One of the must-see acts in college basketball is in action Monday night. Jabari Parker, the outstanding Duke freshman, will be playing in front of his home crowd at Cameron Indoor Stadium against little Gardner-Webb. Parker has lived up to his billing as one of the best recruits in years, scoring 22.1 points per game, shooting 46.7 percent from three-point land and grabbing 7.8 rebounds.
College basketball schedule: Duke and Jabari Parker host Gardner-Webb
Duke is the only Top 25 team in action Monday night.
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Parker has led the Blue Devils to the No. 8 ranking in the country, grabbing the reins of a team that’s absolutely loaded with talent. There’s no one on Gardner-Webb who can match up with him physically, so he should put on an absolute show.
Gardner-Webb at No. 8 Duke (7 p.m. ET, ESPNU/WatchESPN)
Duke hosts the 6-5 Bulldogs, who have yet to secure a win over any NCAA Tournament-caliber team. They have been known in years past to pull an early-season upset, but this Duke team just seems too talented to fall prey to such tomfoolery. The Blue Devils are 7-2, but their losses were both tight games against Kansas and Arizona -- not exactly a Belmont loss, à la North Carolina.
Expect the Bulldogs to try to make Blue Devils other than Parker beat them. That means lots of fun for Rodney Hood (scoring 19.3 points per game) and Quinn Cook.
Mississippi Valley State at Northwestern (7 p.m. ET, Big Ten Network)
Northwestern fans knew this year was going to be much more of a struggle than last season, but few envisioned the Wildcats coming out of the gate like this: 5-5, losses to Illinois State and all of their quality non-conference opponents -- N.C. State, Stanford, Missouri and UCLA. A win over Mississippi Valley State won’t do much to help the Wildcats’ NCAA Tournament résumé, but a comfortable margin would do wonders for their confidence entering Big Ten play.
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