A ranked men’s college basketball holiday haunt between Arkansas and Duke will be staged in Chicago on Thanksgiving night.
Amidst a packed main course of early college basketball tournaments and football on Thanksgiving, the Arkansas Razorbacks and Duke Blue Devils hope the nation has saved room for dessert.
A sweet ranked men’s matchup awaits in Chicago, as No. 22 Arkansas and fourth-ranked Duke will square off on the NBA hardwood of United Center. It’s the second edition of the CBS Sports Thanksgiving Classic, which moves to primetime after Arkansas previously faced off against Illinois in the afternoon in Kansas City.
The returning Razorbacks, working through year two of the John Calipari era, are coming off four consecutive home games in Fayetteville following their lone loss of the season against Michigan State on the road, the most recent being a 115-61 demolition of Jackson State last Friday. Malique Ewin led the Razorbacks with 21 points off the bench on a 64 percent shooting night for the hosts, while Karter Knox had a 17-point, 10-rebound double-double. Arkansas has a packed holiday slate coming up, which also features a visit from Louisville, a trip to Dallas to face Texas Tech, and a neutral Newark bout with Houston.
Duke is set to face one of its best challenges yet in the post-Cooper Flagg era, as it recently enjoyed a two-game reprieve in Durham after last week’s 78-66 win over Kansas at Madison Square Garden. Over the weekend, it dispatched Niagara on Friday before downing Howard, 93-56, two days later. The Boozer brothers led the way over the Bison, with Cameron earning 26 points (on 10-of-12 shooting) and 12 rebounds, while Cayden had seven assists in relief. Thursday’s game is a homecoming for Blue Devils boss Jon Scheyer, who was born in the Chicago suburb of Northbrook. Scheyer landed All-American high school honors at Glenbrook North before an accomplished career with the Blue Devils. Duke’s Advent schedule is equally packed, as will host Florida on Tuesday before facing aforementioned Michigan State in East Lansing next weekend.
This is the fifth meeting between the Blue Devils and Razorbacks since 1990, when the two did battle in the Denver-based Final Four. The Blue Devils won that meeting, 97-83, but Arkansas has won three of four since, the most recent being an 80-75 triumph in Fayetteville in 2023.
Who: No. 22 Arkansas Razorbacks (5-1) vs. No. 4 Duke Blue Devils (7-0)
What: CBS Sports Thanksgiving Classic
Where: United Center, Chicago, IL
When: Thursday, 8 p.m. ET, CBS
Who’s Favored: TBD
Razorback to Watch: Trevon Brazile
A retained Razorback, Brazile is one of the few leftovers from Arkansas’ last win over Duke. He put up 19 points (on 6-of-9 from the field, including four threes) and 11 rebounds while blocking two shots in what became one of the last great showings of the Eric Musselman era.
But Brazile, who drew attention from both the transfer portal and the NBA, was highly dissatisfied with his play during the Razorbacks’ lone marquee showcase this season: in East Lansing, Brazile was held to only three points on five shot attempts and was forced to watch as Michigan State earned a dozen more rebounds, to the point where four different Spartans had at least seven. Against all odds (and aided by a little help from paint mate Nick Pringle), the Razorbacks narrowed things down to one-possession, but it’s clear Arkansas needs a strong performance from Brazile to stick around at the national level.
Blue Devil to Watch: Patrick Ngongba II
As expected, Duke restocked after the NBA called big men Flagg, Kon Knueppel, and Khaman Maluach within the top of its most recent draft. It quickly got to work on building new skyscrapers, as Cameron Boozer spoke for himself while fellow five-star frontcourt threats Nikolas Khamenia and Dame Sarr hailed from Los Angeles and Italy, respectively.
But the departures also set the breakout stage for Ngongba, a returning sophomore who got an extended showcase in the recent blowout victories in Durham. Fresh off a perfect 10-of-10 mark from two-point range in the wins over Niagara and Howard, Ngongba was also a perfect 4-of-4 with six boards in the aforementioned high-profile win over Kansas. Other spotlighted experience came in October, when he fell just short of a double-double with 15 points and nine rebounds in a win over Tennessee. The Brazile/Pringle pairing will be one of his biggest challenges yet, so it’ll be interesting to see how the 6-11 sophomore responds.
They Said It
“They’re big, they’re long and it’s going to be a battle … You can’t be out there trying to do your own thing, because the minute your stuff goes wrong — which half the time it does — you’re down, you’re moving your head, you’re hitting the floor, you’re losing your mind because you’re so concerned about you. Lose yourself in the team. That’s what I’m battling right now. And now we’ve got to go play Duke and we’re not connected how we have to be.”—Calipari (h/t David Cobb/Jon Rothstein, CBS Sports)
“Just the moments we’ve been in, I think they’ve shown great toughness and great poise. Those are the situations to be in, especially if it’s your first time in the Garden, like some of these guys, or if it’s your second or third, you need to show great poise and togetherness, and I thought that, especially down the stretch, with some of those plays you mentioned, we just showed great poise, I think that’s what it’s all about.”—Scheyer on Duke’s season to date (h/t Anna Snyder, Fayetteville Observer)
Prediction
It may be a relatively late game, but here’s hoping that college basketball fans saved room for a feast.
Duke has a prime opportunity to flex its national muscle, while Arkansas is looking to prove that its surprising 2025 Sweet 16 run under Calipari was not a fluke. With the way things are set up at this point, the Blue Devils seem better-equipped for that challenge. Brazile is capable of flipping games next to Pringle, but the impactful newcomers from Durham will prove to be too much to handle this time around.
Score: Duke 87, Arkansas 82
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
