Duke basketball has won nine of its past 11 meetings with Kentucky. And the Blue Devils are 3-1 against the Wildcats in the Champions Classic.

Of course, Zion Williamson & Co’s 118-84 beatdown of the Wildcats in the 2018 edition of the annual event added to Duke’s recent bragging rights over the fellow blueblood.

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On that note, following the Wildcats’ 100-72 home win over Bucknell on Saturday, Kentucky guard Kerr Kriisa might’ve endeared himself to the program’s fans with his comment about arguably the most-hyped Blue Devil since Williamson in phenom forward Cooper Flagg.

While talking to the Kentucky media, Kriisa looked ahead to the Duke-Kentucky Champions Classic clash at 9 p.m. ET Saturday in Atlanta’s State Farm Arena. In doing so, he elicited chuckles from reporters on hand when expressing his eagerness to square off against the Blue Devils’ projected one-and-done from Maine.

“It’s gonna be exciting,” Kriisa, who spent three years at Arizona and one at West Virginia before transferring to Lexington for his fifth season in college, said about the highly anticipated showdown between Mark Pope’s Wildcats (2-0, 0-0 SEC) and Jon Scheyer’s Blue Devils (2-0, 0-0 ACC). “You know, probably more exciting for fans. You know, fans like the Duke-Kentucky matchup. But you know, for us, it’s another game.

“Obviously, the whole world is talking about Cooper Flagg. So, excited to play against the No. 1 draft pick. So, congrats to him already…”

Flagg has only strengthened that seemingly consensus draft prediction via his early performances for the stacked 2024-25 Duke basketball squad.

The extremely versatile 17-year-old is averaging 15.5 points, 9.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 2.5 steals, and 1.5 blocks in only 27.0 minutes per game.

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