NCAA Men's Basketball

Michigan St.-KU, Duke-UK lead '12-13 openers

07/11 9:20 AM

The college basketball season will tip off with a dozen back-to-back games Nov. 13 on ESPN, highlighted by Michigan State vs. Kansas and Duke vs. Kentucky in the State Farm Champions Classic.

The defending national champion Wildcats will play the final game of the day in Atlanta against Duke, which was knocked out of last year's NCAA tourney in the round of 64 by Lehigh. It is the teams' first meeting since 2001.

That game is second game of a doubleheader at the Georgia Dome, preceded by Michigan State-Kansas.

The marathon of games -- featuring 16 conferences, four time zones and 12 teams that reached the 2012 NCAA tourney -- opens at midnight ET with West Virginia at Gonzaga in a rematch of last year's NCAA tournament second-round game, won by Gonzaga. It continues at 2 a.m. ET with Davidson at New Mexico, while Houston Baptist meets Hawaii at 4 a.m. ET.

The morning ET games include Stony Brook at Rider (6 a.m.), Northern Illinois at Valparaiso (8 a.m.) and Harvard at Massachusetts (10 a.m.). The afternoon session features Temple at Kent State (noon), Detroit at St. John's (2 p.m.) and Butler at Xavier (4 p.m.).