Why Darryn Peterson isn’t playing in Duke-Kansas, and 3 other Champions Classic things to know

The first marquee event of the 2025-26 men’s college basketball will take place on Tuesday night with the annual Champions Classic doubleheader featuring No. 12 Kentucky vs. No. 17 Michigan State (6:30 p.m./ESPN) in the opener followed by No. 5 Duke vs. No. 24 Kansas (9 p.m./ESPN) in the nightcap. Madison Square Garden will be the host for the event, which always draws some of the most early season eyeballs for the sport.

Here are four things you need to know before taking in Tuesday night’s showcase doubleheader.

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Kansas without Darryn Peterson

The allure of Tuesday night’s doubleheader took a hit with the official announcement that Kansas superstar freshman Darryn Peterson will not play against Duke because of a hamstring strain that he’s been dealing with since the start of the season. The potential No. 1 pick in next June’s NBA Draft averaged 21.5 ppg in KU’s first two contests (a win over Green Bay and a loss to North Carolina), but has been sidelined for the team’s two games since.

The Jayhawks rolled past Texas A&M Corpus-Christi without Peterson, and though their game against Princeton was still too close for comfort early in the second half, they wound up running away and winning by 19. Obviously, Duke isn’t Princeton or Texas A&M-CC.

Without Peterson against the Blue Devils, Kansas’ offensive gameplan becomes difficult to project. When things got dicey against Princeton, Bill Self simply utilized the size on his team that the Ivy Leaguers had no counter for. Center Flory Bidunga took over the game, hitting 10-of-11 shots and scoring a career-high 25 points to go along with 10 rebounds and three blocks. Frontcourt mate Tre White chipped in 18 points thanks in large part to getting to the free-throw line 13 times.

This is an easy button fix that Bill Self simply isn’t going to be able to press against a team that has Cam Boozer, Patrick Ngbonga, Maliq Brown, etc.

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Self said before the season that he’d never coached a freshman…

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Publish date : 2025-11-18 19:05:00

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