Remember when some sporting events were not televised? Even college basketball’s international summer tours are now available from the comfort of your living room. (Well, Duke’s games are available. I can’t speak for your team.) Let’s fire up ESPN3.com and see whether Duke’s international exhibition is worth a few minutes on a Monday night.

Setting: We are coming to you live from Beijing, China. The game is in the arena where Mike Krzyzewski led team USA to an Olympic gold medal a few short years ago. The Blue Devils are playing the Chinese Junior National Team for the third straight game. Duke has won the first two games easily, which makes this one somewhat less than a nail-biter.

The announcers inform us that Ryan Kelly has been huge in the first two games. Kelly had a double-double in game one and went 9 for 11 from the floor in game two. Of course, Kelly is somewhat less than dominant in game three. But he does have a nice block early in the game. And he makes a lucky three (high bounce). And he had a ridiculous move where he caught the ball at the top of the key, drove his man off, passed, and caught the ball back for a banked finish in the paint. Wait a minute, why did I say he had a bad game?

Besides that Kelly drive, the other most memorable play of the first half was probably a Mason Plumlee to Andre Dawkins backdoor cut for a Dawkins dunk. Is that really the same skinny little kid who torched Wisconsin as a freshman? That dunk says he’s a man.

But after the Kyrie Irving watch last season, it is time for me to reveal this year’s edition, the Austin Rivers watch. In case you have been living under a rock, Rivers is the son of the head coach of the Boston Celtics, and the second highest rated freshman in the nation this year. To the action:

-Rivers starts the game with a drive to the basket, but cannot finish.

-Rivers catches the ball in the corner and tries to drive, but is cutoff. He passes.

-Rivers leaks out on the fast-break and catches the ball under the basket for an easy lay-up.

-With the starters up big, Rivers takes a seat on the bench.

-Rivers comes back in for the final minute of the quarter. He misses a three, gets his own rebound, and then threads a beautiful pass to Miles Plumlee for a dunk in the paint.

-Then after a couple of free throws by China, Rivers has the ball again for the final shot of the half. Rivers tries to drive, gets cut off, and ends up missing a fade-away three to end the quarter.

-The second quarter starts with Rivers drawing a foul, but the cameras were late and we do not see how he got to the line.

-Later Rivers catches the ball in transition, and tries to blow by three China defenders. He fails, starts to fall out of bounds, and throws the ball into a host of red jerseys. This leads to a dunk and foul on the other end. Rivers is then pulled from the game.

-Rivers re-enters the game and again fails to run the offense. He passes up an open drive to the basket, passes to Kelly, then gets the ball back and ends up dribbling out the shot-clock. Rivers is pulled again.

While Rivers made some plays later, I think these sequences tell the story. Rivers is a freshman, and still learning the point-guard position. As Doug Gottlieb put it, the great thing about having one of these international tours is you can afford to pull your freshman out of the game a few times, and teach him a few lessons about sharing the ball, before the games actually count. Instead of Rivers learning this lesson in Maui, against a host of dangerous teams, he gets to learn this lesson in China in games that do not count.

But I disagreed with Gottlieb’s characterization that because Rivers is a combo-guard that Duke does not have a true point guard this season. That may be true today, but it is only August. By January, I will be shocked if Mike Krzyzewski has not groomed a confident ball-handler. Rivers is going to get better, and even if he does not, someone else will likely step up. Did anyone expect Jon Scheyer to become the dominant point guard on a national championship team? Someone will fill the role eventually. Seth Curry may not have the explosive quickness to the basket, but he knows the offense, and can fill the role admirably. And with Quinn Cook nursing an injury, Tyler Thornton has a chance to show he has some ball handling skills too. Thornton will fight for the back-up point guard role this season. (Truthfully, Thornton is not much of an offensive player yet, but he makes up for it with tenacious defense.)

Besides Thornton, freshman Alex Murphy also had a few nice plays in this game. But the announcers mistakenly credited Murphy with an early steal when it was really Mason Plumlee who knocked the ball away. This seems to be Mason Plumlee’s plight in life. Even when he makes a play, someone else gets credit. Mason struggled to finish in the paint in this game, but he had three fantastic steals in the first half.

But when I start talking about defensive stoppers, I’ve probably reached a level of detail that is too much for August. Let’s get to the key question: Is an international basketball exhibition watchable? Should we care even if it does not end with chairs being thrown? (Sorry Georgetown, I had to slip that one in.)  For a college basketball addict, the answer is clearly yes. Unlike the parade of high school all-star games during the summer, it was fun to watch a team run a real offense again.

Or maybe it was just fun to see some players who can shoot. As fun as the high school games are, they do not feature many reliable shooters. Seth Curry, Andre Dawkins, and Ryan Kelly all have great touch from the outside. And in the early going they were on fire. (If you are a Duke fan, the first seven minutes of Monday's game should get you fired up for the season.) And if you want more action, Duke plays at 1:30pm ET on Thursday on ESPNU.  Of course if you hate Duke and would rather spend your summer afternoon some other way, that makes perfect sense too.