The Duke Blue Devils play their first ranked opponent of a grueling non-conference schedule when they battle the Kentucky Wildcats in Atlanta on Tuesday night, and ESPN Analytics thinks they’ll start that stretch with a win.
According to the ESPN Matchup Predictor, the Blue Devils have a 70.8% chance to dispatch the Wildcats and new head coach Mark Pope.
Duke has won each of its first two games by at least 30 points thanks to its freshman tandem of [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] and [autotag]Kon Knueppel[/autotag].
Knueppel, the ACC Rookie of the Week, paced the Blue Devils in scoring against Maine and Army to average 18.5 points per game. Flagg, the top-ranked freshman and presumed No. 1 pick in next year’s NBA draft, has averaged 15.5 points, 9.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 2.5 steals, and 1.5 blocks against the Black Bears and Black Knights.
There’s more to the team than those two, however. Six different Blue Devils scored at least 10 points in both games, something that had never happened under head coach [autotag]Jon Scheyer[/autotag] in his previous two seasons.
The Wildcats reached triple digits in both of their first two games under Pope, defeating Wright State 103-62 and Bucknell 100-72. Koby Brea, who transferred to Kentucky from Dayton this offseason, paces the team with 19.0 points per game to start the year.