projected to go late in the first round. But if you ask Plumlee, his decision had as much to do with the disappointment he felt after Duke lost to Lehigh in the first round of the NCAA tournament last March.

It was only the second time the Blue Devils lost in the first round in the past 16 years and only the sixth time ever that a No. 15 seed knocked off a No. 2.

Plumlee’s sit-down with Krzyzewski after the season was no pleading session either.

“People would think, ‘Oh, he promised you this number of shots or this role,’ or something in order to come back,” Plumlee said. “Basically he just told me, ‘This is what you need to get better on and you should want to do it here. But if you don’t want to be here, don’t be here.’

“So that being said, he sounds like he could care less, but that’s not the case at all. He wanted people that wanted to be here and I was one of them.”

Plumlee is one of three Duke seniors along with Seth Curry and Ryan Kelly, and he’s playing like one. Plumlee led the Blue Devils with 19 points and 12 rebounds in their season-opening win over Georgia State. He averaged 20.5 points and 10.5 rebounds in the two exhibition games.

“I’m not sure we ever knew what our strength was last year,” Krzyzewski said. “One kid would play a little bit better for a while, then another. Together we won 27 games, but we never really developed a personality. With this team, we can do that.”

Staff writer Tim Tucker contributed to this article.