Well, until something better shows up (maybe next week?), it’s safe to designate the Duke-Kansas Maui Invitational championship game as the most compelling contest in the early portion of the 2011-12 season.
Both teams exceeded my expectations in Lahaina.
The Blue Devils finally prevailed, 68-61, in large part because of consecutive – and unlikely – 3-point shots by sophomore reserve guard Tyler Thornton.
But the biggest reason Mike Krzyzewski’s club prevailed over Tennessee, Michigan and, finally, the Jayhawks, was the play of its post players.
Thomas Robinson of Kansas was the best player in the eight-team event but Ryan Kelly bagged Most Outstanding Player honors after scoring 17 points in each game for the Blue Devils.
The 6-9 junior provides Duke with an element some – my included – figured would be missing from the Duke equation with the departure of Kyle Singler: a big and skilled player to play away from the low post area.
He’s going to cause matchup problems the entire season.
And another junior, Mason Plumlee, was a forceful rebounder throughout and used his 6-foot-10 frame to finally keep Robinson (who is probably something close to three inches shorter) from scoring as readily as he did throughout most of the game.
It’s startling that the Jayhawks came so close to winning despite the 11 turnovers committed by their primary ball handler, senior Tyshawn Taylor, who gave the ball away only seven times over the first four games.
After watching him play for three days (along with the likes of Jared Sullinger) during the Adidas Nations in August in Los Angeles, Robinson’s performance didn’t surprise me.
I expected him to be an All-American and a leading contender for the John R. Wooden Award.
But the team, as a whole, is better – at least earlier – than I anticipated, largely by way of the improvement of Taylor as well as juniors Elijah Johnson, Travis Releford and Jeff Withey.
Obviously, Baylor or Missouri is going to have to play very, very well to dethrone the Jayhawks in the Big 12 this season.
As for the Blue Devils, they’ll face what promises to be an even tougher challenge Tuesday when they travel to Columbus to take on Ohio State during the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
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