The Duke Blue Devils suffered their first loss of the season on Tuesday night, falling to Michigan State 79-73 in the Champions Classic in Chicago. After wins over Army and Coastal Carolina, Duke faced their first big test of the season. 

And they failed. 

Duke struggled from the start in this loss, getting bullied by a more physical Michigan State team. After the Spartans grabbed the lead, they never looked back and never trailed at all in this game. Any time Duke tried to make a run, the Spartans answered with a run of their own and controlled the game. 

The defense on the perimeter gave Duke fits and Michigan State was able to answer what the Blue Devils had in the paint with their height. Michigan State's ability to rebound and limit Duke's second chances proved to be one of the key points. 

Following the game, head coach Jon Scheyer wasn't happy with his team's performance and called them out. 

In one of his answers, Scheyer proclaimed, "This isn't Duke Basketball" after the showing they had. Scheyer went on to say that he felt like it was an "out-of-body experience" for him to see his team get outplayed the way they did. 

He mentioned that he felt like his team wasn't well-connected and it showed out there with that performance. 

It's still early in the season and Duke is going to be tested with a tough non-conference schedule that began with the game against Michigan State. They have a stretch coming up where they will play UConn, Illinois and Florida in the next five games. 

While Scheyer admitted last week that his team will be tested, he didn't really have this in mind. However, Scheyer believes that his team will fix the issues because the fans deserve it and the players deserve it. 

But how do you fix it?

With a team that didn't look connected at all, it's going to take time to find the rotations that fit best with this team. There's no superstar like Cooper Flagg and Cameron Boozer but instead a lot of collective talent. That talent didn't show up. 

John Blackwell led the way with 17 points but it was on 16 shots. They had no one else reach double-figures in this game. They also had two five-star recruits not early any playing time which is something to monitor.

Duke's first chance to fix this is Friday when they host SIU Edwardsville.