Duke and Kansas had a heavyweight match in Las Vegas on Tuesday night and while #1 Kansas won 75-72, Duke also won.

It will just take longer to realize what the Blue Devils won in Sin City.

Kansas is a very good and smart basketball team. They have three players that really move the team forward: Hunter Dickinson, KJ Adams and Dajuan Harris. There are other important Jayhawks, of course, but these three really drive the bus. And they do so in a beautifully complementary way.

Kansas started off red hot, shooting 80 percent for part of the first half, but as the announcers well understood, that wouldn’t last long, and Duke would start making some shots as well. And that happened. Duke fell behind early, 16-3, but fought its way back into the game, tying the game at 32-32 with 3:37 left in the first half.

Kansas made it clear they were going to aggressively defend Duke’s freshman phenom, double-teaming him frequently in the first half.

But when Duke started finding the open shooters, Kansas had to back away from that strategy. Flagg didn’t have a phenomenal offensive game, but he wasn’t completely stifled either.

Kansas pushed themselves back into the lead after halftime, but they wouldn’t dominate Duke again like they did in the opening few minutes. Duke pushed back and the game went back and forth the rest of the way, due in no small part to the gritty play of Maliq Brown and Sion James and, to a lesser extent, Mason Gillis. The veteran transfers really helped Duke during some tough stretches.

In the end, despite their excellent contributions and very good play from Tyrese Proctor, Duke ultimately came up short. Cooper Flagg, who turned the ball over twice against Kentucky near the end, spun late into traffic on the court and was stripped. It reminded us of Kyle Filipowski as a freshman. He has one of the fastest spin moves we’ve ever seen, but he kept spinning into guards. He has learned and Flagg will learn too.

Duke didn’t necessarily handle gaining time well. Flagg had his turnover and Kon Knueppel had one too when he drove and came off the ground with nowhere to go.

Khaman Maluach set up Rylan Griffen with :02 left and he made both of his free throws to give KU a 75-72 lead. Duke got the ball across the half-court line and immediately called a timeout, and Jon Scheyer made a play that gave Knueppel a clean look for a three that would have tied the game. However, it came true and that was that.

Still, there were a lot of positives to this one too. The younger Devils – Flagg, Maluach and Knueppel – got to see what it was like to play against a physical, older team. Dickinson in particular taught Maluach and sometimes threw him around like a rag doll. Flagg and Knueppel also took some photos. Nothing bad, mind you (except for Dickinson’s head shot), just a hard basketball. They will have to learn to deal with that sooner or later, so sooner is better.

Flagg eventually figured it out and finished with 13 points, five rebounds and three assists. Knueppel was fouled out from three-point range and shot 0-8, but still recorded 11 points and eight assists. He didn’t shoot well, but he competed. And even though Brown outscored Maluach for most of the match, Maluach didn’t stop competing.

And don’t forget the veterans: Proctor shot 5-7 from deep and had six rebounds. Brown was sensational in defense at times, James was strong everywhere and Gillis was reliable and smart.

In short, this is not the worst loss in the world. A team with three first-year starters brought the No. 1 team in the country to the wire. Kansas was better on Tuesday, but the Jayhawks are an older, more experienced team.

Duke needs games like this to gain its own experience. The loss was obviously disappointing, but the effort was not. The mistakes were disappointing, but they will become fewer and fewer as the season progresses. Duke’s future remains incredibly bright.