NEW YORK — Poor Duke.
They won’t have injured freshmen forwards Jayson Tatum, Harry Giles and Marques Bolden for Tuesday’s game against No. 3 Kansas in the Champions Classic at Madison Square Garden.
But the No. 1 Blue Devils (2-0) can still roll out a half dozen McDonald’s All-Americans for the game, which follows the matchup between No. 2 Kentucky and No. 12 Michigan State.
“I don’t know how many McDonald’s All-American’s they have on their team,” Kansas coach Bill Self said Sunday night. “They got three sitting out. They still got [Grayson] Allen, they still got [Luke] Kennard. I think Amile [Jefferson] was a McDonald’s All-American and Frank Jackson was a McDonald’s All-American. [Chase] Jeter was a McDonald’s All-American. They’re still going to have plenty of guys that are capable of playing very well.”
Don’t forget Matt Jones, coach. He was a McDonald’s All-American, too.
Tatum and Bolden were McDonald’s All-Americans in 2016, while the injured Giles was not. So all told, Duke has eight on its roster, six of whom will play against Kansas.
The Jayhawks have three eligible McDonald’s All-Americans: freshmen Josh Jackson and Udoka Azubuika and sophomore Carlton Bragg. (Malik Newman, a transfer from Mississippi State, was also a McDonald’s All-American and becomes eligible next year.)
The preseason favorite to win the NCAA championship according to Bovada, Duke has won its first two games over Marist and Grand Canyon by a combined 80 points — without their freshmen bigs.
So how good can they be once Tatum, Bolden and Giles start to play?
“I don’t know, I’ll be able to answer that question probably after Tuesday,” Self said. “To me, I’ve watched them play in their four games so far, counting the exhibitions, and I could see how on paper they can score all over the court easy. And the defense can be stretched out that much. And you put a Harry Giles in there, something like that, you would think that would obviously make them better. Or a Jayston Tatum, or Marques Bolden.
“But they still have good players, they still got McDonald’s All-Americans playing with those others guys who will be playing, which goes to show how deep they are.”
Kansas (0-1) is coming off a 103-99 loss to Indiana Friday night in the Armed Forces Classic in Honolulu in which the Hoosiers shot 15-for-31 from beyond the arc (48 percent).
The Jayhawks flew directly to New York, arriving here on Saturday before practicing Sunday.
“I think the state of the team is pretty good,” Self said. “We had a good day [Sunday]. We went to the 9/11 Memorial and learned a lot about what happened that day and how they’re honoring people since then and certainly that was a very uplifting experience. And then practice was spirited [Sunday], it was good and competitive.
“I know guys were tired [Saturday] and still probably a little tired [Sunday] but I can’t see a reason why we shouldn’t have our legs back beneath us by [Monday] and for sure by Tuesday.”
Senior guard Frank Mason went for 30 points and 9 assists in 40 minutes against Indiana. But he knows that Allen — one of Duke’s six remaining McDonald’s All-Americans — presents unique challenges. The 6-foot-5 junor is averaging 25.0 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.5 assists through two games.
“He’s always driving the ball downhill, staying in attack mode” Mason said. “He knows how to draw fouls and he’s smart player.”
Self said Duke looks like “a different team than they were last year.”
“The thing that impresses most is just how aggressive they are,” Self added. “They have the freedom offensively to drive the ball but also to shoot it…
“We may be playing the best two shooting teams that we’ll play all year in Duke and Indiana and certainly we didn’t do a good job defending Indiana. We’ve gotta be a lot better defending the three-point shooters against Duke.”
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