Duke basketball faces Michigan State in first true test

The Blue Devils are heading to Indianapolis.

That's a sentence Duke would like to see again come late March, when it would mean a trip to the Final Four for the first time since cutting down the nets in that same city five seasons ago. Tuesday might provide a good test run.

No. 4 Duke will meet No. 19 Michigan State in the fourth edition of the Champions Classic at 7 p.m. at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. With No. 1 Kentucky slated to take on No. 5 Kansas right after the Blue Devils and Spartans finish, Tuesday's double-header has the star power—both on the court and on the sidelines—to rival college basketball's final weekend.

"Michigan State is going to be terrific—they’ll be strong and [good] rebounders," head coach Mike Krzyzewski said following Saturday's 109-59 win against Fairfield. "That setting will be a Final Four setting, and that’s where the Final Four’s going to be, with those four teams, [which are all potential] Final Four teams. That’ll be a great setting for this team to be in this early."

After two blowout wins by more than 50 points in its first two games of the year, Duke (2-0) will play its third game in five nights, this one against one of the more physical teams in the country.

Freshman center Jahlil Okafor has asserted himself thus far, coming within one rebound of his first double-double Saturday against the Stags. Tuesday's battle with Michigan State's Branden Dawson and Matt Costello down low will be Okafor's first exposure to elite strength and athleticism in a college game, but it won't be his first time dealing with physical interior play.

"Certainly being one of the youngest guys on the USA Basketball U19 team, he played against some pretty big guys on some different countries and in trials," associate head coach Jeff Capel said. "Playing against [former Tennessee forward] Jarnell Stokes every day, playing against [Louisville forward] Montrezl Harrell, who were his teammates on that team. He’s played against big size, he just hasn’t played [against it] in a college game."

After being outmanned on the glass for most of last season, the Blue Devils will have to focus on crashing the boards Tuesday. Rebounding and strength are the foundation for the Michigan State program, and Capel said this year's Spartans are no different.

Dawson—a 6-foot-6 forward who has been extremely effective when healthy—is Michigan State's best rebounder and best athlete. The senior averaged 11.2 points and 8.3 rebounds per game last year and will need to make another leap forward for Tom Izzo's squad to be successful this season.

The Blue Devils faced the Spartans (0-1) in the first rendition of the Champions Classic in 2011 at Madison Square Garden. That night, Krzyzewski passed Bob Knight for first place on the all-time wins list in Division I men's college basketball. No history will be made Tuesday, but another win would put Krzyzewski one game closer to recording his 1,000th career victory.

The most recent meeting with Michigan State—a 71-61 Duke win keyed by a lights-out shooting performance from Seth Curry—also took place in Indianapolis, in the Sweet Sixteen in 2013. The stars of that Spartan team, guards Gary Harris and Keith Appling and forward Adreian Payne, departed East Lansing for the NBA after last season, leaving Izzo without 58.7 percent of last year's scoring.

But as it has for so many years, Michigan State has simply turned to the next man up.

"Coach Izzo does a great job of keeping the guys who don’t play in the system, so that when their time comes, they step into the occasion," junior Rasheed Sulaimon said. "They’re a pretty veteran team and they’re well-coached.... It’s going to be a dogfight."

In addition to Dawson, the Spartans return talented guards in Travis Trice and Denzel Valentine, veterans with plenty of postseason experience. Although the Spartans struggled as a unit Friday against Navy, Trice turned in a career-best performance, netting 25 points and hitting five of his six attempts from behind the arc.

Playing their first game away from home, Duke's talented freshmen will be under the national microscope for the first time in their college careers.

"It’s a different atmosphere. They won’t be afraid; they might be too excited," Krzyzewski said. "You learn from it, and you hope that you can learn from it by winning. If we can beat Michigan State, that’d be a big-time win for us."