Champions Classic: No. 2 Duke meets No. 5 Michigan State, No. 15 Kansas faces No. 24 Kentucky

There were plenty of reasons for Duke, Michigan State, Kansas and Kentucky to load their exhibition slate with high-profile games.This week is one of them.The second-ranked Blue Devils meet the fifth-ranked Spartans while No. 15 Kansas plays No. 24 Kentucky on Tuesday night in the Champions Classic, this year hosted by the United Center in Chicago. For many years, the annual doubleheader represented the first big step up in competition for the quartet of bluebloods after easy exhibition games and lopsided regular-season openers.That would have been the case this year, too, without those exhibitions.Duke beat Army and Coastal Carolina last week; Michigan State blew out Quinnipiac and Toledo; Kansas handled Fordham and Middle Tennessee; and Kentucky took care of Manhattan and James Madison. The only game that was even close was the last of them, and the Wildcats pulled away from the Dukes in the closing minutes for a reasonably comfortable victory.Compare that to the exhibitions they pla