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Shootaround: Duke loses to Kentucky, Notre Dame football overrated?

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chris jpjDuke loses early heavyweight matchup Two rosters loaded with one-and-dones matched up Tuesday night on ESPN, and it wasn’t the one-and-dones who made the biggest difference.

Kentucky sophomore point guard Tyler Ulis was the best player on the floor in the Wildcats’ 74-63 win, with 18 points on 6-of-13 shooting, six assists, four rebounds, two steals and no turnovers in 40 minutes.

The 5’9”, 160-pounder averaged 23.8 minutes per game in his freshman season, averaging 5.6 points and 3.6 assists per game for UK, but honestly, no, you didn’t pay any attention to him with all the talent around him.

Kentucky coach John Calipari is taking a different approach to his 2015-2016 rotation. After sending in two waves of five last season, he gave Ulis 40 minutes, and backcourt-mate Jamal Murray, a freshman, got 38, scoring 16 points on 7-of-17 shooting, with five assists and five rebounds.

Alex Poythress got 30 minutes off the bench, mainly because freshman Skal Labissiere was limited to 13 minutes due to foul trouble, but the bench minutes were limited otherwise.

Duke’s heralded freshman class didn’t do much Tuesday night. Brandon Ingram was 1-for-6 from the field in 19 minutes, scoring four points and pulling down just one rebound, with four turnovers and four fouls.

The trio of Chase Jeter, Luke Kennard and Derryck Thornton played a combined 47 minutes, going 3-for-12 from the floor, scoring nine points.

 

Notre Dame holds at four in College Football Playoff Notre Dame (9-1) is supposed to be in control of its playoff destiny, its main virtue being its 24-22 loss at Clemson on Oct. 3.

The Irish do have wins over two teams ranked in the CFP Top 25, #16 Navy (a 41-24 win on Oct. 10) and #24 USC (41-31 on Oct. 17).

The biggest pockmark on the ledger is its 34-27 win at Virginia on Sept. 12 that came on a long touchdown pass with 12 seconds left.

Virginia (3-7, 2-4 ACC) is ranked 73rd in the ESPN Football Power Index.

– Column by Chris Graham

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