Champions Classic: Duke and Kansas Share the Lead After 15 Years

The Precedent: College Basketball

Every league's Ratings on one page, and how The Precedent Rating works: theprecedentmedia.com/ratings

Tonight in Chicago

The Champions Classic returns to the United Center tonight for its 16th edition. Michigan State plays Duke at 6:00 PM Central, and Kansas plays Kentucky at 8:30 PM, both on ESPN (ESPN app). All four teams come in 2-0.

Duke beat Army 84-50 and Coastal Carolina 113-52. Kansas beat Fordham 95-65 and Middle Tennessee 89-45. Kentucky beat Manhattan 85-57 and James Madison 89-80. Michigan State beat Quinnipiac 96-59 and Toledo 91-61.

Michigan State brings Jeremy Fears Jr., CBS Sports' preseason national player of the year. The nightcap features Kansas freshman Tyran Stokes and Kentucky's Milan Momcilovic, a transfer from Iowa State on the Naismith Trophy preseason watch list.

How it started

The event began on November 15, 2011, at Madison Square Garden, with the same four programs it still features: Duke, Kansas, Kentucky and Michigan State. Each team plays once a year, and the matchups rotate every three years, so every pairing has now been played five times. It began as a three-year series and has been renewed since; it now runs through 2028.

The first night set the tone. Duke beat Michigan State 74-69, and the win gave Mike Krzyzewski his 903rd, passing Bob Knight as the winningest coach in Division I men's basketball history. In the nightcap, Kentucky and Kansas were tied at halftime before Kentucky scored 11 straight points early in the second half and won 75-65. The same two teams met again that April in the national championship game, and Kentucky won that one too.

The standings after 15 years

Duke and Kansas are tied for the best record at 9-6. Kentucky and Michigan State are both 6-9. Every team has beaten each of the other three at least once.

Tonight's first game is the most one-sided pairing in the event's history. Duke is 4-1 against Michigan State, and the only loss came in 2020. The second game is closer. Kansas leads Kentucky 3-2, but Kentucky won the first two meetings, in 2011 and 2014, before Kansas won the last three.

The coaches

Tom Izzo has coached Michigan State in every edition and is 6-9. Mike Krzyzewski went 7-4 before retiring, and Jon Scheyer is 2-2 since taking over Duke in 2022. John Calipari was 5-8 with Kentucky through 2023, and Mark Pope is 1-1 since replacing him: a win over Duke in 2024 and a loss to Michigan State last year. Bill Self is 8-6 with Kansas.

Kansas' ninth win came without Self. He was serving a suspension in 2022, and assistant Norm Roberts coached the win over Duke. Kansas counted the four games of that suspension as program results, credited to neither coach.

Every result

Nights to remember

The biggest blowout. Duke beat Kentucky 118-84 in Indianapolis in 2018, in the college debuts of RJ Barrett, who scored 33, and Zion Williamson, who scored 28. That 34-point margin is the largest in the event's history, and 118 is the most points any team has scored in it. Four years earlier, also in Indianapolis, Kentucky held Kansas to 40 points in a 72-40 win, the lowest total by any team.

The freshman duel. In 2013 in Chicago, Kansas' Andrew Wiggins and Duke's Jabari Parker met as freshmen. Parker scored 27, but Wiggins scored 16 of his 22 after halftime and Kansas won 94-83.

The closest games. Two games have been decided by two points, and both involved Duke and Kansas. Kansas won 77-75 at Madison Square Garden in 2016, and Duke won 68-66 in the same building three years later.

The only overtime game. Michigan State beat Kentucky 86-77 in two overtimes in Indianapolis in 2022.

The streaks. Kansas won five straight Champions Classic games from 2020 through 2024, the longest winning streak in the event. Kentucky lost four in a row over the same stretch, from 2020 through 2023.

A night split in two. In 2020 the pandemic moved the event to December 1 and split it between two sites. Michigan State beat Duke 75-69 at Cameron Indoor Stadium, and Kansas came back from a halftime deficit to beat Kentucky 65-62 in Indianapolis, in a mostly empty building.

A win without the head coach. Kansas beat Duke 69-64 in 2022 with Norm Roberts on the bench. Duke led 59-54 with 4:37 left, and Kansas closed the game on a 15-5 run.

Last year. At Madison Square Garden in 2025, Duke pulled away from Kansas late for a 78-66 win, and Michigan State built a 17-point halftime lead on its way to an 83-66 win over Kentucky.

Where it has been played

The event moves between four cities. Madison Square Garden has hosted it five times (2011, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2025). Tonight is the United Center's fifth (2013, 2015, 2017, 2023, 2026). Indianapolis has had it four times (2014, 2018, 2020 and 2022), and Atlanta twice: the Georgia Dome in 2012 and State Farm Arena in 2024. Cameron Indoor Stadium hosted one game, in 2020.

For tonight's games, Chicago has been Kansas' best city and Kentucky's worst: Kansas is 3-1 at the United Center, Kentucky 1-3. Duke and Michigan State are both 2-2 there. Duke has been at its best at Madison Square Garden, where it is 4-1; Michigan State is 1-4 in the same building.

The full Precedent Ratings for every team and the standings, updated every morning: College Basketball Ratings · College Basketball Standings