5 x 5

1s Memphis vs 1s Kansas Game Blog :: NCAA Final :: 2.1 seconds away from immortality

2008-04-07T23:51:00.003-05:00

My pick to win it all? Memphis. And not just because of Chicago phenom Derrick Rose. When the tournament turns straight chalk and your favorite team bows out to a Big East also-ran? The most interesting story becomes the athletic, electrifying, and still-with-a-chip-on-their-shoulders Memphis Tigers. I remember a story from 7 months ago, when back in early September John Calipari looked at his team and got goosebumps. “It's taken me eight years of ups and downs and piecing things together to get this team, the kind of team that players want it more than I want it for them.” Eight years of ups and downs, two years of Elite Eights – and all it takes is one exceptional player to bring out the best in them. The Derrick Rose Invitational. Gentlemen, start your engines!!!

The roar of the crowd soars with the ball. Rose has it! It’s begun! Oh, the electricity! The emotions! Dorsey scores immediately, a power move inside, and as the ball snuggles into the net, every Memphis fan is giddy with glee. This is the year!

Every move, every look, every pass is heightened, magnified tenfold. In the final game of the year, and in front of millions across the globe, not one thing is let go. Every turnover is howled at; a colossal mistake. Every pinpoint pass, every hard-fought rebound, is cheered and celebrated and screamed at by a mass of 42,000+ strong. AMAZING. Sizzling. Spine-tingling. Even though we know there’s still 40 minutes left to go, we are convinced that every single move right now denotes what will happen next, what will unfurl, over the entire game. I am hunched so forward on my chair that I’m almost falling off. How can the players even play? What must they be thinking – finally, meeting their equal – and getting challenged, for some of them, for the first time since – ever?

It starts out pretty even. Kansas is definitely clogging up the middle, not really playing zone but some damn good defense all their own, and daring the Tigers to drive into trees or settle for jumpshots. And Derrick Rose, the unflappable Rose, is finding this defense much stickier than in games past, almost losing the ball twice and indeed losing the ball once to those extra-grabby hands. Taking it to the rack – and BLOCKED! But OH! How can he see the whole floor??? How can he drive, with supposedly blinkers on in his determination to get to the goal – and then suddenly reverse direction and freeze the entire defense with such a pinpoint pass to a wide open Robert Dozier – not exactly offensive weapon #1 – who drains a high-arching 15 footer? And when he does drive – despite Russell Robinson sticking to that scouting report like glue that says take away his right, take away his right – he gets the bucket – AND one???? Then before you know it, Memphis is already up 9-3, handing Kansas its largest deficit of the tournament – and you’re going – what??? I thought this would be competitive! HA! Apparently, simply staying with the Tigers has become a competitive sport. Good luck.

Ack! Alley-oop dunk by Kaun? Nobody on him???? Wake up, Dorsey! Pounding the ball inside to Arthur to make it 9-9 even. I am starting to see some zone. Can we have an even game of talent, and not junk it up? Ball instantly stolen away from Dorsey by a quicker guard. UGH.

Whoa! Was that a shot???? A one-armed “heave” coming from out of nowhere by CDR – and it flies in! Amazing! Every Jayhawk was as amazed as I was, watching that ball soar over their heads and wondering where the invisible Dorsey was to guide that errant alley-oop pass in? Oh no, Sherron Collins just blew by Rose for a layup. Nice.

Uh oh – the foul trouble is already starting to pile up. Taggert with his 2nd foul, 12:17 still to go, while the ball was nowhere near him. Great. So now Dorsey comes back in. Kansas, meanwhile – and you have to hand it to them – have a much deeper and more talented frontcourt than Memphis. “So Memphis CAN get into foul trouble. Kansas almost cannot.” Swell. AAGHHH! There goes Dozier committing his second foul, 15 seconds later! And they haven’t even trotted out their super frosh yet, Cole Aldrich, still in his warm-ups on the bench looking bemusedly on. 13-11, 12:05.

What’s up with Rose? After being heralded 24/7 that this would become the Derrick Rose Invitational – and after a scintillating first 3 minutes – Rose has switched to cruise control, giving up the ball much too quickly at the start of the offense, and then shooting 3s and turnaround jumpers rather than taking it to the rack. And is that a screen I saw Dorsey set for him on an off-kelter 17 footer? I thought Memphis is the antithesis of screens? Don’t they hate conventional basketball’s guts??? Yet, here I am, starting to see flashes of the Memphis team that lost to Tennessee again – rather than the team that blew out UCLA, Texas, and MSU in a blitzkrieg run just days ago. Memphis has been trying to answer Kansas’s points in the paint with some post-up moves of their own – but Taggert and Dozier, though long, are more face-up types than back to the basket PFs, and they’re being resolutely limited to one and done by the incredible rebounding machine that is the Jayhawks.

Oh, the balance on Kansas is incredible. Incredible. Double in on the Kansas big guys – and they kick it out to Mario Chalmers, who is like a ridiculous 47% from beyond the arc, and he knocks it down. When they start shooting 3s – as Memphis has been cold so far – watch out! 13-18!

Crap! Dorsey over the back – his 2nd foul! 9:42! And the howls in the arena rain down like Judgment Day. Is this the end? Is there that much riding on one call??????

Oh, wait . . it was only his first. Ah, no big deal. They’re now saying CDR has finally met this match in the 6’6” Brandon Rush. Rose is clearly bothered by somebody. Someone needs to step up or this whole thing is going down the drain.

DORSEY with a STEAL! And cross-court layup! This senior wants to PLAY! Haha, gets right in Aldrich’s chest with a hearty thump and scream – though not AT Aldrich – letting them know that the Tigers still got some tooth. A steal! By Rose – then in the rush to beat that damn zone/man switch back upcourt – stolen again by Chalmers! Who lays it up in the blink of an eye. A flying alley-oop DUNK by Darrell Arthur! Transition basketball in its finest! And suddenly I gape: 15-22??? Has Memphis been down so much in the entire tournament???? NO! 8:18. C’mon, boys!!!

Awww, awww, Rose answers. 2 crisp assists to shooters on the wing, 3s raining down from every which direction – and we’re back in the hunt! First trip up, he spins into the lane and draws the focus of an entire nation – then kicks it out sharply to Anderson on the wing for the 3. Then – again, slashing into the paint – looking like he was taking on the entire Western Front – and kicking it out to Dozier – whom I didn’t know was a 3 point shooter? But who apparently can nail them when left wide open! 21-24 and we’re quickly within shouting distance again. 7:25.

Roy Williams with a Kansas sticker on his shirt in the stands? LOL – over our miseries so quickly, eh? OH, there’s teamwork! There’s heart!!! Dorsey with a BLOCK of Kaun’s apparent slip of the screen and wide open layup – Antonio Anderson immediately zips off the other way with it, speeding in for the transition layup with a freight train of players behind him – but NO! ROSE!!!! Flying up to the rim to save that ball! But without enough momentum to put it back – so he comes back to earth and lands right on the baseline, mere micro-inches away from the out of bounds line – and uses his butt to save his balance. For one frail second, he balanced there, frozen, too afraid to move in fear of a whistle. Everybody else freezes too. Nobody bumps him. And then – heart afire with decisiveness – Rose spins around 180 degrees into the air and snaps a quick, super-strong overhead pass out 20 feet to CDR, who is perfectly stationed on the wing, rises to meet it, and goes up for the 3, all in one smooth motion – and BAM! THERE is the LEAD! There is Memphis, with the go-ahead basket! 26-24!!!!!!!!!!!!! 6:21.

28-28 tie at 3:50, and Dorsey, CDR, and Rose are pretty damn tired. I don’t think I’ve seen Rose take a breather yet. At this point, you can no longer deny the depth of talent on the Kansas team. What worked out well for a deep rotation against C-USA is not going to cut it here, and Cal is sticking to his Thoroughbreds, Rose, CDR, and Anderson, pretty much the entire way. 3 guards against 4 – which one would you take? I’ll like to think that truly great players can overcome that . . but c’mon. Memphis is already losing the rebounding battle against Kansas’ stellar and deeper frontline. Is it possible for its guards to win the battle in the backcourt? Can talent and desire overcome fatigue?

“Where is Rose?” Packer wonders. “He has not made a field goal in 7 minutes.” He is only 1 for 4 so far . . and herein lies the problem. He’s been cut off on every drive, with a big defender and his own guard defender staying with him and clogging down the lane on every possession, and now he gets caught in mid-air trying to bail himself out – and a turnover! Pass picked off like that! Crap! And in a total reversal of previous games – it is now the Memphis guards who are slipping on the floor as the Kansas guards zoom past them – the Memphis guards who are getting beat on drives and who can’t even beat out the Kansas big men for a loose ball careening dangerously towards the wings. Kansas is not exactly playing a zone – but it seems to be some sort of hybrid – and it is potent enough to contain the most dangerous duo in backcourt history. And as the seconds tick off towards halftime – the Kansas team seems to be getting fresher and more aggressive by the minute – and their fans are standing and cheering for their Rock Chalk Jayhawks. These are the bluebloods, the revolving door of talent, the close-your-eyes-and-pick-anyone-and-they-can-be-the-leading-scorer type of club, and the lack of eye-catching wins earlier in the season notwithstanding, the weakest #1 seed notwithstanding. It doesn’t matter anymore, none of that matters. If your team can peak on championship night? Then none of the rest matters at all. 28-33, 1:02, timeout Memphis.

And they completely mess up the last possession. They kept the ball for the entire last minute before the half too. What happened? I don’t know. Rose dribbles out 25 seconds of it. Then they try something but it’s almost stolen – then Anderson has to take a hurried 3 with a hand in his face before the shot clock expires – then Taggert somehow comes up with a miraculous rebound, but still they can’t get anything. A screen? Yet another screen for Rose? All that does is make Kaun jump out at Rose and frighten him, double team him, so that he gives the ball up to someone else – and it’s scuffled out of bounds with 0.1 left on the clock. Okay . . What do you do with 0.1 left on the clock? Nothing. Buzzer. Endgame. 28-33 halftime.

So either Rose is still sick from the gummy bears – or this Kansas defense is something else. I pick the latter. If he wants to win this game – it has to start with him. That’s a little unfair, but that competitor in him has to come out and ROAR. It can’t shoot jumpshots. It can’t give the ball up. It needs to ATTACK. If I were coach Cal, I’ll use the full allotment of time at the half to get that point across – and leave everybody else alone. There’s plenty of other things that needs fixing too – but none of that matters, if we don’t have Rose.

Second half: Oh, some LIFE!!!!!!!!! Rose takes it strong to the rack – no, he intends to find Dozier waiting there in the wings – and the ultra-lengthy forward dribbles once and then lets that tiger roar with a DUNK! As Kansas turns to go back on offense – Anderson forces a turnover from Chalmers! Gets a big congratulatory slap on the back from Dorsey. Frightening moment as they almost lose it – Kansas, ticked off, applies the double trap on CDR – but Rose recovers it and hands it to Anderson – who, with the shot clock winding down to 5, 4, 3 – takes a three – and HITS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TIE SCORE, 33-33! This is the bloody lowest scoring opening 2nd half I’ve ever been this excited about! It’s a game again!!! 18:52.

Oh, what a beautiful cut by Anderson to take that bounce pass from Dorsey – takes on TWO defenders! AND finishes – AND one! Gorgeous! Couldn’t be prettier! LOB to Dorsey! Who finishes with a DUNK, then pulls the ball out of the net and smiles for his Kodiak moment, flashing a wide grin and pointing his finger towards the stands. Thank you, Rose, for the assist. Oops, but then picks up his 3rd foul a couple seconds later, guarding Kaun. Cal hollers and swears along the sidelines and immediately pulls Dorsey for his mistake. 38-39, 15:15.

OH, FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Rose we’ve all come to see! Grabs the loose ball from a wild shot from Sherron Collins, flies the length of the court, and you can see it in his eyes, he’s taking it all the way – and he beats two Kansas defenders up the court for a flying layup that rims in. 42-43, and despite all kinds of shots being missed by Dozier/Taggert, being outrebounded by 8 so far, and having some trouble driving despite Kansas not playing zone, the Tigers are still, almost a bit miraculously, in the hunt. We need more plays like that from Rose. When will he take over? When will it come?

Huh. With a slim lead now, 44-47, Kansas goes to its 2nd set of zone on defense – except now it’s a box and one on CDR. Ahhhhh! Some breathing room for Rose! And say hello to Mr. Robert Dozier, the one-man zone breaker. After scoring through the heart of the defense, Rose comes up the court on the next trip and now drives into the jungle again, except this time he makes a dangerous pass to Dozier – who collects it and goes up strong for the basket – and ONE! Oooohhh . . except he can’t make the “and one”. Is free throw shooting still an issue?

ROSE FOR THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And as the place erupts in wild cheers – the whistle cuts across swiftly, sending the white flag from Self that Kansas is sinking. This damn zone isn’t working, is it??? 3 times now, and 3 times the Tigers have broken it and scored. You put a box and one on CDR? So Rose can step back and bury the 3. 49-47 now, with Memphis finally taking the lead after a loooooong time – and Kansas needs a timeout. 8:08.

ROSE! YYYYYYEEEEEEEESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The best play is a broken play! In the sets, Rose seems almost tentative to drive, continuously looking for holes that just aren’t there. With a loose ball in his hands? Oh, he becomes a rocket of dynamite! Rose roars up the court, grabbing that rebound and cutting straight through the scrambling defense for the climb to the rim – AND ONE! Oh, how much an open lane – any opening, any seam – can light up his eyes! He reminds me so much of Tony Parker, just a terror in the open court. He is the star attraction, and for so long tonight he’s held it in, or rather – Kansas has done a number on him to hold it in. But not anymore. He can’t. Kansas has gone cold on the offensive end – and the Tigers have taken full advantage, grabbing every opportunity by the throat. Just a little more than 5 minutes to go – and with that scintillating move – with that nonchalant turn-around-and-walk-off from the basket as the whistle comes – haha, it seems every time Rose makes a big play, Bill Self has to call a timeout to try to ground that freshman back into reality. Hear those fans screaming for you? Hear Billy Packer singing your praises? Oh, oh, how beautiful this spring blooms! And to see the Memphis-blue-clad nation waving their banners, their flags, their programs – oh, oh, Rose!!!! You carry the hopes of a city. Can you fulfill them? 53-47, 5:10, timeout Kansas.

HOW DID HE DO THAT?????????? 3 seconds on the clock – crazy inbounds play – nowhere to go – a defender right in his face – AND he’s off-kelter? But he just heaves that shot up there – and as the buzzer sounds – banks it in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOLY FREAKIN’ COW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Shot of the game???????? A near impossible lead now, 56-47, 4:16.

Crap – what a mean thing to do, pulling a 1-2-2 zone on us now? With only 3 minutes to go??? With the shot clock winding down, Rose has to take another 3, from almost the same spot as the miracle shot he’d just made earlier – but this one rattles out. OH!!!!!!!!!!! SAVED by Dozier! Then a shaky pass – again, SAVED by Rose! And they work it inside – power forward to power forward – and Taggert with the ball banks it home! Huge shot, because when Kansas rushes down the court and gets blocked – now Memphis has a 7 point lead, 58-51, with a little more than 2 minutes to go – and they have to foul.

They do. They’ve tried everything in the book. They’ve tried, even, every junk defense known to man, or at least can be covered within the last 48 hours. Now? Now they will try to make a reality of the myth that Memphis cannot shoot free throws. Rose is the one getting mugged. Oh no! That was only the 6th team foul! Now they mug Dozier. Crap . . .

He hits them BOTH! YAY! 60-51, 2:12!!!

SHIT! Ball stolen away by Kansas! Then kicked out – for the THREE??????? Deadly turnaround of 5 quick points right there, and suddenly we’re in danger???? 60-56! Nothing’s safe anymore! Still 1:43 left! Goddamn it! How can the clock tick so slow???

They foul CDR immediately, not even bothering to wait for the inbounds play. Cool Hand Luke CDR swishes both. 62-56, but now I’m frightened by Kansas’ newfound swagger at the 3. We are guarding their perimeter play like tigers. But – OH NO! Dorsey fouled out! Dorsey fouled out! 1:23 still to go! We need his rebounding strength! And Cal covers his face with his hands – but then swiftly recovers and hurries his team over. Ok, relax, guys. The lead is still yours. It’s Kansas that has its backs to the wall. Protect that lead!!!

Oh crap. They foul CDR – and though he looks up with earnest concentration and rocks his body with that rhythmical, tap-shoulder dribble, tap-shoulder dribble thing he has going on – he CAN’T HIT! It was a 1 and 1! And now the Tigers have to defend with their life, 62-58, 1:14!

Ok, so much for that. They must have the mantra in their head not to foul, because Arthur turns around on Taggert and banks home a shot that looked astoundingly easy in 15 seconds flat. The score is now a heart-pounding 62-60, and I don’t know what to think. It seems to be anybody’s ballgame now. Rose takes the inbounds ball and jogs up the court, the din of the feverish crowd in his ears, and he’s waving everyone off – forget it, it’s mine now, this lead has dwindled down to 62-60, and there’s no way I’m letting us lose. There’s still too much clock . . they will get one more possession . . so we need some points here, fast . . and Anderson, after being a shaky recipient of Rose’s pass, calls timeout. 0:44 left.

Absolutely nothing good seems to come out of these timeouts – how come? CDR gets the rock – drives – NO GOOD! Wild shot goes nowhere! And now Kansas grabs that ball and is high-tailing it to the other end as if the place was on FIRE! A tangle at the basket! NO CALL! Anderson comes away with it! Run, run, run, there is no other choice, this might be it!!! And out of the left wing guns CDR, with that long pass up from Anderson to him – meets the defender at the basket at 90mph – WHISTLE! FOUL! 2 shots coming up!

But the nightmare becomes a reality. 16 seconds left. The chance to ice the game with the entire world watching. And CDR goes for some dramatics. Missed the first. MISSED THEM BOTH??????????????? WHAT are you thinking????? But oh, oh, oh – Dozier! Saves that ball in a heart-pounding moment that could’ve killed all their chances – a lifetime of hopes. The ball lands in the hands of Rose – who’s promptly double teamed and fouled. PHEW! Now there’s only 10.8 seconds left, and I have confidence that our super frosh won’t miss.

So Derrick’s at the line. Baby – this game is in your hands now. 2 shots. 0:10 left before the celebration starts on Beale Street. You have the chance, to win this game, to win this game of all games – for your team, your city, and for yourself. There is no doubt in my mind that this is the #1 pick in the draft. But it would be infinitely sweeter if he could make these last 2 free throws to ice the game. No way does the Jayhawks deserve to win. They did some things very nicely; they have a boatload of talent; but they are not special enough, not memorable enough, not interesting enough, to deserve the win. This Memphis team – as much as you can disagree with many aspects of how they play – you cannot disagree with this kid right here. Derrick Rose. What must be going through his mind right now? All those childhood dreams, of shooting the shot that wins the game? This is it. The biggest stage. The biggest moment. The biggest 2 shots of your life.

Missed the first???????? C’MON! C’mon, Derrick. The Kansas bench is getting to its feet. They smell hope. Rose never wavers with his eyes – never gets distracted. He’s in his own cocoon now. Concentrate. Takes that ball again – raises it high over his head and flexes his muscles – then brings it down again, dribble, dribble, dribble – and then with one forward motion – shoots. Oh thank God! It’s GOOD! 63-60! We’ve got that crucial point at least! Now the onus is on Kansas!

WTF??????????????????#@&#?#!@($@&$)(@$#(%*#)!!! CHALMERS with the THREE???????? 2.1 left??????? Oh no – OVERTIME????????????

Um . . I mean, wow. Good game, Kansas. Er, really great. We have no more Dorsey for the OT! F***! How much does it hurt watching the final game of your college career – the most important one – from the bench? UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rose looks ok. Bloody pissed off, but at least physically ok with his leg/cramp. Between him and CDR, they’d lost the game for Memphis at the FT line, missing 4 of their last 5, and one of them a 1 and 1 opp. No sweat though. Let’s play.

Oh, oh, crap. Kansas is going to win. No doubt about it. Rose is damn tired. So is CDR. They cannot get by their man, thus, no driving lanes, and thus, no bloody baskets either. On the other end . . suddenly Kansas is so loose that it can get anything it wants – including a lob and a dunk. Awesome. The clock is ticking down, and now it’s not the friendly clock on your side when you have the lead, winking at you; it’s the clock of DOOM. Half of the OT is already over – and the Tigers have not yet scored???? 63-69????? What more can go wrong? Rose is walking the ball up the court – and now Cal needs to take a 2nd timeout to try to stop the bleeding. 2:29.

65-69, we’ve worked so hard to come this far – and its just heartbreaking to see Rush gambol the length of the court like a deer for a freebie dunk – oh, missed it! But Dozier had already flown by and Rush gets his own miss for the second chance shot. “We need a 3, we need a 3,” Packer begins chanting ominously, and I suddenly wonder if all those blow-out games hurt Memphis – because now Rose is doing what losing teams do – let the ball roll on the floor to save that one tenth of an extra second, before picking it up, hurriedly waving to Anderson to stop gawking at him and run back on O, when suddenly, out of the corner – a THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A rim-rattling THREE by my new hero CDR! Ah, he has all 5 of Memphis’s points so far in the OT! And suddenly, with 58.8 seconds left, we’re alive again, 68-71!

Um . . what??????? Sorry, but I agree with Packer here, and we do NOT need to foul. We just need to play 35 seconds of solid, solid defense. We’re down 68-71 already, you want to be down further, 68-73? Yes, apparently, we do. CDR fouls bloody Mario Chalmers with 45 seconds to go, and the team that does not shoot 3s particularly well is now trying their own hand at employing that dangerous strategy of trading foul shoots for 3s. Memo to Coach Cal: that only works if they miss!!! Which they do not. 68-73.

Oh, it’s over. It’s completely over. And the nightmare begins. Rose is staring at the floor as Collins walks victoriously to the free throw line, that light in his eyes as he feels the hum of the crowd . . the sun shining down from the basketball gods. What an epic game. And now – the clock doesn’t matter, all the prior 44 minutes of the game doesn’t matter – because all of that is done, and the 2 made baskets by Collins at the free throw line just iced it. CDR with a good look at a 3 – “they didn’t need a 3,” Packer insists – but as it bounces off harmlessly – I don’t know, maybe you can blame the coaching a little bit here, the decision-making a little bit there. But in the end – this was David vs Goliath. 2 superstars, Rose and CDR, got worn down in the end by the super depth and talent of Kansas. What was apparent in the beginning of the season with the preseason ratings became frustratingly true. How much hope does that give to the rest of us, stuck in this oil-crazed recession economy? None. The rich get richer. 68-75 final.

Post-game thoughts: You know, everyone is pointing to the 4 missed free throws in the final minute or so of regulation as the reason why the game was lost by Memphis. This is pretty stupid. Yes, ok, they are very important, and missing them was pretty glaring. But they’re only that way if the game becomes tight. How did the game become tight? By blowing a 9 point lead with 2:12 to go and letting Kansas score, almost at will, in about 12 seconds flat each trip down. You can’t ever relax. You can’t ever think that you have it won, because that Miracle Minute of the Duke – Maryland game in 2001 always haunts my memory whenever I see two championship-caliber teams duel it out and one has a “comfortable” lead that was never, in fact, comfortable. They’re not ever gonna quit. And when Memphis tried to lengthen the game at the end – they started playing ‘not to lose’ rather than to win. And Kansas saw the opening. Kansas wanted to win. And suddenly, it became Memphis trying to stop Kansas from winning, rather than Memphis staying on top and in control for the win. It completely flip-flopped, and it was not just because of the free throws. Kids are not machines. Memphis got out-rebounded too, and it obviously hurt a lot to lose Dorsey and not have him for the OT. Boy, those last 2 minutes were just about the longest in recent memory. Choke job? Definitely. This one hurts a lot.

Kansas was the definition of balance. It had 7 guys play 20+ minutes in the national championship game, and it’s got one of everything you could possibly want: 4 guards and 3 big men; 3 seniors, 2 juniors, and 2 sophomores. If you can’t win with that much talent and depth, how can you win? The 4 guard rotation was also able to wear down Memphis’ 3 guard rotation of Rose, CDR, and Anderson. I really don’t think CDR missed those free throws because of the Memphis “inability to shoot free throws” tagline being thrown about all year. It was fatigue, plain and simple. How many minutes did that super duo play on Monday night? 45 + 42 = 87 out of a possible 90. There you go. Add Anderson and that’s 129 out of a possible 135. Sure, Rush and Chalmers also played on exhaust fumes, combining for 82 of a possible 90 between them. But did they have to go to the line in the endgame? No.

Who knew, when Brandon Rush tore his ACL prior to the draft last summer, that he would end up leading his team to college basketball’s most coveted prize? Depth, athleticism, and talent. You can take 8 years to build that up. And all it takes, is one decision, one decision that is not even yours to make – and it all goes awry. Good luck, Derrick, in the NBA! And Duke – can I circle 2010 as our title run?

2s Duke vs 7s West Virginia Game Blog :: NCAA R2 :: My Kingdom for a Center

2008-03-22T21:31:00.005-05:00

Just two days after we squeaked by 15 seed Belmont on a Gerald Henderson coast to coast, we face 7 seed West Virginia in round 2 of the NCAAs. My heart is racing 100 mph. After that uncharacteristic first round performance (all other 2 seeds won with relative ease), we have gotten the usual reassurances: that this is in no way indicative of how Duke will fare the rest of the way, that Belmont played out of their minds, played loose, the crowd was cheering for them, our coach was sick (104 temperature!) and at least some of the players were also coughing afterwards (DeMarcus Nelson), and that we are still hungry, fresh, and confident. All good words. Bobby Knight: “the way [Belmont] moves, cuts, they can play with anybody. They played the game of basketball very very well.” Dickie V: “Duke found a way to win. As Jimmy V would say, ‘survive and advance’. Duke needed to win 6 games in this tournament? Now they’ve only got to win 5.” Even better.

Ok, so now we’re set for round 2, we’re gonna kick some butts, and we’re gonna show everyone how Duke basketball is played. G is doing some high jumps before the jump ball, a very good omen. They get first possession – oh, a lucky roll on their first shot! On our first shot . . well, we turn it over. Nelson makes a risky baseline drive to give to Kyle on the opposite end, aaaaand . . he steps on the line. Oooo-kay? Boy, Kyle looks bewildered. Wow, they’re getting some very good looks on their possessions – taking Singler right into the lane? Just not finishing. G with a missed 3. WHAT??? Nelson turns it over??? Traveling?

Ok, calm down, calm down. We still have 39 minutes left to play. This is not exactly a 1 seed, guys . . relax, have some patience. I need some fresh air already. OH, FINALLY! SOME POINTS! And it’s our gritty point guard, Greg Paulus, who gets the screen from Lance and fires off the THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 3-4, 17:36.

OH NELSON! There’s our senior leader!!! Looks to pass . . nobody open . . Singler points to a spot . . and he takes it in himself, lowering that muscular shoulder, driving, driving – then elevating strongly for beautiful right hook. And we take the lead! That is not to be taken for granted anymore. 5-4, 17:00.

Oh, GREAT call. Great call, officials. Wellington Smith with a solid immovable wall on Paulus, just drops him stone cold to the ground as Nichols coasts by, and the whistle comes immediately. A chorus of throaty boos descend upon Smith as the possession arrow swiftly goes the other way (at least, I hope they’re booing Smith, and NOT Greg – you can never tell with these anti-Duke crowds). So Smith gets a free pass to the bench with 2 early fouls – do not pass Go, do not collect $200 – as Huggins argues in vain. Greg nods vigorously to his teammates’ questions of ‘are you ok?’.

In the slight cloud of chaos that ensues – Greg is dribbling innocently out on the right side – eyes the basket – and somehow G is left completely alone – and you know what that means! OLE OLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ALLEY-OOP FOR GERALD HENDERSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW-EEEE! “Superior athletic ability!”

Haha!!!!! DUKE IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Singler with the hand-off, and Greg just runs to his spot and fires, hand in his face and all – AND HITS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bottom of the net, baby!!!! He’s excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pump ‘em up, y’all!!!!! C’mon, cheer for your Duke Blue Devils!!!! 10-0 run!!!!

Whoa. Huggy Bear with some foul words during a timeout, and is hit with a technical. Damn! Just give the game to us, why don’tcha? So Scheyer comes off the bench and enters the game, and with not a second gone by, snags 2 points. 12-4, 15:36. “Well, Bob Huggins is certainly known to be an intense coach. And maybe his team needs something to get their fire started.” Sure, alright . . bring it on.

Some teeth-gnashing, as Paulus finds a cutting Lance Thomas with a perfect threading pass – but Thomas can’t finish!!!! You’re 1 inch away, dude! FINISH! Zoubek with the alert offensive board – but can’t muscle his way against Smalligan, shuffles his feet, and it’s all over. Turnover. Can one of our guards please always be available by his side, so that he can dump it off before being whistled for the inevitable TO? Kinda like a personal assistant? Just an idea. That ball is kinda valuable.

Wow, great defense from Paulus! Nichols shakes Paulus off, but when the pass soars overhead to a cutting Nichols, Paulus sprints his way over and puts up both hands up high, using his body and his strength to push back against Nichols and stand his ground – and force the turnover! Radical!!!!!

Shoot. Scheyer drives into the lane, finds his path cut off, and gets whistled for the turnover. Nice try though. Sweet! Duke’s defense is looking SOLID. 35 seconds of solid, solid work. When Joe Alexander drives – with Singler on him – G rotates over to help, and the two of them pin him down almost on top of the baseline, with G easily blocking his shot attempt. Hell, if it worked against Hansborough, it’s gonna be fool-proof against you. Smalligan squirrels for the loose ball, but the shot clock continues to run, and though they swing it around for a 3 point shooter . . it clanks off the rim, and the clock expires. Thank you for playing – next!

The lane opens up for Nolan, and he licks his chops while taking it all the way – but gets fouled. Knocks down both free throws, for a 10 point lead! 14-4, 14:06, and we’ve held WVU scoreless for 4 full minutes now. They suddenly realize that too, and comes roaring back to life, reeling off 4 quick points, including one off an inbounds play that is quite breathtaking. But we respond right back with defense turning into offense. Singler with a great play to leap up and alter a shot, then grab the loose ball out of the air. Scheyer runs it up the court, looks to shoot, and Alexander looks overmatched, trying to guess where the quicker Scheyer will go and then jumps into the air, boxing Scheyer’s shoulder as he comes down and promptly getting the whistle. As Scheyer snickers and steps up to the free throw line, the announcers applaud that “this foul Alexander had on Scheyer was a real foul. He deserves to go to the line.” Oh, ok, thanks. Yeah, as opposed to the imaginery fouls that we so often must contend with. Unreal. 16-8, 12:35.

Oh, Paulus, Paulus, Paulus!!!! He gets elbowed in the face and drops down to the ground, but no whistle – they race the ball away from our full court pressure like a bottle rocket, gets it in the hands of the always-dangerous Alexander for 3 – nope! – but they grab the rebound too – and here comes Paulus to slap it away! A STEAL! And quick as lightening, he’s off to the other end, G running with him, ALL FIVE WVU guys chasing after him, a pack of bloodhounds chasing one lonely fleet little fox with the ball. Crap – fastbreak too fast! And the ball slips away/is slapped away and out of bounds. Grrrrrrrr.

ANOTHER STEAL! G this time, and now it’s in the backcourt, where we have more of a head start. Singler is the running mate this time, and G sends him the bounce pass – fouled! Da’Sean Butler with his 2nd. “This is going to test the creativity of Bob Huggins on the sidelines.” Yeah, I hear WVU has a thin bench? Good luck with that, dude. We are perfect on the charity stripe so far, 8 for 8, as we once again grab a 10 point lead, 18-8, 12:02.

WVU goes small, with Joe Mazzulla at the controls, and it works like heck. They make a 7-0 run to cut it down to 18-15 in a hurry, with Alexander in there making a 3 point play and a beautiful finger roll as he got past Thomas in the lane. The cheering for them gets louder and louder. Uh oh, Singler with his 2nd foul, guarding Alexander, 10:00. David McClure comes in for him. Hmm, so far, LT has been unsuccessful, Z’s still not ready for primetime, and Singler with 2 fouls. Can McClure do better?

King all alone in the corner! But no – first shot is short. Maybe too wide open? Awww, Paulus with the drive and floater! Iron will! YAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! KING!!!!!!!! This time, when Paulus finds him in the corner again – he fakes the 3, takes his defender off balance, then takes 2 dribbles inside the circle and snags a difficult, 15 foot jumper from the elbow. “Mr. Greenlight!” I am liking this cushion that we have once again: 24-17, 8:01.

“I tell you what, Duke’s defense is so good. I can’t imagine the difference between Thursday and this one. They are denying the first pass . . WVU already has 2 guys in foul trouble, Smith and Butler, 2 very athletic forwards.” I tell you what, our offense is pretty darn good too. Hee hee, G with the long loping stride, has the rebound, wants to try that coast to coast thing again – but oh! Blocked? Hit the rim? Lance with a nice post-up move! AND NELSON! Just when Scheyer looked to be in trouble on the far right wing, pinned down by 1 and now 2 defenders – Nelson flashes into the paint, receives the pinpoint pass from Jon, waits calmly for his defender to excuse himself by flying out of bounds, and then easily ratchets up for the deuce.

“Look at how tired West Virginia is. 4 guys and it took 8 seconds to bring the ball upcourt.” And as Mazzulla tries to cut and trips himself up trying to reach for the pass that zips out of bounds, “when you are fatigued, you make mistakes like that. The normal rotation is off sync with Butler and Smith with 2 fouls each.” Singler, with 2 fouls, checks back into the game.

OH, pretty! Scheyer is so crafty! He knows he wants to find Singler, but he’s such a threat himself to score that they all key in on him, and as he dribbles, waits, tangles a bit with the ball on the free throw line . . he finds the opportune moment for Singler to wiggle free, and then BAM! The pass, the catch, and the release. Boom, boom, boom! Layup, and we’re done. Gorgeous.

Boy, look at Alexander work! Their 3 pointer again is off the mark – but Alexander is right under the basket, and he somehow grabs the rebound. Alarmed, both Singler and McClure front him, trying to shove him out of bounds, both hands up high – but Alexander just pushes, pushes, his eyes peering straight up for the slightest seam to get that shot off. And it goes! “He should get FIVE POINTS for that effort!” Well! He is pretty damn good, isn’t he?

Scheyer answers right back with an authoritative baseline drive and 7 footer. His first points from the floor? Wow. 34-27, 1:17 left, and Paulus with the ball dribbles casually over to Coach K for a word and a shamrock shake, some magic words, then crosses the line and lets the ball dribble by itself as he crosses his arms and yells said words to his teammates. Hmm, wonder what they are connotating? A 3 by Scheyer. No good. Ball falls right into the hands of Paulus! Who lets it fly for another 3 point try. Awww – nope, no good either. Is that 2 for 9 now on threes??? When we started off so hot? They run the other way and Scheyer fouls Butler. 34-29. Then we throw it away??? Damn! Paulus gets caught up in the air and finds no one to throw it too. They run the other way . . scramble for the loose ball . . out of bounds . . to WVU. 2.8 seconds left – and they can’t hit from 3. Phew! 34-29 halftime.

Second half: OOOOOOHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! G with another DUNK-A-THON! Way to start off the half! And this one courtesy of Lance Thomas, who feeds Gerald in the post, with just one defender on him – never, never enough – and he elevates for the DUNK! “Henderson starts the second half with a slam and a look. Did you see the look?” You mean the “how’d you like that!” look? Oh, I wish I could see it.

WVU is 0-8 when they are trailing at the half. Nice. Oh, a STEAL by Singler! Nelson grabs it and runs – but can’t finish! That’s 2 close ones now that he’s been unable to finish. Still, I like this game very much. Whoever said WVU can’t be turned over? Hmmm, and now Nelson, all alone in the corner, can’t hit the three. We’ve been having some tremendously, startlingly OPEN looks on 3s today . . just can’t knock them down! If we did, we’ll be up 12 or 15 rather than just 7 right now; our defense is that good. Wonder what’s wrong?

WOW. GREAT D by Duke! 35 seconds of running WVU in circles, trying to find openings, and they make a pass here, a look there, no one getting open even a hair – and finally they take a drive, but it is way, way too late, with the buzzer sounding as the shot is desperately heaved up. Nope. Doesn’t count. Better luck tomorrow! “Credit Duke! It looks like they’ve got 7 guys out there right now.”

Then on the other end – we do not look much better – but we do wind up with 2 offensive boards! Nelson is looking, looking, G looks too, but neither can find a clean path to the goal, and finally Nelson gets to the elbow and tries a floater – no! But Lance with the board! Henderson tries a baseline jumper – no! But Singler amongst a pack of guys grabs the board – and is bodily fouled. That’s 3 on Smith.

Uh oh. Airball three from G? Who worked so hard to get open! I mean, nobody was within 10 feet of him! Then they race down court for a transition 3, and it’s danger time. 37-34, 16:03, and the place is going bonkers. We are 2 of 11 from 3 point land, which is a nightmare. And Nelson, knowing that he must answer the call, that he must somehow find a way of penetrating into the lane no matter what the odds – finds it cut off and turns around . . turnover. Crap! You can see the frustration all over his face. 2 of 9 shooting so far for him? Bully.

SHHHIIIITTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 35 seconds of GREAT defense, and then the dagger! Ruoff is pinned down in the far corner by Scheyer almost to the point of the bench – and he has to toss up a hopeless three – but it hits! GODDAMN IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 37-37 tie???????? They get a miracle shot when we can’t hit for our life, even if left WIDE OPEN????? Arrrrrgggghhhhhhh!!! At least it’s only 15:03, still plenty of time left.

Alarm bells are ringing in Gerald Henderson’s head. He takes it personally, and drives to the basket with only one goal in mind – ATTACK. Ugh, he’s fouled. But boy, when he steps up to the free throw line and misses the first – the cheers that erupt from the pro-underdog crowd now seethes at him. Taking a deep breath . . he lines up the second, and makes it. But already the announcers are turning against them, pulling now for the underdog too, calling Duke “rattled” by WVU’s transition threes. That is “three”, thank you. Singular, not plural. But now on their end, with every bit of momentum on their side – Alexander slips by Singler and gets a clear lane to the goal, and G tries to block it – but gets called for the foul instead. Count the basket! 3 point play again by their golden boy Alexander! “Boy, has the emotion in this building FLIP-FLOPPED!!” the announcers roar with glee. As the thunderous applause rains down upon the Mountaineers. Relax, Devils. Feed off that hatred. Imagine they are Carolina. We will wear them down. 38-40, 14:38.

Oh no. In the caldron of emotion right now, WVU, overeager, feeling it, hopping up and down, commits 2 fouls in a row on Singler and G to disrupt our offense. Off the 3rd reset – Nolan does a drive-by – but misses! Singler is there for the key rebound – but NO! Push-off! FOUL! Crap! 3rd on Kyle! Then on the other end – Scheyer exacts revenge, draws a charge from Ruoff – his 3rd. “Nobody wants to go home!” The announcers cry over the noise.

Singler drives on Alexander – but is BLOCKED! The cameras capture Alexander talking smack to the freshman as well – but WHY is Singler getting blocked on every drive he attempts nowadays???? Is it because he’s lost his foot speed? Oh, Scheyer with a beautiful pull-up jumper! Smooth as butter! Ties it up, 40-40, 13:25 to go. DAMN! Alexander gets free from McClure, and hits a THREE! Then – Nelson is BLOCKED! By Alexander! This dude is everywhere!

Oh, no, no, no – Singler with his fourth foul??????? 12:43 still left? C’mon! You know they’re calling every stupid little thing! Arrrrgghh!

SHIT. But the trouble does not end there. Nolan cannot hit the 1 and 1. They grab every offensive board known to man, and they make their bonus attempts too. 40-45, Scheyer is now at the point, advancing up the ball, we need to stop the bleeding – but, WTF? Whistle? LANCE?????? Awww, offensive foul? And as the ball swings quickly the other way – the crowd is just baying for blood, their throaty roars drowning out the frustrated looks on the Duke players’ faces. This cannot be it. This cannot be our last stand. If our 3s aren’t falling, then attack! attack! and attack! They are calling every single thing, WVU is in foul trouble, and you have to take advantage of that! They are not deep. If you can get Mr. Golden Boy over here in foul trouble, or get Smith off the floor too, then at least we may be able to wear them down. And Nelson. You’ve got to try harder. By that I mean less forcing shots and dropping that shoulder, and more using all your wiles and all your 4 years of experience to help us out. You know that we suck when you don’t come to play? Oh oh oh . . and then they blow right through our defense for a layup. Classic. 40-47, and Coach K has seen enough. Timeout, Duke, 11:43.

There it is. Smith with his 4th foul, 11:04. But we don’t capitalize. I mean – C’MON! You get two timeouts, and you come out of them with nothing better than Paulus trying back-to-back long threes? To run our tally up to 2 for 13? That’s our answer?

Nice! Nelson with the rebound, is immediately double-trapped and shrink-wrapped down against the baseline, gets so frustrated waiting for the whistle to blow that he leaps into the air and bounces that ball hard out of bounds off the WVU player. There. Now go to hell.

THERE IT IS! 3rd foul on Alexander! And it was Scheyer, doing what he’s been doing better and better nowadays, driving into the lane and then finishing despite a whack on the arm from Alexander. AND ONE! Oh, Greg hugs him! The Duke section standing up and cheering for him! That was our first bucket since – god, when? 4 min ago? 43-47, 9:23.

Whoa . . Nelson is only 3 for 16 today????? That is beyond morbid. Makes 1 of 2 at the line . . and then on the other end, picks up 2 fouls in a hurry. Shit. That Mazzulla kid too quick for him? A frustrated, shut-down Nelson is NEVER good for our team. 44-51, 8:36, and the bleeding continues. If we somehow win, with these kind of numbers? It’ll be nothing short of a miracle.

Awwww, G! G answers with a quicksilver baseline drive – and REVERSE! Awesome! Then Lance quickly reverses that smile off our face with a foul on Alexander, trying to tie him up. Uh, no – that’ll be a reach-in. Three on Lance. Shit – everything is going WVU’s way. Everything. If they’d wanted a genie in a bottle, they would get that too. Alexander only makes 1 of 2 at the line? No prob-lemo. They’ll just grab the offensive board. LANCE!!!!!!! C’MON! Foul #4 on you? Do you WANT to go home?????

So now Kyle must come back in, earlier than what Coach K wanted. Let’s hope to God that he does not foul out. This is not a good strategy. We are cold from 3 point land – woefully, bewilderingly, disgustingly so – so what do we do? Shoot some more threes?????? Oh, let’s!! Nelson with one. Cling! Scheyer with one. Cling! Singler is in there – can we please get him a touch or two before he inevitably fouls out? We have missed 13 consecutive shots from beyond the arc! Please grab a score sheet the next time you want to chat with your coach and read up!

Hey, G with a great STEAL! Tries to save it in vain but can’t, as it flies out of bounds. Great, great effort though. It’s a weird noise level right now: a mix of “Let’s Go, Duke!” commingling with boos. The Duke section behind the bench is on their feet, clapping and cheering, trying to rally the Blue Devils on, but it’s a small contingent by far.

Can we cut this s**** out????? No one wants to drive, so Paulus takes yet another long three – and once again, it’s short. “Tired legs,” the announcers say ominously. This is starting to look like Illinois in the 2005 championship final, so stymied by Carolina’s big inside presence that they prayed to God to bail them out with threes. It didn’t work then, and – despite WVU not having any kind of similar inside presence – it’s not working out now. We’ve never made a comeback without hitting our 3s. Never. And now with every tick of the clock winding down . . and with no appearance from the Blue Devils in changing their ways – I am sagging deeper and deeper into the couch. They are about to shoot themselves out of this tournament. Not just this ballgame – but this tournament, this great Madness of March, this whole season. Nelson will end his career with 3 alarmingly bad games. The whole team will end this season with 3 terrible games from beyond the arc. And it will be to a 5 seed, a 15 seed, and a 7 seed. Embarrassing. Do you not even want a crack at 3 seed Xavier? At 1 seed UCLA? . . . Kyle?

Remember how giddy everyone was when the brackets came out? Giggling with glee at the thought of sidestepping such intense 3 seeds as Louisville and Stanford, then smiling when Xavier had to fight for its life against 14 seed Georgia? Remember? That was all of 6 days ago. How can you tell me now . . that we’re already done? In none of our dreams, did we dare imagine this. Down 46-54 to a 7 seed with 5:43 left, and seeing no hope. None.

Because WVU is now laughing at us. Yet ANOTHER backdoor??????? The antidote to our pressure D!$&@#*&*$#%! Heartbreaking! Then – a backbreaking three by Ruoff! It’s over. It is clearly over. 49-60???????? And, now, finally, the notion of rescuing ourselves by our 3s are kaput. G drives!! Promptly gets fouled. WVU is very smart, fouling G every time he gets anywhere near the basket to stop our momentum and confidence. If he’s our only hope – and he starts getting frustrated at not being able to finish – then we have no hope of making a comeback. Heehee! Lance is frowning like a demon right now from the bench. Glad to see some anger from him – though why does it NEVER translate onto the court? 51-60, 4:23.

Oh Jesus Christ. Perfect timing. With such a commanding lead, WVU plays stallball, and though we defend our tails off, they grab offensive boards like they have magnetized paws, hogging an entire minute and then some of our precious clock to themselves. It is beyond over at this point. I mean – we are hopelessly being outrebounded, 26-43. No turnover advantage whatsoever. 3 point shooting down the drain. And the most frustrating thing is that it’s not like WVU is a brilliant club that’s doing anything spectacular defensively. It’s us that’s the problem. Those are WIDE OPEN shots. They’re just not going down! And then, on top of that, we take some more long jumpshots, with no offensive boards in sight if we miss. I just . . I don’t know what to say. It is so, so heartbreaking. If the team that you love goes out of the tournament . . then I could care less, frankly, what any other team does. The whole beauty of March just goes right down the tubes.

I think desperation calls for desperation, don’t you think? Zone? Full court pressure? Zoubek? We are down ELEVEN. How are we gonna get back into it without 3 point shooting? HOW????????

Oh no. Another foul on Duke. More points for them to build onto their lead. And they don’t miss a thing from the line. When he hears the whistle, G covers his face with his hands in despair. But look! Look at Kyle with a nifty spin move in the lane and a double-pump to draw the foul, the 4th on Alexander! NICE!!! Can he leave the game now, please? Singler at the line, but we’re still down 51-64, 2:50 left.

Full court pressure now – but they beat it pretty easily with high passes, looking to run away from us for an easy bucket – but OH! Ill-adviced decision to reverse it out, trying to milk the clock – and Scheyer with the STEAL! G knows what to do with it – push, push, push! – and after his heroics in the Belmont game, they are not going to let him finish one iota. Fouled, on his way to the bucket. Well, bye bye Da’Sean Butler. You’re gone.

But Gerald does not make a single free throw. Meanwhile, the shortest guy on the floor, Mazzulla, gets his mitts on his 150th rebound, and Paulus fouls him. Of course, he makes both free throws. Oh, finally. About 10 minutes too late. G with a three pointer that finally goes in. So there is no moving basket, huh? It really is there? 55-66, right back to where we started, oh, 5 min ago. But now, there’s just 1:54 left. No chance in hell. Timeout to drag out the pain a little bit more.

The crowd is on their feet. They play keep-away, and Paulus is forced to foul. And now Nelson comes off the floor from his final career game. To the stinging ring of cheers for the opponent in his ears. Terrible day. Terrible shooting. Terrible performance for him. But Greg is still on the floor, still fighting. Races up the court and drills a three from the top of the key, 25 feet out, in about 4 seconds flat. Very thankful for that, but we are still parked at 58-68, 55 seconds left.

Ok, so now the 3 point shots fall? How cruel is fate? Nolan with another one, despite a hand in his face. A forced turnover. A nice offensive put-back. But yeah, it’s over. 67-73, no quit in the end to at least close the gap a little in the score, but . . it is way, way too late. So. The Belmont scare was not an anomaly. The NC State scare was not an anomaly. The Clemson loss . . this loss . . 5 losses in our last 11. All not aberrations. The bench gave us no lift. Mazzulla had a career game for them. Kyle with some untimely fouls that really limited him . . and oh, oh – DeMarcus Nelson. The look on his face, as he walked the post-game line, was just – awful. Blank. Almost expressionless, closed off – but wrestling with monumental hurt and disbelief. I want to cry. But I can’t. I won’t. These kids played their hearts out today. They really wanted to prove something. But the shots just did not fall. And the rebounding differential: a heartbreaking 27-47. This, when the other team was not a big team at all. Not by far. O, my kingdom for a center!

Oh, you know the vultures are circling in already. The lion has fallen. Doug Goettieb on ESPN News: “Stunning? Is it really stunning? I think there’s several levels to this. Since winning the championship in 2001, Duke has yet to be a top 4 seed (talent-wise). Whether its because of recruiting, or players leaving early . . ” WVU players, as reported by The New York Times, when told there’s 8 McDonald’s All-Americans on the Duke roster: “Really? Who???” The headline on SI.com: “Down Goes Duke”. And I don’t even want to touch the boards.

I understand the concern. This is our second quick exit in 2 years now, and this year was especially puzzling because we had such a red-hot start, 22-1, 10-0 in the conference. Usually after a loss I can write an entire term paper on why we lost and what we need to do better. But, this one? Our very last game? Let me just say that no other game this year has so prepared me for the bitter result at the end than this one. I could see it from a mile away. I knew it by the 8 minute mark. And thus, I’m not as bitter/angry/sad as I usually am when we lose. I don’t feel like dissecting it too much either. I’m just going to let it go.

Watching the post-game presser . . my God, the look on G’s face . . or the 2 seconds I could see of it, he had it down for the majority of the time. Here was our hero from the Belmont game, and he could not even lift his head to face the reporters. It was so heartbreaking. And suddenly, I didn’t care anymore. I mean . . who cares how they got all those rebounds? Who cares about strategy, rotation, who should’ve played over whom . . .

Our season is over. It’s the worst feeling in the world. And I have nothing but thanks for our players. To see Gerald, with so much talent, not even look up from the podium . . C’mon. Let him go. Just – let this one go. We don’t need to dissect it to death. It’s fine. It’s a game, and it should stay that way.

My heart goes out to DeMarcus Nelson, our senior captain. Thank you for leading the team to a most memorable, 28-6 season – and good luck, on whatever you do in the future. I am sure you'll make it to the NBA!

Pitt Out-Toughs Louisville in Big East Qtr Final :: 76-69 OT

2008-03-13T22:17:00.006-05:00

Wow. Watching Pitt and Louisville battle – it was just so reminiscent of Pitt – Duke, and the toughness that I saw there in December – at the time, loved/hated – but now, here, I suddenly loved. What a team. Individually, these are not great players. They’re not the highest recruited players, not the McDonald’s All-Americans, won’t wow you with any one thing they do. But together . . together they operate as a unit on the highest level possible. It’s a marvel, watching them. They just seem to know what’s needed to get done, and when that clock ticks down to the last 2 minutes of regulation, or the last 3 minutes of overtime, they just go about their business. Never bats an eye. Never panics. They are able to get their stops, make Louisville adjust their shots, grab all the loose balls, all the free throws that counted (9 of 9 at the end). Down 1 with 13:51 to go, they went on a run, then Louisville went on a run of their own, and the #2 seeded Cards, fresh and deep, looked confident. The announcers are saying how nobody can match up with their 6th man, Earl Clark. They appear to be able to run away from Pitt any time they chose. Louisville was up 4 with 2:40 to go, with all the momentum on their side.

But Pitt comes right back. They don’t budge. They hold Louisville to no field goal for a full 2 minutes - while they tie it up, while they get the go-ahead - and suddenly they’ve wiped that smile off the Cards’ face and made them play catch-up! Unreal! If Blair had hit his free throws at the end, they might’ve won it in regulation. Instead, Louisville tied it 62-62, and the game went into overtime.

But it was the team that had to play an extra game last night that came roaring out in OT – forcefully taking the lead, AND the game, from the higher-seeded Cardinals. Sosa, Caracter, Padgett’s back, the long, lean, explosive Earl Clark off the bench, Terrence Williams, almost any other night a triple-double threat, wasn't he supposed to be the best athlete on the floor? In fact, the whole team? Weren't they gonna wear Pitt down, down, down?

Yet, they lost. Both teams had a lot of NYC-area kids, and during one timeout it was NYC darling Edgar Sosa who had the long face, while Levance Fields on the other end was smiling. This, when Sosa and the Cards still had a great chance. But he just couldn’t see any light. Credit that, to the toughness of Pitt. This is the same Edgar Sosa that I watched last year go up against a veteran Texas A&M squad, with A.C. Law, and almost single-handedly will his team to victory. How much has changed here? Great props to Pitt. I’m glad we played them back in December, right here in the Garden. Big-time game for a young Duke squad, against a program that’s very quietly built a stellar record in the last few years. 6 Big East title games in 7 years! That’s insane! Will they do it again this year? 76-69 OT, with Marquette in the semi-final game tomorrow night.

#5 Duke vs #1 UNC Game Blog – The Fight for Number One

2008-03-08T23:55:00.007-06:00

Epic rivalry. National Player of the Year candidates. Hall of Fame coaches. Need we say more? Duke and Carolina opens the college basketball season for fair weather fans after the Super Bowl, and now they close it out. The regular season is all but over. Louisville – Georgetown has been decided. UCLA – Stanford has been decided. Wisconsin has won the Big Ten, Kansas and Texas will share the Big 12, and Tennessee gets the SEC. All of that pales in comparison to round 2 of the fight for supremacy on Tobacco Road. Tonight, Senior Night, both teams are top 5 and 13-2 in the conference. The ACC title . . the #1 seed in the East . . and the bragging rights, are all on the line. This one, then, is for all the marbles.

We get the jumpball, everyone scrambles and sizes each other up, and G has already picked out his spot on the 3 point line. FOR THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! “GERRR-ald HENDERSON strikes first!” His high school buddy, Wayne Ellington, being hounded by Kyle Singler, seemingly throws up a circus shot, falling away – but it hits! UGH! It’s gonna be that kind of night for them, huh? Our honored senior DeMarcus Nelson’s first shot, however, is an uncharacteristic pull-up jumper from 17 feet out. It’s short. 3-2.

Jeez, Hansbrough is a beast. Misses, but that’s not enough, he must get the loose ball back, he must fight through 2 set defenders’ arms raised up high, and somehow, no matter how forced it looks, it always goes back in. Whatever; at least we’re making him work for it. HUH????? Lance Thomas got blocked??? By who? Awww . . you’ve got to be kidding me. QT, who’s 5 inches shorter than him. Is it really gonna be that kind of night?

Basket interference! That ball was in the cylinder! No call. Singler blocked by Deon? First subs in: Lawson comes in for UNC, Zoubek for Duke. Lawson immediately draws a help defender and dishes to an open Green for the flush. His vision, certainly, has not been impaired. OH SCHEYER!!!!!!!!!!!! What a pretty, tricky, spinning move inside! But Lawson immediately snatches the spotlight back, outrunning everybody for the easy transition deuce. Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me. What are we, chopped liver? As Singler looked to have sealed off his man – but gets blocked by Green! That’s the 3rd or 4th block already by UNC! C’mon! Hansbrough is off the floor! Yet we look terrible – slower, smaller, and getting our shots sent back to us right and left. 5-10, 5 minutes gone.

YAY, Zoubs!!!!!!! Paulus with the dish inside, and big Z ain’t getting blocked! An easy one for him!!!! Nolan with a jumper! Oh no. 2nd foul on Zoubek, trying to reach in on Hansbrough. 13:58 still to go, and there goes a vital part of our 5-step plan to contain and/or otherwise dispose of Psycho T. Poor Brian – he jumped up and down at that call and looked terribly disappointed. At this point, he’s just not quick enough to guard a National Player of the Year candidate. “There are a lot of guys who can’t handle {Hansbrough]”, Dickie V offers condolences as Brian heads to the bench. Thank God we’ve got someone who can at least play with him, but he’ll be very tired tonight if he doesn’t get much help: our MVP, Kyle Singler.

Nice job, Lance, to draw the offensive foul on Lawson! Awww . . now what? Lance with a foul trying to get rid of Hansbrough on his back – and that’s his 2nd. 12:28 still left to play! This sucks! Singler is the only one left standing, and he already has one foul too. Coach K nods to DeMarcus and Greg to replace LT and Nolan, who in about 2 minutes each have picked up tiny, miniscule fouls in terms of advantage gained but are, in fact, colossal to our defensive plan. This Hansbrough guy is like the chicken pox – you get anywhere near him and the whole team becomes infected. What happened to our great plan in the first game to contain him while not picking up fouls? We are already at 6 team fouls here, and the next one sends them to the line for a 1 and 1. How can we be regressing? 9-13.

Oh, Taylor King with some energy!!! Forces Tyler Hansbrough to the floor in a sandwich between him and Kyle Singler, and forces the jump ball – to Duke! Awesome!!! Or . . not. King then fouls QT, and that’s the 7th on the team. They’re in the bonus – at 11:20 in the first half. Ridiculous! This is also, unfortunately, one of the best FT shooting teams in the nation. Coach K, may I suggest – a little – zone?

They are on fire. Carolina is, I mean. 9-20???? When was the last time we scored? I can’t remember. I think its true – in the beginning, you tend to play tighter because you’re at home, you’re expected to do well, and you especially want to do well for DeMarcus, etc. And Carolina is taking full advantage. Danny Green is virtually unstoppable. The height advantage of UNC is really bothering our drives and our passes, and we have 6 turnovers already to their 2. We’ve gone through scoring droughts before, but this is not a scoring drought. This is a confidence drought. We look uncomfortable out there. Guys are in foul trouble. Shots are being resoundingly rejected. Our offense is not even recognizable to me – just a bunch of guys dribbling and trying to create something one on one but it goes awry. Kyle has so far been blocked twice, tried a spin move but lost the ball, then got double-teamed and lost the ball. His 3 point attempt also missed. D-Marc’s been quiet – unable to drive, unable to hit the jumper, or the long range 3. Greg is being guarded like a treasure chest. Let’s turn this around, guys. One possession at a time. Have some patience. Make them guard you!

Wow, we look scary – in the worst way. After a made basket by Hansbrough driving on Singler and getting him to fall down – they steal the rebound! Thank God they missed! Then on the other end – we look to have a transition opportunity – but nope, the 3 pointer is cut off – so DeMarcus tries to drive, the next best thing – and the speed of this change or the defenders coming at him makes him lose it out of bounds. Wow. Then Lawson blows by Paulus, doesn’t care about Singler trying to protect the basket, and just lays it up around him. “Are you kidding me???” Dickie V screams. I am screaming the same thing! 11-24??? In our own house??? We’re in for a loooong night. 8:20.

With nothing pretty to see out on the court, the cameras pan to the stands. Hey look! Celebrity central tonight! There’s the Manning brothers, Jay Will, Duhon, and Laettner. LeBron James wanted to come too but is stuck somewhere in a snowstorm in Ohio. OHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! G with the super drive for the DUNK! That’s exactly what we needed!!! Deon is fouled – and the Crazies go nuts! Why? Speedo Guy is doing a dance. Deon, not a great free throw shooter anyway, misses his first. Made his 2nd, though.

We trap and steal the ball – awesome! But again, the opportunity to capitalize is missed, as Nelson misses a 3 that “we need so much,” Dickie V says as it flies in the air. Singler with the offensive board! But it sails out of bounds under pressure in a pass back out. “Nelson is trying to do too much,” Dickie V surmises, as they do a close-up on DeMarcus, those eyebrows slightly furrowed, mouthing “f***” on his missed shot. 15-29, 5:18.

This game is atrocious. Duke is only shooting 21%? Thank God UNC is shooting 38%, and not 70% as NC State was a while back. PAULUS FOR THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH THANK GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! By the sudden ROAR from the crowd, you’ll think he’d won a national championship game for us on the last second shot! Cheerleaders erupt along the baseline, the students go crazy, the stands start vibrating again, and the noise level just hit 18,000 decibels out there. It was THAT important, for a shot – any shot – to fall through . . and especially this shot, with QT right in his face. Boy, I don’t think a team has paid this much attention to guarding Greg since – ever, huh? Yet he steps up when we need him the most, when we were searching for someone to ignite this fire that has gone out. Still a stunning 18-29, but at least one of our 3 point shooters is 50%, right, Greg? 5:01.

David McClure with a BLOCK! Way to go, Troy! The crowd hums with anticipation, sensing a potential turnaround for the Devils. We won’t ask you to win this game. We just ask you to keep it close, to protect our pride. Well, Carolina gets the ball back – but Hansbrough misses! McClure with the hotly contested rebound!!!! Crisp pass out – cross court – then Scheyer hits Paulus, finally with nobody in his face, free to breathe – A WIDE OPEN THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT HITS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 21-29! We have hope!!! We have life!!!! Oh, thank you, Greg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now this place has really come alive. The fans are the loudest I’ve heard them thus far. It is deafening, and a little frightening, if you’re the visiting players. It sounds like an ocean wave is about to hit you, and drown you right out of the gym. 4 minutes to the end of the half. Let’s make a little run! “Let’s Go, Duke!” “Let’s Go, Duke!” “Let’s Go, Duke!” Paulus basks in the cheers of the rocking arena, walking the ball up. WOW! What a pretty move! Singler looking like he was beaten, nowhere to turn, had to pass the ball back out to Scheyer – and then Scheyer seemingly loses it – but Kyle picks it up like a hawk to a mouse and immediately turns around – doesn’t think, all instinct, just shots – and the ball banks IN! OH! Snuggles in like a charm!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a shot! And Kyle jogs back on D with a backward look, his mouth slightly open, his eyes unwavering – it’s his first made shot, and that’s got to feel good. Our two best players in that first UNC game, Paulus and Singler, are starting to heat up. That is GREAT news. Let’s add a little G, a little Scheyer, a little LT angry on the bench, and we can make this a ballgame again! 23-29, 3:36.

PAULUS AGAIN! OH MY! He can’t miss! He’s single-handedly willing us back in the game! To hear that crowd cheer for him. How reminiscent of last year was that, when we discovered his 3 point specialty? Who knew we were getting such a shooter when we were recruiting him? As Kyle set a solid screen for him on that exchange. 26-31, we are within 5.

Ellington answers with a 3 of his own. Yeah, forget about that 4 for 24 from him and Green last time ever again. With G guarding him too. Uh oh. Here it comes. That firepower unravels. Greg with a loooong 3 that doesn’t go, and immediately, they’re pushing it, they’re 3 on 1, and poor Greg is posterized as Green dunks. Then another fastbreak – a steal – as Ellington lays it in. 26-38 in a hurry, and it is looking exactly like it was last year, when UNC would flash out for easy buckets, and Duke would bring it laboriously back. We look slow and unathletic out there, while they’re looking like they’re just having fun, a breeze through the park. This is #1 vs #5, baby. Not #1 vs #25. Shore it up. And Coach K calls a timeout. 2:05 left.

You’re goddamn kidding me. Now Dickie V is playing the sympathy card for Duke? Saying things like, “the way Carolina is playing, if Duke can go into halftime under 10, they’ve got to be feeling pretty good about themselves.” Why, so we don’t get embarrassed? 3rd foul on Zoubek, doing what I don’t know, and G walks almost exasperatingly to the scorer’s table, like “you’ve got to be kidding me, I just went out 2 seconds ago.”

We hold for the last shot. It’s D-Marc’s, and he drives in, he wants this bucket – but Deon blocks him! It catapults out of bounds, we retain possession, but there’s only 3 seconds left on the clock. All we can do is have Kyle catch, turn around, and shoot – and G can’t save it. Zzzzzzzzz! End of the most atrocious first half ever. 31-42 halftime. Not only is it the least we’ve ever scored in a half – it is the biggest halftime deficit we’ve faced – EVER.

DeMarcus has not scored. Kyle has maybe 4 points. And we have had so many shots blocked and so many turnovers that they equal the total number of field goals and free throw attempts we have – stunning! Meanwhile, our defense has not been able to turn them over, or stop their shooters Ellington and Green. Our X factors, LT and Z, are no help whatsoever. Greg Paulus is carrying us, but will he hit 75% on 3s again, like last time? Well, I guess they’re #1 for a reason, huh? I think I need a cigarette.

Second half: Assistant coach Chris Collins with some generous insights: “Emotions were getting the best of us, we were a bit wild, and our shots were a bit too quick.” Let’s see if we can turn this thing around. Lance Thomas is back in, and immediately we dish to him. He doesn’t finish, but does grab his own miss and is fouled. The foul is on Hansbrough, his 2nd, and as he goes to the free throw sidelines – he sticks out his lip a little in rebellion of that foul. LT makes 1 of 2. DeMarcus looks to drive, drive, drive – and then hits G on the perimeter for THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! “Duke lives by that 3!” Dickie V grins. Oh, are we ever. How else are we gonna get back in this thing? 35-44.

Things are starting to go our way. G wrestles a rebound away from Ginyard and gets fouled. Then Singler, having dragged Hansbrough out to the perimeter, goes up for a 3 – a long one. It’s a miss – but NELSON is there for the tip-in! OH FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! “Nelson’s on the board!” The ensuing cheer that erupts out of the Crazies could probably be heard across the Atlantic.

Oh, this is interesting. Paulus is guarding Lawson? And the other way around too? Paulus decides to test that foot speed of Ty Ty’s. Blows right by him, gets no screen or nothing, then is hacked across the arm by a surprised Ellington – but Greg scoops up the shot anyways – and it hits! Count it! AND ONE! As the crowd goes nuts, Dickie V is screaming just to be heard: “This kid was under the heat! Got criticized last year! I mean, how can you criticize a kid that plays this hard, and competes as hard as he does! This kid is a WIN-NER! This kid can play for me any day of the WEEK!” To the raucous chants of “Greg Pau-lus! Greg Pau-lus!” 40-46! 16:58.

Hansbrough, BLOCKED BY SCHEYER! Oh, GREAT teamwork! Singler put up a wall in front of him, and that allowed Scheyer to come in from the back and help get that shot outta here! To the roar of the crowd as we race up the court – Paulus takes it on himself again, drives into a forest of baby blue shirts, throws up a floater that doesn’t go . . but ZOUBEK is there to clean it up! He does great defensive work on Hansbrough too, forcing him to shoot over him a couple feet out rather than get point-blank looks, not fouling, making him earn it . . though it just blows my mind how Hansbrough can hit it from seemingly anywhere.

Singler, left somewhat alone, tries a 3. His 3rd miss of the night. But LOOK AT THIS! Zoubek again with the rebound and put-back! And Hansbrough has no answer for him defensively! Is actually flummoxed! Do I challenge him? Do I foul him? Or do I just stand around hoping he’ll miss on his own? Uh, I’ll take option #3. And watch as Zoubs picks up the loose change, making it 44-48! Closest we’ve gotten in a long time!!! “Oh, they’ve found their player! They’ve found their player! Who said they don’t have big people!!” Dickie V is screaming himself hoarse with excitement! Can big Z be this round’s Lance Thomas?

Ellington quiets the celebration with a 3. But DeMarcus has had enough. He circles the defense, drives determinedly in from the top of the key – and gets right to the rim for the FLUSH! “Performance is leadership!” Dickie V applauds. And then AGAIN! For the encore! Scintillating move! This time, he drives into a forest of guys all trying to block him, challenge him, he doesn’t pay them any mind, just focuses on that rim – and take it ALL THE WAY. “I tell ya, something’s gotten into the mind of Nelson. Unbelievable drive to the goal.” I think he recognizes that there’s 14:30 left to go in his last home game, and it’s now or never. 48-51! 48-51! I can’t believe I’m that excited about the score!

STEAL by Scheyer! But it’s thrown ahead to D-Marc, who has it pickpocketed away by Lawson. They score 2 quick ones, it’s 48-55, and Coach K calls a timeout.

“They need SINGLER!” And his THREE HITS! 51-55! Then SCHEYER FOR THREE! Just a phenomenal pull-up 3 in transition, with a little dagger in his eye as he backs away on D. 54-57, and it’s amazing that the players are not going deaf right now from all this noise. “Listen to this place! Unless you are here, you cannot appreciate the – “ As G BLOCKS Green! OH, returning the favor! Return to sender, thank you very much! Then, as Green gets it back – steps on the baseline! Finally, a turnover! I tell you, this Carolina club is harder to turn over than a soggy pancake. 11:41.

For 2 minutes, the pace is racehorse, with both teams either shooting terribly, or getting it blocked/stolen away from them. Guess who’s doing the latter? Nelson is forcing it a bit too much on his drives, taking it amongst 2 or 3 defenders collapsing on him. Wants to bull through desperately, but winds up losing it. Next trip, G drives, and I cringe on us losing the ball again or getting it blocked – but he recognizes the defense collapsing inward – and kicks it out to Scheyer on the wing! “This would TIE it!” Just as it SNUGGLES IN! OH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THAT’S DUKE BALL! That’s how we’re supposed to play! We are tied at 57-57! Thank you, G! Thank you, Scheyer! 9:38.

Oh, f***. Again with the open 3 on their end. Paulus leaves QT to help out with Hansbrough, and he kicks it out immediately to good ol’ QT, who drains the killer. Playing catch-up yet again. But SINGLER ANSWERS! Oh my God! I can nearly cry as that ball whips through the net, as dead-on as ever! It’s back! His shot, in crunch time, is back! 60-60!!! And once again, it was classic Duke ball, crisp ball movement, Nelson driving baseline and looking cut off, but flashes the pass cross-court to Scheyer, who sends it to G, who sends it to Greg, all touch passes – and by the time they realize it’s intended for Singler, that shot’s gone – and IN! We live and die by the 3. If you’re gonna block us, if you’re gonna contest us, then please God, at the very least let us shoot well from 3.

Erin Andrews, reporting amongst the Crazies: “It’s 90 degrees down here! The players are tired, they’re gasping for breath, hands on their hips. They’re all exhausted, and you can just see it.” As all hell breaks loose under the basket, as it usually does with a Hansbrough miss, and a Dukie, as always, is whistled for fouling a bigger Tar Heel.

Lance Thomas with another crisp move to the basket! Much better than the first half! Kyle Singler has become Lance’s personal assistant in these UNC games, setting him up for easy baskets from the top of the key. We are again dead-locked, at 64-64. They get a put-back. Scheyer with a tremendous drive! 66-66. As they miss on their next trip down – now we can take the lead! The ball is worked to Singler in the corner – his favorite spot, the one right in front of the Duke bench! Oh, all our hopes and dreams soar with his shot . . a perfect 3, that high arc, almost completely uncontested . . but it bounces off the front iron. And the rebound, as always – comes down to UNC. 6:11.

Scheyer is a LION! That will he has shown in the Miami game, in the NC State game, is coming out in full force. Look at that DRIVE! He is challenged by a leaping Hansbrough, alters his shot and realizes its horrible, rebounds his own miss, and then weaves in between 2 huge Carolina guys for the PUT-BACK! Incredible! Let me tell you, when this kid’s game is on, he can do some superhuman things! AND we have our first LEAD of the night! Since EVER! 68-66, 5:42. Alright, guys. It is nearly the 5 minute mark. It is time now for Brian Zoubek to “outrun some of the wing players in this league”, whaddayasay?

G with an incredible rebound, instantly flying with it to the rim – but misses the dunk??? G! How can you miss that???? That could mean all the difference! OH, then astounding work defensively, as they throw the ball down low to Hansbrough, he is immediately fronted by the double team of Kyle and G, but Hansbrough tries to get a shot off anyway – right into the hands of G, who blocks it – and Scheyer is there to snatch away the turnover!

“Let’s Go, Duke!” “Let’s Go, Duke!” “Let’s Go, Duke!” The crowd is sensing a turn of the tide. Carolina now is nowhere near as scary as they were in the opening minutes of the game. We pause, spread the floor, take a look at mismatches – and the ball movement is worked around again, with Singler whipping the ball to Paulus – who, to our heartbreak, shoots an airball 3. He’s getting tired. Having chased Lawson all night long – what Erin Andrews said about exhaustion around the 8 min mark is true. Now they race the other way – but they cannot hit either, even from about 3 feet out. 68-66 still, 4:04 left.

We have a tiny, miniscule, improbable 2 point lead, there is still 4 huge minutes to be played, and as soon as we get it across the halfcourt line, Singler holds the ball while catching his breath. No one objects. Hansbrough is unsure what to do now. Should I go all the way out past the Coach K Court logo to guard this tyke? And possibly get embarrassed like John Oates did? Nope. Declines the invite. We take so much time off the clock that Scheyer basically has no choice as it winds down to 8, 7, 6, and he must drive – but loses it! Kyle cannot recover! Bowling ball pins flying everywhere! And it’s Carolina ball. 3:30.

Ellington ties it up at the 3 min mark, 68-68. Then, 1 min later, Hansbrough just somehow gets every rebound to fall to him, and gets a 2nd chance bucket off the glass. It is Carolina on top, 68-70, and Greg signals a timeout at 1:58. I can’t wait. This is much better. No matter what happened in the first 38 minutes – it comes down to this. It always comes down to this. The last 2 minutes. No matter how poorly we played . . no matter how much a gulf seemingly existed between these 2 teams’ style and strategy and execution . . it always comes down to the last plays in the last 2 minutes. Who will step up? Who will pull it out tonight? I have a hunch that when the game is on the line, the ball will go to DeMarcus. And though he didn’t play well in the first UNC game . . and he hasn’t played well here tonight . . I am almost okay, if we give it to him, and we lose. He has to be given that opportunity. He deserves it. If anything – he deserves that much.

Out of the timeout: we go to Greg – and he lets fly a long, long 3 that is just a bit too strong. Singler with a rush to recover the miss – but it flies out of bounds, just beyond his fingertips. Now we need a stop.

They move it around. Paulus is on Lawson, which is making me nervous – and now, Lawson rushes him, licking his chops at the whole right side cleared out for him – and Paulus stays glued to him, reaching in with his arms and all his QB strength to tie him up – but no! Foul! Lawson sinks both, making it 68-72, 1:31 left.

What? He traveled? Oh, that’s funny! Scheyer drove, missed the shot, they get the rebound – but we don’t give up, we harass Ginyard in a tight Dukie sandwich, and Ginyard is called for a travel. Finally, a Tar Heel is called for the travel! It is not mutually exclusive! We get the ball back!!! Aghast, Roy Williams just kneels down by the sidelines and pulls his hands speechlessly over his face. 1:07 left.

SHIT! G loses it to Lawson! And he’s gone faster than a Concorde, but – HA! He doesn’t convert! Green with the tip-in! No one boxes him out! 68-74??? 49 seconds left? Are we done??? Singler could only watch as Green beat him to that ball, but now he pulls it out of the net and sends it forward, with no second thought at all, no remorse, no regret. Next play. Focus on the next play. Scheyer races it upcourt, zeroing in on the goal, he sees nothing else – just drive, drive, drive – nobody around him – but OH! Shot is BLOCKED by Green! He is freaking bloody everywhere!

It’s over.

Our inbounds play: Scheyer looks for the 3 – Hansbrough leaps into the air – knocks Scheyer down soundly as he then jumps up – but NO CALL! WTF???? We’re still waiting for the whistle when they grab our ball, race the other way, and get in one more dunk. It’s all over. 68-76.

Where is Nelson? Where is G? How come it’s just been Scheyer the last couple of minutes? AARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!! This is devastating. We miss our last 11 shots. Green with 7 blocks alone??? DAMN! They block our final 3 point attempt from Paulus, not that it makes any difference anyway, and no one stepped up in the endgame. It’s done. UNC gets the #1 seed. UNC wins the ACC title. UNC walks away with the bragging rights – again. You have to admit . . championships are often won in the final few minutes . . and if this is our endgame . . .

Post-game thoughts:
Ah! That’s why Green was so fresh! He only played 25 min, so that’s why he was so athletic and hyperactive. He got 2 baskets and 3 blocks in the last 48 seconds, while we couldn’t get anything in the last 5:42. No wonder he was able to block Greg’s final jumper, who played 32 min, and block Nelson’s drives, who played 35 min. No wonder Kyle couldn’t hit some late 3s, or look heartened enough to drive, or try to box out Green for that crucial tip-in – he played 37 min. We knew coming in that we’ll get outrebounded, and we did (44-53), and they’ll be a tough animal to turn over – but they got 15 blocks???? 6 ssteals??? That’s double our numbers! Those 15 blocks are 20% of our attempts! And though for a while we looked like we were hitting 100% 3s – we only wound up hitting 10 of 29, or 34%. Last time, we went 13 for 29; that’s 9 extra points . .

I don’t want to gripe about one foul call. I see now that because this is Duke – Carolina, they did not want to turn it into a free throw shooting contest, and their raison d’etre coming in was “let them play.” A lot of contact wasn’t called, and this hurt Duke somewhat in trying to take charges, as only 1 got called, I believe. But it’s just freakin’ hard to take when you see other teams employ this same strategy, late in the game: when you need a 3, and can’t get an open look, get the bigger guy to jump in the air and then jump into him, for the foul and 3 shots. What Scheyer did was smart. What he didn’t bank on was the double standard of the officials. If you don’t believe me, Mr. Official, just give me your address, and I’ll send you tape of All-American guard DJ Augustin doing the same thing – and promptly getting the friendly whistle, no questions asked – in the Texas – Kansas State game a while back. I know the game shouldn’t come down to 1 call, but c’mon – after watching UCLA waltz away with 2 wins this weekend because of ludicrous calls in their favor – how can you tell me that a call/no-call would not have made a difference?

I hate this. I hate this because this game was winnable. They are just cookie monsters, nothing more. But I will relent in saying this: those games, with Lawson out and QT running the show, helped them tremendously. It got them into close games that they otherwise may not have gotten into, and it tested their togetherness and their resilience. QT got comfortable running the show. Tyler made his case for POY. Ellington learned to get his own shot. When Ellington said, “We've been [in close games] before -- been there plenty of times,” it made me shiver. It’s true. They have, and they’ve proven that they can fight through it. They are older and more experienced than we are, and it shows.

So, I guess I have to admit: Carolina is kind of a good team. For the entire first half and key stretches of the second half, they made Duke’s offense become completely unrecognizable to me. Guys got frustrated, we kept getting our shots blocked, limited to one and done, and couldn’t drive and kick out as much as we wanted to. They always seemed to have 2 or 3 guys near the goal that could swat away or severely challenge shots. We dug ourselves into such a hole (15-29) – and this was in Cameron! We were playing catch-up, in Cameron! Unreal!

I mean, what happened to the crisp execution of the first UNC game in Chapel Hill? In that game, you could clearly recognize Coach K’s strategy: limit Hansbrough’s free throws, double-team him, let him get his 30 and 20 or whatever, and shut down everyone else. It didn’t work here. In the first opening minutes, we committed 4 or 5 fouls right off the bat, Green and Ellington got whatever they wanted, and that was that. They knew to expect our drives and stayed home to contest our shots, they also switched on ball screens so that someone was always on our shooters (taking a page out of our book!), and they refused to play along with our defense and commit turnovers. Ken Pomeroy is right. Just like Tennessee, when your offense feeds off of turnovers to be successful, then you’re gonna run into trouble when you face very good teams that refuse to be turned over. Last night, we got turned over, not the other way around, to the tune of 10 in the first half, while botching pretty much all of our fastbreak opportunities. No wonder our offense stalled. My hat’s off to Carolina. They made us look, at times: slow, unathletic, and unprepared. This was a very disciplined Duke team that knew what was at stake, and they made us disintegrate into chaos.

Those last 2 minutes were the longest in my life. You simply cannot go down by 14 to a team like Carolina, and expect an easy way to climb back up. Your work’s not done when you tie. Your work’s not done when you go up by 2. We spent all our energy getting back to 68-66, and then they just spurted away again. We had a great chance, and we blew it. Don’t give me “emotions drained us”. You’ve been a competitor for 4 years, Nelson. You know better than anyone how to turn emotions into deadly weapons. No, the minutes played drained you. 35 minutes? Singler with 37, Scheyer and Paulus with 32, and G with 29? Meanwhile, Lawson motoring at the end only played 23, and Green blocking 7 shots only played 25. Both were fresher at the end, and it showed. If Lawson hadn’t gotten that steal . . if Green hadn’t gotten that tip-in . . if, if, if. Sigh.

Remember the NC State game, where we were able to storm back because Nelson played a phenomenal last 8 minutes? That’s because he came in with fresh legs, having only played 19 minutes up to that point, for 27 total. We lost the LSU game in 2006 because our starters were exhausted by the end, while their starters were fresh due to foul trouble having kept them on the bench. I am not asking for McClure to play 30 minutes – but might he have kept Green in check? He only played 4 minutes, but I thought he did a great job, blocking a shot, then grabbing a hotly contested rebound and starting the offense that got a wide open 3 from Greg Paulus. I am also worried about Kyle. He has clearly hit the freshman wall, and though he won’t acknowledge it, he is clearly exhausted from having to guard big, burly opposing centers all the time. Sure, we play team defense . . but that means 80% on Kyle and 20% on the team. His 3 point shooting for the last 7 games now have been 33% or less, he is driving less and less, and getting blocked more and more. 37 minutes in big games are not helping . . especially when Lance was only good for 12. I hate playing the “if” game, but if our starters were fresher in that LSU game . . . who knows what would’ve happened?

Still, we are an amazing 26-4 . . #7 in the country . . a consensus 2 seed. Astonishingly cool, especially when you consider how we finished last year. Now for the good stuff!

Defense by Kyle and G. Although both had bad shooting nights, they didn’t let that affect their defense on Hansbrough, as this super duo teamed up for a tremendous containment job: not letting him get to the foul line even once! And limiting him to 8 of 21 from the field!
Greg Paulus stepped up HUGE when Nelson couldn’t. I think if there’s anyone who can turn emotion into positive dagger-like energy offensively, its Greg. His four 3-pointers in the first half single-handedly saved us from getting embarrassed, and he even burned Lawson for a floater in the lane – and one! I loved that play. 15 points, 2 assists and 0 turnovers in 32 minutes – great stats. He always seems to show up in tough environments, especially late in the season, and I hope he continues this trend into the post-season!
Jon Scheyer is a gamer, and he has a heart as big as a lion. He scored on a variety of drives and 3 pointers, and it was he who tried to get the last shot for us, a 3 on the perimeter against a bigger Hansbrough whom he got to bite on his head fake – but just couldn’t sell it as well to the officials, who, frankly, weren’t buying anything that night. He’s improved so much from last year . . can’t wait to see more!
Another guy who is improving by leaps and bounds: Brian Zoubek! He put a huge smile on my face with those put-backs – oh, to see the look on Hansbrough’s face when he did that! Classic! He looked out of his league in the first few minutes, picking up 3 quick fouls – but then adjusted and made up for it in the second half, when he played solid, smothering D on Tyler, plus grabbing those bonus buckets. Big Z is gonna make some noise next year, but if he can continue to give us a solid 10 or 15 minutes this year, even if it’s just to keep the opponents honest . . we can go far.
I do hope that the rocking, celebrity-packed atmosphere, and the stellar teamwork and energy we had to expand on locking down Hansbrough, screamed to Greg E on how much we need him in 2009. You’ll have a senior Zoubek to help you, but you’ll also get plenty of playing time and TV exposure. Ditto to Josh Hairston from 2010!

Nolan Smith, post-game interview:
“Who knows what would’ve happened if we’d played our game for the full 40 minutes?” Then, he finally cracks into a big smile when a reporter asks about a possible rematch with UNC in the ACC tournament finale: “Yeah, of course! You know, somebody beats you, of course you want a rematch.”

Bring it on, Carolina! This ain’t over!

Duke at NC State Game Blog - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, yet Memorable 800th Win

2008-03-01T19:42:00.003-06:00

Is it March yet???? Is it the final stretch before the Madness?? All around the nation, games were being decided by 2 points, by overtime, bubble teams scrambling for marquee wins, underdog teams pulling out all kinds of monumental individual career highs (Rice! Singletary!). But in Raleigh, we’re not going to need a miracle. We’re back on the right track. After 2 road losses, we buckled down and came up with a fantastic defensive effort in the GT game to get back in the race for the ACC title. No, this game won’t come down to a must-win for some post-season tournament hope – it is for something far greater. It’s a must-win, for one extraordinary coach – and the team that he’s put together that defies all preseason expectations. For a team, one year removed from a 22-11 season, to be talking #1 seed possibilities – is just mind-boggling. How many of us had dared to dream this big when this season began? How many of us still remember arguing on the boards about how Duke could possibly beat UNC (“that is why the games are played”), or the difference between believing we can go to the Final Four (far-fetched, but allowed) to actually thinking we can go (unthinkable)?

One man did: Mike Krzyzewski. He has taken Duke this year – and actually made them underrated! No small feat! And today, he is going for his 800th career win. Whichever Wolfpack we will see today – the team that gave us hell in the first half back on Jan 31, or the one that’s lost 6 straight since, getting no closer than 10 points in any of them? Doesn’t matter. We will be ready. If college basketball is a game of emotions – hey, just look at what Indiana did to Michigan State when told they might lose their coach, Kelvin Sampson. We will be ready. Senior Day or not.

Courtney Fells attacks Kyle Singler on the very first possession and draws a blocking foul in 14 seconds flat. UGH! They go ZONE on Duke, a 2-3 eerily similar to what Miami employed so well, and now let’s see if Duke had learned anything from that game? We pass the ball around, set some screens, Paulus draws 2 defenders because of his ability to drill the 3, and then he sends it to Singler at the top of the key for a long 3 – too hard – but the rebound bounces off to Thomas, who gives it to Nelson for the point-blank layup – missed! but Henderson grabs the rebound and goes right into attack mode! Fouled. 2-2.

Oh my – HEY! Son of a bitch! Greg is bleeding under his right eye. The blood is quickly spilling over the wound, and he wipes it off without a word, getting up in a maelstrom of hate. The NC State crowd is booing him, loudly – are they blind, or heartless, or both? And as he jogs back to the bench, he turns around to say something, or react to something, with a withering look that all but screams “Hey! Back off! Let me know how you feel after you get socked in the face.” As they show the replay: it is the same old trick, and the kid should be tossed for this second attempt. In the first NC State game, Javier Gonzales swings a vicious forearm to dislodge Greg from his side – right in front of the Duke bench. No call. Greg goes to the bench with a groggy look, but later comes back to scorch them with 5 three-pointers. In this game, barely 2 minutes in, Gonzales pulls the exact same kind of crap. Sick of Duke’s full-court pressure, he swings his elbow right into Greg’s face – and again, this foul does not get called what it rightfully is – intentional. Maybe even flagrant. The announcers agree that it’s way out of line. “That looked like an intentional foul.” “Sure was.” But of course, as we go back to the game, no such foul is called. Play on. 2-4, 18:40.

Off the inbounds play, Nelson is promptly fouled by Tracy Smith, a guy I didn’t even know was on the team, much less in the starting lineup. That’s 4 fouls on 4 possessions, not even counting Gonzales’ on Paulus. Nelson knocks down the first . . and the second! Hurray, Nelson! They show Greg being patched up on the bench, and the announcers give him props for wanting to get back into the game, saying “It hurts Mom more than anyone! I assure you.” Sure . . go tell that to Singler, who has an ACC-high of 21 stitches so far.

5th foul on 5 possessions now, as Courtney Fells gets loose and Gerald Henderson flies in to swat the ball away, but gets his hands too, and Fells goes down hard onto the floor. For a brief second I’m afraid that he’ll get a bloody nose or something, and then Henderson’s “reputation” from last year will wrongly influence the officials to . . never mind. Thank God Fells is fine as he gets up. Sinks both free throws.

Oh, that’s crazy. Absolutely insane. Nolan Smith runs with Gonzales trying to pressure him, and I can’t even see nothing, but they call a foul. Coach K is understandably livid – throwing an elbow to demonstrate the injustice of the foul on Paulus being equated the same as this tiny cheap foul by our freshman. Play goes on. Wow, Gavin Grant under all kinds of pressure by Nelson buries an off-kilter 15 footer! Then Gonzales trips Nolan, sending him flat onto the floor, and finally we get rid of him with 2 fouls to the bench. 4-8, 17:39.

I hate this zone. It’s so hard to play against, we can’t drive and kick, and it sure ain’t pretty to watch. It will contain us to the low 70s in the score, if that. But Greg answers back emphatically with a THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Let’s get that heated up!!! A looong 3, with a hand flying in his face too! Then Kyle, having missed his first 3, is not going to go 1 for 6 anymore, and, zone or not, bullies his way inside, gets the ball, doesn’t want to settle for some turnaround jumper, and continues to attack the basket against the 6’7” svelte Grant all the way in before drawing the foul. As he’s shooting his free throws . . huh. A huge round of applause erupts, and I’m looking around for the celebrity that must’ve just stepped into the game. Ah ha – Ron Weasley from the Harry Potter movies is on the squad! That’s definitely someone we didn’t scout! As Ron, under the moniker “Trevor Ferguson”, with a head full of moppy-red hair, steps to the free throw sidelines, Kyle sinks his second free throw. We’re perfect at the line so far! 9-10.

Brandon Costner is in, and immediately swipes the ball away from Paulus, 20 feet in front of their goal. S***! But we dish it right back and draw the offensive charge. Paulus then gets too aggressive with 2 consecutive misses – both too early in the shot clock and too hard, bouncing off the back iron each time. We are air-tight defensively, though, with Zoubek scaring the heck out of a NC State guy and then Greg taking a charge from their backup PG, Marques Johnson, who now also collects 2 fouls and goes to the bench. Holy cow, did Fells just block Zoubek?

Nelson is whistled for an offensive foul, his second, and must sit at the 13:01 mark. This is not good; they are getting anything they want, while we are . . 1 of 10??? Is that right? As Nolan misses . . we’re taking shots too fast, too hurried, and too many long jump shots. Have some patience! Let’s get some ball movement and exploit this zone! As big Z finally ends the drought with a put-back. Henderson with that great loping stride coming up the court, is determined to right the ship – and attacks the heart of the zone defense, throwing up a last-minute runner as the whistle is blown that goes IN! Awwww – NO BASKET??? Why the hell not? Oh, whatever, foul before the shot. I’ll rather have the shot. But G erases my worries with 2 great free throws. 13-15.

JJ Hickson gets free for an easy deuce, but Jon Scheyer penetrates and single-handedly folds the zone defense from a 2-3 into a 0-5, herding almost everyone back into the low block, before sending a breathless pass out to Henderson, who fires – and HITS!!!!!!!!!!!!! THREE-BALL! “Mm-mm!” The announcer says, because there are no words to describe this – hilarious!

G loved that trick by Scheyer, and emulates him the next trip down, driving right into the heart of the defense and folding them like an accordion to finish at the rim. 20-21, 10:17. D-Marc now comes in for G, and immediately, he makes his presence felt with a deadly THREE! Transition basket, before that damn defense is set! For the LEAD, Markie! “You leave that guy alone and you can say good night!’ 23-21, our first lead of the day, 9:51.

The offense is finally starting to come alive. First, Kyle Singler does a great defensive job on Hickson, putting up a wall in front of him and making him lose the ball out of bounds. Then Paulus with a snap pass to Nelson underneath the basket for a layup – our 6’4” guard, posting up! Kyle misses a soft 6-footer, but the next time down takes it more aggressively to the hoop and draws the foul on Hickson, sinking both free throws. This is an astounding statistic: both teams are hitting free throws at a 100% clip! Duke: 12 of 12. NC State: 10 of 10. As Thomas draws the offensive charge from Hickson to help out Zoubek with the double team – great job, Lance! – he’s wearing a black bandage around his right wrist? Oh no – is this another unannounced injury? That’s now 2 fouls on JJ Hickson as well, 8:01 remaining, and he sits.

Oh, great overhead pass from Nolan to Zoubek, who almost cannot believe it – he’s wide open! – and he does a double take before putting it up there, almost disappointed that he isn’t challenged more! Yo, Brian! Hickson’s out! No one’s gonna block you anymore if you go up there strong – and fast! 29-26!!!

Ugh, I spoke too fast. Gonzales takes a 3 and nails it – right in Nolan’s face! Then – he blows by Nolan and no one rotates over??? We are one and done at the other end, Thomas can’t make a zero-range put-back, and it’s 29-31 in a heartbeat. Nolan with a tough pass up high to Zoubek, who can’t handle it, and that’s another 35-second shot clock wasted in about 2. They get a slam at the other end. This is alarming: Duke has only made 7 of 22 field goals??? While NC State only needs 14 to make 10. Wow. Utterly unreal. In that light, being down 29-33 is almost miraculous. 6:29.

McCauley with a 3 point play – man, he’s showboatin’ and stompin’ like he’s never gotten a 3 point play before! – and now the deficit is a dangerous 31-38 with 4:49 left. They are hitting 71% - yes, 71%! I’m aware that we usually allow a high percentage of 2s around the basket, due to our lack of interior defense – but where is our trump card? Where is the havoc we generally wreck on opposing backcourts to negate that high percentage allowed? This is not exactly a name-brand backcourt we’re facing, guys! Ah, Scheyer! Who comes to the rescue by drawing the 3rd foul on Fells and stops the bleeding with a pair of free throws. 33-38, 3:47. Is that a piped-in wolf howl in the RBC Center I hear?

Duke is now trying a 2-3 zone ourselves. Give you a little taste of your own medicine! Well, what do you know, they hit a 3. Way to go. 33-41?? Henderson spins, shoots, it doesn’t work, but King grabs the offensive board and kicks it out to Scheyer, who drains the THREE! 36-41. Paulus then tries a 3, but his shot has been awful all night. OH, HENDERSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! REJECTION CITY! From what looked like a surefire dunk – G is there to send that out of the gym – and as we pick it up and go the other way – Paulus finally hits with a good-looking THREE from the top of the circle! 39-41!!!!

We go back to zone, but King is called for a foul trying to get the steal. Then he draws one on the other end from Horner, but . . wow. Poor kid can’t buy one. First miss at the line by either team tonight. Misses BOTH?? Scheyer draws a foul and gives us 2 more, but now we go to a 1-2-2 press, and they beat it with ease, getting an uncontested layup at the other end. It is now 41-47, and the crowd is just going berserk. Is an upset of the #6 team in the country in the offing? Can a 4-10 team beat a 11-2 team? Can it???? Timeout, Duke, 47 seconds left.

KING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH, SWEET JESUS! He FINALLY gets one! A deep three from the corner from a Henderson kick-out, and Taylor King is on the board! 44-47. 22 seconds left, they hold for the last shot, and our zone forces a 3 from Ron Weasley, who can’t hit. Halftime, and that wolf howl is sounding a little better and better with each glance at the score.

Second half: First possession for Duke, Paulus comes out on fire and a great drive into the paint, gets the runner – but crap, offensive foul? Greg claps his hands in frustration. They get a put-back at the other end, but we don’t care, we’re running the floor, G sees the zone defense nowhere to be found and cackles with delight, zeroing in like a cat to a mouse for the DUNK – OH! But fouled!!! UGHHHHH! Yet he won’t be denied, sinking both free throws despite all those waving flag balloons in the endzone. 46-49.

OHHHHHH, SINGLER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just taps that ball out of Fells’ hands and out in front of him, one smooth motion, no look back, no scramble, no sweat even, just blazing up the court and then the emphatic DUNK! OOWWWHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Duke is flexing its muscle! 48-49.

Nelson picks up his 3rd foul, over the back, 18:35. Singler wants the ball. Claps his hands for it from Henderson, but gives it back when he doesn’t see anything. Next trip – he drives right inside, spins, handles, gets the mop-haired kid all kinds of confused and gets right up to the backboard and kisses it off the glass. “The handle! The delivery! The smooch!” Awww, beautiful pass from Paulus to Nelson threading through the running defense – but Nelson can’t finish!

Oh, s***. They make us pay on the double team, hitting 2 consecutive threes from either corner, and suddenly the deficit is 53-61 with 5 minutes gone. Can’t believe it. Who are these people? Aren’t they supposed to be 4-10???? Did they just decide to roll all their energy into one against us?? As the wolf howl permeates the gym, the crowd goes nuts, baying for an upset. C’mon, Devils. Shore up. Take them off the dribble. Attack that zone! C’mon, Nelson! This is March now! You gonna let them walk all over you?

Ron – sorry, Ferguson – with the put-back? “He’s not supposed to do that!” Seconds after they show Gonzales having reached his career high with 13 points despite there still being 15 minutes left in the half . . what has this game become? 55-61 already, on track to the 90s? And we can’t keep up! As they kill us with another transition 3 from Gonzales – it is 55-66. The deficit is the largest of the game so far, at ELEVEN. WOW. I am speechless. What’s going on? Do we not want to win number 800 for Coach K? Do we not care about winning the ACC conference outright?

Oh, we care. We care very much. Singler runs the floor and raises his hand to show he’s wide open, and Henderson gets him the ball low in the paint, where all he has to do is eye the basket and put it up. 57-66. Off a deadball, Coach K immediately sends in 3 fresh bodies: Nolan, DeMarcus, and Taylor. It doesn’t help though. McCauley burns our interior defense twice, once with a step-through and layup, and once with an uncontested jumper. Meanwhile, we keep up our brick-fest. 57-70 now, with every tick of the clock threatening to turn this into another Miami road loss. And now Ben McCauley has hit his season high, with 15 points. Ridiculous. Meanwhile, all our players are looking to hit their season lows. 12 minutes left.

Scheyer lets Gonzales fly by him and then calmly steps over a smidgen for the three. 60-70. Nelson attacks the rim and gets the whistle – awww, the ball rims out. 2 free throws – great job, D! – 62-72. King gets fouled on a 3 pointer, as 2 kids jump out at him as if in a back-alley – and he hits all 3 free throws! Nice! 65-72. But they come right back, with McCauley getting Zoubek called for a foul – and the bucket! No more stompin’ this time? K immediately pulls Zoubek and sends in Kyle. 65-75.

Paulus fouls Johnson 30 feet out from the basket, and I throw up my hands. We’re done. We’re beat. Our defense sucks, we are being forced into a halfcourt game, and we just can’t do anything for some reason against a 2-3 zone. No finishes around the rim. No three-point prowess. No steals or run-outs or anything fun. We are making our living at the free throw line, and thank god we’re quite good there, but they are equally lethal, so that cancels itself out. I squeeze my eyes shut. I have to come to terms with it. We are going to lose. We will finish 2nd in the league. We’ll get a #2 seed. And that’s going to be fine. We have overachieved all year anyway. 7:53.

Do we have a window of opportunity? Do we? They are in foul trouble, with 2 guys having 4 fouls each, Fells and Grant. Gonzales and Johnson each with 3. Let’s attack them! No more threes! They’re obviously not falling, and we’re being out-rebounded terribly to boot. And just as I say that – Greg “never say die” Paulus with a ridiculously long 3, just catches and shoots – FOR THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 70-75!!!

We trap, make the big guy handle the ball and make the decision – and off the hand-off – Thomas with a STEAL! Taps it out and runs off – but “jog” is maybe a better word – and just as he’s going up for what is seemingly an uncontested layup – in flies Costner to throw him to the floor! INTENTIONAL FOUL! YES SIR! Singler grabs him immediately as he gets up to avoid any Ts, and the officials are quickly talking to them, explaining the situation, not wanting any confrontations. On the replay – oh yeah, Costner was going for his hands, his head, actually, rather than any part of the ball – but you know what? The announcers are right. Off that steal, Thomas should’ve been sprinting like hellfire down there to make the dunk, not half jogging. C’mon, Lance – we need all the points we can get, and whatever happened to aggressive Lance from the UNC game? But, to be fair, I think it was his first steal in the open court like that, and he just got too excited.

So now he’s going to shoot two. Thank God it’s two and the ball – otherwise, we get no good out of this. And I’m right. Look, I want to believe – really, I do. Nelson has been soooo solid at the line, making ALL his free throws. But Lance? “You know he’s not a good free throw shooter.” Yeah, I know. His teammates know. We all know. And though Lance tries, and tries hard – thumping his chest, nodding vigorously to the encouraging words of Greg and Kyle and Nelson – he just can’t hit it. First one, short. Second one, short. You just can’t leave a 50% FT shooter all alone down there for the intentional foul, and then expect him to make it in that raucous din. It’s okay, Lance, still 7 minutes left in the game. We get the ball, and what do we do? Drive and kick, baby!!!!! Nelson with the THREEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Aww, perfect!!! 73-75, we’re making a comeback!

Or, um, not so much. They reel off 6 straight, we can’t get our 3s to fall, and now it’s under 5 minutes to play. 73-81, all our hard work has vanished. And I’m really having a problem with Paulus today – what is up with him? A shoot-first PG now more and more – yes, we needed your scoring last year, but how about finding some other people now before launching a long three from about 30 feet out, 5 seconds into the shot clock? Have you looked at your box score today?

Singler with another 3 – and miss. “They’re taking a LOT of 3 point shots,” the announcers say, shaking their heads. No kidding. Nelson agrees, and goes to his specialty – attack the rim! – and gets the foul. Pleading the case for the basket too – no. 4 for 4 from the line today! But no go on this one. The roar of the crowd as the Wolfpack pull it off the front iron is just chilling to the bone. 4:10 left, and we’re still down a miserable 8 points. No one is stepping up. No Nolan going coast to coast. No Scheyer stealing and trapping and firing off 3-bombs from all over the court. Ah, but here is Scheyer – with a STEAL! And the subsequent THREE! by Paulus in transition! 76-81, 3:47 left. Henderson is fouled on the way to the basket and makes 1 of 2, 77-83. 3 minutes left.

DeMarcus Nelson grabs the loose ball and tears up the court, zip-zagging right, left, then going all the way to the basket! And fouled! By Gavin Grant, who’s GONE. Wow, poor Gavin. He only nets 6 points today before fouling out. On Senior Day, no less. But his team is up, aren’t they? He goes to the bench with a dazed look on his face, so disappointed. Their lone senior leader. Meanwhile, our lone senior leader is at the line shooting free throws . . and willing to do whatever it takes . . even defy his normal 60% free throw shooting percentage, to get us the win. First one . . good. Second one . . GOOD! 79-83!

Awwwwww – NO! Singler with such a cheap, cheap foul away from the basket that the announcers call it from “Finley’s Basement.” Oh, nice, Gonzales misses his first. Makes the 2nd. 79-84.

Nelson takes it up the court, and everyone has that look in their eye, glancing at each other – this is it, it’s crunch time. We better win this one, guys, if we have any hope of surviving tournament games. We are so close! We can’t let these ones get away! Think Sweet 16. You’re 2 minutes away from the Elite 8 – or going home. Which one do you want? Do you want it???? That damn zone again. But we are patient. And we run the classic Duke offense – crisp passes around the perimeter, move the ball around, screen, Henderson, Paulus drives, Scheyer spins, someone on defense falls down, and that leaves a wide open DeMarcus Nelson, who has the luxury of pausing and realizing he’s not beyond the arc, then stepping back, before jumping and launching – and it’s the MONEY BALL! Oh, NELSON!!! 82-84, 2:04 and we’ve got a shot! We’re alive! We can come back!!!

Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me! Kid-ding!!! Greg Paulus for THREEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And that’s courtesy of G Henderson with the scissor-kick in the lane to give up that 2, in order to trade for 3, and Greg Paulus rewards him big by being wide open on the perimeter. Classic, classic, classic Duke shot. TIE GAME, 85-85, 1:30 to go! Goddamn! Have we ever led by more than a few seconds? Or ever, in the 2nd half???

“F***.” Damn. Fourth foul on Singler, 1:11 away from the ball. McCauley on the line, but like Gonzales before him, he can only make 1 of 2. Watching that ball bounce out – Kyle yells to his teammates to get in position, get ready, box out for this crucial rebound, and bends down in warrior stance. His hands on his knees, he’s ready to use his muscle and his remaining strength to keep #23 out of the lane for the rebound. His 3s are not falling – due to some mystical ailment – but he’ll help out, he’ll continue to contribute, in any way possible. There is so much fight in him that I want to leap out into the TV and help him rebound. Just one more minute! One minute, between victory – or defeat.

Nelson is our go-to guy. He’s gonna take it. With the bigger McCauley on him – he drives right away, no hesitation, no fake, just drives, and the whistle cuts across the raucous din of the arena like a knife. McCauley looks exasperated – throws up his hands, complaining about Nelson with the hook afterwards. Hey, you fouled first, buddy. Speed trumps size! 85-86, 1:01 remaining, and Nelson . . my God, how solid has he been? His free throws, long a hole in his game, is as air-tight as his defense today. With so much imperfection everywhere else – this perfection, no matter how small it might seem to the casual bystander, is HUGE to me. It speaks volumes about his attitude . . his emotions . . his will. And as he hits the first one – phew! TIES IT, 86-86. Second one, as Singler prepares to fight for the rebound – GOES! AWWWWW! 87-86!!! It’s a ballgame! Our FIRST LEAD of the half!

They go twice to McCauley in the post. The first one is tipped out by Singler, but they don’t learn, and try again, with the second one erratic and too high and sails harmlessly out of bounds. Turnover, Duke ball. 40 ticks left. If we can hold onto this possession . . .

4 corners. Paulus dribbling. This familiar sight when we have the lead is suddenly so alien that I have to come out of my seat and remember to breathe. How can they be so calm??? Singler making small moves to keep them honest. 40 seconds left . . 30 . . 20 . . 19, with 14 on the shot clock, and Coach K calls a timeout. Who will take the last shot?

Out of the timeout – Scheyer now handles the ball off the inbounds – Nelson tries to drive but finds no seams – their defense is suddenly air-tight – and with the clock running down, it’s Scheyer, with a desperation three at the buzzer – NO GOOD! Damn! But they only have 5 seconds left, and their shot – goes nowhere! DUKE WINS! DUKE WINS! OH MY GOD! 87-86??????

And the first thing Scheyer does is go hug Coach K. Then the entire team is on him, surrounding him, congratulating him on his 800th victory, and K is smiling, knowing that it was his kids that pulled it out. Extraordinary. What a game, huh? The Wolfpack played gangbusters, Gonzales stepping up big – but they couldn’t keep their composure in the heat of the fire, and they lost. Now they’re on the court with dazed looks in their eyes, like they can’t believe it – I can’t believe it – how did it happen?? Our 3s weren’t falling all night – and then suddenly we make back to back threes for the tie? DeMarcus Nelson, whose free throws have been suspect all year long – suddenly makes everything they give him, for the lead? WOW. Just . . wow. I still can’t believe that we’ve won. It’s almost illogical. I still feel like, somehow, we’d lost. We played poorly all game long. There was no sustained run to get us back in the ballgame. We NEVER LED after the 7:52 mark in the first half – until now, until deep, deep in the second half when the game is nearly done – and then suddenly, with 1 minute left to go, and the clock stopped, on the free throw line – we get it back. Our senior leader gets it back for us. Our poise. Our fight. Our cohesion.

CONGRATS, COACH K, ON WIN #800!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Post-game thoughts:

Scheyer is so funny: “[We] definitely [made] it as memorable as possible.” Oh, did you ever! You gave him every type of suspense you could!

This game had it all: there was blood within the first 2 minutes, a surprise 2-3 zone that would frustrate us all game long, full court pressure, amazing 100% FT shooting for a long while, a Singler dunk, a King three, a lot of NC State players that apparently weren’t on the scouting report but wound up with career highs, 9 guys who played 8 minutes or more, an intentional foul, a couple comeback bids snuffed out, a litany of insanely gut-wrenching wolf howls piped into the arena, a late barrage of threes, a last critical defensive stop, two nail-biting Nelson free throws, one last possession running down the clock to perfection, and:

One sweet victory on the first day of March that signifies this team’s willingness and poise to fight through a brick wall to get this win. Did I miss anything? 87-86. We wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Duke at Wake Forest Game Blog - Our Version of a Pep Talk

2008-02-17T23:54:00.008-06:00

Duke is at the apex of its season. Coming off a stellar win vs Maryland, where Kyle Singler emerged as a deadly 3 point shooter and had his Hall of Fame coach praising him as one of the best freshmen ever – Duke could do no wrong. #2 in the country. 22-1 with its only loss coming on a last-second buzzer-beater in OT. 10-0 atop the imposing ACC. The only team left unbeaten in a major conference – and that’s unbeaten with no team coming within 9 points of them. If you wanted the definition of “impressive”, Duke was it.

So I was quite surprised when I turned on FSN and found myself a fly on the wall to the Demon Deacons locker room, where, just before the game, first-year head coach Dino Gaudio was giving his pep talk to the team. A pep talk? Oh, how cute! There’s a bunch of stuff on a dry-erase board that I can’t read, and then there’s his words: “You only get one chance to play these guys. One! Now you don’t have to play perfect. Because they’re not going to play perfect. You understand? But I do know this. You have to play v v hard, you have to play v intelligently, and you have to play together. I tell you what. This game is going to come down to the toughest team as the winner. Now if we go through that door together, we come back together. [Pause] Listen, if you wrap your arms around each other, and do what we need to do, you’ll remember this game for a long, long time.”

“40 minutes of work, a lifetime to remember.”

A lifetime to remember?

I paused from my activities and stared at the TV. So this is what it’s like for unranked teams to play Duke? That the matchup becomes one of zee games of the season? Wow. I can’t even imagine Coach K saying this to his troops tonight. Play hard, yes. Play together, yes. But not “a lifetime to remember”. Never. Not unless it’s a tournament game, nor maybe a Carolina game, if they are ranked higher than we are. We go into every game expecting to win. And especially this season – especially now – when we’ve proven that we can play with and beat just about any team in the country. No one scares me. No one, if we were playing them tonight, would make me say: “Hey guys, if we put our life on the line for this one . . it’ll be worth remembering for a lifetime.”

But the circumstances are different. The Wake Forest team is younger than we are. In fact, they are very similar to the Duke team of last year, where we started 2 freshmen, 2 sophomores, and 1 junior. But I don’t remember anyone calling us the “Baby Devils” last year, like they are doing this year with the supposed “Baby Gators”, and the “Baby Deacons” here. Well, whatever. The fact is, if we were facing the #2 Tar Heels last year, and needed a pep talk to get us in the fighting mood, the above would not be outdone. So, it all comes down to perspective. I guess I was just amazed at how wide the gulf is between our differing perspectives.

Opening tap! Singler gets it, but is shut off along the baseline and tries to find Paulus, only to have the pass picked off. They work it around to a wide open 3 pointer – and hits. We come right back, and Kyle makes up for his previous mistake by grabbing a wobbly pass from Greg, getting into the middle of traffic, then finding Thomas inside with a great pass for the stuff! Damn, they miss an alley-oop but get Teague wide open for a 3 again – and hits! 2-6 in a hurry. Teague is only 34% from 3?

There are no open driving lanes, but Singler just creates one. Setting a screen for Paulus – he pops back out, gets the pass, recognizes that he’s being guarded by a point guard (Ishmael Smith), and just blows right by him, cradling that ball in his arm for one, two, three and he’s up and IN! S*** - 3 turnovers already??? We haven’t gone 3 minutes! Offensive foul on Nelson?? The guy never hit the floor! Sigh. Zoubek is in for Kyle, the better to match up with their 7 footer McFarland. Paulus takes matters in his own hands and drives into the lane for a floater – and Lance Thomas is there for the put-back!

Then it all skitters downhill from there. Our vaunted defense is definitely a bit lazy today. Turnovers and missed shots are piling up like dirty dishes. Meanwhile, the Demon Deacons are finding all kinds of openings for their shots – and before you know it, it’s 7-15, 14:53. Paulus walks the ball up the floor, then pulls up for a 3 pointer – its way off – and the long rebound comes right into Ishmael Smith’s hands, who instantly races it the other way against a backpedaling Paulus for a 1 on 1 fastbreak – though it rattles out! “I haven’t seen anyone except Lawson as fast as he is!” Brando swoons. Nelson, just waiting to pick it off, skies for the rebound, takes it end to end, and gets all the way inside to lay one up. Oh, but Teague just torches our momentum with yet another 3. 9-18?? What is that, 3 threes in 6 minutes? Why are we constantly losing sight of him? But as we go back upcourt – Nelson, pausing at the top of the key looking to pass – finds no one even interested in guarding him, they’re all watching the ball – and he just squires up and fires a 3 of his own. Bottom of the net, baby! And as their PG pulls the ball back out to reset . . I see 4 royal blue-clad boys in various styles and poses lined up across the sidelines, licking their chops to come in and play. Reinforcements are on the way! We need match speed with speed.

Oh, that’s a joke. Total joke. Zoubek is guarding McFarland, turns to guard against Ishmael Smith who’s broken into the lane, Smith dumps down to McFarland who just turns for the layup, Z has to turn back and tries to go for the block, but fouls instead. And McFarland, on hearing the whistle, just laughs in Z’s face and taunts him, something like “hell yeah, I got you!”. Z, incredulous, says something back – either to him or to the officials, I’m not sure – but he gets T’d up, no questions asked. Uh, excuse me? Who was the instigator? Poor Brian, walking back to the bench, spreads out his arms in complete surrender. Oh, much better. A double technical was assessed, so there’s one on McFarland as well. God damn right. 13:26.

Oh, we’re going to get to the basket every time. We’ve had enough with Maryland and their tall dudes. With McFarland out, you don’t scare us. Nolan, Kyle, Scheyer, and LT have just come in, and this is the lineup that’s going to answer back. Nelson goes right into the heart of the Wake defense and muscles one up – but it doesn’t go! He grabs it back and tries again – ugggh! Still no! But we get the rebound, Nolan hits Nelson again for the follow, and our 6’4” guard fearlessly goes in there to try for the 3rd time – and gets fouled. Missed both free throws though.

STEAL BY NELSON!!!!!! Here comes our captain! Shoved and bumped by a taller defender all the way up the floor, he deftly controls the ball, goes up against another white shirt, takes contact, and still manages to finish – AND ONE! Too bad the free throw bounces out. Kyle, though, manages to grab the rebound, and Scheyer goes up for 3! But no dice. They run the other way, and – oh! Great job, Nelson! 2nd foul on their point guard, Ishmael Smith. Seconds later . . Wake gets the rebound, but Nelson, so alert, looking for every tactical advantage, sees that their ballhandler’s not really aware of him, and he just stands his ground as the Wake guy runs forward, making him knock head-first into D-Marc, both of them goes sprawling – the ball is loose – and hello! LT picks it up, goes right to the basket – and is fouled! But we cannot buy a free throw. 3 players have missed 6 of 7 so far. Yeah, I, too, would call that as “not the greatest in the world”, Gminski. How polite. 14-19, 12:33.

Henderson with a long jumper – gets the shooter’s roll. Singler for THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wide open beauty. Then he cuts inside for an easy layup, even as they tried to block him from both sides. 23-24! We are so close now! And Kyle, feeling the momentum shift, knows we need a defensive stop – and he puts his body on the line. #44 is coming in, charging hard. Without hesitation, Kyle switches over, getting toppled over by a 240 lb runaway train and slammed backwards onto the floor for his troubles. But upon hearing that whistle for the offensive charge – oh, pure delight. With the ball in our hands now – Nelson takes over. We work it back and forth, Scheyer coming out, Singler setting a pick. But Nelson, who is so patient, just waits . . waits . . and waits . . until he finally spots the narrowest of seams, and then he’s gone, taking it right to the hole for the LEAD!!!! 25-24, 9:06.

DANG!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Great work by our two point guards! #23 James Johnson is dribbling the ball out near the halfcourt, guarded by Paulus, and tries a fancy crossover but looses his footing, and the ball is picked off at lightening speed by Nolan Smith, who just outsprints everybody for the one-handed SLAM DUNK! OH-HO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hmmm, Singler’s ball-handling out on the open court is a bit questionable of late. 5 turnovers in the last game, and again, here, he’s being a bit sloppy with the ball. One lazy pass to Scheyer in the scramble to get back upcourt . . 2 or 3 TO already . . and now here, when he grabbed a rebound, looked to shoot it, only to realize he was being swarmed by guys, tossed it back out – but it was too strong and Scheyer couldn’t get to it in time. Don’t panic, Kyle! Paulus forces them to give it right back with a 5 second call on their PG Smith. But we hand it right back when Nelson gets overzealous and sends a halfcourt pass zipping ahead to Paulus, who is trapped in a corner and can’t handle it. 9 turnovers to their 8? Is it because of the late Sunday time slot?

Nelson hits a big 3! Then finally they foul someone on our end who is money at the FT line – Singler, who drains both. 32-30, 5:08. But James Johnson throws a glaring headlight on our defensive switch inside against an overmatched Paulus, turns around to shoot, and bags the and-one as a bonus. Paulus takes a seat, Scheyer picks up PG duties, looks for his shot but passes on a 3, goes into the 3 second area, looks like he’s going to shoot – but passes it back out with 9 seconds left on the clock, and gets whistled for a 3 second call. Oh, s***! Scheyer is DOWN! . . .

. . . He’s ok. Getting back up, tries to shake it off – but he is limping. Coach K immediately sends King in there. 4:26.

Nelson drives, gets blocked and fouled – but cannot hit the 2 free throws, even with the game on the line at 32-33. We are 5 of 14 on free throws. Splendid. But then he turns right around with a STEAL!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH, 3 on 1 fastbreak! And he dishes to Nolan for the DUNK!

Scheyer is back in the game! But we’re making them look like world-class shot blockers out there. King gets blocked. Scheyer does too. On the other end – Nelson alters a shot, but they get it right back on the other side for the put-back. Disheartening. 34-38, 2:40. NOLAN with a THREE!!!!!!! Then – forces an offensive charge!

Ok, Kyle, stop with all the fancy bounce passes inside to Nelson. A) he’s not a forward, and B) it’s getting picked off left and right. 4th TO for him? Johnson backs Singler down in the low post and scores – but Nelson answers back with a great-looking 3 – and its tied, 40-40, 1:53 left. But uh-oh, here comes turnover #12 for Duke, as Nolan took an extra step. We now have more turnovers than Wake. Are we as young as Wake? We certainly look like it. Nolan with a great crossover to hit the floater in the lane. Then Singler, trying to dog their ballhandler Teague, picks up the cheapest foul on earth, 60 feet out – SIXTY FEET! WTF? Kyle????? There’s 33 seconds left in the first half, and you have to go out and pick up your 2nd? Why, because every other starter also has 2??

They’re in the bonus already, as Teague hits his 1st, misses his 2nd – but they grab the rebound faster than we can blink. Hot damn! Gaudio calls a timeout, and they run their set to perfection. Stallball until the last 5 seconds, the crowd is now screaming at Teague to do something, anything – and he skips right through the defense, throwing up a shot . . it doesn’t go, but even with Zoubek there, Skeen gets the put-back – right at the buzzer! Holy smokes! 42-47 halftime.

Second half: Henderson opens with a 3, and as it bounces harmlessly away, they discuss how painful it is for Gerald to receive a pass and shoot. He is, at best, around 65%. Well, then why the hell do we have him in there? Is it not more important to rest him up for March? But aside from his decreased shot attempts – you’ll never know from him that he’s hurting. He still zips around the court with that long, effortless bounce step of his, still fights for rebounds, and now, here, he sees the mismatch with 7 footer McFarland on him instantly and takes him to the bank, wrangling him along for the baseline drive and – whistle – foul! That’s the 3RD on McFarland, which is “BIG!” Brando intones. Off the inbounds – Paulus immediately finds his favorite spot, squares up, and fires – snuggles into the net! “Textbook!”

ARRRGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Monster alley-oop to some guy on their team, I have no idea who, but he sure as hell tells us about it, and we cannot answer back with Henderson. Now I suddenly realize how much we miss him. Losing Henderson to a sprained wrist – for the entire duration of the rest of the season – is a major blow to our athleticism and ability to penetrate and/or kickout. So many times, I felt that we tried to penetrate and tried to look for ways, but Scheyer is just not a replacement, and for that reason, our 3 point shooting tonight has been more stand, square up, and shoot rather than wide open looks. Then Nelson is forced out of bounds, driving baseline – awww, c’mon, Nelson! 44-49, 17:16.

The onslaught continues. Now L.D. Williams gets a screen and hits a 3 – and stretches their lead to 44-52. Though he’s apparently not a 3 point shooter by any means in his regular day job, according to the announcers. Of course not. 34% shooters on their team will ht for 75% tonight. Count on it. Then – Henderson sets a screen and Kyle Singler squares up for the THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank God we have you, Kyle. 47-52.

Intentional foul on Chas McFarland. Yes. And the boos rain down like hail from the crowd, as no one, obviously, believes it to be intentional. No? When you go up against a shooter with BOTH hands, and bring them DOWN rather than try to block the ball, I would say that is it intentional – especially with everyone going 90mph, it is bloody dangerous to boot. Plus it was on Henderson trying to dunk – his wrist does NOT need more drama, ok? It is not our fault that your inbounds play is highly suspect. We got the steal, we pushed it up the floor to a streaking Henderson, and by all accounts we deserved the thunderous flush. Eh, 4th on McFarland. See ya!

And immediately, Singler goes wild. They forget to guard him in the paint, G breaks out laughing and sends him the ball, and – awww, Kyle! You shoulda dunked that! – as he goes up for the easy layup. OH PAULUS!!!!!!!!!!!! Goes end to end for the tie, 52-52, on a layup with no shot-blocker in sight! And Nelson, bless his heart, takes on all comers and their abuse and stuff thrown onto the floor, to nail two free throws, and we have the lead back after a long hiatus, 54-52.

Scheyer with the steal falling down, D-Marc bounce-passes it far ahead to Paulus, who controls it and brings it back , then hits McClure, who hits Nelson, who’s fouled. Most familiar sight of the night. And as he goes to the free throw line – I hear all those boos for him, all those spinning popsicles – and as I look into his eyes, I want to pray for him. C’mon, Nelson. C’mon, baby. C’mon, DeMarcus. It just kills me to know that we’ve left 6 or 8 points on the table because of missed free throws, because it’s become pretty clear that one of Gaudio’s missives was to mug DeMarcus every time he gets near the hoop. He hits 1 of 2, even with the entire wrath of the student section breathing down his neck. 55-52, we have to work for every inch.

Goddamn it. DeMarcus Nelson gets hit with his 3rd personal, offensive charge. 13:45, takes a seat. Kyle follows suit, collecting his 3rd while tussling with Skeen, 12:48. Then that bloody Skeen muscles up against Lance Thomas, and, like the chicken pox, LT gets hit with his FOURTH, 12:25. Oh great. Just great. We can’t catch a break anywhere! Nelson, with 3, will now have to come in for LT.

Nolan Smith gives us some good news with a TRIPLE off a Henderson screen (we need our 6’4” guards to be screeners now???), to get us up 58-55. Oh, what a beautiful play by Scheyer to Singler! Entirely unscripted to boot! Scheyer dribbles into the lane, looks to shoot, almost climbs his guy like a ladder but then spots Singler streaking in from the left wing – the pass is picture perfect – and before they know what’s hit them, Kyle is right underneath the basket for an easy deuce. 60-55 in a pleasant surprise, 11:17, and Dino calls a timeout.

Well, they storm back in a hurry, and we go 2 trips with Nelson posting up as a power forward, but he’s getting blocked left and right. And now, with 10:10 still left to play, Nelson picks up his 4th foul trying to draw the offensive charge. S***! It’s 60-61!

With Nelson gone, we completely blow our next possession, with Paulus having to heave up a hotly contested 3 pointer at the buzzer that bounces harmlessly off the backboard. Coach K cannot even say anything; he just doesn’t see his team anywhere out there tonight.

But the freshmen. Oh, the fabulous freshmen we have! Kyle Singler, with 3 personal fouls, puts his hands straight up and holds his ground against the much heavier Skeen, and uses his chest to basically force that ball out of Skeen’s hands and into a “steal” for Duke. Nolan grabs that sucker and races it end to end, drawing a foul – and having no trouble converting the ensuing gifts to get us up again, 62-61.

Ok, I spoke too fast again. Kyle, what’s wrong with you? Yet another cheap foul, chasing a guy in front of you with the ball? How is that going to help Duke? That’s your 4th, and there’s still 8:02 left on the night. Unlike the Jan 27 Maryland game, D-Marc and G are not available to bail you out. Kyle’s 3s, too, are off tonight, and that’s part of what’s bothering him. He’s been on such a hot tear lately – getting all kinds of accolades – “forget freshmen of the week”, think 1st team all ACC – and now he’s playing like a true, bonafide freshman who needs to air out all his mistakes and inconsistencies. I don’t know. But we need you out there for us, Kyle. More than ever. Without you, we are looking at our first possible loss of the ACC season . . to a 5-5 team. Yikes. 62-63.

What the – ???? Lance comes in for Singler (really a wash – trading 4 fouls for 4 fouls), McClure with a push-off on the rebounding fight, gets replaced by G, who immediately grabs 2 rebounds, but in his move to reverse-jam the sucker, gets whistled for the – offensive foul????? Who was even close enough for the offensive foul????? Oh, I never. Whatever. Here comes some ads to relieve the tension. 7:43.

It gets even worse. With both Singler and Nelson out, we have no idea what to do on offense. None. Henderson is out along the perimeter, dribbling, dribbling, but sees no seams, and tries to take it baseline – but, like a replay of Nelson earlier, gets bumped out of bounds and whistled for the turnover. Oh, finally, Coach K shows some emotion! Arguing that non-call. Then he knows his hands are tied and nods to Nelson to get back into the game, before it’s too late.

Oh, it is way too late. 62-67, and the second Nelson touches the ball, he immediately launches a 3. It sails wayyyy out of bounds. “That looked like a tired shot,” Brando kindly critiques, as Nelson walks off glassy-eyed to the serenades of “AIR-BALL! AIR-BALL!” Scheyer gets blocked. Henderson’s normally gorgeous jumpers are now going everywhere but in. We now need Kyle Singler in the worst way. And Coach K calls a timeout. We’ve missed our last 9 shot attempts? Ouch. Kyle scrambles up from the scorer’s table to go to the huddle, where an actual converted set play might wake us up. Still 62-67, 5:41 left.

Wow. Wow. Look at their speed. Their team is just hungrier than we are, and it’s crystal clear by now. They are attacking the basket on every occasion, knowing that we’re in foul trouble, won’t contend their shot, and they’re just torching us in the paint. Now Paulus picks up his 3rd, and Teague gets the basket and one. Oh, how much we’ll looooove to have those missed free throws back! 62-72 – is this game still salvageable?

Well, that was stupid. They bring McFarland back in, for what I don’t know, and Kyle goes right at him, spinning, blitzing his way to the basket, and McFarland’s GONE. 5 on him. Oh, but Kyle – we need every point, every point, and you only hit 1 of 2? Off the rebound – out to Duke! On a play that I couldn’t see b/c of the bizarre camera angle. “DeMarcus,” Brando chuckles, “always has his hands in the fray.” The senior captain immediately takes it to the rack – but, “oh!” – loses the handle? How do you lose the handle with such strong hands? On the other end, Teague goes down in a heap with Singler, no foul is called – and Nelson races the other way with it, hitting Paulus, who spots up for the transition threeeeee – YES!!!!!!!! He hits it!!!!!! OH, GREG! 66-72, 4:11 still left! But Wake is in the driver’s seat, they know it, and they take a page from our book by playing stallball with us – God, it’s frustrating! Paulus gets whistled for his 4th foul. Oh sure. So what else is new?

Nelson’s gone. Yep. So is the game. 3:12 to go, down 66-73, Nelson with a push along the perimeter, and he’s disqualified from the game. The announcers, seeing us lose our leading scorer and senior leader, tries to cheer us up by reminding us that right around this time last week, Clemson had a similar lead on Carolina, and Carolina managed to storm back to force OT, and then the win. Yes, but – Carolina was at home. Here, on the Wake Forest campus, we have no fans, not even Coach K, who just looks silently on as Scheyer travels and generates turnover #20 for Duke.

Oh, this is a dogfight. Nolan goes end to end for his senior compadre left on the bench, making it 68-74. As every second ticks off the clock, I look for signs that we want to fight back. Why don’t we pick them up full court, like Carolina did to us? Why don’t we press and trap? Where the hell is our stalwart defense tonight?? ZONE? Remember that??? C’MON!!!!! Throw King in there for some freshness and variety at the 3? Because, wow, we sure as hell have no answer for Teague, who scorches the net yet again right in the heart of our defense. Thank God for Nolan Smith – right back at them! 70-76, 2:30.

All hell breaks loose. Singler tries for a three-pointer – and it breaks my heart that it doesn’t go in, because he wants to, I know he wants it to from the bottom of his heart, and it just confounds him that it doesn’t. Off the rebound – Scheyer fights with a white shirt for it, Singler tries to help him, gets tangled and falls to the ground with Teague – and then Teague jumps up with his hand cocked ready to punch Singler – who has his hands spread out wide on the floor. WTF???? You wanna fight? You’re seconds away from an ejection, kid. The referees jump in there to bail him out, and he skulks off. Um, and why is it Wake ball? No explanation. Of course.

Everything is down the tubes. Everything. It is just mind-boggling how much. No one has a good shooting night. Our 3s are way off. Our free throws are way off. We keep getting blocked, forced out of bounds, or getting our passes stolen. Nelson can’t hit from inside, Singler can’t hit from outside, Scheyer just plain can’t hit anything, Henderson is limited, and we are getting no help from anyone else, including Lance, Z, or King. We have no advantage on the turnovers. No advantage in steals. Getting totally out-rebounded. I mean, what else do you need to do, to NOT win? I think we’ve covered it all. But just to be safe, though, we’ll add one more hurdle: our epidemic of foul trouble on every single starter. I’ve gotta say, Coach – we’re in so much foul trouble that a little zone can’t possibly hurt, right? Will help protect Singler or Lance from being totally disqualified? Ah, but what do I know. Coach K almost seems intent on getting this loss so he can talk some sense into this overconfident team and whip them back into shape before Carolina comes in March 8. Because, otherwise . . there goes our #2 ranking. There goes our perfect ACC record. There goes our 12 in a row. Yeah . . I didn’t care about that #1 seed in the East either, right, K? Who needs that? All those Wake fans, ruining our cheer sheet.

Teague breaks through a double team, hands off to Skeen, who gets fouled by Henderson. Welcome, Gerald! He joins the rest of his teammates in the 4 foul club. OH WOW, look at Nolan GO! Races end to end in 5 seconds flat, and the ball’s in the hoop. Where was this kid from the beginning? Why didn’t we realize we had Teague’s counterpart on our bench this whole time??? 72-78, 1:46 remaining, and Coach K immediately calls a timeout to try to set a trap. Brando astutely picks up what we’ve guessed about this game: Coach K saw all the accolades, all the ink about how half the ACC games have gone down to the wire, but we haven’t been touched, we’ve managed to get the lead with 5 minutes remaining every time and been too comfortable running the stallball show. “It’s almost as if he wants them to will their way through it. If not tonight, then it’ll get tougher the next night.” Exactly. Coach K wants this club to be battle-tested, not just during the first 35 minutes of the game, but during the last 5 as well. Congrats, you’ve got your drama. Now, will this team respond?

OH SHITTTTTTTTTTT. “That’s FIVE on Kyle Singler! His night is OVER.” I don’t even feel like typing. Kyle is gone. Offensive foul, trying to split a double team to the goal, and trips over them. Well, what a lovely way to end the evening. Two of our best players gone, with a couple more probably not far behind. Hey, the ball went in! Can we count that, at least? No?

Poor boy. He was the hottest thing in the country just 4 days ago, getting all kinds of praise from his Hall of Fame coach, from Dickie V, from every sportswriter alive, getting Rivals.com’s National Rookie of the Week and sharing ACC Player of the Week accolades with Hansbrough. Now look at him. Defeated, shackled to the bench, hearing the delirious screams from the crowd feeling the upset, feeling the incredible upset, and he puts his fingers to his temple. We didn’t fight tonight. Or maybe we got outfought. I was ok with losing to Pitt because they were a more experienced team, a more physical team – but this???? To the baby Deacons???? You’ve got to be kidding me! This ain’t a top 25 club! This team is barely in the top 5 of its own league! And yet? We can’t get closer than 7 points, with 1:38 left? Goddamn.

Wow, what a primal scream, as Gerald Henderson exits from the game. Does his 5th foul make you THAT happy?? I’m not sure if we should be fouling at this point, 72-79 with 1:31 left, as we really don’t have that many bodies to give fouls on. And they’ve been lights out at the line tonight, being at home, of course. Now I am actually rooting for Carolina to take care of these suckers next Sunday. Weak, huh?

Taylor King is in. Wow, how bad must he feel, huh? Pretty much the very last option, after every starter has fouled out except for Paulus, who has 4? Oops, make that 5. Paulus is gone. This crowd is just getting ready to storm the court. Please plan your exit strategies now, Blue Devils. I don’t get it. Ok, yes, Nolan’s hot, having raced it down for a bucket the third time in a row, but now he misses a 3, and now again he misses a short jumper – can we not have anyone else score? King? What happened to his “instant offense”? Has he been bricking everything in sight in practice? And this Coach K looking unemotionally on is getting kind of eerie. K, your 5th starter has just fouled out. FIFTH STARTER!!! That’s pretty major, isn’t it? Something is very wrong with your defense if that happens, wouldn’t you say? Care to give them a few pointers? But no, it looks like the players and the coaching staff had a huge gigantic argument right before the game, and K is boycotting this game or something.

There it is. The End. 73-86 final score. And to see them storm the court – at least handshakes are spared – that’s pretty humiliating. They haven’t had a top 5 win since 2005 – 3 years ago. All 5 starters foul out? ALL FIVE?????? That’s ridiculous! This wasn’t a “good loss” – this was as humiliating as it gets. It didn’t go into OT. It didn’t go down to the wire. It was over with by the 5 minute mark, and we had no answer. NO ANSWER! Not even an illusionary one! Our 3s were terrible, our inability to get to the rim beyond Nolan was embarrassing, and – you’re right – we had no post guy to dump it down to when we needed a bucket. We just had no momentum of any sort – and, worst of all, we let our offense dictate our defense, rather than the other way around. When we had good offense – woooo! We had tight defense, we ran up and down the court, we were sharp and together. When we had bad offense – then we had no hunger on D – none. We were also a little careless on free throws earlier on. Let me tell you, it would’ve been a lot closer had we hit our free throws, and maybe we would’ve been able to come back. Who knows? I think Marty would’ve bailed us out. Right, Marty?

What happens when we have a bad shooting night? This is what happens. 40 minutes of hard work . . one lifetime of memories. You got us, Dino. We’ll give you the memories, if this will give us a wake-up call. Miami is next. And if we don’t win down there 98-82 like the Heels did after their first ACC loss, our post-season hopes are over.

:: collapses on the couch ::

Oh, I can’t believe it. I just can’t believe it. Yeah, lack of emotions got us the loss. I believe that. Maybe every coach should say “40 minutes of hard work will beget you a lifetime of memories” – but who are we kidding? What would Coach K have said that the Blue Devils would’ve listened to? Win this one so we might be #1 if Memphis gets beat? Win this one, so we can make a little history? Get an extra pat on the back? Yeah, it just doesn’t sound as nice. Wake Forest was 5-5 and fighting for their lives. They had UNC and Maryland next, and was possibly looking at 5-8 in a hurry if they didn’t shore up. Well, they shored up. Now I can understand how UCLA gets beat by 4-7 Washington, or Carolina so narrowly by 1-9 Virginia. I’m gonna hear those damn whistles all night long in my sleep, aren't I? F***ing officials.

Post-game Thoughts (2.18.08):

I’ve never seen Coach K so disappointed. It was almost as if he wanted this loss, or in the very least he was just going to let his players fight through it on their own, and see what they come up with. That was the weirdest thing about tonight. Not the 5 starters all fouling out. Not the abysmal numbers in just about every category. Maybe I haven’t seen years and years of Duke games, and maybe it’s because of the TV crew, but every time the camera panned to him, he was just sitting there with his hand under his chin, or his hands by his sides, while placidly watching his team being torn to shreds. That’s the thing that kills me – neither side tried very hard. Coach K did not try, and the players did not try, outside of Nolan Smith. I mean, ok, we’re looking at a potential loss here with about 4 minutes to go – why couldn’t we have tried some new things?? Pretend this is a round 2 game with a 8 or 9 seed, and learn from it?

This was totally different from the Pitt game. That game was actually exciting! After the narrow loss, I was angry and disappointed, but in a “good” way, because we fought til the end; we just didn’t get the win. But here? Here we didn’t fight. Nolan did – a couple players tried – but at the end we just gave up. It was almost like – yeah, we’re 10-0, 22-1, what are you going to do about it? We had some injuries, some foul trouble – and that was enough excuse for tonight. Bulls***. That’s not how a championship team should react, and that was certainly not a championship team out there tonight.

And I think Coach K knew it. He wanted to get a point across. For someone usually so successful with his in-game adjustments and motivations, he did neither tonight. With all 5 starters in foul trouble – he never went deep into his bench, but, rather, traded Thomas for Singler when the latter picked up his 4th foul, and watched as one after another bailed themselves out of the game with their 5th. He didn’t try to fix the switches on screens that were killing us with their mismatches. He didn’t try to go to zone to protect our players and stop their dribble penetration. Worst of all – he didn’t encourage his team on along the sidelines, calling out a play or extorting his players or even arguing bad calls. He just sat there, as if he was personally challenging his team, as if there’s been such a disconnect in practice lately that the only way to get his point across was for them to lose on their own in a hostile environment.

The announcers saw it too. Brando: “It’s almost as if he wants them to will their way through it. If not tonight, then it’ll get tougher the next night.” Coach K’s own words: “Sometimes the best lessons are the ones that are taught in defeat, so hopefully we’ll learn that lesson.”

I sure hope so. There were some good stretches, true, when Duke really tried – and rallied – from being 8 or 10 down. But towards the end, when it became obvious that Nelson could not play power forward, and our 3s were not falling – we just gave up. We couldn’t come up with anything new, and we suddenly looked exactly like we did last year – exasperated, incredulous, but unable to do a thing about it. And that storming of the court by the Deacon fans? Embarrassing. I felt embarrassed, watching from home, and the players should feel embarrassed too, watching it live. The Deacons weren’t supposed to win. Yet they did. And Blue Devils were the ones who gave it to them.

Duke vs Maryland Game Blog – Checkmate

2008-02-13T22:38:00.004-06:00

Maryland comes in on a hot streak. They’ve won 4 in a row, 6 of their last 7, with their only loss during that period being the Jan 27 loss to Duke. Vasquez and Gist have been on fire, with Vasquez being named by ESPN as Player of the Week for his stat lines against BC and NC State. With 2 and a half weeks to further learn and study each other for this rematch – who will win out? Who can adjust better?

The first few possessions don’t look so hot. Henderson with a short jumper doesn’t go, Paulus off a curl can’t hit, and Singler gets blocked. But we are making it look like 7 on 5 on defense, with Nelson and LT trying to steal every pass in sight, and a great Henderson BLOCK! turns into a fastbreak for us, with Nelson smartly whipping it out to Greg on the 3 point line for the TRIPLE!!!!!!!! 6-2! Great transition three, as they were playing Nelson for the dunk. Then – offensive charge drawn by Lance Thomas! We’re on a roll, baby! (Dickie V is in the house – can you tell?) Ugh, then they block another shot, Thomas’s this time, but Singler taps the rebound out to Paulus, who picks up the gift and immediately lets it fly – MONEY! 8-2, baby!!! 16:45, and Gary Williams needs a timeout! They can’t rebound for s***!

Long outlet pass to Henderson, who streaks into the lane all alone, going for the dunk – oh, but FOULED by Osby! The rim rattles with the confrontation, but Henderson shakes it off and nails both free throws. He’s wearing a black wrist band on his right shooting wrist, with straps that looks like he was involved in the filming of the Matrix sequels. Hey, Zoubek is in! And right off the bat, he challenges Gist for a shot and makes it go awry. Awesome! Singler’s demonstrating a great touch, first with a midrange jumper, then with a runner in the lane off the glass. His threes, though, are way off. And boy, is Maryland blocking our every shot. 4th block already?

4 guards out on the floor right now, with Singler the only one over 6’5”: Paulus, Scheyer, Hendo, and Nelson. Can we play their frontline with 4 guards? Singler tries to thread a pass inside to Nelson but it gets picked off. Scheyer tries a drive, but Osby comes over and challenges his shot, forcing it to rim out. The lead is down to a precarious 15-13, and just as I’m bracing for another nail-biting first half – PAULUS FOR THREE!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, way to go, GREG!! That’s a huge shot right there, making it 18-13. 10:40. They answer with Osby – but 6 seconds later, we answer right back with another three – this time, it’s SINGLER!!!!!!!!!!!! Left all alone on the perimeter! And he’s starting to shoot like King too – a foot or two beyond the 3 point arc, doesn’t blink, just sights up the basket and shoots. 21-15 in a hurry. They answer with another 2 point jumper. Okay. Paulus shrugs off a random foul in the backcourt, walks up the ball, gets a screen from McClure – and lets fly another three. AND IT HITS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 24-17!!!!!! DAMN!!!!!!!!!! We can trade 2s for 3s all night long! Just say the word! Mr. Limits-Clubs-to-31%-from-Long-Range Maryland – heh.

And as they walk the ball back downcourt – the house just shakes with adrenaline, everybody jumping up and down, hollering – and the Maryland team looks like they don’t know what hit them – they’re making every shot, every shot, yet the lead’s grown to 7 in the blink of an eye. They are quickly realizing, too, that trading 2s for 3s is a winless scenario, that with Duke’s smallest and largest player on the court equally deadly from 3 point range, their size advantage on defense is also negated. And if they drag out their biggest players to defend on the perimeter, that’ll open up shots for our slashers and drivers inside. DeMarcus Nelson and Gerald Henderson are just licking their chops at the second they decide to do that, and open the lane back up for business. Classic deer-in-the-headlights look right there. Hey Gary! Maybe you wanna call another timeout? Share your thoughts on this phenomenon? 9:33.

Baseline drive by Hayes, seemingly all alone into the paint – and Nelson skies for the BLOCK! Great anticipation to get up in the air like that when it looked like Hayes had beaten everyone into the lane. Singler looses the handle on the drive to Gist – his 3rd turnover? King comes in for Kyle, and he has all kinds of trouble guarding Gist, who misses more point-blank shots than I can count, but keeps getting his own miss back, and trying again, until King ties him up – and is called for the foul. So far, though, this dude who scorched us for 26 in the last meeting has been pretty quiet.

Oh, MCCLURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Runaway DUNK! He flat-out made Osby look like a drive-through window! Wow! Troy is out on the perimeter, Osby is on him, he tries to body-check Troy but quickly pulls back both hands to show his repentance, and then Troy just zooms by him, hopping into the lane, and by the time they realize that he intends to shoot it is all over, he’s gone, and the ball thunderously rattling into the hoop. And it’s 28-18, just like that!!!! “Aww, you can’t let McClure take you one on one, and then no one rotates over!” Dickie V is livid at MD. 7:56.

Great steal by D-Marc, gets it to Paulus even though he’s fallen to the ground, Henderson passes to King right underneath the basket – but Osby blocks him!!! ARGHHHHH! But oh . . how to make them pay! A screener comes, nobody stays with Kyle, and it’s gone – ANOTHER THREE!!!!!!!!!!!! 6 of 11 so far from downtown by the team!!! And the Cameron Crazies give him a standing ovation, as one after another stands up, clapping, the cheerleaders twirling – this is a legend in the making. And Kyle just trots off to the other end, ready to get back on D, no fanfare on his part – it’s just too easy! And as they pan to our freshman sensation, Dickie V warns the rest of the teams out there that “he looks like he’s staying in college, there’s no NBA interest in his body.” Music to our ears, Dickie V! 35-22, 4:13.

Ah, thanks so much, Brian Zoubek! Our 7 footer sets a solid screen for Greg that sends Vasquez sprawling to the floor. But, all kidding aside – that Vasquez kid is really good at setting up his teammates, running the floor, and passing off to his bigger teammates, especially Gist, who made Singler reach for the steal, only to go crashing onto the floor as he got up an uncontested shot. That’s the Maryland that scares me – fast on the break, then able to go down low to Osby or Gist when they go to halfcourt. But Singler eases all worries with yet another three, this time from the corner – nothing but net, baby! You leave me open, you’re gonna pay every time. 3 of 6 so far for him!!! 41-30 at the half. Boy, that’s a cute stuffed turtle they’re torturing amongst the Crazies crowd!

Second half: Duke has now gotten somewhat of a reputation as a strong second-half team, and we again show it here – two steals on the first two Maryland possessions right off the bat! First, Nelson with a crazy move inside, walled in by an army of defenders and giving that classic “oh!” as he almost looses the handle, but manages to get it back and turns to toss it up strong. Then, we strip the entry pass to Osby. On the next possession, G makes off with another poor pass, and Singler tries a 7 footer, it bounces off the rim, we’re able to snatch the offensive rebound, Nelson drives – then kicks out to Kyle way out in the corner, and – HA! SINGLER BABY!! Just NAILS another trifecta from the corner – that’s his favorite spot! Right in front of the Duke bench! Gary looks like he’s just swallowed a turd. Immediately calls a timeout. I mean, he sure as hell can’t do anything else. Can’t go out and help his team guard Singler. Can’t assign a double team to him because of all our other scoring threats. And in a game full of mismatches, it’s up to whichever team can execute better. And right now, that’s Duke. 46-30, only 1 minute gone!

So Maryland finally decides to make a game of it. They’ve had it with their coach and his yelling. Vasquez is single-handedly leading his team on, and his teammates are responding. Look at him – screaming, slapping the floor! Hey kid – isn’t that what you hated about Duke? Paulus drives and looses it out of bounds. Nelson drives and looses it out of bounds. Boy, they’re really neutralizing Henderson and his power moves – Nelson too. Neither one of our slashers can create, because they’re repeatedly being met by a WALL of defenders, all looming to either alter or block their shot. Thank God we can kick out for 3s, huh? Just as I say that . . Nelson misses from downtown. Paulus misses. Scheyer misses. And what’s up with the no-calls? Henderson takes a charge but it’s not called. Singler tries to stop Vasquez on one of his trademark wild drives and both players go down, to nary a peep from the whistles. Uh, refs? Can we please solicit your opinion on these two last plays? Are they fouls or not? Just because Maryland is down 16 and now down 11 does not mean you need to give them all the help they need.

OH, PAULUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FOR THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! “Paulus with the ANSWER!” They’d just cut the lead down to 6, 46-40, off a Neal three, and we had botched up our last string of possessions to no field goals for about 4 minutes. Then Paulus sends the ball inside to Singler, who kicks it back out, and he just goes up for the three – and hits!! BIG TIME right there. Off the make, we double-team and trap their backcourt, and – they fling the pass straight to Gerald, who lobs it forward to Nelson, already gone – who DUNKS!!!!!!!!!!! Boy, we needed that! “[Duke’s] hard enough to beat without giving them all the easy ones!” 51-40! 14:44.

Hmmm. Hayes throws down a great three of his own, and that quiets the crowd down somewhat. But this team has gotten so good at stuffing the other team’s pipe dreams right back down where it came from, it’s scary. Paulus knows exactly what to do. I mean, it’s not like Gary Williams is blind. Paulus and Singler were 9 for 15 in the first half, while the rest of the team was 3 for 15. Shut down P and S, and supposedly, you shut down this high-octane Duke offense – right? That’s a nice idea – on paper. On the court, it looks something like this: Paulus walks the ball up, flipping through 43 different options on the set plays in his book, comes to set play #35, likes it, yells something to his teammates, gets a screen from Singler, drives left, gets both defenders to go chasing after him like squirrels, penetrates enough to get all manner of big bodies to jump up to meet him – and then – haha! – says “gotcha!” and reverse-passes out to Kyle Singler, who steps right up to the 3 point line with his entire sight line open in front of him and just drills the 3. You know it by now: “OH, WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!” He was WIDE OPEN on the 3! I mean, you could’ve parked a double-wide Hummer in front of him and the closest defender, and still had room for a tailgate! Jesus Christ! I LOVE THIS!!!!!!!!!!! “He’s a 36% three-pointer shooter,” Mike Patrick gropes and finds his jaw from the floor, “but he’s 60% on the night!” As they pan to an exasperated Gary Williams, just speechless after that play, Dick Vitale reminds us of Gary’s own words at halftime: “We have to concentrate, and contain, Singler and Paulus shooting the three.” Good job, Gary! Really working out for ya so far! “Who’s made the last two? Paulus, and Singler.” “Exactly.” 54-43, 14:11.

So now Vasquez must resort to extreme measures, and pulls an Eric Maynor on Paulus, just hounding him in the backcourt. Henderson is inbounding the ball, Vasquez is pushing and shoving Paulus in every which way, steals the ball away, and runs off scoot-free. Okay. He then takes about 8 shots all by himself, including a wild runner against a staunch Singler that bounces wildly away and makes the announcers say “Huh? What was that???” Oh, and right in front of the Duke bench – Paulus is trying to take the ball off Singler’s hands and Vasquez just dogs him to no end, arm-wrestling him it seems, snatching his jersey and trying to trip him up and in general mugging Paulus in full view of the officials with nary a sound from their whistles. I mean, really – the officials tonight would much rather watch reruns of The Love Boat than call a foul on Super-Vasquez. Even Mike Patrick is livid! “I really find it hard to believe, that Vasquez was not called for a hold!” As the ball sails out of bounds on a desperate pass to Scheyer. Another turnover. Our lead is down to 5, 54-49, with 11:41 remaining.

Nolan is in for Greg, as Osby muscles in a ball to cut the lead to 3. Hmmm, Henderson is trying very hard, but just can’t seem to get to the rim in the right posture, and the shot rims out. Vasquez, aware that he can take all the glory and headlines with a 3 to tie the game, spots up about 3 feet out to launch the three – and misses badly. Classic Dickie V, as he ribs him: “He’s trying to shoot too many jumpers, not passing to anybody! Let that ball touch some people!”

OH, NELSON! GREAT defensive play on the switch inside as he just knocks that ball loose from what was seemly a runaway layup. Both teams are deadlocked at 54-51, nobody can score, and the defense is solid on both ends of the court. And just as Patrick notes that Duke has gone more than 5 minutes without a field goal – again – Paulus gets all the way into the lane, looks for all intents and purposes to shoot that ball, he was maybe 2 feet away – but his point guard instincts kick in, and he expertly lobs it out to Scheyer, who hits for THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my God, how we needed that! From the Duke corner! YES! 57-51!

Oh no, I spoke too fast. Vasquez with a runner, 57-53, then with 8:20 still remaining Paulus decides to initiate stallball, runs the clock down to 13, circles into the lane only to kick out to DeMarcus, who drives but, as he and Henderson has discovered all night long – just completely gets met by an immovable WALL, throws up an “oh!” as he looses his balance, and the ball doesn’t even get off for a shot before its picked off by the Terps. On the other end – Gist dunks – and suddenly it’s a 2 point game. 57-55, 7:53. S***! Duke calls a timeout.

Paulus tries a running 3 off the timeout, to no avail. Our 3 point shooting is now off its sugar high. LT with a block on the other end, they get it back, but they can’t hit it. And then? Who else? Oh, Oh, Oh – Singler!! Baseline drive, his body laced with emotion and determination, just knows he can beat his man and does it with speed and a smoothness that belies the surprise of Gist rotating over, laying it in with just a hint of a snarl. 59-55.

“ACC-olades”: ESPN shows a chart that’s pretty damn amazing. 24 of 55 ACC games so far has been decided by 2 points or fewer, or going into OT, with 10 OT games so far, nearly a record! (the record is 11) And what do you know, 6 of those games are courtesy of good ol’ Carolina, while Duke has been untouched! No one’s been within 9 points of Duke at the end of regulation, nor has had a lead on us with at least 4:55 left to play – yet SIX times Carolina has found itself in a sweat in the endgame! That would be at Clemson, at GT, vs Maryland (loss), at Florida State, vs Clemson, and at Virginia. Way to convince everybody you’re supposed to be the best in the league, huh, guys? Digger?

Holy LORD! Singler with ANOTHER THREE!!!!!! This time someone is actually guarding him (Osby), but it makes no difference – the big guy barely has time to react before that shot is already off, and soaring through the air. That’s the dagger, right there. Vasquez had just cut it down to 4, 61-57, with a jumper in the lane, and Maryland looked poised for another comeback, having chipped away and chipped away – and now we hold the ball, run some time off the clock, and then boy, Singler just negates all their hard work with a 3 right where he’s standing, just jumps up and knocks it down, so poised and confident, like “I can do this, all day”. It is frightening even me! Vitale is just amazed at Maryland’s amnesia. “You can’t let him shoot it, Mike! I told you, he’s been on fire in the last couple of games. Gary Williams knew that. That was one of his points of emphasis to his team before the game!” Haha, and they show a shot of Gary Williams with both fingers on either side of his head, calling his team dumbasses for not guarding that play. 64-57, 5:30.

WOW!! What a peerless defensive play by Paulus, who just strips the charging Osby of the ball as he’s going to the basket, then spots a streaking Singler on the other end for a warp-speed pass for the DUNK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Statement bucket right there!!! “Oh, that’s big, that’s BIG!!!” Dickie V applauds. 66-57!!! 4:52, Gary Williams has no choice. Timeout, their last one, by Maryland.

“Kyle Sing-ler!” clap-clap-clap. “Kyle Sing-ler!” clap-clap-clap. I have no fear anymore. This game is in the bag. Maryland’s beat. 4:28, we’ve got our 9 point lead, and now it’s time to play some stallball and rest ourselves for the next game. Paulus dribbles some, Nelson dribbles some, we’ve spread their defenders out to nearly all 4 corners, and now Scheyer, with Gist guarding him, waits for the clock, waits for the friendly ticks to go down to 12, and now we execute. Singler comes out with a screen for him, Scheyer circles wide into the lane, nobody rotates over, and he finishes the run with a point-blank layup! “Isn’t that pretty!” “He froze the defensive playa! A little hoppy-step dribble!” Oh, Scheyer!

Scheyer should really wear a helmet and pads whenever he goes into the lane for drives – he gets fouled every time, and quite hard too. Then he happily goes to the free throw line to work on pretend-late-game-FT-scenarios, grinning with each swish of the net. Oh, Kyle! You shoulda dunked it! They play him for 4 corners again, he instead bolts through an opening and charges wide open into the lane, goes up in the air only to find Osby ready for the throwdown, and so he makes the read in mid-air and so unselfishly dishes to Nelson, who shows no mercy in the flush. And the crowd goes wild!!! “Duke is not #2 in the country for nothing. They have earned their lofty rating, and they have proved that emphatically during the course of the year.” Mike Patrick gushes. Oh, if only the rankings are based on earnings rather than expectations!

It is now 72-61, 2:18 left, and the last 2 minutes becomes a chat about Duke’s post-season chances. I think I can earn a doctorate on that now; I mean, I’ve heard just about every argument. And it always comes back to the same thing. Yes, Duke has both slashers and 3 point shooters, so “you have to kind of pick your poison” guarding them. Fine. But, but, but – there is always that “but”! You would think 22 games and 21 wins would answer it by now, but no – here we go again – we have no post presence. The shooting touch can come and go. The post presence, however, is solid. Oh yeah? Are you sure about that? The post presence can’t get into foul trouble? The post presence can’t give up turnovers, missed shots, just like a shooter would? The only thing I care about with a post presence is DEFENSE, and I think we’ve answered that question resoundingly well. We can defend, and we can defend with a vengeance. The Phoenix Suns added Shaquille O’Neill not for his offense, but for his defense. We cannot shell out $$ for a post presence in mid-season like the NBA, but we can play tremendous help D to compensate, and we have. We force an average of 20 turnovers per game, and we’ve done that again tonight, with 19, including 14 steals. FOURTEEN! That’s unreal! So, we will see. The thing I fear most is not an off-shooting night; I just think we have too many capable shooters for that. The thing I fear the most – is Kyle Singler in foul trouble. We will live or die by his defense, and if he is not able to defend with impunity, then we’re done. I’ll give you that much. And thank God, in the last few games, he’s really reined in his fouls. 77-65 final.

Post-game thoughts:

Kyle Singler’s threes
Ok, about this recent barrage of threes by Kyle: I looked up his stats recently, and it confounds me – more than 41% of his shots are threes, and more than 50% during ACC play. And at the beginning of the year, I would often get frustrated, because with our great guard play, we don’t really need another 3 point specialist – what we need are points down in the paint. And with his awesome FT%, I thought that would be more beneficial to the club. Plus, his 3P% wasn’t all that great – something around 33%. But that has increased. And in the last couple of ACC games – that has dramatically increased, to some nights where he’s shooting 50%, like in the UNC game. Why? Because he can get himself WIDE OPEN. You can have a piñata party right in front of him, and your stick won’t hit a single opposing defender. The opposing big guarding him often has trouble remembering that he has to go out and cover that part of the floor. And for Singler to be able to make threes at 40% or 50% clips is amazing. It is a MAJOR weapon. And it’s easier said than done when covering him on those shots, because:

A) He’s always the trailing forward as we bring the ball up, inbounding it to Greg or Nolan, so that the opposing big has already run down the floor on D and pitched his tent near the basket to guard. Yep. So that means if they don’t pick him up, either he gets a smaller guy on him, or nobody, which is the prime time to let that baby fly.

B) He is GREAT at getting himself wide open off of a pick n’ pop. Duke will run those plays for him, and if he’s open, he lets that shot fly faster than you can blink and watch it fly over your head into the hoop. He’s also great at shot selection. When he found his shot a bit too closely contested for his taste in the second half today, he reversed his action in mid-air to send the ball back out to Paulus – in mid-air! Very cute with his legs doing a scissor-kick.

For him to grow and cultivate his 3 point shot into a 66% clip tonight (6 of 9), and now 39% overall, is staggering. It’s just another facet of the mismatch that he provides, and gives us an insurance policy in case Greg/Jon/Taylor’s 3 point shots are off. We will need great shooting nights to go far in the tournament, and Kyle Singler’s already got us covered on one aspect of that. GREAT!

Duke vs Maryland's Execution
It’s pretty amazing to see how each team responded to the first Jan 27 game in Maryland, where Duke won 93-84, and came up with game plans to stop what hurt them the most, in a bid to win the rematch. Witness:

Maryland was going to stop DeMarcus and Gerald in the paint at all costs. Our pair had scorched them for 50 points, on 19 of 31 shooting, all over their floor! So they double or triple-teamed down low in the post, cut off driving lanes, and turned DeMarcus and G away again and again, forcing them to shoot a combined 4 for 15 and only 16 points overall. Now, I don’t know how much G’s shooting night had to do with his sprained wrist, as he was only 0 for 3, very uncharacteristic of him. But the strategy clearly bothered DeMarcus, who did kick it out for 2 assists, but gave up 3 turnovers. Overall, we had 18 points in the paint to their 32. Good job, Maryland – mission accomplished.

Meanwhile, Duke looked at Gist and Osby dominating the low block for a combined 16 of 26, 46 points total last time and said no way, never again. Osby still got most of his, but we especially keyed in and stopped Gist from touching the ball as much as he has in the last few games, and we were able to cut down their damage to just 21 points, on 8 of 22 shooting. For a while there, it was strictly the Greivis Vasquez Show, and though he got his 25, no one else really contributed, and that’s the ballgame.

In fact, it’s pretty damn amazing how Duke can concentrate on shutting down 1 or 2 players, and go about executing their plan to perfection. That’s a huge credit to the coaching staff, and the players as well to do it without fouling. The adjustments this team can make is astounding. In the Jan 27 meeting, I clearly remember both Singler and Paulus going to the bench during a crucial, crucial stretch because they were both saddled with 4 fouls. Kyle wound up fouling out. They were also struggling with their shot, with Singler clearly bothered by the bigger and more senior frontline of Gist and Osby, shooting only 2 of 10, 1 of 5 on three. Paulus, too, seemed beat by the taller Vasquez, shooting 3 for 7 and playing only 19 minutes. Nolan played huge in his absence.

But both players got their revenge tonight. My God, how much has Singler improved over the past 2 and a half weeks?? Ridiculous! The UNC game was huge, where he more than held his ground with Hansbrough, the BC game was hilarious how he abused Oates, and now, here, he made Gist foul out. Hell yeah! 6 of 9 threes!!! Combining with Paulus for 10 of 17 threes!!! That’s just sick! They combined for 46 points total, completely negating Maryland’s incoming battle plan to lock down on G and Nelson, and that’s the game. That’s the difference. We adjusted, we found and exploited our mismatches again and again, while they went to Vasquez and Osby and nobody else. Checkmate, baby.

Duke vs BC Game Blog – Singler shows Laettner’s fire

2008-02-09T23:42:00.000-06:00

Oh? How did this game get in here? Just 2 days after celebrating our biggest win of the year at Chapel Hill – we have to play again? Against – let me check the program again – the Boston College Eagles? Uh, didn’t we actually beat them last year, twice? Hmmm . . not much motivation here. But something’s not right. BC, after starting off hot with 3 straight ACC wins, including at Maryland, has dropped its last 5 – to be 3-5 in the league. Yikes. I was gonna skip this game and Tivo it for later – hosting a party et al – but then I casually check the score, and – what?????? BC is leading????? That’s impossible!!! We just beat UNC! We can’t possibly lose! Aaaaaand that’s exactly what they mean by the “trap” mentality, I guess. Great. No more taking this game off. No more sleeping in.

Because a team like BC isn’t just gonna come in and play dead, not after having lost 5 in a row already, and suddenly, to them, this is bigger than just one game – this is about them, their season, and quite possibly their manhood. Meanwhile, Duke has had, what – only a day? To enjoy its magnificent UNC win? A win that is still being debated, from Anchorage to Zaire, as whether this means Duke can go all the way? “Oh, yeah, their record’s great, BUT, no post presence . . eh, great win, BUT, without Lawson . . dah dah dah.” Whatever. Guys, don’t listen to them. We have motivation too. This is our year. This is our raison d’etre. This is for DeMarcus. And, so, with my heart in my throat, I scramble for the remote, and, once again, tune out 2 hours of the real world for a thrill ride with my Blue Devils.

Rice scores the first bucket, cutting into the paint to freeze Paulus, immediately telling its host that there will be no shutting down this prize guard, a la Ellington/Oglesby/Fells. LT gets an entry pass, bobbles it dangerously, sends it out to Paulus, who fires a 3 ball that hits the rim. Is the UNC magic still there? They grab the loose ball and get a fastbreak bucket. Then Singler beats his man down the floor for the easy, easy layup! “Oh, BEAUTIFUL!!!” Billy Packer raves. And Singler with a near-steal! First turnover forced.

Aww-howwwww!!! PAULUS!!!!!! With such an on-the-dime bounce pass to a full-speed Nelson that leaves my jaw on the floor. Through 5 sprinting bodies! To a running DeMarcus Nelson, all the way on the other side! Who wasn’t even looking! How did he do that???? They are charging up the court like a herd of wildebeest towards water, everyone is running, and somehow Paulus just pulls up and fires a lightening bounce pass – through Lance Thomas, it looked like – to a cutting DeMarcus Nelson on the other side, who just becomes one with it, and – hell, I can’t even describe it! Then he goes up and it’s in. Done. Back the other way. It’s as if they both had superpowers to teleport, and could communicate seamlessly with one another to boot. Astounding! And the defense still doesn’t know what’s hit them. If Paulus keeps making these kind of passes, who cares if Lawson comes back or not? 4-4, 18:10.

We are sharp. There is no letdown from the UNC game, “trap” game or not. How can you not be, when you’re at home playing in front of the Cameron Crazies? Who are still treating every move as if the opponent was UNC? Singler with another near-steal! Then, with the shot clock down to 11, 10, 9, Rice drives and gets it into the hands of a big guy, but Singler immediately hedges up and stands his ground, and the pass somehow zooms upward 30 feet towards the ceiling, before coming back down. And a travel! Ha!!

Hmmm. Paulus is really looking to get that UNC magic back, no? Fires off 2 quick-trigger threes in a row after Singler taps the ball out for an offensive rebound, and now he’s 0 for 3. But on the next possession, Singler, loitering about the perimeter, looks around, sees no great alternatives, sees his guy loafing in front of him, and goes up effortlessly for the three-point shot. And it rolls right in! This is gonna be a terror for other teams if he becomes a 45% 3 point shooter!

Scheyer with a block from behind? Really???? OOHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DEMARCUS NELSON IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Spins, weaves, explosive first step, and he soars towards the basket only to be stopped by the 6’10” wall John Oates – but he doesn’t care, just uses him as a ladder, and leans in just enough to support himself for the floater over him – score! Followed by yet ANOTHER turnover for BC!!!!!! 9-6, 15:34! This is turning into a laughter!!!

Nelson dribbles, finds a defender all over him, gives it to Singler in the corner to create for himself, he looks, sees McClure tussling in the post – not exactly a great option – where is Lance? Or Brian? I thought he was gonna play in this game? And then he fakes left, drives right, tries to slide into the post but is immediately met by 2 goons, sort of tries to flip it up even as he’s trying to avoid contact. The shot has no chance, going up awkwardly, but Singler, following it around the rim, scoots over and soars just enough to meet it as it comes back out to tip it in. And it goes!!! Awesome! The defenders were caught completely flat-footed.

They answer back with 2 good scores, but then commit the fatal error of sending a lazy pass in the backcourt. Scheyer taps it away immediately, it’s almost too easy – and the guy goes down, leaving Scheyer all alone to cruise to the other end for the layup. “I don’t like how nobody hustled back,” the announcer huffs. “In case Scheyer missed.” In case Scheyer missed???? Uh, who do you think we are, the North Carolina JV team? Did you see anybody within 30 feet of him??? No, I didn’t think so.

Oh, here comes the liberal substitutions! I ::heart:: thee! LT, Henderson, Paulus, and King comes in for Nelson, Singler, Nolan, and McClure. Scheyer with another STEAL! Take that, DeJuan Blair, who creams me for an uber-foul that’s not called for in the Garden game! Rice on the exchange with Oates, goes down to the floor, Oates looks on concerned, and Scheyer just runs in and taps that ball away right out of his hands, speeding off laughing with it, the loose ball bouncing along happily in front of him, and nobody on the BC team, again, can catch our shooting star as he lays it in off the glass.

The ACC is the ONLY conference where every team has a winning record. That’s incredible! (Although it is almost immediately disputed by Virginia, who lost to Wake today and is now 11-11, 1-8) It is also the only conference with a #2 and a #3 nationally, that’s not going to go anywhere but up. As Paulus tosses a fireball up high for Gerald the Hedgehog to fly in and DUNK IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hello, Sonic!!! What perfect execution!! The announcers are so blown out of their chairs that they immediately bring up comparisons to Bobby Hurley and Grant Hill. Bobby’s quote, and probably what Paulus was thinking too: “I just throw it up somewhere near that rim, and I know he’ll go get it.” They try a thunderdunk of their own with Blair, but KING is right there! Offensive charge on Blair!!! Turnover #6! 17-14, 12:01.

Another great stat: second-chance points off our great offensive rebounds so far!! Nelson, despite missing both free throws, determinedly grabs his own rebound, Henderson tries a 3, miss, but King is there to grab the weak-side rebound, and then Nelson, again, penetrates and then just so alertly dishes to LT who’s waiting right under the basket and just towers up for the DUNK! I love second chance points!

Hmmmm. Our shoots are just not falling. Jay Bilas has repeatedly warned about this – you can’t win 6 games in a row in March strictly based on perimeter shooting. And, so far, our perimeter shooting has been horrendous. I don’t know the stats, but everyone has tried one so far, to only 1 make: Singler’s. We’ve had 22 shot attempts – DOUBLE BC’s – forced them into 7 turnovers vs our none – and yet, we are now tied? 19-19? And, behind? 19-21? This is when Singler comes back off the bench. And, immediately, he makes a potential 3 point play by going up strong off a McClure dish despite being fouled, and one! Or not . . missed the FT.

“This is the same point where BC and Carolina were tied, 21-21, and Roy Williams pulled all 5 of his guys off the floor to send them a message,” Packer reminds us. Carolina wound up winning by 22, 91-69. Well, Coach K has no reason to pull any of his starters off the floor right now, let alone all 5. It’s not like we’re not playing hard right now – we’re actually very scrappy, very alert – but our threes are just not going down. A lot of short shots, actually, bouncing off the front rim, including Paulus, and King? Gah. Are visions of the spectacular shooting night in Chapel Hill still dancing in our heads? And why not? We are getting some great, open looks here. Including being wide open on our free throws! They’re just not going down. As the crowd suddenly ROARS at Cameron Indoor – Brian Zoubek is BACK!!!!!! Welcome back, big guy! We missed ya! 21-21, 9:12.

Oh, no – a bit too eager, perhaps? “My bad!” he says, tapping his chest, as he commits a cheapie on the perimeter. Ah, but how happy must Singler be that he doesn’t have to play the 5 anymore? As Zoubek brings his imposing frame over to help him guard the low-post guy with the ball, and he overshoots it, right into Scheyer’s lap on the other side. We swing the other way, and – NOLAN, with a THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That baby just snuggles in there. “Smith was camped out there!” Packer chuckles.

We are doing everything right, in every foreseeable category, except one – FG%. Forcing 8 more turnovers, grabbing 7 more offensive rebounds, going to the free throw line for 6 more attempts – and yet, yet, we are down 25-26? Ah, here is why: they are shooting 67%, while we are shooting only 38%. In our own gym, no less. And there is Coach K, with an entire, rapt audience around him, listening as he essentially tells his guys the same thing that Roy Williams told his guys, except maybe with less of a threat to pull them off the floor. They’ve done nothing wrong – they’re picking up them full court, for Christ’s sakes, they’re playing hard – those turnovers do not create themselves, ok? But, as we’d seen from numerous games before: Michigan . . Temple . . We will shoot like we’re on Ice Mountain for the first 10 or 15 minutes, and then suddenly we’ll pour it on like oil gushing from the wells. You’ll see.

Coming out of the timeout, Henderson forces another turnover by hustling after a loose ball, but turns it right over with a bad pass. They rush down the court – but we are MONSTERS on our defense, and my God, how high does G soar for the rebound!!! Great hustle again on our possession to recover a near turnover, as Singler just refuses to lose that ball, manages to bat it up high, and grabs it back for Duke, then dishes to LT who’s fouled. And here comes the free throw virus again, lingering from the UNC game . . as he misses his first . . then his second . . and we are batting a woeful 2 of 10. Yikes.

Well, Rice is not having any shooting woes – drills another 3 despite a hand in his face. Then Nelson commits an offensive charge. We answer right back with another forced turnover – their 10th. “You commit 10 TO, don’t get to the foul line, and you’re up by 3. Weird game,” Packer muses for BC. Oh s***!!! Singler wasn’t looking, and Paulus sends him a pass anyway, immediately picked off by BC, and it’s an instant two for them. UGH. 26-31???

Who is guarding Rice????? He’s torching us right and left! As King fouls him on a 3, and soon it is 28-35. I am in disbelief. Halftime is less than 5 minutes away. This is starting to become a bad habit. That is when our senior captain, DeMarcus Nelson, takes the team on his shoulders, curls in from the right wing, shifting through 4 gears, attacking, imposing, waits for the defender to jump out of the way before throwing it up strong, and getting the whistle for the and-one! ARGGGHHHHH!!!! And Singler is so excited, he hugs him!!!! There’s our leader!!!! 30-35.

Awww, damn. King with the blocking foul rather than the offensive charge he was looking for, and now he has 2. They hit all their and-ones, and suddenly it’s a scary 30-38, 4:35. And Nolan Smith, as discontent as I am, circles in from the perimeter to go all the way! Nice!!! “The shot blockers are off the floor, so once you penetrate, you probably can finish.” Just as I’m wondering why King is still in the game after picking up 2 fouls – oh, oh – there he is, KING for THREEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!! He just lets it rip, and this time, finally, finally, finally, it finds the bottom of the net. And we’re back, just like that!!! 35-38!

Now we need a defensive stop. And Nolan Smith is all over Tyrese Rice, hounding him, staying in front of him, not letting him penetrate, or see beyond 3 feet, and the guy can’t get nothing off, not a pass, not a shot, and finally with the clock down to 2 or 3 seconds he has to toss it up, and it goes over the backboard, as he himself falls out of bounds. GREAT, GREAT defense by the freshman. I love how this Duke team responds when it’s down. Different guys finding different ways to step up and get a stop, get an ear-splitting score. 3:11.

Well, Al Skinner definitely agrees. While they show Coach K maybe sharing a joke with his staff, Skinner on the other side is busy wiping off his brow with a towel. As he watches Nelson pull up for a sweet, sweet 15 foot jumper. 37-38! Then Nolan does a tremendous job of penetrating, drawing in the sharks, all with the aim of kicking the ball out to Taylor King, and – wow – there’s nobody within 5 feet of him! Yet, the shot is way short. And Kyle Singler is immediately inserted back for King. Perfect timing, too, because though LT gets a great pass inside, and has no competition for it, he misses a 1-incher. And Kyle steps right up behind him to clean up the mess. 39-42.

And LT returns the favor. Last shot, we free up Singler all alone on the right wing, he fires a 3 – looking good! We can tie the game! OH! Miss. But Thomas, right under the basket, reaches up for the put-back with 1 second left – and it’s GOOOOOOOOD! Right before the buzzer! 41-42 Halftime.

Second Half: Hmmmm, our defense is not exactly hole-free, is it? They score right away, and its 42-46 again in a hurry. Then – uh oh. Rice is down? Fell into the Duke cheerleaders and twisted his ankle there. Hobbles to the bench, but will probably return. Now can we reel off some points?

Ah, there ya go!!! Nelson, with all kinds of cheering and encouragement and whistling from the adoring Crazies, must’ve been feeling like he was at the Oscars, and this time, patiently knocks down both free throws. Then – then! Nelson with a STEAL in the backcourt!!! And he could’ve driven straight to the hole for the dunk, to finish that aborted play earlier, but instead, so unselfish – he alertly kicks it back out to Paulus, who pulls up just beyond the 3 point arc to let go a determined, hurtling shot – and it’s GOOOOOOD!!!!! 47-46!!!!! We have the lead back!!! 18:43.

And Nelson’s not done. After forcing them into another turnover – 5 second call – and Rice misses a 3, Nelson skies for the rebound, then tears off in the other direction, roaring down the lane and getting up right in John Oates’ face to scorch the net for the deuce. WOW. And they pour it on: “Boy, does he get up!” “Coast to coast!” “He took it inside against Oates who’s 7 feet, and just took it right in his face!” Our one-man offense and defense, DeMarcus Nelson, ladies and gentlemen.

His fearlessness inspires Paulus, who also penetrates for a runner – but it doesn’t go. Packer immediately rats on him as someone who can’t finish in the lane. Aww, c’mon – go easy on him. Yeah, I know Greg is only 1 for 6 so far, including 4 missed threes – but, look at him – he doesn’t care, and he sure as hell doesn’t hesitate when Nelson hits him again from the lane, and that trademark triple, once again, swishes through the net. What was the difference between then and now? Now, the game is on the line. Now, we need to gain and sustain our lead. And Paulus’s three gave us a 52-46 cushion. 16:59.

OH, Henderson!!!! He’s been pretty quiet so far – is this only his 2nd field goal of the game? And just as spectacular as the last, as he breaks free of his man to circle wide into the lane, all alone, for the DUNK off the inbounds! And Lance Thomas adds to the trophy pile! And Singler is as grateful, and as jubilant, as I am that now LT can grab the ball and lay it up with no turnover in sight, and slaps him happily on the butt. 58-51!

Oates is suddenly a deadly 3 point shooter? S***! As Singler completely forgets about him and leaves him wide open, again, Oates gets the cross-country pass and just nails it. Singler, flying in to try to stop him, slaps angrily on the press table after the defensive mistake. But oh, does he make up for it. Baseline drive!!! That’s the way to do it! Don’t go attack Oates one on one, he’ll block your shot, but take him with you, and use your speed, driving baseline and getting inside for a point-blank layup before Oates knew what hit him.

Singler goes to the free throw line after he grabs Duke’s 17th offensive rebound – now that’s a stat I haven’t heard of before – and is fouled. He’s so cute sometimes: tugs on his jersey to get it back on track, squares his shoulders, cradles that ball to his hip as he pauses for a deep breath, concentrates – his eyes, so focused on the basket – and then, shoots that pure, pure stroke.

Ok, officials? That was NOT a blocking foul on Thomas. He got whacked in the face by Southern’s big beefy elbows – how is that NOT an offensive charge even if Thomas didn’t fall down???? UGH. And of course they have no problems with their free throws.

Should I be worried? Should I be worried? Yes, because Duke has not run away from BC. Under 10 minutes to go, and – what’s this? BC takes the lead?????? 2 costly turnovers in a row, and BC capitalizes. I cannot believe it. Is this the same team that got blown out by UNC by 22, Kansas by 30 – heck, Virginia by 18 – playing this Blue Devils team that beat UNC by 11, beat Virginia by 18, blew out Clemson, and so forth? Is it??? 63-64, 9:45.

OH, SINGLERRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I knew it!!! As soon as they kicked the ball out to him, and he was wide open, and we needed a bucket in the worst way – he delivers. A high arching 3. Yep, there it is. Beautiful as ever. And we are back on top, 66-65. Rips down a fierce rebound on the other end. Then Nelson, heart big as a lion, drives, circles, faces off against Oates again, whatever, doesn’t care, shoots a tough, tough shot, and gets it to go in off the glass! Vintage Nelson!

Off the BC inbounds – Paulus with a STEAL!!!! And he’s off to the races, running the length of the court for a completely uncontested layup. I thought they worked and worked on their stellar inbounds plays last night? Ha ha! 70-65!!! Then Scheyer pours in 2. Boy, Scheyer is great at getting to the free throw line today. He just sort of baits the defender to jump up and lean into him, then calmly accepts the whistle and the reward afterwards. 74-67.

Oh, and now it’s over. We’ve finally broken the game apart. And it comes on the strength of our threes. First, Nelson, taking advantage of their cluttered transition D in the lane, steps outside for the 3. Nails it. Then, on the next possession down, Paulus, racing the ball upcourt, pauses on the top of the key looking for shooters, spots Singler in his favorite spot on the left wing, and sends it to him – bang! Bang, bang, bang! 8 unanswered points!!! Is Rice getting tired? He’s played virtually the whole game. Inside of 6 minutes, and if that’s when we wear our opponents down, then I’ll take it. Hey, it worked for Carolina last year. 80-67, 5:52.

OH!

WHAT THE FUCK??????? #*&!#@$?#$&@^!$#!?!??!!??

Kyle SINGLER!!!! Thank you very much! You did, what every one of us wanted to do, but couldn’t. Nope. Don’t care about the technical. Just plain don’t care. That kind of behavior can only be met by going up to his sorry ass and confronting him – if only to give him a piece of our mind. Since that’s about the only thing we’re allowed to do.

WOW. I am now extremely pissed off. Okay, so here’s what happened: we’re playing stallball, minding our own business. Singler is out by the halfcourt line, just holding the ball, and John Oates quickly decides not to go out there and guard him, since that part of the floor is really alien to him. When the shot clock’s run down to 14, Singler raises his hand for action. And Gerald Henderson, rather than Kyle himself so many times before, runs out to set a screen for him, and – OHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just as he runs past the 3 point line, his defender is so frustrated with his quickness that he just collars him, yanks him up by his lapels, and drops him down onto the ground – hard. It is almost a virtual replay of what DeJuan Blair did to Kyle Singler in the Pitt game, except this time, Gerald was going full speed. And the boy just looked so helpless, his arms flung out wide to try to regrasp his balance and avoid potential injury.

And Kyle Singler would have none of that. Oh, HELL NO. You don’t do that to my boy. He runs immediately over to say a few words to Spears – game completely forgotten – that, I felt, were completely necessary. C’mon, BC – that was goddamn inappropriate – and I don’t even care that he got a technical for it. If Coach K can take a technical for arguing a no-call in the Maryland game, then we can take a technical for arguing as near a combative move as we’ve seen in the last few games. It didn’t hurt our score, and it showed that we stand up for our teammates. Bravo, Kyle. And that is why they were chanting “Ky-le Sing-ler! Ky-le Sing-ler!” as G stepped up for his free throws.

You know what? Kyle Singler has been on the receiving end of enough intentional fouls to know what it feels like – and I’m sure that he wished he could say something back during all those times – it’s just human nature. It is nice, though, that Coach K pulls his head down and says a few words to him, one on one – “calm down, it’s okay, let’s win this one with class. Let your game speak louder than your words.” As Kyle took to the floor again, he knew what to do. Okay . . let the game speak louder than my words. I can do that. And he goes out, and makes the last 2 minutes more memorable than the entire game preceding it. I’m not going to care about what BC has done. This, is for my team – and me.

That image, will forever sear in my memory. That close-up of Kyle, just toying with a senior center. DeMarcus had the ball, but Kyle called for it, and we go to four corners. Out in the middle of the court, just inside the halfcourt line, Kyle stood to his full height, holding the ball, and John Oates begrudgingly comes out to guard him, one step at a time, as if it was the most unnatural thing in the world to do. Holding out tentatively with his right hand, stretched out as far as it can go – his whole body language quaking in fear of Kyle’s quicker first step. Words are exchanged, and Kyle, now bending his body low, torso thrust forward in battle stance, holds the ball low to the ground, the fate of the world in his fierce eyes. He fakes right, and Oates nearly has a heart attack. Then, quick as lightening, he tears off, blowing right by Oates and running as fast as he could towards the basket, looking like he would throw down a monster jam – except – OH!!!!! Oates fouls him! And Kyle dusts himself off after nearly going over the photographers to go to the free throw line. Making 1 of 2.

Shamari Spears, the dude who fouled Gerald (and the foul was not even called intentional, it was just a regular foul) scores on his second straight bucket – and as we come back upcourt, Singler controls the ball again. A cheer goes up. The rest of the world melts away. It is just Singler and Oates, 35 feet out, and Singler lures him out even further, just inches from the student section, so that their roar is fully in his ears. Hey, John – listen to them. Listen! They’re chanting for me. They’re chanting for our soon-to-be 21st victory and 9th in the conference. They’re chanting for our unbeaten ACC record. We’ve rolled through tougher foes than you. You’ve got nothing on us. And just in case you need another reminder – here it is. Stutter steps, Oates is thrown back 3 feet, stutter steps again, Oates again doesn’t know which way to go, and then he just blows right past him, out of his reach, soaring into the lane uncontested and raising that ball up high for the DUNK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MISSED?????? How come????

“WOW!!!” the announcers cry together. They swing the other way, Kyle has no time for remorse, and soon he’s pulling down a hotly contested rebound furiously off the rim. And then immediately fouled by Rice. Still pissed off, he flings the ball out of reach, walking back upcourt to the free throw line glaring at that basket. How in the world – ? Henderson taps him on the chest to promise him some dunking tips later on. But you know what? I love this boy. I love him when he’s like this – emotional, hyped up – afire. He means business when he’s motivated like that, when the game is on the line – and you can see the fire that burns within him as he goes up for that three, or rips down that rebound. And here, now, with that basket in his laser-like focus, he knocks down both free throws with authority. 24 and 10, and if they’d gone another 5 minutes he would’ve had 35 and 15. That’s how fired up he was. Of course, Coach K immediately pulls him and Gerald to avoid any more trouble, to a standing ovation. Take that, Tyrese Rice. That is not imcomparable to your 28 and 7. Plus, Singler had one blocked shot, 3 steals, and only 1 turnover to Rice’s 2 steals and 3 turnovers. If you’re gonna be all-ACC anything, Singler should be right there with you. With deference to Nelson, of course. 90-80 final score.

Post-game thoughts: Singler and Nelson plain dominated. Nelson is now routinely challenging Paulus in the assists column – he is so alert when he storms into the lane, where he can either shot it or dish. And is this the emergence of Kyle Singler on the offensive end? Singler, in the last 2 minutes, looked like he would score 40 if that’s what it took to shut the opposition up. He took what Spears did to Gerald personally, as he should – and boy, did he do something about it! That intentional foul, this time on a teammate rather than on him, really stoked his competitive fire, and he showed some amazing moves and blistering speed that took my breath away. You can clearly see that he is capable of far more than his scoring average of 13 a game. He is capable, if he wanted to, of far, far more, of superstar stats. Will he let it come out now? Will he, as Coach K had said with a smile earlier this year – “assert his ego on offense”? Because he is completely unguardable. He proved that unequivocally today. No 5 is quick enough to go with him, and no 4 is going to be matched up with him because then that means their 5 will have to guard one of our guards when Thomas isn’t out there. Two double-double games in a row now, and I think, with Lance Thomas’s inspired play of late, this bodes well for the Maryland rematch on Wed!

Oh, and a word about Duke not having a plodding center to throw the ball down to. Feh – I would take Kyle Singler over some 5 any day of the week. Watching him face off against John Oates – a legit center, 6’10”, shot blocker, rebounder, and apparently, 3 point shooter – and how Oates looked so uncomfortable, not wanting to get near him so far out, yet reaching out tentatively with that hand, hoping to keep him in check – and Kyle, that slim body low, his eyes daring Oates to come closer, just come a little closer – and that ball, securely in his hands. If you foul me, I’m 80% at the line. If you let me go, I’m gonna blow right by you for the layup. And right there, watching him – just toy with Oates – my God, I loved this team. Everyone can create. Everyone can drive. Everyone can drill the 3. Why the hell would we want a true center??? And you know what? We play that much harder, because of our lack of strength inside. The Carolina players admitted it themselves. Because Hansbrough is so good, all they did was throw the ball down to him and stood around, saying “Tyler, go ahead and make a play”. We don’t get that kind of ennui around here. We trap full court, ¾ court, half court, we overplay the passing lanes on defense, and we play tremendous help D. It’s the way that we’re taught, but it’s the way that we win, too. And with a 21-1 record . . you can’t say that we can’t make it to the Final Four. You just can’t.

#13 Indiana at Illinois – Gordon is human

2008-02-07T23:51:00.000-06:00

The crowd goes wild. OOHHHHH! OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TEN SECOND CALL!!!!!! DAAAAAMN! And there is Eric Gordon, boy wonder no more, his palms up, his mouth open wide in shock and disbelief. Did he just throw the game away?

Cause his nonchalance just got spanked. Double-clutchin’, granny-shifting . . guard down, mouthpiece danglin’ – Indiana’s Eric Gordon, the Illini’s public enemy #1, so coolly tried to walk the ball up in an effort to shed the crowd’s boos that – Illinois, without having to do a thing, got the ball back with 26 seconds left in double OT because the freshman was just a little too cool with his surroundings. Awww, man – don’t think you all that! We know you hear us! Don’t think you can just waltz into Illini territory and just walk the ball up!

That boy – look at him – mistake after brilliance after mistake after brilliance. Dribbling out along the perimeter – he looses the ball off his foot – but it rolls right to teammate Jordan Crawford, who picks it up and immediately lets fly a 3. Heh heh – thanks, man. Then, at the end of regulation, with just seconds left on the possession, he steps back out 25 feet with Brock all over him to coolly knock down a triple, just banking it off the glass, to tie the game up. 3 seconds left – and he fouls Shaun Pruitt underneath the basket scrambling for the rebound to send the big fella to the line – thank God he can’t hit the ocean 15 feet out, right?

And now, now, with 26 seconds left in the second OT and Indiana up by a shaky 3 points, 79-76, he turns the ball over to give them a second chance, a second chance!! to the crowd that’s been booing him all night, all because of a swimming desire to show that he ain’t affected by nothing, that he ain’t thin-skinned, that he ain’t even heard them – mouthpiece dangling, arms down by his side, relaxed and casual and strolling, walking the ball upcourt. My God, the noise when that mistake was called!! Oh, the blood that the crowd’s been calling for all night, finally spilled!

But will it be fatal? Will the Illini capitalize on this gift? Welllllll . . . that’s a whole ‘nother story. But, hey Eric, ‘s ok – we all know it bothers you. Heck, it bothers us the hell more than it bothers you. That’s obvious, right? What was that blow-by from Chester Frazier in the pregame introductions, when he chest-bumped you all the way back to Bloomington? What were those boos, those catcalls, raining down from the student section all night?

But baby – those emotions – it’s what makes this rivalry real. What makes it special. It’s what fuels Duke – Carolina. And now, with Demetri McCamey dribbling that gift possession into the ground trying to get it on the exchange with Meachem – it’s what fuels Gordon as he puts unbelievable pressure on the ball, forcing McCamey to throw it out of bounds. Take that, Illini! OH, the howls!!! Illinois suddenly has no choice but to foul – and then it’s all over. 83-79. And the kid survives, to fight another day.

Arizona at UCLA Game Blog – the Prince and the Pauper

2008-02-02T23:40:00.000-06:00

I’ve been waiting for this matchup since early Jan. Jerryd Bayless vs Darren Collison. I’m a big fan of several freshman phenoms, and this game promised a freshman scorer vs a veteran jet, plus Jordan Hill vs Kevin Love, and Chase Budinger vs Josh Shipp/Russell Westbrook. This is gonna be a battle for the ages. 5 days before Duke/Carolina – this is the game that had me running for my Tivo.

And from the opening tip, Bayless is clearly bothered by Collison – and nearly throws it away. Off the inbounds – he hits Budinger, who immediately whips it inside to Jordan Hill, which is instantly challenged and the ball tapped away by a swarm of Bruins – where did they come from??? – and suddenly you have a 1 man fastbreak in the motor Russell Westbrook, who just floats in the air for the deceptively easy layup. Wow. 2-0, Bruins.

Then Kevin Love shows his behind to Bret Brielmaier and says “see ya!” as he seals him off and goes up for the easy deuce in the post. Holy cow! Shipp with a great runner that he still manages to toss high off the glass even though he’s careening 70mph towards the exit with a guy all over him and his arm! And one!

Kevin Love is for real. Kyle Singler’s high school nemesis is showing all kinds of moves right now that is completely befuddling the Arizona big men. He’s already got Bret B beat. Now Darren Collison drives into the lane, dishes down a perfect pass to Love, who head fakes, doesn’t get the look he wants, steps back out, there’s only 4 left to shoot, but he shows great poise by going back inside, getting Jordan Hill in the air, and then going up for the easy two. The effort brings his parents up on their feet, the whole student section, cheering for him. What a workhorse. What a beast, both offensively and defensively. How much could they have turned a team around, Kyle and Kevin, if they’d gone to the same college? Much like what Michael Beasley and Bill Walker is doing for Kansas State? If we meet in the NCAA championship game, Duke vs UCLA – and Kyle plays against Kevin again – that will be a dream matchup come true.

Kevin Love is not the only player who knows how to get to the FT line. Jerryd Bayless, quiet so far, gets his man in the air and just kinda leans into him, firing off an errant shot but being rewarded with his real motive – a foul. Sinks the first, misses the second. 6-12 right now, 14:33 to play.

Nic Wise comes in, and it goes completely haywire. He can’t hang with Collison, Hill is forced to step outside for a long jumper, and suddenly the Bruins are racing the other way again. Hill tries to intercept a pass to Love – but Love, steamed about not getting his mail delivered, goes right after him – and steals it right back! Mbat a Moute scores after the shot clock is run down to 3, and in the blink of an eye, its 6-16, UCLA. Kevin O’Neill (KO), clapping and trying to cheerlead his team on a minute ago, immediately calls for a timeout. They better get Bayless untracked, fast. 13:18.

Jay Bilas is hilarious. Pac-10 is the best league, Pac-10 is the best league – okay, okay, I got it. How about the ACC, with two top-5 teams in Duke and UNC? Can you say that about any other league? Sure, there’s a mess down beneath, but you cannot just say that the rest of the leagues are “pillow-fighting” while the Pac-10 are going bare-knuckles at it. You think Duke – Miami today was a pillow fight, with 54 fouls? You think going on the road to Maryland, we’re checking out our sneakers and their cheerleaders? If you want to talk about pillow fights, talk about the C-USA, where Memphis barely squeaked by UTEP – yeah, check out their RPI! – at home.

The Bruins are playing stifling defense, at times making Arizona look like a JV team. A long pass off a miss is thrown out to Love ahead of the pack – but Arizona grabs it right back – only to get it stolen again by the Bruins! Except Mata-Real can’t hit the easy dunk, is stripped by Wise, and Bayless tries a transition 3 – which bounces off badly. It swings to Shipp, who slows it down to a more moderate pace. Another timeout is needed by AZ. Hmm, is Bayless wearing 2 kinds of shoes? Ah, they’re dual-colored, white on one side and red on the other. Yeah, nothing too exciting to write about here: 6-19.

Jesus. KO is forced to call his 3rd timeout, and maybe he should also call a 4th and 5th and 6th if he had them, cuz otherwise 8-23 will start looking real good later on if he doesn’t. 8:56 left to play, and Arizona can’t seem to get anything going. I have not seen a team struggle so much since Duke put Princeton on the ropes in the first Maui game – and this is actually a quality team!! But when you’ve got a team as dependent on 2 big stars, Budinger and Bayless, as much as Arizona, with nobody to bring off the bench – how can you respond to a defensive monster such as UCLA? Who can basically lock you down and keep throwing fresh bodies on you, even as you struggle through it? Watching these two teams – it’s like a poor guy going up against a rich guy – the prince and the pauper. You’ve just got no chance at all, no resources at your disposal to win. Why I ever thought it might be a great game, I don’t know. This ain’t a great game. Bayless is so frustrated right now that he stuck out his right foot to trip Josh Shipp coming down the mid-court as he got a loose ball. This is a kid averaging 20+ points ever since he got back from his knee injury, and he’s been channeling all his frustrations at having to sit on the bench watching his team lose while he was out onto the hardwood. Now, he can’t even get a decent shot off that’s not contested or a bit forced coming off a screen.

OH, WHAT a pretty move! Just as I’m looking for a Wildcat to do something, anything – Bayless grabs an iffy pass right out of midair, charges into the post, and lays one up off the glass in a hurry. Boy, when he sees daylight, there’s almost nobody faster than him at getting to the rim.

Aaaaaaaaand – that was about the only highlight of the half. UCLA reels off a bunch more points, including another Love-fest in the post, and Josh Shipp left all alone under the basket for what must be the easiest bucket in the world, and its running away from Arizona again, 14-29, 6:30 remaining. I mean, this is Arizona, with 3 NBA prospects playing. They have 3 MickeyDs. This ain’t exactly Arizona State (no offense). But will they be run out of the building like State was, to the tune of 33 points??? We’ll see. As KO calls his fourth timeout.

WooooooooW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jerryd Bayless needs to do that more often!!! Like every time! He’s dribbling, staring Collison down, and once he makes up his mind, he’s gone. He zips right by Collison, leaving him in the dust, the guy doesn’t even try to go with him, no one rotates over, and suddenly Bayless is all alone in the lane with an uncontested, beautiful layup off the glass. 18-34, is there still hope left?

Another great drive by Bayless, but what happens next’s got to dishearten him. Off the make, Love takes the ball out of the hoop, makes a 50-feet chest pass to a running Darren Collison on the dime, who passes the torch on to Shipp, who finishes the play – all in about 3 seconds. Wow, wow, wow. And the crowd LOVES it. They rise for a raucous standing ovation as Collison dribbles down the clock, holding for the final shot. 42-22 at the half.

Man, do I wish I could hear what they’re saying in the Arizona locker room. Remember – this is a rivalry game. It’s a Pac10 league game, an ESPN primetime showdown. It’s not a non-conference game, and its certainly not a non-conference game at Memphis, where the Wildcats were shorthanded with a surprise injury to Bayless just one day before the big game. Even on that day, they were never embarrassed, and lost by a respectable 10 points. But not here. Not like this. This is embarrassing, and I don’t know how much more KO can do, having burned through 4 timeouts already. Maybe he just can’t. Maybe this is the national championship team. Let me tell you, I have not yet seen any team play with the poise and the swagger that the Bruins are displaying right now. This is brutal. Losing Arron Afflalo, in hindsight, is no big deal – gaining Kevin Love is. Maybe this is the freshman that will finally lead UCLA past the dreaded runner-up spot, and into the record books as the national champion.

5 minutes into the second half and nothing’s changed. Arizona is able to get more stuff run, more open looks, but UCLA is answering right back. Love is cleaning up off the glass, grabbing rebounds, and impressing the hell out of Jay Bilas. 30-49. What’s this about KO being more of a defensive coach than Lute Olsen? How come I haven’t seen one crucial stop that really tells me Arizona is in it for real?

Wow. I know I’ve said this 5 times already, but – Wow. This is the difference between Chase Budinger and Kyle Singler. I’m just amazed. Sure, I know he’s a “3” playing the “4”. And Kyle’s a “3” playing the “5” sometimes. But when Kevin Love got Jordan Hill to bite on a head fake and then stormed in for a dunk – I mean, Chase Budinger got out of the way. He said, nope, I’m not rotating over, I’m not laying my body down for that runaway train wreck, I’ll much rather just let him have the 2. I mean, you team is down by 21, Chase. And now 23. It’s a nightmare. And yet, you won’t go out of your comfort zone for a little defense? I know you guys are thin, etc, only playing 6 or 7 guys. But you cannot win ballgames this way. And with 12:56 remaining, Ben Howland’s been kind enough to call 2 timeouts now after great UCLA plays to let Arizona talk it over and decide whether they want to be in the game or not. You have to guard, and you have to do better than let a guy like Kevin Love, who is not exactly Mr. Explosive First Step, get to the rim so unimpededly. Kyle Singler would be looking for ways to get stops, to make plays, and to take away the driving lane by laying his body down for the charge. Chase Budinger has let Russell Westbrook do whatever the hell he wants, and now, here, Kevin Love.

Holy cow, COLLISON! Flipping a behind-the-back dribble, refusing the ball screen, penetrating deep into the lane to dish a point-blank pass to Aboya right under the basket who unfortunately can’t finish – but Love is there to clean it up! Then, with a steal, he just streaks upcourt and lays it in, end to end. The strong, 50 to 70 foot chest passes from Love . . the flying athleticism of Westbrook . . and the speed and vision of Collison. I don’t want to sound like Bilas, but this Arizona team is giving me no choice. Bayless has been the only bright spot for the Wildcats, but he’s only gotten 4 or 5 shots off, tops. 40-64 with 10:45 remaining, and Arizona is not making a comeback. That’s an affirmative. I just got the memo, 30 minutes too late.

Oh no. Mbat a Moute goes down with an injured left ankle. Looks like a sprain. Poor Ben Howland must be fearing the worst, with all the injures his team’s got. I mean, some of them look like they’d just come back from the war, with Collison wrapped on his arm and Mata-Real with thick white wraps left and right. 7:30.

“Chase Budinger just did something that can be interpreted a number of ways.” Oh really? Which are the other ways? In an eerie isolation play, Josh Shipp had stolen the ball, and is streaking up the court with Budinger glued to his hip chasing him, and in a flash of frustration, Budinger just reaches out to shove him, and Shipp, in full speed, tries desperately to get a shot off first before tumbling awkwardly out of bounds. Intentional foul. Oh, no doubt. 2 shots and the ball. C’mon, Chase, what’s gotten into you today? An intentional frustration foul is not going to help your team one bit, and besides, you’re taller than Shipp, you probably could’ve guarded him 1 on 1. 46-72, 6:22 to go.

Well, it’s over. What a terrible game from the Wildcats. UCLA is up 30, and finally shows some mercy by sending in the secondary unit. KO sets out the chairs for one more pep talk that may cut this lead down from an embarrassing 30 to something more swallowable, but still – the damage is done. Whether they ultimately lose by 30 or 13, they know there is a GULF that separates them, from the best in their league. I mean, when Jerryd Bayless got to the FT line like he wanted at around the 4:00 minute mark, and made his first free throw, nobody on his team even cared to give him a slap on the hand for good job done. Nobody. He had to go up to Hill in order to receive one.

I mean, c’mon guys – you’ve got great talent. The final score was 60-82, but should’ve been more like 55-87. It’s not like UCLA has 8 McD AAs. But they work well together as a unit, they communicate on defense, and that’s the difference. And – okay – they can create mismatches. Collison owned Nic Wise. Westbrook beat both Bayless and Budinger on offense. Hill could not contain Love whatsoever. And their coach, KO – has a loooong ways to go before he can teach the kind of defense that Ben Howland has instilled into his team. One thing is for certain: this UCLA team deserves a #1 seed. They responded in tremendous fashion after the USC home loss, and that’s the hallmark of a championship team, to take one loss and extract every kind of motivation from it. Will Arizona do the same?

With 6 weeks left before the start of March Madness, the top 5 teams are pretty much set. UCLA is better this year than they were last year. They are older, tougher, and got a real gem in Kevin Love down low. So is Kansas. So is Memphis, with the addition of freshman stud Derrick Rose. That’s 3 #1 seeds right there. The fourth, is up for grabs. And right now, it’s a titanic fight between Duke and North Carolina. Personally, I do not think UNC is better than they were last year . . but we will see. Whoever wins the ACC – wins the #1 seed – and the surefire path to San Antonio through NC (the state).

Post-game thoughts: After watching this game . . I don’t know, I really felt cheated. I didn’t spend 2+ hours to watch a walkover game for the Bruins. Why couldn’t Arizona at the very least make a run? What, exactly, have they been doing in practice that is making everyone say KO is a defensive coach first? When you fall behind like that . . you gotta have 2 things to go on a run: defense, and furious shooting. By furious shooting I mean grabbing a steal and storming the length of the court, or leaping up – whether you have a hand in your face or not – and firing off that three knowing that it’s going in, or slashing to the basket looking to score even though they foul you in 5 different spots. I didn’t see any of that.

And one more thing: the huddle. Maybe it’s because ESPN didn’t show it, but I didn’t see much of that either. Whenever a Duke player gets whistled for a foul, or draws a foul, they would huddle together and exchange a few words. Whether they’re words of encouragement, or advice, or whatever, you got the feeling that they were in this together – that they believe in collective responsibility, and share every winning basket, every bruising setback, together. Their body language, their hands on each other’s backs, their eyes and focus, are entirely on the team. They had their goal, and they would not be deterred from it. That, is a winning basketball program. Now I’m not saying that Arizona doesn’t have that attitude, just that I didn’t see any of it last night. I didn’t see any fight. Just a bunch of guys, individually, looking frustrated and annoyed. Even after nice baskets and drives, they were frowning.

As the final seconds ticked down, the announcers echoed what Coach K had once so famously said, and what must be swimming through Kevin O’Neill’s thoughts as well: here, is to never forgetting about tonight.

Duke at Maryland Game Blog - Earning Our Stripes

2008-01-27T23:22:00.000-06:00

This is the game where Duke earned its #3 ranking. By far the most impressive performance yet. I mean - wow. I NEVER thought Duke would be consensus #3 in the country. Oh, I love it and crave it – but to see it in reality? To see it on the floor, backed up game after game, no matter what the competition? I'm just speechless. And unlike a lot of other teams that only got there based on “expectations” (like Indiana this past weekend – no way is it a #7 team, before or after the UConn game), Duke has earned its ranking. Climbing up from #13, to #9, to #7, to #5, to now – this team has just gotten better and better. We are 1 point away from being undefeated. And to think – that this is still, by no means, the best we can be yet. King is still not part of the rotation. LT is on and off. Paulus could be better. Z is still in his sweats. And Singler – we haven’t yet figured out how to get him more touches down low when there’s a good frontline, nor to get him to play aggressive defense for 40 minutes without fouling out.

But – how about Nelson! Henderson! And now, Nolan! What a breath of fresh air! And seeing Coach K getting the T during Maryland’s unstoppable run in the first half was both frustrating and revolutionary. I probably would’ve gotten 5 Ts if I’d been anywhere near the game action. But how his team responded out of that first half – down, for the first time in the entire season – and how he responded – calm, getting good things out of timeouts, taking the Paulus 4 fouls and Singler 5 fouls in stride, putting a smaller lineup on the floor when he went with Scheyer – he got his team to play a GREAT second half that is mind-bogglingly strong in the stats – 51 to 33!!! – and yet, made it seem like clockwork, like it was just part of the routine.

The announcers made one comment right: “Duke keeps playing.” They’d noted, time and again, that Maryland will go on great spurts, but can’t sustain that kind of excellence – “wealth”, they called it – for longer periods of time. The kind of periods that wins games. And for the second straight game, Duke took a 6 point lead and began slowing it down at the 5 minute mark, having stared down a larger opponent and knowing that it was done, that it didn’t have any 10-0 runs that Duke couldn’t answer. If that is the sign of the #3 team in the country – then we’ve earned it. With no legit 5? With only 2 upperclassmen in the starting lineup? (Memphis and Kansas both have 4) We’ve earned it in spades.

Oh, and what’s this about Maryland bringing in the best defensive stats of the ACC? Allowing 93 points . . at home? LOL! You got punk’D!!!

Game blog still to come . . damn audit busy season!?#&^@!

Duke vs Clemson – Statement Game! – Game Blog

2008-01-19T22:23:00.000-06:00

The broadcast begins with a huge cheer from the Cameron Indoor crowd: Maryland has toppled mighty #1 Carolina – FINALLY someone steps up to the plate – on its home court!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 82-80!! Carolina looked at times like they didn’t know what hit’em, like they’re still waiting for someone to come in and pick up the pieces and fend off these sharp-beaked Terps. Um, Brandan Wright is off to the NBA now, guys. It’s just down to the 9 of you. And after escaping Clemson (90-88 2OT), after escaping Georgia Tech (83-82), the Heels finally run out of luck, despite the refs blindly handing them every single loose ball in the last 16 seconds. After Maryland takes the lead with a Gist falling-down, off-balance, left-handed layup, the Heels run down, miss, miss, MISS, then bats the ball out of bounds, and even with my slow untrained eyes I can see that its off the UNC player, but, guess what? UNC ball. Oh, sure. So they set up an in-bounds, try again, miss, then it goes out of bounds – and, why not? UNC ball. 1.7 seconds left. Hansbrough tries a Roy Hibbert three, fails miserably, and then it’s all over. MWAHAHAHAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (does the Danny Green dance)

In other news . . apparently USC was ripping #4 UCLA a new one out in Pauley Pavilion, but thanks to CBS’s insane policy of scheduling 2 “regional” games at the same time and of course shackling the Chicago region to the Big Ten portion of the duo – I get to watch the scores tick off on ESPN.com rather than the actual game. The end result? USC joins its co-conspirator in knocking off a top 5 league opponent despite being very questionable themselves (1-3 in league play coming in), and its not even close: 72-63. Hello, #3 spot in the polls for Duke!

But – oh s***, the first couple of minutes scare the hell out of me. We just saw UNC get beat. We just saw UCLA get beat. Both at home. And in comes Clemson, looking like a totally different team than the one I remembered seeing last year. They can’t miss! They are attacking the post, attacking the glass, circling inside like a swarm of sharks smelling our blood. We have no bigs to contain them, and they are grabbing every rebound, cleaning up around the basket like a cookie monster after crumbs. 2-6 in the flash of an eye. The crowd goes quiet. Then Singler, who is almost becoming Old Reliable these days, travels along the baseline, and gives the ball back???? Didn’t know it was even possible to travel out there??? Shoot. Henderson’s not making good decisions, a little too trigger-happy. And McClure? Why not take a wide-open shot? Especially when they are clearly not going to guard you, thinking we aim to play 4 on 5?

But Nelson. Boy. Having a senior really settles you, huh? Takes a tough, tough off-balance shot in traffic and finishes, despite falling down on his butt. Then Singler seals off his man, grabs the pass off the floor, looks like he may not have acted quick enough to go up for the deuce, but he does, up and under!! OH NICEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And a steal!! Suddenly Duke is clicking, finding its confidence again, and Henderson grabs a steal, which he sends to Scheyer, to Nolan, who steps back on the 3 point line to drain it. 9-8! Awesome!!! Love those transition threes! Off that energy, we trap and press, make their life difficult, and they miss a runner in the lane . . only to have Booker beat a forest of guys underneath and stick it right back. OH, that kills.

But Nolan is already thinking ahead. He grabs the Duke possession, motors up the court, finds absolutely nobody interested in picking him up, and then just zooms straight to the basket, going up and up for the DUNK! Whoa!!! Nice!!! Way to beat their transition D! Off another Clemson runner . . Nolan dribbles out to the left elbow, hears the crowd chant his name, and says “why not?” and pulls up for a 15 footer that looks way too easy. And he’s not done! Next trip down, he offers King a 3 – King wisely says no thanks – so he takes it back, winks at DeMarcus, guns into the lane, finds 3 guys this time taking him seriously and collapsing in on him, and then swiftly does a 180 and finds DeMarcus out on the perimeter for a 3. And he drains it! 16-12! 13:21 left.

And now Duke’s pressure defense is starting to kill Clemson. They can’t get a pass inside. They’re losing balls out of bounds. They’re getting the ball stolen. Then they foul Scheyer attempting a 3 – gotcha! As he steps up for his 3 freebies, they show his parents looking on happily in the stands – undoubtedly due to the fact that they’re escaping the coldest day so far here in Chi-town (high 5, low -7). Jesus, can we not get any boards???? Box out??? All I see is miss, tip, tip, tip, and Clemson with about 4 or 5 chances to get the score until finally the ball decides to bounce Duke’s way and Henderson ends up with it.

OH SCHEYER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ALL THE WAY, BABY!! Just muscles his way inside and lays it in! 23-14 all of a sudden! Are we out of danger? And then Mays gets the ball poked out of his hands, G is streaking down the court all by himself, and I am getting ready for a dunk . . but, oh! What’s this? A kick-out? When we had a wide-open layup? As Scheyer drills the 3 – why not, when we’ll rather have a transition 3????? Oh, Scheyer!!!!! Welcome home, baby! Here’s the cheers for you that you should’ve received in the FSU game. 26-14! Someone needs a timeout! 10:56.

And Clemson goes back to what they do best – namely, with a put-back. The slaughter continues on the boards. LT then shows why he cannot be counted on for a put-back with one hand – not even with both hands – as he botches a goal despite being 2 inches away AND with NOBODY in his way! It rolls out! Ah, at least he grabbed the board and got fouled. At the other end, though, it’s frustrating – Duke plays great defense, picks them up at half court, really tries to deny the entry pass – but even if we do run some time off their shot clock, all they have to do is make one good pass inside, or move the ball around, and then – bam! – we are stretched too thin and some 6’9” guy comes flying up to make their statement with a rim-rattling dunk. Or put-back – one handed or not (Mays wears an oven mitt on his non-shooting hand). It’s quite disheartening. And then you see Paulus basically walk the ball back upcourt, forgetting all our “run, run, run” principles, and then simply hands it over to Nelson or Scheyer, without much of a playmaking ability at all. Sigh.

Henderson is dribbling, dribbling, making me wonder what the plan is, Nelson is pushing, pushing his guy away in front of him, slowly moving out of the left wing – and then – BOOM! Henderson circles in with a stride that is unreal, flies towards the basket, and slams down a loud, emphatic DUNK! Way to throw that down, G!!!! And mad props to Nelson, who was quite hilarious, clearing out that space for him, playing the goon for his teammate, giving him the room to work. 38-27, 4:50 to go.

Then Paulus undoes all the hard work by running into the lane, turning and thinking he can get DeMarcus an open shot, but instead puts the ball right into a Tiger’s hands, and they run down the court and lay it in with no resistance whatsoever in about 4 seconds. Nice. And Singler, despite being praised right and left by every single broadcaster from here to Anchorage, is not having a good game. Missed a couple threes, and now loses the ball while making his move in the post. Sure, he’s a mismatch for them – but if he’s not making moves, he’s not much of a match to begin with. Meanwhile, Clemson is starting another run. Pounding it inside, making nice jumpers, they cut the lead down to 38-33, much sooner than I thought. You don’t want us to reach 17 first? Yeah, how can we, if you’re gonna outrebound us by 10 – and the first half’s not even over yet!?!?!?

And here comes outrebound #11, #12, and #13, as they miss, tip, miss, tip, miss, tip, and then finally back off when the ball is safely through the net. We have no answer for them. And unlike Pitt, this is evident from minute 1. Nolan turns it over . . but just as I type this, the 2 freshmen make up for their mistakes. Nolan charges into the lane, draws the sharks, kicks it out to Singler, and – is this a familiar sight or what? – with the lead dwindling down to precariously single digits, Singler NAILS a big 3. 41-35, 40 seconds left. Unfortunately, we lose Oglesby behind a screen, and he nails a 3 to answer right back. We hold for the last shot . . and Nolan, with his feet just 1 inch inside the circle, takes the jumper and drains it. 43-38. Halftime.

I am very worried as we begin the second half. Never in recent memory have we gone into the locker room with such a precarious lead. It’s always been double digits. Then we have a scare in the second half and the other team makes a game of it. Does Clemson not like that script? Uh oh . . .

Nelson! Off the inbounds! That’s the easiest basket so far! But Clemson will win this game. I just know it; they’re killing us down low. 47-47. And now Kyle Singler takes the ball, making the first drive of the night for him, wanting the ball in his hands, wanting to make a play or draw a foul. And . . he draws the foul! 3rd on Booker. Swishes both. 49-47. As they come down the other end – I am cringing for another easy dunk – Mays in the air – but Singler goes for the BLOCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOLY COW! HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No more Mr. Nice Guy! With the game on the line – finally, an act of aggression! And there, is the turning point of the game, because off that terrific defense, Henderson takes the ball and throws it ahead to a streaking Nolan, who loves those fastbreak opportunities – and just slides inside for the two. 51-47, just like that, for a 4 point turnaround! 16:28.

Clemson comes roaring back, 51-51, in about a minute. Now it’s Henderson who takes us on his back, and he gets exactly what he wants, ushered to the free throw line to make 3 of 4. 54-51. But then we leave a Tiger alone on the 3 point line, and he is clutch, getting it right back to 54-54, tied game. 14:11 to go, and this is gonna be a fistfight. Henderson throws the first punch, bursting into the lane and turning the corner on turbo power, bringing the ball back like a fist ready to punch – but MISSES THE DUNK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Are you kidding me????? How can he miss????? As he falls onto his butt, looking about as stunned as we are. Poor Scheyer was charged with that ripping rebound and stepped out of bounds. Oh, but on the replay they show Sykes getting up just enough to put a hand in his face, thus blocking his vision. Awwwww.

Score still tied, 54-54 . . and LT decides to give them 2 chances to grab the lead, committing his 4th foul. They brick the first . . but gets the second. 54-55. Paulus with a long miss, but G with great hustle tracks it down, runs into a brick wall double-team, and goes to the line for a 1 and 1. Missed. My heart is racing. Then – DEMARCUS NELSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just a blur right out of the screen, and next thing you now, what you were watching is gone, and replaced entirely by the DeMarcus Nelson one-man fastbreak, as he blurs right by his man and goes up for the exclamation point DUNK. What great anticipation!!!! That’s the way to break it open! 56-55. Then Hammonds throws the ball away. Clemson switches to a 1-3-1 zone, and Nelson misses a jumper. How come we don’t try a little zone to stem this Clemson headache-inducing pounding inside? LT has 4 fouls – why don’t we try to hide him? But I’m thinking too much. It is clearly much more effective simply to steal the ball away from them. Mays is double-teamed, throws the ball into Paulus’ general direction, and next thing you know, Paulus is turning tail fast as he can go and laying it up against a taller defender, Perry. 58-55! Clemson asks for a timeout.

But the Tigers still won’t go away. They fire up a 3. Nelson answers with a 3. Paulus has lost his magic touch from beyond the arc, having fired 5 long ones and only hit 1. Oh – but the freshman Oglesby bails him out by kindly fouling him (and Paulus helps his own cause by flopping a bit). 3 free throws coming right up! The commentator Fran shares an aside: “I had a chance to work with Paulus at the Steve Nash PG camp last summer. What a great kid. I said to him, “I didn’t realize you were such a good guy,” and he said, “Why? Cause I play at Duke?” Ha. Ha. Ha. As he swishes all 3, making it 64-60, 10:10 to go.

Oglesby tries a 3 pointer of his own, also falling down just in case he missed it – and – well, he missed – no call. Good job. Nelson eyes the paint, decides to try his luck, NOBODY even moves! HA! And suddenly Nelson is slashing to the rim with no defender in sight! Awesome!!!! “They’re not a good driving team. They’re not a better than average driving team. They may be the best driving team in the COUNTRY!” OH? Based on one pretty drive by our irreplaceable senior? Thanks, guys! 66-60! And as the Tigers glance up at the score – it’s PAULUS, with a STEAL! Just so smoothly picks the pocket of a stand-still Oglesby, who never knew what hit him, and before he could recover, our fleet-footed point guard had stormed down the lane and laid it in. 68-60! The crowd is going nuts!!!!

Clemson scores one, but it doesn’t help. Offensive charge, drawn by Henderson, and they give the ball right back. Singler throws a looooong outlet to a streaking Scheyer, who corrals it and gets fouled. Two swishes later, it is 70-62. LT with a nice tip to deny the ball being thrown inside! Great Lance! Off the inbounds pass – STOLEN, by Scheyer! Though he can’t finish, but nearly steals it back for a second try. At this rate, it’s almost too much fun to worry about stuff like that, because clearly the momentum has shifted. We are hitting on all cylinders. They can pound it inside all they want, but we are quicker, faster, more alert, more eager to run, and we will foul you or double-team you to make you earn your points inside. And the crowd, knowing the tide has turned, is bouncing off the walls. We can beat them!!!! We can assert our domination on the ACC!

Oh, a little zone! Finally! And see how great that worked out? They try to penetrate, loses their footing, and the ball careens perfectly into Nelson’s hands, who throws it ahead to a running Nolan, who lets it bounce in front of him, like a yo-yo, before reaching out, tapping the ball to him, and flipping it up into the net – all the while going at least 70mph, with a hot-streaking Scheyer and Singler right behind him, making sure that this time, this fastbreak won’t go unconverted. As they both crash the glass, the ball happily slides into the net, 72-63!!! And it’s too much fun! Nolan and Scheyer fall over each other trying to get back up on D, scrambling to their feet, looking like 2 kids just down the bunny slopes and too eager to get back for more. Oh, the adrenaline’s gotta be pumping through them now – they are unstoppable, uncatchable, and what was once a tight game has been blown back out to the stone age. No more menacing brutes patrolling the lane. No more power dunks raining down on them right and left. Duke has imposed its will on them, taking control of everything except the boards, and perhaps even the boards, as the disparity is nowhere near as bad in the second half. Duke was in the passing lanes, the driving lanes, controlling the fastbreak points, the steals, and just completely messing up their game. It is a complete turnaround, with 7:22 left to play.

Then, in about a minute, we reel off 9 more points. It is dazzling. Singler misses a 3, we grab the rebound, Scheyer hits up Singler for another try . . and in it goes! A big 3-ball from Kyle! 75-65. Wow, look at Henderson go! It is breathtaking. Off the Clemson make, he just bounds upcourt, the ball bounds along in front of him, and from 75 feet out he must’ve taken only 4 or 5 steps, tops, and that’s all he needs to get right up by the goal and put it in despite the hard contact and foul. AND ONE! Oh, Duke in the open court is just a thing of beauty. 78-65. Then, “see the zone,” Fran instructs. “It’s not the best zone ever.” That is ok. It sure is the best zone Clemson has ever seen, as they cough up their possession, right on cue. YES!!! Henderson gladly takes off with that gift, circles in, kicks it out to Scheyer, who touch-passes it immediately to Singler, who wastes no time – giving them the final dagger to the heart – a perfect THREE! 81-65!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Unbelivable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the Tigers are done. In the space of 1 minute, we have completely turned the game around. This is much more impressive than the FSU game. If you don’t have the guards to play with us, you might as well go home. We don’t care who your big men are. This is college, baby. And Clemson just burned its last timeout, with 5:43 left to play. 21-4 run in the last 4:17.

Clemson comes out of the timeout with the same gameplan they had 2 hours ago – attack the paint. So, they get the ball inside to Mays – and Nolan clobbers him. To his credit, he makes both (possibly also tired of the commentator’s 512th mention of his clubs’ terrible FT %). We miss . . but then Clemson offers up another bad pass, and Nelson races upcourt with it, easily beating Oglesby to the basket – and one! The free throw is no good . . but in the ensuing melee, someone is nice enough to tip it out to a stand-still Scheyer, who calmly accepts the possession. He then gives it to Paulus . . who forgets that we still have 4:47 left to play in the ballgame, anything can happen, and . . wait, what’s the score again? 83-67? Well, never mind. Do what you will with the ball, Greg.

Duke starts to relax, letting a couple things go: giving up an easy inbounds pass and immediate layup, taking a Mays flop for an offensive charge, G missing 2 FT, etc. That’s all okay. In order to make a comeback, Clemson will have to play lights-out defense for the last 5 minutes, shoot the 3 well, and at least try to generate a few turnovers from us. Yeah, ain’t gonna happen. Oglesby’s having a rough night, ending up with only 3 of 11, and their PG Hammonds will not fare much better, going underwater with a 2/3 A/T ratio.

And NELSON is still lighting up the night!!!!!! Tipping in a Singler miss! Gorgeous! “There are glue guys, and then there are super glue guys. That describes DeMarcus Nelson to a T.” What will we do next year without you, DeMarcus? Will Greg similarly step up, like you’ve done this year? Hold on a sec – is Nolan limping? 2:15, as he trails the action after a missed floater in the lane. Well, no mention of it by the announcers. 87-74, 1:35 left, and they’re coming to their feet in Cameron Indoor. There is no threat left. We will go into Chapel Hill in 2 weeks undefeated in ACC play. Heh, maybe Maryland will give us a hiccup – right, Carolina?

And Nelson provides the exclamation point. As they double Scheyer down in the lane, he spots a cutting “21” turn the corner and easily threads him the bounce pass – DeMarcus for the dunk! But instead of going up strong, he instead lays it in – and the announcers point out astutely that he may have tweaked his back. Yep, on the replay, he reaches and grimaces a little at his back underneath the basket. Hope you’re alright, Markie. As he comes off to a roaring ovation. 24 points!!! Matching a career high! As the buzzer sounds, and the happy Duke bench comes out to greet its players – Mike Patrick roars, “Statement game!” 93-80. I am dancing!

And what a statement. What a turnaround from the FSU game. Knowing we won’t outwork them on the glass – we shore up our turnovers (from 21 at FSU to 11 today) while forcing them into 20. We grabbed 13 steals!!! We completely took them out of their game in the second half. For the first time in a long time – perhaps the first time all season – we played an outstanding second half, much better than the first half. We adjusted. We exploited their weaknesses. We took their advantage – size – and turned that right around into a disadvantage for them. Wow . . I am just in awe. This is a classic example of how your defense turns into your offense. 37 fastbreak points!!!!!!! Amazing!!!

Does K know how to coach, or what? This was an extremely well-prepared team. They didn’t get rattled, didn’t get into foul trouble, and just rallied at all the right spots, making it a team effort in the process. Everyone contributed. Everyone crashed the glass. Everyone had a steal or two, taking it end to end for the layup. And the substitution patterns were right on, with Nolan and Scheyer coming in and immediately providing an offensive kick, and Nolan and Greg spelling each other at the right times to give grief to their PG, Hammonds. We focused on Oglesby, their sharpshooter, and shut him down. We crowded their big guys on defense and forced them into bad passes, then on offense drove straight at them and made them foul. Against a bigger team – we made more foul shots than they attempted. The only place where we got out-done was the glass, with the rebounding margin a frightening 26-42. But, just like in the Wisconsin game, we knew that will happen and it didn’t matter. Not when we controlled every other aspect of the game.

But the thing I love most is how together this team played. In order to take down a bigger team, you have to be focused and work seamlessly together as one, and that’s what Duke did tonight. The switches on the screens and on D were amazing. Everyone was alert, and as soon as any pass was made, that Tiger immediately found himself confronted by 1 and ½ or 2 Dukies, looking for the steal, looking for the indecision. And on offense, we shared the ball extremely well. Six Blue Devils had 9 points or more. And when they tied the game . . when they took the lead . . we didn’t let it go for a second before we answered . . and we answered . . and then we just shut the door on them with about 5 minutes to play. Singler’s block was HUGE. It led right away to a fastbreak bucket for us, but more than that, it told them that we had the ability to control the low block too, that this was the end of their freebies around the rim. Nelson, Henderson, and Scheyer all played GREAT. Nolan – was a revelation. Having him at the point really got me excited. 4 assists and 6 of 9 shooting! And Singler showed once again the uncanny ability to knock down huge threes with the game very much in doubt. He actually took 7 threes – making 3 – which is the most attempts of anyone on the team. Usually you’ll think King will take those – but Singler? I think it’s because he didn’t want to mix it up inside, but he also did it to stretch their defense, and on the majority of those, he was wide open. King, however, was surprisingly absent, but I think that’s due to matchups more than anything, and K wanted at all times 3 or 4 fleet guards out on the floor.

Bring it on, Carolina!

The Lion in Winter

2008-01-17T23:44:00.000-06:00

The greatest rivalry in sports doesn’t just happen on the hardwood twice a year. Not anymore. It isn’t just Feb 6 and March 8 this year. It’s already begun. The first shots have already been heard, from Texas, to California, to Madison Square Garden. And the lion, so used to the balmy glow of the sun, suddenly finds itself in the cold drags of winter.

Jan 3: 6’10” 5-star John Henson (2009) commits to Carolina.

Jan 4: 6’9” 4-star twins Travis and David Wear (2009), former teammates of Taylor King, commits to Carolina.

Jan 9: 6’5” 5-star Reggie Bullock (2010), commits to Carolina.

Jan 13: 6’3” 5-star Dexter Strickland (2009), playing in the Nike Super 6 at MSG, commits to Carolina.

Then, on Jan 16: 6’10” 4-star Erik Murphy (2009), one of 4 highly coveted Duke recruits, commits to Florida . . without even a single Duke visit.

Son of a b**ch.

Al Featherston on DBR tries to allay the fears, reminding us that “Many - maybe most - of K’s major recruiting victories have been as good as advertised. That string of great players stretches from Johnny Dawkins to Danny Ferry to Grant Hill to Elton Brand to Shane Battier to Jason Williams to J.J. Redick to Luol Deng . . .

. . . to Kyle Singler.”

Oh, lord.

You don’t know, what you’ve got, do you? Seeing his name up there, alongside the greats . . I was totally unexpecting it. Recruiting is all about looking forward, to the next big thing, the next one, the next one. But what about our current roster? How about G? Scheyer? . . Kyle? Last night, his face was black and blue – an ugly gash right under his right eye, a cut above his eyebrow that had required stitches 2 months ago and was just healing up – and now his chin was cut open, bleeding only a few seconds ago. Oh Kyle. We are so lucky to have you. When Duke was on the ropes, when it could do nothing as its pretty lead all but vanished . . who puts us on his back? Who steps up to the 3 point line and demands the ball for a point-blank shot? To see him, putting his arms around his teammates in the huddle . . to hear him say, someone’s got to do it, we might be thin up front but we’re gonna do team defense and someone’s got to step up. I’ll do it. I don’t mind. I never signed on to play the 5, but . . I’ll do this. For Duke.

“I’ll be back.”

It’s been an eventful night. Scheyer went absolutely ballistic on Florida State, playing like an all-world, playing like a kid with a slingshot who’d just figured out what he can do with it, and gleefully running around, snickering. They are all ribbing on him, teasing him, mimicking his moves, laughing and having a good time in the back of the bus. Coach K looks back at them – a wide grin on his face. His young team had faced a tough road opponent tonight, the same opponent that had gone into LittleJohn and pushed Clemson into double OT – and he knew what this win meant to them.

Believe me, there was a reason why he didn’t schedule any “true” road games earlier in the season. A reason that no one else knew about. It was games like these, that sometimes tries his patience as a Hall of Fame coach. He needs to maintain composure – he’s got to remember that. But it kills him, when opposing fans cannot appreciate the hard work and effort that his kids had just put forth tonight. No matter the win – no matter if it was a loss or draw – whatever – any basketball player, should deserve more respect and more courtesy than the s*** doled out to his team tonight. No matter who you are – no matter what's on the front of your jersey – hey. These kids are putting their life on the line for you. For your enjoyment. They are sacrificing their bodies. They are sacrificing their time and effort and heart. The least you can do is show some respect. You don’t need to throw things. You don’t need to hijack the ESPN broadcast to show your dirty mouth to the world. Some of the stuff that the kids said . . my God. That was why Coach K was on the sidelines, putting his arm around Greg, pulling his eyes down. Don’t look at the students. They don’t deserve your attention. Look at me. Look at the person who believes in you. Sometimes, Greg, it’s us against the world.

So they are pulling out of the arena, onto the highway to the airport. The night is dark, 10pm, and they stop by to grab food before heading to the terminal. “Away” games are the toughest when they are on Wednesday nights, because you have to jet in on Tuesday, then miss an entire day of classes on Wednesday as you practice and scout. On Thursday, you’re tired, still shot with adrenaline, and looking forward to Friday already. But that is the life of a student-athlete. And when he looks back on them . . when he sits in his seat and reclines back and can almost close his eyes to the blissful sounds of laughter and teasing and the awful rap noises Taylor King was making to accompany Nolan Smith’s bass-voiced play by play of Scheyer’s 21 points in 75 seconds against the Noles . .

He can almost see them, each one clearly, without even having to turn around and open his eyes. They were there, in his mind – the result of months of hard recruiting and then weeks and months and for some of them 3 and a half years of daily practices and dinners and one-on-ones, to ingrain them in his mind. Their smiles. Their frowns. Their wide eyes . . tired breaths . . and their brilliance, that bounce in their steps, once they got it. Oh, and they got it tonight. Those first half minutes, when they went on that 16-0 tear – he had so wanted to run out on the court to join them. How much fun was Scheyer having? The smarts, the court vision, the stunning awareness! How much of an improvement had Taylor King made over the last couple of games? Nolan Smith? And Kyle Singler. Oy! How clutch, was that 3 point shot? Of all the 3 point specialists on the team . . for him, to want it! A 6’8” freshman!

But then comes the call that can ice your heart. Erik Murphy is on the other line. His voice is scratchy . . hello coach . . I’m calling to let you know . . um . . well . . I’m sorry, coach. I was very interested in Duke University. I’ve really thought it through. But, in the end . . my gut tells me, Florida. I know I’ll fit right in with their style of play. Yes . . yes, I know. I’m sorry, coach. I really am . . . Okay. Thank you. Best of luck.”

Click.

The noise has died down. The kids have scooted back into their seats, starting to feel the drag of the long night ahead of them, many pulling on their earphones. In the silence, Coach K could still hear one voice: Kyle Singler, talking on the phone to his parents in Oregon. The snippets of conversation wafted slowly towards the front of the bus. “I’m fine, mom . . really, it’s no big deal, it’s already healed! . . haha, okay . . oh, did you see that dunk by G?? Off that missed free-throw? No?? That was sick! . . hey EJ . . how was your game last night? . . . ”

Silently, Coach K leans forward until his forehead rests on his knuckles, squeezing his eyes tight. It is all he can do to keep his emotions inside. Kyle Singler. I have to surround you with better talent. I just have to. I’m not going to make the same mistake that I’d made with JJ Redick. I owed him a national championship. Not the other way around. I owed him. He should never have been 90% of our offense. Kyle, I made you a promise. I told you, when I was recruiting you, that you would become a National Player of the Year for Duke. And you will. But in order to develop you . . in order to prolong your life from all those goons out there . . I have to give you a better low-post player than I have so far. Lance Thomas is . . well, let’s not go there. Brian Zoubek is still, alarmingly, light years away. You need help now – and I can’t give that to you. I can’t protect you against a bruising 23 year old such as Tyler Hansborough. And now . . now the kid that I would’ve loved to come in and learn from you have gone somewhere else. Isn’t Florida all out of scholarships??? #$&^!*&@#!?!!

But, hey . . not every kid is a Duke kid. Not every kid is going to say, “Duke was my first – and only – choice.” No. We’ll be alright. Next play.

“I’ll be back.”

Those words echoed in his ear. In the era of one-and-done’s . . to hear your best player tell you, emphatically, that he’s coming back . . that’s something, isn’t it? And the team . . they’ve just won their first ACC road game tonight. They are ranked top 7 in both polls. They are 1 point away from being undefeated – isn’t that enough? Isn’t that a testament to some kind of success? Sure, there were some bad turnovers tonight. And 3 point shooting wasn’t great. But that’s all for tomorrow. Let the worries come tomorrow. Tonight? Let’s just enjoy this. Let’s enjoy what we have, rather than what we don’t have. Best of luck to Erik Murphy. But (aside from joining a club with 6 legit big guys playing in front of him) – he’s missing out on this. On the sound of Taylor King, 2,000 miles from home, but with not a care in the world, rapping with the best of them . . until Nolan Smith tackles him from behind, pulling the blue hood over his eyes, their incessant laughter catching as Gerald joins them . . and Kyle Singler, his eyes closed, his voice quieting as he listened to his brother thousands of miles away . . but his grin, his sleepy, wide-toothed grin, said it all. As the bus rolled on into the night . . somewhere between Tallahassee and Durham, beamed the smile of a boy, right at home.

Get Well Soon, Jerryd Bayless!

2007-12-30T11:59:00.000-06:00

(Dec 29) Memphis – Arizona game going on right now, and after a great start, Arizona has flattened out. 18-31. As Dozier steps up for an easy three. 20-34. How much, is Jerryd Bayless crying inside?

He's Arizona’s point guard and leading scorer, and he’s currently sitting at the tail end of the bench, looking . . actually, very sharp. Bayless is wearing a black suit and blue tie, with a single earring on his left ear. But – the worst, worst thing in the world is for a world-class player like Bayless to have to sit out a big game, all because of an accident that just had to occur one day before. They land in Memphis, they see their friends, they practice – and boom, he’s hurt. He’s played every game all season, and suddenly he can’t move his knee. It just kills you. And it kills you even more, to see those keen eyes, look out with an expression that cannot be expressed. He cannot tell the world how sorry he is, how much he would give to be able to play right now. To be on the same court as Derrick Rose? To be able to lead his team to victory? That’s all he wants. That’s all he’s thought about since weeks and weeks ago.

As the game ends, Jerryd is walking glumly towards the line, ready to shake hands, ready to get the hell outta here. A potential blockbuster road win – gone. Before the game – oh! How he had fantasized! How he was gonna take the game to Rose, to have it be a showdown in the Heartland, the two top 10 guards pushing tempo and dictating pace and dishing out the superlatives while shooting right in each other’s faces all night! How much fun would that have been??? He’s heard the accolades for Rose, and he couldn’t wait, couldn’t wait to get out of the desert and into the limelight that will be shining on Memphis, on this perfect team that supposedly had all the talent to go all the way, undefeated, earning the overall #1 seed, and basically sleepwalk through the first rounds of the NCAAs while the rest of them slugged it out tooth and claw with their major-conference foes. UCLA? USC? Washington State? Yeah, all those were still waiting for him, but now, tonight, it was about Memphis. It was about youth and athleticism and redemption, about turning this program around that got ousted in the first 2 games of the post-season while Memphis went to double Elite Eights. We’re gonna be right there with you, bud. Heh, I hear you’re practicing how to stop me in your Friday session. Well, we’re practicing the same thing – how to stop Derrick Rose. Yo, Derrick! Can we play Madden in your souped-up 11-bedroom mansion after practice is over?

But now . . now was the worst. 2 hours of sitting stock-still in a chair at the end of the bench, forced to watch as Memphis slowly tore his Arizona team apart. They did well in the beginning – good ol’ Chase Budinger putting on a show. But oh . . the seams unraveled almost immediately afterwards. You can’t win road games without your starting point guard – you just can’t. Take a good look at Pitt. And how in the world did Wisconsin do it? Against, supposedly, the deadliest backcourt in the country in #9 Texas? Two ranked teams go into foreign territory without their starting point guards, for all or half the game . . and neither survives. #6 Pitt gets blown out by Dayton. And #17 Arizona . . well, did they ever have a chance?

Back to the line: Derrick has come up, taking both of his hands, leaning in so nobody else could hear – “You would’ve beaten me tonight. I had 6 turnovers! What would you have done to me?” He smiled, his award-winning smile. Jerryd couldn’t help but laugh. You would’ve made me have 6 turnovers, bro, he thought. But it would’ve gone down to the wire. It definitely would have. “You played a great game,” he said, wistfully, half-heartedly, grinning. “We should do it again sometime. Maybe in the NCAA final.” Derrick’s eyes lit up. “Oh yeah. Hell yeah.” People were shouting congratulations, and Derrick turned around momentarily. Then he turned back. “When do you leave?” “Tomorrow morning.” “Early?” “Yeah . . you know how it is.” “Right, right . . call me, ok?” “Sure.” “Hope you get better.” “Thanks.”

Then – redemption, the words he so longed to hear: “It just wasn’t the same without you. It would’ve been a ballgame, man.”

Oklahoma at West Virginia 2OT – the Play of the Year

2007-12-30T11:49:00.000-06:00

Wow . . Blake Griffin! I had no idea.

8:20, they’re down 7 – and it is the play of the year. No doubt. My jaw is on the floor. And this is a freshman?? The ball is loose, 3 guys fly onto the floor after it, Griffin goes after it just a little harder than all the others, grabs it, dribbles it, keeps it alive, and then scrambles back up, quick as a cat, has only one goal and that is to go straight to the basket, goes right around his man, completely ignores him, charges up, sees daylight, then suddenly – sees a guy standing right there trying to draw a charge! – changes direction, changes the trajectory of his powerful, 243 lb body, and then acrobatically, magically, somehow propels his way up to the side/back of the goal and lay it in even as he’s falling out of bounds. HOW ‘BOUT THAT! And he doesn’t even acknowledge it, running round the other end and jogging away, but oh, it swells in him, he knows that was a terrific play, and to the birds that are booing him – he runs all the way down to the other end of the court and reaches up high for the rim with one hand before turning back to the timeout that’s been called. You’re booing him?? C’mon! This guy is something special.

If one film reviewer described the 5 minute, single-camera tracking shot across Dunkirk in Atonement as Scene of the Year . . then, I nominate this one, this heady, spectacular play, for Play of the Year. I don’t think anyone else could’ve matched the wits, heart, or body control that Blake Griffin showed on that play right there. And congrats on being named the Big 12 Player of the Week! You totally deserve it.

Several terrific games were on tap this Saturday (Dec 29), and this is the one that I am glued to. To see Griffin – manhandled, pushed around, double-teamed, raked across the face – and his fortitude, how much he wants to win! It is his engine, that powers this Sooners team. And he knows it. 13:03 to go in the second half, PG Austin Johnson misses a runner and Griffin is in the middle of 3 yellow shirts jostling for that rebound, grabs it, fights it up, can’t get it to go, fights up for it again, gets pushed down to the floor on one knee, which is jammed behind another player’s leg, but he doesn’t care, doesn’t dare move – all he wants to do is find an open teammate to pass the ball to, and save this possession. He doesn’t give a damn about himself. From amongst 3 yellow shirts towering over him – he finds his man – and only when he finally passes it out does he succumb to the pain and falls onto the floor. Oh, that leg hurts. It hurts bad. He’s flat on his back, laid out on the hardwood, his eyes closed as he tries to will it away, push it away, wish it away. Not now. C’mon, not now. I know it’s hurt but . . just let me play. Let it not be anything serious.

They help him sit up. He stretches his hamstring, testing it. Then he’s up, walking to the bench. 30 seconds later, he’s on the floor again. 11:34, he grabs a loose ball, and even as he’s running for it, he sees another player flying at him, hands out – and the guy hits him hard in the face even as Griffin tries to shield himself after securing the ball. Damn! He falls to one knee on the floor, still holding the ball – but his pain is so much that he almost offers the ball as a sacrifice – like, here, God, take it, just take it, what the hell do you want me to do? He goes to the bench again, this time for some cotton to stop his bleeding. 1 minute later, he’s back in, giving a hurray to Longar Longar to sink his FTs.

OOOOOHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! “Bob Huggin’s team doesn’t have an answer for him!” He sure doesn’t, LEN! Not one! Johnson is dribbling the ball, or more like desperately trying not to lose it between 2 sticky defenders Velcro-strapping themselves to him, the ball bounces wildly along, low to the ground, too low – but Griffin is running strongly to his left side, calling for it – and Johnson somehow controls it long enough to flip it up to him, high – and Griffin just grabs it out of midair and slams that home! What a JAM! Oh, he just meets that ball so perfectly and delivers it undeniably into the rim, saying emphatically “There! THAT’S where you belong, and don’t you forget it!” And as his momentum carries him spinning round the rim hard before he comes back down, the WVU team retreats. They’ve got no answer. 5:11.

The score is tied 60-60, 3:05 left . . and Longar Longar, who is purportedly a bad free throw shooter . . now steps up to the line and shoots both FT with just about the loveliest pure arc you’ve ever seen. 64-64, 0:39 to go. The senior, David GodBold, who’s played every minute so far, gets the ball with 7, 6, 5 seconds left to shoot, and he bulls his way to the goal, he must, there is no other way, and as he falls down/is fouled/loses it, he somehow tosses it up in the vicinity of the goal, and it hits the rim. Foul! 2 shots? 1 and 1? They rule it 1 and 1. He steps up to the line, and calmly, steadily, eyes the basket . . dribbles . . and shoots. First one, good! Second one, good! 66-64! And then WVU, showing equal grit and determination, grabs a key, key rebound with about 3 seconds left and tosses in a put-back – its GOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 66-66! OVERTIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2:36 left in OT, down 5, 66-71, and Griffin travels. Ohhhhh . . the crowd is just seething with happiness. They are going to tear his heart out. When that whistle blew – Blake just gave up that ball and turned to walk the other way – but when they pull in a close-up of him, you can see he’s just biting his lip, trying not to scream. You are kidding me. We’re down 5 points. Half of the precious 5 minutes of OT is gone. And you’re gonna call a travel on me now? We didn’t come this far, to lose! I can’t bloody give it up!

And Oklahoma is done. I am sure of it. In overtime, the home team gets an undeniable advantage. Everyone is tired. But because WVU can feed off that energy from their crowd, they must be feeling like Supermen out there. They can do this. And for the first 3 minutes, it is simply too much for OU. Suddenly, WVU is beating them to the rebounds, to the passes. They are making every goal, while OU can’t get it near the basket. Ah, but thank God for GodBold! Thank God for the senior! He cuts to the basket and lays it in so quick, then happily catches the ball as it comes through the net and hands it back to the defender who has fallen on his butt, saying “here ya go”.

70-73. 32 seconds left. What do they do? Len and Patrick are arguing over whether to play hard-nosed D or foul. They agree on playing hard-nosed D. They don’t get the memo to Jeff Capel in time, though, who decides to foul. So they foul a 90% FT shooter from WVU. Nice. But OH – HE MISSES! Griffin rebound! Johnson tearing upcourt with the ball! They’re going for the 2! STOLEN!!! Ball in the air – STOLEN BACK!!!!!! Sooners have it again! Ball loose again – out of bounds. Phew! Back to OU! 16 ticks left. We need a 3. Backcourt scare . . ball moved to Crocker – their best 3 point shooter – OH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s pure! It’s good! It’s a TIE GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!! 73-73. 6.6 seconds left. They inbound . . races it up . . falls down! Griffin grabs it, sends it the hell outta there – and the buzzer! Rifle shot! DOUBLE OT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As I gather my breath . . I now think OU can win it. I want them to win it. All game long, they’ve fought back, always seemingly a play away from being 10 down but somehow coming back and coming back, until their rebounds and their toughness and their sheer will to compete has negated the horrific 20 turnovers and 13 missed free throws. And I am almost in tears as Griffin fouls out. He just looks sooooo disappointed. As he walks back towards the bench – he sees his coach kneeling by the sidelines and he just puts his hands out, like, “I’m sorry, coach. I really am.” 5 fouls. Gone. The fans are waving him deviously goodbye. He just wants to either scream and shout or cry – or both – reaching up inexplicably with his hands-turned-fists to squeeze something, anything– but he only grasps air.

Was that even a foul? “Freshman mistake,” the announcers shake their head, but I have flashbacks of when Singler fouled out of the Illinois game. He was just trying to set a screen for his PG and got pushed into another defender by Randle. Foul? Same here . . it looked like Griffin was just trying to keep his defendee in front of him, and got pushed into another guy. Really? Foul?

But the Sooners refuse to fold. And I really starting to like that little guy, Johnson. He looks so slight, and slightly suspect, with those missing/buck teeth and goatee – and he must weigh what, 160 lbs? But he finds people. And man, can he hit a 3 to lift up his team. From being 4 down in double OT to suddenly just 1 – like it ain’t nothing! Longar hits both FT again! 78-77! We have the LEAD!! Oh, and a 3 point play! This is where a strong frontline helps you in OT. You can just pound it inside, again and again, until the other team has no answer except to foul or allow it. I’m not a huge fan of their uniforms, though. Gray? Not a flattering color.

Wow . . what a game. 88-82 is the final score, Oklahoma. You can fire all the rifle shoots you want, man, but Oklahoma walks out with a win over a ranked opponent for the second game in a row. How cool is this team? Blake Griffin is definitely a prize freshman in a year of super froshs that needs more ink! Longar Longar is the best name ever. And Jeff Capel – nice to see that he’s doing well, and beating a very respectable Big East opponent, 5 feet away from their home campus! Both teams, really, went all out to make it a whale of a game, but OU showed its resilience at the end. Down 7 in the first OT? And being walled in by that deafening noise? No problem. Down 4 in the 2nd OT? And 3 players hitting the 48 minute mark, while losing their star power forward? No problem. That, is the heart of a Sooner. Great, great win, and a fantastic way to close out 2007 heading into Big 12 conference play.

Duke vs Pittsburgh OT - epic showdown in the Garden!

2007-12-21T20:23:00.000-06:00

(Dec 20) Two UNDEFEATED teams steps into the ring – someone is gonna go down tonight!!! In one corner is Duke, winner of the Maui championship, slayer of two top-20 ranked teams. In the other corner is Pitt, who’s beaten . . well, let’s see. Exactly who have they beaten? Never-heard-of Duquesne by 5, a stone’s throw away from home? Pac-10 second-tier Washington, who pushed a runner right through their defense, at the buzzer, and Pitt needed a friendly zebra-stripe to waive it off? But consider this: an unchallenged challenger may be the worst, outside of a truly marquee challenger, because you don’t know what their holes are. You don’t know if they’ve been playing at their level, or way below, and will only call upon that extra gear when you suddenly come up to them and look them in the eye. Will it beat Duke? I don’t think so. But it’ll be a whale of a game to find out!

Lance is in! (ankle sprained a few days ago) Ugh – Paulus loses the ball while dribbling around Blair, and Blair just grabs that thing and starts breaking to the other end, with only one thing in mind – dunk it – dunk it hard – make a statement! But Gerald is fast on his tail, streaking up to him, overtaking him – and he goes up high, blocking that thing – whistle? Foul? Whatever. Blair smiles as he goes to the FT line. Never seen that before! Must be because Pitt has 3 turnovers already in a hurry – I would laugh about that too!

Way to go GERALD!!!! Blazes right into the lane, leans right to avoid an oncoming defender, and takes that ball up strong to the hoop for an emphatic two! But seconds later, he gets a little too aggressive and picks up his 2nd foul, offensive charge while trying to push the ball up too fast. He sits. They’ve read the scouting reports on Nelson and Henderson, and figured hey, if we don’t have the athletes to stop them, we’ll just stand in front of them. Singler! Dribbling right into Young and then elevating to shoot over him, using the glass. Then slipping past him to grab a runner in the lane and posting up. But what’s this with Pitt trying to send a message? Twice now, they’ve tried to power-slam the ball through the rim, as if trying to scare us? Nice try, but you might want to pick up the 2 points first, and worry about the message part later, bud. Out of the media timeout – Kyle with a nice layup inside the paint! Caught them completely asleep!

What is wrong is Greg Paulus????? First turnover I can understand, sure – but this one? Where he tentatively pushes the ball inside to absolutely no one, certainly none I could see, that would’ve been wearing a Duke jersey? Hmm? Wow. Of course, they grab that puppy like a loose pack of change and race it to the other end for a quick deuce, and we have a nice, 9-9 tie. C’mon, Greg, remember that the opposing PG, though he sure looks burly, is only 5’10” – shorter than you! Hmm? Greg comes out and gets treated for what looks like a bleeding cut on the cheek. Hello, Nolan!

Nelson with a three!!!!!! Thank you, Nelson, to break that tie. OH!!!!!!!!!!!! What the – ??? Scheyer has the ball, on the perimeter – and gets the hell knocked out of him from behind, goes sprawling to the floor, the ball of course goes loose, and they have an uncontested layup. HEY!!!!!!!!!!!! Scheyer does not look very happy . . no call . . some boos. Oh, he gets fouled on a 3 point shot! 3 freebies!! Or, 2 is ok as well. This is amazing – I don’t think I’ve seen Duke lose that many balls – and here we lose another one, with Nolan being called for the foul for trying to get it back. Gerald is back! And he promptly makes his presence felt by pulling up for a jumper. It snuggles in! Life is too short to sit on the bench with 2 fouls, huh, Gerald? They show a replay of how Greg got his nasty-looking cut – by way of Singler? Awww. They were both defending Blair, and Singler caught him in the face with an elbow. Gerald stuffed by Brown! Paulus comes back in – eager to prove himself. Duke with 8 TO already???? Singler pulls up on the arc and fires off a three – clang. But Scheyer is so alert that he’s dashed into the paint anticipating the miss – good job! – and grabs the rebound, trying to put it back up while being surrounded by an avalanche of dark-blue shirts. Block! By Blair! Scheyer looks annoyed, but puts his hands up, saying hey, that’s our ball still. That’s all that matters. 7 seconds! I’m yelling at Paulus – there’s 7 seconds left and you’re peace and quiet all the way out 30 feet from the basket! But he knows what he’s doing – and finally gets what he wanted – Thomas breaking out all alone in the paint – and he promptly gets fouled to boot. Nice. Oh, another nice Lance move in the paint, to get the basket and one! Thanks Lance for coming back from your injury so quick! 19-13 all of a sudden, 7:46 to go.

Oh, Paulus with a TRIPLE!!!! We break through 20!!! It’s been an uphill battle, but we’re seeing some daylight, baby!!! Hail to Greg!!! Oh, someone needs a timeout! 22-13.

They obviously emphasized coming out of the timeout to get the ball to Blair, so yep, there they are, getting it to him. But Thomas and Singler are all over him, vehement that he work for his two points, if even that, and Blair tries to turn but Thomas is right on his left, and Singler is right in front of him, not giving an inch, dauntless, not giving a hoot that this dude is 265 and being recruited for football season. You’re not bloody getting past me. And Blair, instead of trying to pass out, keeps bulling, keeps trying to force the issue – and, there it is – whistle – foul. Give up the rock, baby. I think you’ve had it for long enough!

Ha! Hilarious! They’re back down, Singler is guarding Blair, falls down trying to draw an offensive foul, gets no call, about to get up, and I brace myself for an easy Pittsburgh two – but no! Lance strips him of the ball, so that it looks like Blair flips the ball down to a sitting Singler, who looks quite amused and appreciative but quickly flips the prize back to Paulus for safekeeping, who races it to the other end. Now that’s the definition of landing right in his lap! Oh no – another Paulus turnover – miscommunication between Greg and Kyle, who thought Greg was going to shoot. Pitt gets another quick one – and I’m amused that everything Pitt has gotten has been in transition, while Duke has not been pushing tempo or running or really getting great looks from spreading the floor.

Then Gerald gets the steal, and so silky smoothly converts the goal, avoiding the double team flying at him with no qualms at all, clutching the ball in his arms, laying it up, and turning to run off pretty much without even a backwards glance, just knowing its gone in. Awesome. Meanwhile, Taylor and Nolan are changing into every kind of comfortable sitting position they can find along the sidelines, watching the game avidly and wondering when they can get some sleeping bags and potato chips over here or something? Other end – Young runs right into Singler and over him and just topples over right on top of him – turnover #14. King for three! 31-15! Oh, he’s so happy! The place goes nuts! It’s not even a contest! 3:52 left.

WOW! King with a monster bounce pass to Nelson about 20 feet away, cutting backdoor to get wide open on the left side and just so easily lays it up. WHAT A FEED! Next play, Nolan gets into the lane and sends a great pass to Zoubek, and I’m getting ready for a deuce . . but he loses it???? Awwww! That was right on your doorstep! A pass that high, could only be corralled by you! Thank god on the other end, they are bricking everything they can when not turning it over. Pitt is starting to look whipped. They don’t know how to play, all of a sudden – they sure as hell haven’t been pushed quite like this. Sure, they are grabbing every kind of board ever . . but that really can’t help you if you can’t hit it for your life.

Uh . . terrible, terrible endgame for the first half. What the hell was that? Nelson, as always, gets 1 of 2 FT . . Duke fouls a rebounder, who makes 2 for Pitt . . Paulus turns it over . . Duke loses Blair for a second on the other end who promptly rings in 2 . . and then Scheyer hikes up an off-balance shot to beat the clock, to no avail. 34-22 halftime.

Second half: Gerald with a crazy drive under the basket for a dunk – missed! – gets the ball back – and Nelson turns it over. But Coach K is not happy – neither am I – and he calls a timeout to let his team have it. He is very animated, yelling, throwing up his hands, rattling Nelson’s arm to show how aggressive Pitt was playing them and how they were letting it happen. Nelson lowers his head . . I got it . . I got it, coach. Wojo, too, throws an arm for emphasis.

Back on the court: Singler with a BEAUTIFUL PASS to Lance for the stuff! Lucky Lance! But wow, what vision – Kyle, immediately upon getting the ball, knows Blair is on his back and he’s attracted a double team, and quickly turns to find an open teammate. Perfect, under-the-arm pass around Blair for delivery. Faster than the eye can see but when they show the replay, you just sit back and whistle at that ingenuity. Marvelous. Eagle-eyed. Great, great vision.

Hmm . . is Kyle hurt? He’s wiping his eye/cheek after a Pitt basket on the baseline, dropping the ball to the floor, looking like he got a cut or something . . oh, but of course they’ll rather talk about Cutliffe? (new football coach) Fine . . can you also, perhaps, narrate this ballgame I’m supposedly watching? Henderson goes to the line and clanks both FT – we are possibly 1% on FT tonight – but why say anything about that? No! Let’s keep talking about football! Grrrr . . . Singler with his 3rd foul, sits down. 13:38.

Okay, I have to say something right now – can we F***ING teach Lance/Z how to rebound, so that we don’t have Kyle Singler being WWF tackled/slammed/shoved every freakin’ game? Singler and Blair are tangling for the rebound, he’s got position over Blair, so what does Blair do? Whatever he thinks he can get away with, which is to tackle Kyle around his chest with a burly forearm and pull him down hard with him as he goes to the floor, then dropping him, so that Kyle hits the hardwood floor with a smack, on the back of his head, and rolls off in pain. Jesus! God damn – WTF??? Kyle covers his face for a second, stunned, dazed, hoping and praying nothing’s broken. Intentional foul. Of course. Thank you. 2 shots and the ball. 10:06.

So you would think, that with that swing, and then Singler coming right back to score a layup, that Duke would coast, wouldn’t you? 48-38! But no. Within about a minute – from 9:15 to 8:16, Pitt rattles off 9 unanswered points, and suddenly, at 48-47, it’s a ballgame. And we’ve got no answer. We’ve forgotten how to play. Now, it is Duke who’s lost their swagger. Kyle and Gerald are taking all the shots, and nobody else is stepping up. Scheyer misses everything he touches. Nelson gets fouled every single time, and then he botches every single FT handed to him. Paulus is looking beat. I mean, just beat, bewildered, not capable of playing with the big boys. How many turnovers has he got? And now Pitt is stronger – they are struttin’ – they are flashing out for transition points, hitting three’s when it counts, getting the lockdown D.

6:10 . . Blair and Singler shares a joke? “What does it take to knock that smile off his face?” Jay Bilas wonders. Ugh, maybe cuz he knows something – namely, that they can win. Duke has no idea how to beat Pitt’s pressure. They call 2 sets, cannot get a shooter free, and then takes a wild three to completely blow their 35 second shot clock. Offensive weapons, ay? We’ve got none! We will proceed to go without a single field goal for a good 4, 5 minutes! While they reel off 12 straight! Sigh. Nelson is playing both smart and dumb – flopping on Blair to force him his 3rd foul, offensive – then double-teaming to let Henderson get the block, ripping that rebound and racing with it – then, reaching out with his arm to push off to create space for his shot, cuz he does not want to go to the foul line – and whistle. Offensive foul. His 4th. He goes to the bench.

And immediately, Singler follows suit. And this is where I become completely scared of Pitt. Blair gets the 2nd offensive rebound in a tangle of players under the basket for Pitt, goes up, and I can’t see it, but apparently Singler fouled him. I thought it was Lance Thomas, who put his hands up, but what do I know, watching from home, right? Poor guy. No one else will help him out, this Blair is just a beast on the glass, and LT has helped some, but it’s mostly been him against the bear the whole night, tussling it out, and there’s only so much you can do when you have a 45 lb disadvantage from him. 5:28, Duke huddles after the whistle – and my heart sinks. Kyle is shaking his head in defeat in that huddle – like he can’t believe it – he can’t believe it, because it’s not like he’s putting a body on him, he’s not even aggressively defending him, he knows his worth to his ballclub – but he’s being called for the slightest thing, barely grazing his fingertips playing the kind of foul-free defense he has patented – and it’s just not working. He can’t get rebounds. He can’t box out. He can’t, even, apparently, box out a smaller guy in Sam Young who has repeatedly spun out or muscled his way out of the second slot on the FT sideline to beat him to the basket, and this time, as Blair misses his 2nd FT, he does, going up to grab that rebound and beating every Dukie to it, forcing intense mayhem once more until the whistle is called and I just pray it is not Singler. It is not. It is LT.

Well. Coach K is not taking any chances. He immediately sends in fresh bodies McClure and King, and pulls Singler and Thomas out of there. But back to what I was saying: Kyle Singler has no answer for DeJuan Blair in the paint.

He’s not Josh.

A junior Josh, 6’10”, 240 lbs, would’ve done the work on Blair. Shut him down. Thrown down a couple dunks. Shown them who’s boss. A freshman Singler? I love the kid, I do – but he cannot be our only answer to a quality big because he’s not that strong. He’s smart, he’s keen, he’s efficient – but he’s not dominant. And this game – when it gets down to two Goliaths duking it out – you can’t just look at the name on your jersey. You gotta bring it. And as much as we should’ve trampled them on paper – in reality, this is still a young, untested team. And about to play the worst second half ever known to man.

For about 1 minute, just long enough for Nolan to miss a hook and McClure to get fouled and miss the first of 2 FT, Kyle, Gerald, and Nelson are on the bench looking stone-faced, knowing the work they have cut out for them. Intrepid reporter Jay Bilas, meanwhile, is reiterating how this current lineup on the floor is basically trash. King, McClure, Nolan, Scheyer, and Paulus are “not going to get to the rim” against Pitt. Gone are the euphemisms about how deep Duke’s bench is. Gone are the magic that Paulus and Nolan created in the Michigan game when they played for the first time together. Gone is the gushing about Duke’s bench being a top 25 team by itself. It is not. We’re right back to where we were a month ago in the Marquette game – and it’s like the last several games have not occurred at all. Oh, it was great having Taylor and Nolan break out against lesser teams, and lead in scoring. It was great to see Zoubek contributing, and working on his confidence, and learning about next play, in the Albany game. But you knew what was going to happen, right? When the chips are down, Coach K will look down his bench, and you know who he’ll call. Henderson. Singler. Nelson. And here they come – abandoning their towels and water to run to the scorer’s table, one by one, ready to finish out this game that has come down to the wire. Here they come. Here they come. McClure hasn’t even sized up his 2nd free throw yet, and they’re already being replaced. 4:37, Duke 49, Pitt 50.

Levance Fields scores, and it is now 49-52, Pitt. Game starting to get away from Duke. Singler calls for the ball. In 3 long strides, he’s taken the pass and gets up for what looks like an uncontested lay-up . . . that rims right out. You need to finish that up strong, Kyle. Even if Blair was lurking there looking to challenge you again. HENDERSON!!!!!! Taking Duke on his back. What hops! Stepping, slithering, dancing his way nimbly to the rim, he won’t take no for an answer! 51-52, and the whistles are blowing all over the place. Time-out! Time-out! Let’s talk this over! 2:51, both coaches seeing things that they do not like. Yes, once again they remind us that Singler has 4 fouls. My heart is pounding out of my chest already. Do we need to make it any worse?

Now Paulus is getting aggressive. Staying close to his man, knocking out at the ball to try to grab a steal or force a turnover for Duke. He gets one – but it stays with Pitt! Awww! He was already running the other way – so disappointed. Another timeout. Okay, just breathe. Breathe . . .

Levance Fields sure is fast. He’s lulling Paulus to sleep out there, here comes Blair with a screen, forces the switch, and Fields just runs right into/around Singler towards the basket, looking to either draw that 5th foul or get an easy look at the lay-up if he backs off. Thankfully, Paulus realizes his intentions and got around in time to foul him and stop his drive – and Singler, when he hears that whistle, just falls onto the floor on his butt, looking wide-eyed at the officials like “that better not be me”. Fields shoots 2. 51-54.

LORD ALMIGHTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HENDERSON!!!! “Athleticism trumping toughness on that PLAY!” the announcers roar. Jesus, what a sweeeeeet move! Paulus gives him the ball, he waits a little bit out on the perimeter, watching the right side just clear out for him – and as he starts his run, circling wide towards the right wing, Scheyer comes out to draw his man away – and suddenly, he’s motoring, it is WIDE OPEN for him, and he wastes no time, circling in from the right wing like a freight train, Blair thinks about stopping him but immediately backs off, completely blown, and Henderson can just do whatever the hell he wants – 360, tomahawk – complete carte-blanche – and he stuffs it! 53-54! 2:10 left.

After Sam Young answers, 53-56 – OOOOOOHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BIG TIME!!! SINGLER FOR 333333333333!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! “There is just answer after answer!” Bilas roars, enormously impressed. The crowd is on their feet! After that Sam Young basket, we come back upcourt, and Gerald is running the pack again, circling in sniffing for blood, and the defense this time collapses on him. But he is cool as a cucumber, instinctively sending out a no-look pass to Kyle Singler on the 3 point line, and he knocks one down as beautifully as anything I’ve ever seen. Thank you, Gerald, for the assist! And Kyle, so proud – teeth bared a little, tongue wagging, then breaking out into a wide grin upon seeing a congratulatory Scheyer jumping up to chest-thump him. 56-56, it is tied, 1:31 left.

But they’re not done! Sam Young, again, manages to slip away from Henderson just long enough to get the pass on the wing and send it up, and it’s good! Damn! 56-58. We go back upcourt, and the ball is in Henderson’s hands, again. It looks like they’re going to run the same play again? Henderson on the perimeter, circling out wide towards the right wing, as Scheyer comes out . . but this time, instead of attacking, Henderson just fakes right, then turns back around to his left and elevates up to shoot – a tough, high-arching 12 footer that sails in smoothly! How does he do that??? And make it look so easy? Tied again, 58-58, 0:56 left.

The place is just pure pandemonium. Everybody standing, willing their team on. Ramon is way off the perimeter, dribbling, Paulus is getting impatient, meanders over to the right wing, and I’m amazed how stone-still the Pitt players are standing, as if they don’t get all this noise, and then Paulus has knocked the ball loose but the refs whistle it back to Pitt possession. Awww! C’mon!! Paulus lets out a holler of frustration. Give me a steal, PLEASE! So here we go again . . some ball movement now . . kick out to Cook ALL ALONE on the 3 point line!!!! What happened there???? HE SHOOTS – – – !!!

OH! AN AIRBALL! DUKE BALL!!!! 16.6 seconds left. Timeout. And I’m thinking – should we be calling a timeout?? Let them set up a defensive stance? Let’s just play, put it in the hands of Henderson or Singler! C’MON!! We need to get something here . . anything.

Henderson – NO! – KYLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tip-in no good! He falls to the floor instead of going up strong, we miss, the buzzer sounds – and it becomes sudden death. 58-58. OH MY GOD. DAMN IT! GOD! SHIT!

Just as I had feared. We are not going to learn anything more out of a timeout other than give the ball to Henderson and then maybe hand off to Singler if he can’t get free, or have Singler go for the tip-in. Well, it got down to 16 seconds, long ball thrown out to Scheyer, so the clock starts at 12 for Henderson. 11, 10, and he’s circling to the right wing again but he finds 2 defenders draped on him like a cheap suit. He can’t shake free. Singler is calling emphatically for the ball, being guarded by little 6’0” Ramon, but Henderson is sure he can do it. He switches tactics, bulldozes through into the middle of the lane, gets bumped by Sam Young but forces up a difficult shot anyways, thinking Singler might possibly be Joey Dorsey or Damion James and can just clean up around the glass whenever an errant shot is tossed their way. Well, Singler tries. He’s not as close to the basket as he would like, so he pushes off on Ramon just a bit to get the rebound, but then Ramon is pushing him back as he tries to tip it in, and it goes up too soft as he’s falling back. It barely grazes the rim, and no one else has skied for that ball. Pitt pulls it down, sends it hurtling the other way. Overtime.

My God. My heart is thundering. Singler has 4 fouls. Nelson has 4. Lance is on the bench, so we have Henderson in the jumpball. And he gets it to Paulus – great! Here we go, the extra furlong, the test of champions. Nelson gets fouled. Oh, of course. I am praying for him. Misses the 1st. Makes the 2nd. Cook is down . .

Oh my God. Mike Cook is really hurting. It is too painful to watch. As he limps to the locker room . . get well soon, Mike. I give thanks that no Duke player got hurt. Yes, Paulus got cut up on his cheek. Yes, Scheyer got knocked down to the floor about 3x this evening (but still went hard to the glass looking for every kind of rebound – he’ll end the game with 12!) And yes, Singler always seems to get targeted for one, if not three, WWF-type moves under the basket, simply because the opposition thinks they can. But no one got hurt from anything that they can’t recover from, and that’s what I’m thankful for. Let’s close out this game, guys.

Defensive switch pits Paulus against Sam Young, and Singler looks over from the post from where he’s guarding Blair and thinks “oh god, I’m gonna have to come out and help”, and I’m thinking, why isn’t Nelson on Young? Why don’t we have someone else taller than 6’4” to help Singler out??? Young had missed the first point-blank shot, he won’t miss the second, and he hits. 59-60, Pitt leads. On the other end, after Henderson had missed his last shot – another difficult jumper in the lane, hotly contested – we now trust the ball to Nelson. And he starts making an attack – but the guy who’s guarding him flops on him – and Nelson’s thrown so off-balance that he loses the ball – no call – and Levance Fields beats everyone to the ball – but Paulus gets there just a step later and swipes the ball away – whistle! Foul! Oh, c’mon! Paulus is on his knees, he hasn’t even had chance to recover – and Bilas is praising him for fouling in exchange for an easy fastbreak deuce. I wouldn’t count out Henderson miraculously shot-blocking, but okay, you’re right. Fields, of course, knocks both ones down, making it 59-62. 3:01 left in OT.

Henderson – oh! Finally starting to look mortal. He’s missed his last 3 now – after taking a long jumper that he’s buried in this game before but now eludes him, hitting the back of the rim too strongly and bounces out to Pitt. They race it down, swings the ball around, and suddenly someone’s open along the baseline and Singler immediately switches over to help block out. Even with 4 fouls – he must’ve looked imposing enough on the smaller player to kick it back out – and it’s thrown right into the hands of Henderson, who immediately turns tail and starts motoring the other way. Ramon, feeling helpless, fouls him across the arm – but Henderson still gets the shot up – OH!!! A block from Gilbert Brown! What hops, huh? So Henderson gets a chance to go to the line – but his first FT misses terribly. He cannot believe it . . walks around to try to relocate his shot. And suddenly – is the air is out of Duke? Still down 59-62, 2:19 left, and our go-to scorer, whom Coach K entrusted the last shot to, having gone stone-cold?

He knocks down his 2nd, but Coach K is not taking any chances, and immediately sits him in favor of some fresh legs: McClure for defense and Nolan to replace Paulus. It is 60-62, and Pitt is so patient, running their set play and then finding Brown all alone, unguarded, on the left wing! Up goes the shot – sure to be a dagger – but it doesn’t hit! Nelson with the rebound! Phew! Can we get the ball to Nelson, now? Please?

OOOHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! NELSON!!! Hail to GOD! WHAT A MOVE! Just blazes to the basket, sheds his defender completely, doesn’t care who’s coming at him, takes on Blair one on one, takes the bump, and then finishes the play, using the glass in an acrobatic up-and-under to bank it in!! Blair is GONE! That’s 5 on him! And Gerald Henderson! Man, is that the sweeeeetest smile I’ve ever seen or what? Just all teeth and dimples, couldn’t be prouder. HUGE, HUGE play. And he makes the bonus free throw. 63-62, Duke! 1:36 left.

Man, Pitt’s just getting every rebound. They miss on the other end, but grabs the board, and sends it back out to Fields to run. He blazes to the hoop – but oh! Sweet whistle! Travel! Ball is turned over. Coach K is sending Paulus and Henderson out there again. We’ll run something, right? We’ll get a good shot? But no. Apparently, Coach K’s instructions out there for Greg was: run stallball. How else do you explain Paulus dribbling by his lonesome self out there, running the precious shot clock down . . while nobody else on the team even looked in the semblance of running a play? Oh, sure. Run the clock down to 16 seconds. Gratuitously use another timeout. Then in-bound the ball again – get it in the hands of Scheyer – and let it roll off to the opposition’s hands again. Smart. (rolls eyes)

Well, we need a stop here. And I gasp as Nelson, on Fields, takes his head fake and then completely loses him as he blazes to the net – and Singler switches over! NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He tries taking the charge – YES!!!!!!!!!!! HE GETS IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bodies flying everywhere, Scheyer neatly dives over him as he tries to help out, Greg gets the rebound and gets mauled over the back, but all eyes are on Singler, pumping his fist “YES!” as he hears the call – thank God! That was very borderline, and pure instinct – he wasn’t thinking about his 4 fouls, he wasn’t thinking about what it would mean if he fouled out – he was gonna step in and take the charge, no matter how dangerous – and deny that point guard the basket. Nelson looks over sheepishly – thanks, man. I owe you one. As everyone collectively lets out the big breath that they’d held.

0:36 seconds left, we are miraculously up by 1, and the shot clock is turned off. They must foul. They trap Scheyer along the sideline, and he twists enough to invite the foul – but no call. They know he’s 90% at the line. He sends a long pass to Henderson – who thankfully saves it with a nice tip to himself – and then he sends it immediately to Singler, who should’ve held onto it, instead of passing it off like a hot potato – but oh, he got fouled. Finally. Thank you, God, for sending Kyle Singler to the free throw line. “He’s a freshman in name only,” the announcers praise. Shhhhh. Quiet on the set. Let him size it up . . that mental toughness . . that Marquette game winner coming back to him . . he’s gonna to make it. For sure. Dribbles. Bends his knees. Shoots. RIMS OUT! Dear God! Second one . . ok, ok, take it easy . . dribbles . . shoots that high-arching shot – and before it even goes in, he’s gone. Is it in? It rolls . . just a little too strong . . and drops! Phew! 64-62.

But the last shot. It belongs to Pitt. And it’s a dead-aim three. BAM! Right in the face of Duke. 64-65. And there’s no time left! Singler throws it to Scheyer, who races it down, takes an awful, too quick, off-balance three with 4 seconds still left, no good, it bounces off, he gets it back! and again, falling down, he throws it back up, but it is too strong, and that’s it. 64-65. I am in shock.

It’s over. Duke is beaten. We are undefeated, no more. 10-1.

Post-game thoughts: You know . . watching the tape again . . I don’t get the sense anymore that we played an overwhelmingly bad game and didn’t care. That’s not true. Yes, we did not look like the Duke that we’d come to know – the beauty of the spread offense, the speed of the transition game, the rotation after rotation of sharpshooter coming in for sharpshooter. None of that really showed tonight, and that’s a credit to Pitt and their brawn. Even in the first half when we were clearly bothering them, we also let them bother us and not slam the door on them when we could have. I saw the lack of a killer instinct in the Davidson game . . and I saw it again here tonight. Up by 16 . . we let them come back to 12 just before the half . . and then the rebounding differential (39 to 53!) and the fouls really started to hurt us. Yes, we have Henderson and Singler – but they also have some playmakers in Fields and Young – and when it becomes about trading baskets, the FT misses catches up to you (54% - terrible) – and when the clock starts running down, every shot, and every point, becomes magnified. We definitely lacked some poise and smarts down the stretch . . but we also made some spectacular plays. It hurts the most, when it’s lost like this – by 1 point. But we will bounce back. We have the best 2, 3, and 4 in the country. We just need our 1 and 5 to step it up, big time. Paulus?? What happened to you tonight? And Lance? Please get well soon!

Which brings me to my main point. Sometimes, it takes a loss like this to finally admit to ourselves what we’d refused to admit: Kyle Singler is not a 5.

"I was on [Blair] all night," Singler said after the loss. "It was my responsibility. My fault.”

Oh, Kyle. It is not your fault. No one will come out and say it, but Kyle Singler did not sign up to play the 5 for Duke. We need him to, but that does not mean we should. Alas, we have no choice. And no, Gerald Henderson is not a forward. He, too, is effectively playing out of position, often taking the role of the 4, because of his athleticism. But neither are. I understand they are NBA-caliber players. But against good rebounding teams – this is what can happen. Zoubek, McClure, King, and Thomas, our other choices for the 4 and 5, played a total of 6, 8, 11, and 15 minutes each, respectively. Singler played 38. Yes, that is the combined total minutes of all our other 4 forwards and centers. Super. And unless we can figure this out, and find help for him, fast – no lineup magic, no, not even Nolan with Paulus – will solve this issue. This loss wasn’t a mistake. It wasn’t a giveaway. It was a legit breakdown in the face of a stifling, defensive rebounding team. Simply put, we met another club who’s as serious about defense as we are – and we couldn’t rise above it.

Oh, and I’m still trying to figure out how in the world Paulus managed to time-travel back to his mid-Jan breakdown last year, when he had more turnovers than assists and points combined. He again found his evil doppelganger tonight, handing out a grand total of 1 assist and hitting one basket while losing the ball 5x and getting 3 fouls. Oh, while the other PG went off for 21 points, 4 assists, and 2 steals. Grand, ain’t it? And if I hear the word “rebound” one more time, I’m going to smash something.

But I want to end this on a bright note: how much do I love Singler, Henderson, and Nelson? That trio is going to carry us far. In the last dying seconds, when it became 1 on 1 isolation plays, they gave us everything we could’ve asked for. Toughness. Heart. And they never backed down, not even when they were giving up 45 lbs, or nursing 4 fouls. Singler stepping up in front of a charging Fields to take that charge in OT was as big a play as Nelson, blazing his way to the goal, no holds barred, or Henderson, exploiting every weakness and mismatch against Pitt for his jumpers. I wouldn’t trade places with anyone else in the country right now. We can still go far; we just can’t let another team dictate what we do. Never again. You think John Thompson III is sleeping easy these days? You think Roy Williams is happy with his team’s latest effort against Nicholls State? You think John Calipari, Tom Izzo, and even Ben Howland, all FF coaches, don’t worry about their teams, don’t tinker here and there, and still see holes that they’ll need to patch up, somehow, some way or other? We can still win this war. We just need to earn our battle strips first.

Duke vs Albany – Game Blog

2007-12-17T23:38:00.000-06:00

Let's get ready to RUMMMMMMMBBBBBBLEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Exams are finally OVER!!!! Duke greets Albany after 9 days of no action, and Nelson gets things started right away with a 3. Paulus hits one, watching it sail straight through the net, no iron - then Singler! That's the way to do it! Duke is SHARP!!!!! Ohhhhh, Albany travels. Upp! Carry. Ball STOLEN by Greg!!!! Who looks over his shoulder and sees so much wide open space behind him that he easily lays it up, blowing smoke off his trigger fingers. Second team is in - with Nelson staying on, Nolan, Scheyer, McClure!!, and King effectively playing the "5". No problemo! Nelson gets a 4 point play! Lovely to see them let us shoot a wide-open three, then put a body on us after the shot goes to get us a FT attempt. And Nelson knocks that one down like a pro. They get a nice 3 from the top of the key. Then Nolan comes down, trades a few passes with Nelson, gets the ball back, and rockets off the earth for a nice-looking 3, nodding back at them, saying "you wanna trade three's? We can do this all day." King with a steal!! Then got a little too excited bullying into the lane and got called for an offensive foul.

Boy, look at that pressure - look at that!! It does look like 5 on 7, huh? (hilarious Albany Times-Union article saying how the Albany coach made his team practice 5 vs 7 defenders to get a feel for the signature Duke pressure tonight) Unfortunately, Nolan gets called for the foul right at what would've been a 10 second call, and Coach K motions for him to calm down, settle down. On the next trip up-court, he looks to penetrate - circling the field, running by a screen - and then there he goes, dribbling, spinning, shedding his defender and stepping over him as he falls down only to meet another one flying at him, and neatly, so cool as a cucumber, dishes off to a waiting King who just leaps up for that jam. What a beautiful play! 23-9! 11:36 - isn't this way more fun than finals? If Pitt fans wanna come on our boards and post all hosts of scary stuff like "be very aware of Blair" - can they watch this game right here? Thanks. Beats me wasting my time typing a response back. A picture is worth 1,000 words, you know!

Hey, Albany is tightening up its defense. Z can't get anything going, so he's replaced by King. We run some plays but can't get any open looks, forcing Henderson to sort of toss one up over his shoulder, then the next time, Singler tries a low post move but partially has it blocked! On the other end, Ambrose dexterously tosses two in, and suddenly they've got momentum. Paulus says "enough with this!" and smoothly pulls out a three from his arsenal, knowing exactly what his club needs to grab the horn back. After the shot, they show a camera that stays on him - and it's amazing, no emotion whatsoever, he knows it's going in, and then instead of jubilation, he makes the "calm down" sign to his team, as if sternly reminding them "hey, no worries, I've got your back. I have experience from last year in scenarios such as this. I can shoot 52% from three!" 28-15, 7:35 left.

There goes KING!!!! For three!!!! A scramble for the rebound, guys falling to the floor, the ball bounces out like a jack rabbit, and Nolan grabs it - back to Duke! To Henderson, then to King - who wastes no time in launching that 3-ball to the hoop. In the space of about 6 seconds, we've turned around an opponent's possession into a 3 pointer! And you gotta love King - he was just standing there, silently willing Henderson to notice him - and the adrenaline off that loose ball was still so high that nobody could do anything but watch his shot rocket towards the goal. Hey, did anybody measure that thing? It was probably going 100mph! 34-15? 6 of 10 from beyond the arc? That's like 90% from two-land!!!

SCHEYER!!!!! Oh, Scheyer!!!! What a move! Nolan gives him a happy hug - what fearless determination! And one! We have our small lineup in there (King and McClure being the 4 and 5), Nolan tries to penetrate, and is met promptly by 2 Great Danes (so much fun to type that!). Scheyer runs out of his corner and says here, gimme that, and he heads into the lane, showing a nifty spin move that is quickly starting to be a trademark of just about every slasher into the paint (first patented by Singler? Illinois game?), sheds his defender right on cue, meets 2 other Albanyians in the lane, goes up zig-zaggedly, gets fouled, and tosses the ball up anyway, his eyes the whole time following through with his shot and his effort. It's IN!!!! And the plus-one instantly snuggles into his Midas hand to turn into a gold coin, as good as given, for the 3 point play. Very nice to offset the "his feet wasn't set" remark the announcers gave him earlier for his 1st shot attempt of the game. Everywhere you go, you see articles and discussions about Scheyer coming off the bench rather than starting, what a change that's been, from when he started all his games last year - but what I want to talk about is his new mentality to get into the lane. Granted, he's still working that out, but it's definitely an improvement over last year. Did you know DeMarcus Nelson was also the 3rd leading rebounder in his California HS days? No wonder he has such a nose for the ball! And I think he's teaching Scheyer a thing or two about how to find it! Boy, am I going to miss him when he's gone next year. 4:55.

WOW!!! Awesome, awesome play! A Great Dane loses the ball en route to the lane, handling the globe like he's wearing oven mitts, and quick as lightening, McClure has picked it off. To the fastbreak! He hits a streaking Scheyer ahead of him, who converges to the goal but sees a body flying at him, doesn't quite care to get body-slammed, and instinctively hands it off behind the back to a Dukie right there - Nolan! - who gladly goes up for the stuff. Scheyer looks back to see that everything is alright, and blinks nary an eye, like "heh, I do that stuff for breakfast." "He's in the Christmas spirit of giving!" the announcers applaud. Cute.

Hmm . . Z still looks the same, unfortunately. Picked up his 2nd foul before McClure blocked the shot he was supposed to, and goes to the bench in exchange for Singler. OH! McClure with the steal! Followed by Nelson! With a 3 despite a defender right in his face. Are we putting on a 3-pointer shooting clinic today? Followed by Singler with a defender right in his face, but he rises so high it doesn't matter, and of course I am softly calling out "No!" but no sooner does that leave my lips, the ball is already sailing in, smooth as anything, and now I will simply stop saying no to his three's. It's always like this - his first 2 are like warm-ups where he gets a feel for where the basket is, and then his 3rd and 4th are always good. I believe 7 Blue Devils have already demonstrated to us their love for the 3, including Paulus, King, Nelson, Henderson, Nolan, Scheyer, and now Singler. I think I just about named the entire roster. God DAMN!!!!!

Oh, and another STEAL to punctuate our dominance right before the half! Don't you forget it! The replay shows Nelson picking off that pass right on cue, streaking off immediately to the other end - and the guy he stole it from just kind of jogs up, already knowing that he is beat, not even trying to get back. Meanwhile - remember the last play when Scheyer dished to Nolan right behind him because there was about 3 Blue Devils right behind him, and only 1 defender in sight? Yeah. It's that kind of game. I love the hustle!

OH, NOLAN with the BLOCK!!!! Owww!! Scheyer is so amazed he bear-hugs the freshman right on the spot! And Nolan just kind of snarls - like, dude, get that weak-**** stuff outta my gym! And Paulus, running end to end in the last 6.3 seconds to try a tough layup against 3 defenders, but misses, in a great heady move that will come in handy someday.

Boy, they are talking up that Pittsburgh game to death, aren't they? Wonder what the big deal is? 57-31 halftime, as we attempt to dust off these feisty, ruthless, deceptively sized Great Danes.

Oh HOOO!!!!!! Gerald Henderson for the alley-oop!!! Do we know how to open the second half or what?? Their defenders just stood there flat-footed! In shock! Then - Nelson with the block? Amazing! And - a quick feed up to McClure, who can't quite corral it, loses it to an Albany kid, the ball careens loose - and right into the hands of a streaking Singler, who scoops it up with delight and lays it up strong for the deuce. What a sequence! If that's not the quickest way to put up 4 points, I don't know what is.

I love how Singler is basically using this game to work out every kind of offensive game he's got. He first started off with a couple three's, sending in a miss before hitting one late in the first half. He's also shown some low-post moves, catching the ball and turning to shoot, as well as mid-range jumpers, including one off a rebound, one a pull-up J on the wing, then finally hitting one from about 15 feet. He hasn't had a dunk yet. Can we try one of those next? As Paulus efficiently swishes another dead-aim 3. He cannot miss tonight!

Three after three! Looking to practice against a 2-3 zone that might break out any minute, huh guys? Awesome!! 14 of 20 at one point. Singler breaks away from the lane after another Taylor King dead-eye to say "why did I even bother tangling into the paint?" King hitting his free throws - nice. Because Nelson is not (7 of 13 for the night?).

Z is back for more, and is steadily looking better and better. I do love how simply having a taller guy on your side is an advantage (yes, I know - duh). Scheyer guns into the lane, finds to his disbelief that he's drawn 3 sharks to himself, and thankfully dishes off to Z, who comes charging into the lane to his comrade's rescue, raising his arm like a high flag to signal "land ho!" Scheyer gets the assist, and Z gets a basket and a foul! Next trip, he gets the pass, dribbles with his back into the paint, then switches to his right and up for the goal. Nice! Oh, Z with a clean block! Aww, c'mon! A foul?? On the replay - what, he maybe tapped the guy's arm coming down from that block? It was clean as a whistle! "Some big guys just look like they are committing a foul. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's because they are slower than the other guy, but they just look guilty whether they've committed the foul or not." Thanks, Len Elmore. So you're telling me this whole referee business is basically a sham? That it's not really about the truth, but the fuzzy perception of the truth? And that we have one guy who supposedly always looks guilty, while the other team across town has someone who always looks righteous (Hansborough)? Ugh. What a world.

We've hit the CENTURY MARK!!!! 100! On a Nelson free throw, natch.

Nice! Z showing his stuff! Paulus delivers the ball right to his doorstep, and he gives back a nice assist for Greg as he goes up to bank that one home. Next? Henderson tries to drive, faces 3 guys collapsing on him and gets his shot blocked, falls to the floor . . but Z is there to gather that into a putback! Nice! Next? Ooooh, a pileup for a loose ball . . McClure gets his hands on the rebound, 2 Great Danes jump him and Henderson comes in to help, and they have to tap their shirts to get them off the football scrimmage. Troy is curled up at the bottom, refusing to let up and give that ball back to Albany - hey, I had it first!

What a gritty effort and team play! Taylor has the ball, tosses it to McClure to hold it for a sec while he runs to his favorite spot along the 3-point line, gets it back and instantly fires one up - airball? But Scheyer on the opposite side is alert enough to tap it out long, where Jordan Davidson hustles to grab it for the offensive rebound. Then the bullet pass - to KING! For the running layup! Was that a backdoor cut?? Wow! It's 104-68, but there is no stallball in sight . . are we getting ready for some big dogs at the Garden in 3 days?? The Iron City Panthers? Yes, we are!!!

You know, watching them play - and the commentators, too, remarking that there is no let-up from this team, despite being up 40 - I'm thinking, why would you let up? Unless you're dead tired or something? I mean, this is a special, special team. Sure, you're used to it - but I'm not. I'm not used to winning my whole entire life. And when you find a team that does - when you can recognize the talent and the effort and the coaching that goes into that winning formula - it's like a little fairy dust being sprinkled and shared amongst you as all 5 hit the floor, as you square down to prepare for your opponent. There is that special twinkle in the air - that Duke magic. The gym is rocking . . the fans are chanting . . and there is simply, nothing else like it in the entire world. Why would you not play for every single minute of it? Cherish it? I know Nelson does. And as the cameramen finally realize what a non-contest this is, they start showing the camaraderie along the sidelines: Nelson coming off to a nice hand, hugs from Paulus and King. Scheyer sitting down after some heady moves, and playfully catching banter with Singler. Zoubek getting a nice congratulatory thump to the chest after he grabs a rebound and converts it into a put-back and a foul. Coach K, looking, for once, like he has no words to say to the officials - nice job, fellas! - as he looks on with comfort and pride from the bench. Take a snapshot, and send it to the Kodak guys. This was definitely a frame-worthy game.

Post-Game Quote from Brian Zoubek:
"Just once you throw yourself into the game - I might've been worried about points, I might've been worried about something in the first half - but once you just completely forget about that and not worry about it, things will just come to you and the game will come to you. That's what happened in the second half. I had a couple of bad plays in the first half, struggled a little bit and got out of my game. I was able to get back into the flow in the second half. I made a couple of plays and they led to more plays and points. I just can't worry about my performance in the first half because once the first half is over you just have to start over."

Dang - that's right. As I was watching ESPN SportsCenter, they were showing the presser with the new Michigan football coach, who was saying he doesn't watch a lot of cartoons, but he did watch the Lion King, where one scene had the monkey crack the lion over the head with his pogo-stick? I remember the scene. But I don't remember what was said along with it, the words that I, as a kid, forgot. They were:

lion: "Ow! Why did you do that for?" And the monkey responds, "It doesn't matter. It's in the past now."

Well . . how ‘bout that? Isn't that what Coach K always preaches - Next Play? Forget the mistake you just made - forget the turnover - forget the foul. Go on to your next play, because you have a chance to right the ship if you just concentrate and play with confidence and forget about what just happened 2 seconds ago. Often on Zoubek you'll see him grumbling a little bit to himself as he jogs back after another turnover, or an attempted block turned into a foul call. Just because the guy is 7'1", does not mean he has the ego and the aggressiveness to go with it. I'm glad that he showed the textbook definition of Next Play tonight. Way to go, Brian - we'll definitely need that against Pitt on Thursday!

Duke vs Michigan – Game Blog

2007-12-08T21:48:00.000-06:00

Coming from the Illinois - Arizona endgame - where they are tied with mere seconds left - for once, I have to psyche myself up a little bit for Duke, and so the first couple of minutes are somewhat of a letdown. Turnover, after failed put-back, after turnover. Did anyone else notice, in the jump ball circle, two yellow shirts surrounding Kyle, one on each side, as if they've been told by their coach to never let him out of their sight, like bodyguards? Then, just a tick before the whistle, Kyle scoots in front of them both, and when the ball comes his way, he easily snatches it up, even though he's surrounded - giving Duke first possession. Very nice. Both teams are perhaps a little too anxious in the first couple minutes - it's ok, guys, just play. King comes in off the bench, and immediately contributes. Gets a nice put-back - then the three's start raining in! You wanna shoot three's? We'll shoot three's! Kyle tries one. Almost. Paulus pulls up 3 feet behind the 3 point line, a la King style, and easily fires one up - it's good! Then King, not to be outdone, pulls up on the left wing and shoots his now-familiar, quick-fire release with those long arms as if saluting the goal - it's good!!! King has 5!

McClure is in! Fantastic to see Coach K trusting King enough to leave him in the game and replace Kyle at the 4, where he puts up those long arms a la Singler style to go up 10 feet high - and the Michigan kid immediately loses heart and tosses the ball away. Wow, Henderson with a nice move!!! Zips right through the defense, doesn't think twice, goes up strong with that high knee pivot and just banks that one home! Oh wait - that was Nolan???? Damn! Double wow for you, then! Rivaling Henderson with that deuce! And here's Scheyer with a great 18 footer. Lovely to see him adding those to his repertoire, since he's definitely shooting less three's this season. The announcers are saying this game is this sloppy (combined 8 for 32 so far = 25%) b/c both teams haven't played for 5 days+. Practices are nice and all, but you need to get "game-sharp". Um, if Duke looks like this after 6 days off, what will they look like against Albany, with 8 days off? Or Cornell, with 17 days off?

Singler and Nelson are back - and Singler promptly rips down a fierce rebound. On the other end, he backs into the post, twists and puts up a strong ball off the glass, it bounces out, and he's right there, fighting to get his ball back and going up again, this time from the left side, staying with it this time to make sure it goes in. Then, next trip down, he gets the ball on the left wing, and he gets that look in his eye, that says "look out! I mean business!" - clears himself a path along the baseline, and scoops that ball in! A whistle! Oh no - offensive foul? Wha - ? I didn't see no offensive foul! Oh. Okay, yeah, its there on the replay. Hey guys, can you scoot over, and not crowd him when he shoots, so that I can see what the hell happened, and not be blocked by a thicket of yellow shirts? Thanks. Yeah, they flopped. That's 2 on Kyle. 10:30. Boy, he's collecting those fouls alarmingly fast, isn't he? Poor guy . . say hello to the bench for me.

Yes!!! "Gerald Henderson strikes for the first time!!" Finally, a shot goes down! I was actually really hoping Paulus would take it all the way to the wire, but then he turns around 180 degrees and throws a scary pass to someone on the FT line? This is a fast break, not a free for all! So Henderson just rises up on the 3 point arc like a coiled spring and says to hell with all this sloppiness. They show a box - Michigan so far is shooting 1 for 10 on two's and 2 for 8 on three's. Surprising - b/c they've actually gotten lots of good looks, but they're just not going down. And please don't show the box on Duke - it ain't much better. Thomas with a borderline two all the way out by the 3 point arc? What are we doing, LT?? That brought back shades of Josh last year, just amusedly taking a three cause he didn't feel like venturing inside to the post. Can we not put these Wolvies away? They're not being coached by Tommy Amaker this year, or anything like that. On the other end - Paulus drawing an offensive charge! Great piece of defending - I almost had a start when I realized we had a 6'1" PG all alone against the driving 6'5" Manny - but he stepped up just in time. Incidentally - is it just me, or is Michigan pushing the pace faster and finishing better than us? Our three's have been ok - but our two's have been somewhat iffy.

GREAT execution! I love our in-bounds plays! Paulus is doing the in-bounds, his teammates are running around, and he just sends the ball straight to the only guy not running around, Scheyer, who's in his magical spot on the 3 point arc and sends it straight up. Money! You know, with Scheyer's three's, I just have so much more confidence than King's - maybe cause I watched him a lot from last year. Loved to see him put in that dagger in about 3 seconds flat.

Interesting lineup we have on the floor - TWO point guards (Paulus and Nolan) with Nolan taking the 2 spot, Scheyer, Nelson, and King at the 5? Interesting! Paulus is really enjoying this luxury, aren't you, Greg? Keeping an eye on his charge on the perimeter, but also sneaking a glance back towards Nolan, who's giving his guard all kinds of trouble on the ball - what a team! But will we lack defensively when they try to hack into the paint? Let's see, here they come . . great rotation . . great footwork . . and then King stoutly holds his ground while Nelson comes in for the double team, effortlessly stripping the Michigan kid into completely losing the ball and handing it over, to which Nelson says "thank you!" Scoops it up. Sprinting 90mph down to the other side, where he pulls it up and sends it to Scheyer on the right. NICE!!!!!!!!!! Smith is ALL ALONE in the paint! Are they confused about defensive positions or what? He just turns around, yelling to Scheyer "look what I found!" And then Schey boy just whips the pass right to him and he lobs it in against the glass - textbook! Ah, if LT or Z could have more of those moments - but here, Nolan turns being small into an advantage! 25-14. "And Duke has awakened!!!" How many pieces can we put together on the floor? How many??? You wanna run? We'll run! We'll put in our Thoroughbreds against you! Look out, Michigan!

OOHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Is this Nolan's breakout game? Is it??? All season long people have raved about Singler, more recently people have praised King to the sky - and now, now, we have Nolan breaking out BIG against Michigan! How about his HOPS???????? Nelson is becoming the instigator now - I love that rush of adrenaline when he rips down that rebound and starts taking off to the other end, firing up his engine 90mph and scouting the court with all kinds of senior-laden laser vision. So spine-tangling - I love it!!!!! Then a blur just appears out of nowhere, streaking out from the right wing, blows right by his defender - Nelson sends him the sniper bullet - and he just takes that ball and becomes one with it, rising as it rises and slamming it into the net just as it wants to slam! NOLAN SMITH, ladies and gentlemen!! OHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The announcers cry. Finally, some pretty action! Finally, some beauty! And there's nothing more beautiful - pardon my prejudice, Taylor - than a fast ball taken hard right to the basket. And that meteoric rise - that fast - I've only seen from Gerald Henderson so far this year. And here is Nolan, arguing for that patent! Rust? What rust? I'm just getting started! I'm a firecracker off the bench!!!

"Michigan needs a bucket." Yeah? I would say so too. Cause suddenly, it's like they're playing a whole new ballclub - suddenly, the Duke signature pressure that I'd seen and loved in games past is on all cylinders. They try a layup by the basket, can't get it to fall, gets the ball back, tries again 2 feet away, and still can't get it to fall. It's like we've magnetized the ball towards Duke or something! Ha ha! Nah . . we're just pretty good. Another rebound ripped down, another long pass - to King, all the way out there by himself! And he just squares up and fires - you don't even need to try to get out there to defend him. A trey! Oh, no, a deuce - he had his feet on the three point line. The Duke bench is outscoring the entire Michigan squad by itself - 20 to 14!

Oh, Nolan! He can't miss! A long, gorgeous-looking three - and the lead is 32-14! The fans go nuts!! Michigan needs a timeout! The pandemonium is so great that I can't wipe this huge, silly grin off my face - we're too good! We're on fire! It should be criminally barred or something! How about that? Paulus is so happy for his freshman understudy that he jumps on him and swings his arm around his neck, ribbing in that insane cheer for him. Nolan - welcome to the club! Do you hear that noise? Do you hear those fans cheering and yelling? That's for you. That's all for you. For once, it's not for the tall, smooth-shooting, walking-on-air kid from Oregon. For once, it's not for the linebacker-built, quick-release, lefty sharpshooter from California. This time, it's for the quick, lean gunner from Maryland; it's for the kid with the tattoos and the sometimes deer-in-the-headlights look against Marquette, the kid who a few games back had more turnovers than assists, the kid who everybody said would usurp Paulus's minutes and replace him outright but hasn't since shown that explosiveness and that killer instinct yet. Well, he's got it now. He was just waiting for that prime moment when nobody wanted to step up, when nobody wanted to break out against a very mediocre Michigan club - naw, he wasn't waiting. He had it all along. A "catalyst", they're calling him tonight. A "thief". A playmaker - a game-changer - a firecracker. How many of those do we have stashed on the bench??? Can our bench be a top 25 team all by itself? Early in the season I didn't think so. Now, maybe I do. Maybe - maybe, we really are that good, that deep. Boy - "deep" is word we haven't heard in quite a while, huh? I think maybe that's the sexiest word I've heard all day!

Holy cow - my head's spinning from that sequence of events. Is the Michigan team as bewildered as I am? How unselfish, how crisp the ball movement, everybody knows where everybody is, and they just seem to be playing the game out on the blacktop by themselves, with no yellow shirts in the way, no one cheering them on - just boom, boom, boom! What great teamwork. Just . . wow. We didn't get a shot in - but that's almost beyond the point. Crisp passes in and out, Nolan misses a 3, King rises up high to grab that rebound, sends it out immediately to Nelson, who fires up a 3 - no good - another rebound being ripped down - then the passes go in and out - boom, boom - and Scheyer blazes into the lane, only to kick out to a wide open King, who fires - no good - the rebound comes off the weak side, and Scheyer is magically there! The ball is wrenched away by a Michigan kid - oh, whistle! Over the BACK! Scheyer just walks away with that cool look - like "heh, I told you so" - don't mess with me on those rebounds, man! Chest-bumps Nolan. Cause, if you send him to the FT line, you know he's money, right? Awesome. 3 attempts at 3's, and we get a foul and an automatic two on FT. This is too much fun! 2:18.

King leaves, McClure comes in - and immediately we look for him. He breaks off a screen right into the center, gathers the ball, and acrobatically goes up to the goal - it's in! 2 points for Troy! Is that his first two for the season? Boy, have I missed McClure - his body movement as he goes up for the ball is just incomparable to anyone else - it's so signature, so unique, so spry! They show a box for the freshmen scorers on both sides so far - King and Smith combining for 18 while Michigan's combine for 4. And Kyle Singler is still sitting on the bench! I'd almost forgotten about him! What a club! Can we unleash all 3 freshmen at the same time next half? See how much wreckage they can do?

Oh, CLASSIC! That's about the most beautiful endgame for the first half as I've ever seen all season. 16 seconds left. Paulus with the ball. Dribble, dribble, takin' it easy. We space out the court. Michigan's ready to defend. Then Paulus takes a nice detour en route to the paint, circling in, gaining speed and rising up on that knee to shoot - and they're ready to block it, they've converging in, flying towards him. Then - then he scoops the ball cross-country to Nelson on the wing! McClure is there with a solid immovable screen! And there, with 2 seconds left, Nelson calmly takes that ball and rises up to his full height, unleashing that puppy and watching it sail in, smooth as butter. KA-CHING! A three-ball to end the half and a perfect last 10 minutes. Is it a coincidence that our firepower came on full-bore when we went to a smaller lineup? With 2 veterans (Nelson and Paulus), a dead-eye and key rebounder (Scheyer), an athletic riser (Hendo), and a fast, quick, but much more in control combo guard (Nolan)? Remember his fast, 3 fouls in succession fiasco in the Wisconsin game? I think he's learned, Coach! He's learning, just like King! At this rate, if we can get LT and Z up to speed - it's gonna be look out, world! Our freshmen are kicking that learning curve right to the curb. 41-23 halftime.

Second half: Kyle's back. And there it is again - time and time - he's missed his first 2 three-pointers, but he stays with it, he knows he can knock them down, and that crisp ball movement is courtesy of Paulus, who just knows where he is and touch-passes it right to him, who fires away - and its good! Then another one from Hendo! And the teamwork there is so unselfish: Kyle gets the ball on the arc - will he shoot it? No - he passes it right off to Paulus - also on the arc. Will he shoot it? No - just as I was waiting for that three to launch, he passes it straight to a waiting Hendo, all alone along baseline - and BAM - he goes up for the jam! Nicely done! Oh, PAULUS! To Nelson for the THREE! How great was that transaction? He just circles so fearlessly into the paint, gets 2 guys to jump up to meet him, then whip-lashes the ball out to Nelson over his shoulder, who, again, calmly steps up and fires away. Beautiful stroke, Nelson! I am loving Paulus more and more in this game. Hey Greg - sorry about what I said earlier in the Davidson game when I was dissing you for Richards. Heehee - didn't mean that. We don't need you to hand out 10 assists per game, necessarily - you contribute far more than that. But those assists you're racking up today! For three-point shots! So lovely to see!

Oh, no. No, no, no. Kyle is on the floor after the whistle, putting his hands up to cover his face, and I know what the call was. Blocking foul. On Singler. 16:05, he picks up his 3rd. Poor kid just wants to play, ref! Let him play! Thank you, Coach K - no substitutions. Then he goes to the other end and immediately goes to work - life's too short to take a breather! And what a beautiful play! Hey, can we run more of these? King on the perimeter with the ball, just kind of holding it - and I'm thinking, what are you planning to do? But ah, but he has a plan - and as soon as Kyle shakes off his defender and glides into the paint, free as a bird - the ball slips out to him, and in one smooth motion, he takes it and lays it up strongly into the goal. Score! You've forgotten about me? You've built your entire gameplan around me! Well, here I am! I can play the 5. I can play the 4. I can play the high pick and roll that so enamored some of us in the Davidson game. Anything - just don't make me sit. Pretty please, with a cherry on top?

I can't stop smiling - this is too much fun! Nolan comes in - there it is, 3 freshmen on the floor - and he gets the ball out on the perimeter. After having seen Michigan go again and again into the paint, I'm begging him - don't take another 3 - take it right to them - and he agrees. He does a little hesitation dribble, daring his challengers to bite - then neatly splits his double team right down the middle, roars into the lane, seizess that ball, and goes up STRONG!! That's the way to do it, #2! Then Hendo with a turnaround jumper - "tough shot!" the announcers chide - but it's nothin' but net! Oh! What a big time gamer! He's running the fast break, sees King ahead of the pack and sends it straight to him, for the easy deuce! You gotta dunk that, Taylor! The bench is just on fire. What's that, 31 for the bench?

Hendo gets blocked, again? He can't believe it. Nobody blocks me! I block you! So the next trip down, he gets a little overly aggressive and hears that whistle blow - offensive foul. Aww. Hey, can you believe it? This is our 1st turnover since the 10:30 mark of the first half! Only 5 turnovers so far! Way to go, Duke! Yeah, cause the 20 turnovers against Davidson wasn't gonna cut it today, not with 6 days to chew it over. And a LOB to Lance Thomas! Aww, except he pulls it down and then goes back up for the layup. Still, very nice to see him on the boards. I think everyone's had a bucket, except for Z so far?

WOW!! NOLAN SMITH! How dexterous, how versatile, how quick is he??? Has he missed a shot today? He goes right into the lane, doesn't care a hoot about the ring of defenders collapsing on him, shows a beautiful little spin move to get rid of his defender, and goes right up to the goal for the basket. "He's showing us everything today!" The announcers crow. But he wasn't on the scouting report, coach! He sure as hell wasn't - I looked during halftime!

So here is Z coming in for his chance to put some points on the board. Hey, it's not a party without Z, right? And boy, is he determined to contribute. His first trip down, he grabs a pass, turns, sees with surprise that his defender has flopped shamelessly to the ground - and hesitates for just a second, as if to say "what? I barely moved!" - then continues with his original purpose and just lays that puppy into the basket. Second trip down, he again takes a nice pass, looks a bit swarmed and overwhelmed for a moment, dribbles it out, goes up, loses it, then goes after it, determined, refusing to let up, chasing that ball and battling for it all the way to the floor, falling right on top of the Michigan player, digging it up, miraculously getting it into the hands of Scheyer, who takes no hesitation and goes up right to the wire, only to be mauled for the foul! What a heart in your throat sequence of events there! Coach K calls Z over for some pointers, as Scheyer all but breaks out into a dance on the FT line - I mean, professionally sinks 1 of 2 freebies.

How about Paulus! Calling out his own number and going up confidently for that three. It's almost like a merry-go-round with this team - you've got 2? Ok. You've got 2? Ok. It's mine turn now. I know I can sink this. And the ball shoots like an arrow to the target - nothing but net. Then, on the defensive end - Paulus harasses his player so much that the ball is fumbled loose, and Nelson, as sharp as a hawk, just scoops that ball up and takes off to the other end, slamming that sucker into the net for an emphatic two. Oh ho, NELSON!!!!!!!!!!!!! How good did that feel? No one got back! No one even tried running with him because it would've been such a lost cause. It's so deliriously loud in the arena that the announcers can't even get a word out! Oh, someone needs a timeout! Someone can't take any more of this Duke domination without a drink! As I pop another cold one to celebrate. 72-45. 8:38 to play.

And now its Nelson's turn again. He dribbles, dribbles, watching what's going on in front of him with such delicious coolness - then starts his attack, dribbling out around his defender, around another defender, hey you can take me out 25 feet and I won't care - I will just circle in right here, go all the way around the right side, come up here, and bang! Pop one in. Great poise, great confidence, and the authoritative bucket. He is starting to dish them out, too - as he sends one to Kyle Singler from the high post, and all Kyle has to do is lay it up - it's that simple! Oh, but a foul! The ball rolls around the outer rim before popping back out - to the consternation of DeMarcus, who lost that assist, and Kyle, who could care less about the foul, and more about the shot not going in from about 1 foot away.

"3E. Unflappable. Power-Aid." What the hell is power-aid? As the announcers try for some acute observations as he shoots his FTs. You mean like Cool-Aid, except tastes better, and with an extra oomph to pack you up 10 lbs? I don't necessarily want Kyle to pack on more pounds - though I understand he'll need it for the NBA. Ugh . . let's not utter that word right now, k? And what does 3E stand for? "Everything, is Effective and Efficient." Oh, nice one there, partner. Except can you not spell it out like an airplane seat number? Some of us have taken enough travel for work, thanks. How about E powered to the 3? Or, Triple E? Yeah, not much of a nickname potential there.

WHAT????? Taylor!!!! You're 3 feet away from the basket, and you kick it out to Scheyer on the wing? It'll be good if he can make the three . . no - but KING!!! With the put-back! WOW! Some kind of confidence, huh? Oh, what a beautiful play. 80-50. He blazes out to a fast break, grabs a streaking ball thrown out in front of him, but looses the handle to his Michigan defender who steals it away. My bad, my bad, he says. Then on D he stays right with his man, rising up as he rises up to shoot, partially deflects that ball so it becomes an airball easily collectible by Nolan, and he's already running off to the other end, finding his sweet spot and firing up with no one in sight, and its goooooooood!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Taylor King for three! Oh, but he's not done! After Michigan answers with a three of its own, King gets that competitive look in his eye, comes up on the set defense and takes one look at the goal, then - almost turns sideways, and just pops it up - done! "EFFORTLESS!" The announcers proceed to pick their jaws up from the floor. There's another E! E for Effortless! 89-59.

Z is looking spry! The last few minutes, he really shows them what a 7 footer can do. And then it's final. 95-67. And that's how the game is played.

Post-game thoughts: I love how we never went to stallball late in the second half, even when we had a comfortable 30 point lead. Instead, we cleared our bench, and let everyone work on their shots. That's the advantage of these games - work and execute well in the first half, so you can take somewhat of a breather in the second half, but still not let up, and concentrate more on spreading the ball around and getting everyone involved. There were definitely some trips down at the end when we wanted to get the ball in to Zoubek, so he can leave us with that lasting image of him picking up the pass on the interior and going confidently into his shot. Boy, Scheyer is a workhorse, isn't he? Outlasted everyone today with 29 minutes coming off the bench. And he never let up either, taking a great runner into the lane in the last minute or so. Paulus with 6 assists! And no turnovers! Today was definitely the day that our two point/combo guards showed everyone that the Duke PG spot is no longer vulnerable. Look out, Maynor - what you did to us last March, with a tired Paulus being hounded all 40 minutes of the game - will never happen to us again. Not with a healthy Paulus - and never, ever, when Nolan's rollin'!!!!

#8 Texas at #2 UCLA - what an end game!

2007-12-02T23:33:00.000-06:00

It's down to the last 19 seconds. The place is fever pitch. Texas vs UCLA, #8 vs #2, and its only the two of them on the floor, only the two of them can settle this. The score is tied. The clock is ticking. Augustin. Collison. Augustin with the ball, dribbling, dribbling, eyeing the basket but Collison is right there with him, hungry as a wolf, the two of them playing that one-on-one, struttin' schoolyard game down the court - Augustin dribbling forward, bulling his way inch by inch, feet by feet - Collison so reluctantly yielding, stepping backwards, hands out and eyes straight on him, ready for anything. The shot-clock is counting down. 17, 16, 15 . . there's no one else on their teams. They're it. The two star point guards. Desperation rising from both sides. The UCLA students are going wild - jumping, screaming, pleading. Please, Collison - please, whatever you do, whatever you have left, you've got to stop that kid. And Augustin is dribbling, dribbling, his body so low to the ground that he seems intent on burrowing a hole through the floorpane in order to escape this bulldog. But he can't. He dribbles one too many and the ball seems to get away from him. He's falling onto the floor! There's no time left! No one to help him! It's gonna be a turnover! A steal! Then - then! - a shot goes up - a wild hope - and out of nowhere, a blur just SLAMS that ball into the net! Damion JAMES!!! Texas wins!

OHHHHHH!!!!! There's NO TIME LEFT!!!!!! 8 seconds! 7! 6! Collison trots down the lane, but he's hurrying, hurrying, he can't get there fast enough, he tries to bull through but finds an iron wall of orange shirts. He must kick it out. Mbah a Moute, shedding a defender on the arc, puts up a 3 pointer. But it's no good. Even while it's in the air, we all know it's no good. And as the buzzer sounds - the ball careens past the hoop, glazes slightly on the left outer rim, and sails safely away. End game. Texas WON!!!!! IN Pauley Pavilion! My God!!!! 63-61. They've killed off Tennessee, then-#4. Now they've killed off UCLA, #2.

What a shot. What a shot at the end. Augustin hitting the floor, knowing there was no hope in hell for him, just wildly tossing up that ball that might somehow make it to the rim - and then BAM! James comes in and just slams that sucker back where it belongs. To Texas. #1 in the land. Making a case for themselves, loud and clear. What a night. Right in front of Denzel Washington too! Hey Denzel! What drama, huh? Can anything else even come close to the high-stakes that is college hoops? TEX-XAAAAAAAAAS! Can you even imagine what they would be with Durant back?

Duke vs Davidson – Game Blog

2007-12-01T19:10:00.000-06:00

Not sure what's wrong . . Davidson looks like an Energizer bunny, VERY intent on stopping Duke - and Duke is letting them. They're not as aggressive - they look a bit miffed that Davidson is playing them that hard - like, dude, this ain't the Final Four - and 3 turnovers??? Off walks? Then an offensive charge by Nolan? Ugh. Only Nelson's 3 ball is keeping them in the game. Oh good, Scheyer's in. And King comes in with a nice round of applause. Paulus looks beat by Richards? Wow.

We're locked at 10-10, and Singler comes right in and says "no thank you" to that nonsense. Planting himself on the 3 point line, he waits til his defender wanders off, then grabs the ball from Paulus, takes one look at the basket, and makes his dash in, neatly sidestepping 3 defenders who suddenly collapse on him, protecting the ball for 1, 2 steps and then he's up and lays it so softly in the goal, just enough to make sure its going in before backing off and running immediately off on D. What an efficient player. Because, wow, Davidson's got some intense, man-to-man pressure defense - they look like Duke!

Curry picks up his 2nd foul (offensive charge drawn by Paulus) with the score tied 17-17 at 8:39 - and he sits. And almost immediately, the tide turns. I almost forgot how good Duke can be - and suddenly we're up by 10. It's as if the Davidson team completely loses gas - Paulus with a 3, Scheyer with a STEAL and a driving layup! Oh! Davidson timeout! Even Coach K is a little pleasantly surprised - gazing up speechlessly at the cheering Duke fans in the stands, suddenly come alive for their team, and just smiles ever so slightly. Not a bad team, huh, K? Had me worried there for a little while . . its such an early morning game (noon on Sat), that I think Duke at times was surprised and a little bemused at how tough Davidson was playing them, and was even waiting a little til their strength could asset itself. When it didn't . . well, my heart began beating louder and louder, wondering when we'll wake up and take it to them, shred their fearlessness and drive to the hoop. We just needed some buckets to go down - and now, here we come. Here we come!!!

A scramble for the ball - at least 3 Duke players try to grab it, but it bounces off like a scolded dog! Kyle is the last one to try to corral it, can't, and gets up slapping the floor in frustration, shaking his head even going into the timeout. How HIGH does G jump??? WOW! Kyle's out - 6:37. He tried taking a charge, and got called for the block - he has his head down and hands on his hips as he walks to the FT sideline, knowing he's going out. 2 fouls.

DAAAAAAMN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Look at THAT!!! G jumps up like a coiled spring to blast that ball OUTTA THERE! That must've been above the rim! Nice!! Scheyer with a wide open 3! Oh, that's good! Foul the 3 point shooter! Nice job, Scheyer. "What a luxury to have a McDonalds All-American coming off the bench to provide that kind of points, huh?" the announcers re: Scheyer. "Well, they have 8 of them." And I have a question for one of them right now. Taylor????? You're a SHOOTER! What's wrong with your FT??? "It's too close for him - he needs to step back and shoot it from just inside the top of the key," they joke. Yeah right. Both his FT bounce out long - and on the second one he grabs his own rebound and immediately lets fly another 3. Bounces out. C'mon, King. Stop tossing them up unless you mean it! Think about it for a sec!

Curry is amazing. Their guards are on par with Duke's, it seems - I haven't seen Nelson try to drive, or even Henderson beyond a few. Most of our points have come from the 3. But what a difference Curry makes on his team, huh? He sat out with 2 fouls, the team falls apart, and then he comes right back in and rights the ship. You know, I think . . I think . . that Richards is beating Paulus on the PG showdown. Can you believe it? Richards ain't no Gatorade Player of the Year, or two-sport top recruit, or was even on the Duke radar - yet he's dishing it out like a cunning little runner that I'm not seeing from Paulus. 43-32 halftime.

Second half: Oh classic. Paulus immediately gets the ball stolen away from him, leaving Kyle to defend against Curry all by himself in the paint - and a CHARGE! He pumps his fist - yes!!!! That's immediately 3 on Curry! Oh GOD!!!! Curry with a running 3 - just pulls up and shoots it - Singler can't get to him in time, just running 2 steps ahead of him - and it bombs right in. Bang! To hear that roar go up - wild cheers, red shirts everywhere - Davidson is suddenly within 3! And Duke can't get a shot in if it was fed to them. Kyle with a walk? Kyle with a good looking 3 - but it bounces out. Paulus with a wild, unset 3 - airball. C'MON!!!!! What's wrong, Duke? This is the Bobcats arena that's going to be used for the ACC tournament! You can't walk out of here with a tentative game! 43-40. This is exactly what I feared. A cold night from Kyle and Taylor, Nelson is quiet, and suddenly we look toothless.

Kyle goes up for the 3 again - and I'm yelling - No!! NO!!! And smooth as butter, it sails in - what a big bucket! Breaks the game apart again, 49-40. Then he grabs a rebound, runs full steam down court, I thought he'll take it hard all the way - but he dishes off to Paulus for an uncontested 3 - it doesn't go. But the next play, he grabs another rebound and runs down, throwing up a high-arching lob to Nelson along the baseline - who says "fun idea but no thank you", grabs it, comes down to earth, and calmly lays it up off the glass.

HENDERSON!!!! What a block! Jiueeee-jiueeee-jiueeee!! OH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Offensive foul on Curry - his FOURTH!!!! 11:58 to go. It's done. It's over. You charge like that and you can kiss the game goodbye. You can't do that against Duke. Gerald HENDERSON ain't having no cold night! A LOB!!!!! Then a fierce rebound, taking it down all the way, just knifes through the defense and gets in all the way to the goal, laying it up as easy as candy. Davidson needs a timeout. I'm looking at G - and I'm thinking - how can you, Bob McKillop, get a timeout and try to explain what just happened? Or how to counter it? You just can't.

Damn . . watching Curry just pull up and take Kyle off the dribble is stunning. That kid can shoot. There was a time in the first half when he had Kyle right in his face and 2 others, and he shot a 3 like nobody's business. They won't go away, will they? And damn, they're quick. They have a very balanced attack - in and out. Running their pick and roll off Curry is like opening a bank - just watch the money pouring in. C'mon, guys. He's got 4 fouls - attack him!

Kyle is showing his worth. And my god, he's worth gold. He's guarding on the perimeter, sees the ball go inside to Lovedale with a mismatch against Paulus, and runs in to defend and goes up high for the block, and just misses. Then on the other end, he sprints to the loose ball in the corner, beating Thomas who's closer than him in trying to save it, and crashes hard into the bench - but his eye is following only the ball, interested in only seeing if it got to Paulus safely - alas, it didn't. He's got 6 stitches above his eye and 2 on his chin from the Wisconsin game . . wow. And he took that high-arching shot from the 3 point line that gave Duke another boost. He's sooo good with keeping with his shot and keeping faith, even though he's missed his first 3 three-pointers.

Uh oh. 70-61, 3:21 to go, and Duke plays stallball? Oh God. What are we doing playing stallball??? G with a palming violation. Nelson can't hit it. They go twice to Sander cutting from Curry - and boom, they're back in 70-65. C'mon!!!! Show some killer instinct! Earn that #4 power ranking!

WOW!!! JESUS CHRIST! Curry just shoots that 3 like clockwork, it doesn't matter if Kyle is right in his gill, he knows they need a 3 and he just puts it up like it's second nature. Thank god for Paulus's fadeaway jumper - did that remind anyone else of JJ Redick? And it's always a safe bet to put the ball in the hands of Scheyer for the last free throws. 77-73 with 6.5 seconds. 79-73 final. Phewwww. I can finally relax now.

Post-game thoughts: What is it, about Davidson, that can push Carolina and now Duke to such heights??? I thought off the Wisconsin game, we were unbeatable - not only unbeatable, but we'll run opponents off the floor; we'll blow you right out of the gym in the first half. But that's not the case here. They matched us, intensity for intensity, pressure for pressure, three for three - and maybe it's because we didn't match up to them enough. I'm not saying we disrespected them - not at all. They ran their game to a T, while we ran on slightly tired legs - 6 games in 12 days, with only 2 days of practice between the Wisconsin game and this one. It's just that . . we beat them last year by 28, and now this year, with a vastly improved team - we can only beat them by 6? With all the horses, running as hard as they can?

But oh, what a game. At the beginning of the broadcast, they said that Davidson scheduling UNC, Duke, UCLA, and NC State was a "recipe for disaster". Well, I don't think so. I think they're very smart. They've proven that they can run with us - they know they can run with us now - and this is the best way to get to the NCAAs - knowing that you've taken on the best in the land, 2 potential #1 seeds, right? And a #2 seed in Duke? And ACC picked 3rd NC State right there. Bravo. How, exactly, did Western Michigan beat them by 7? Did Davidosn just play their best game against us, and not care a dime against little ole W.Mich? Huh. Quite surprising, no? We needed a double double from Kyle to even get past these kids. And some heroics in the endgame by one Greg Paulus that will be the talk of the town for a while. Thank you, Greg - that completely erases what I'd said about you earlier.

And how many times did we trade three's? Kyle with a high-arching shot off the left wing - everyone celebrates - and then they fire one up as sure as hickory from the same left wing on their side, quieting the jubilation. Then, end game: Paulus, running on the 3 point line to meet the pass, tosses one up as quickly as gunfire - and hits. It's GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH, what a SHOT!!!! That puts the game entirely out of reach for them, right? But NO!!! Curry comes right down the lane in the next 5 seconds and pops one up like nobody's biz - no fear, no thinking whatsoever, just second nature - and dang, an answering 3! It's down to a 4 point differential again. Then - then - a wild scramble, it looked like, on the offensive end for Duke to get a shot off - a pressured Nelson in the 3-second area finds a running Paulus, once again, who is falling out of bounds as he hoists up the shot - and its good! It's GOLDEN!!!! Oh my! What a shot! "Experince wins!" the announcers yell. No - experience does not win. Grit wins. Determination wins. Paulus knew we needed a bucket, and he was gonna ring one in, no matter where he was, no matter who was in his face, no matter if there was only 3 seconds left on the shot-clock in a suddenly intense, mad dash to the finish wire.

So Paulus saves the day. Wow. This entirely makes up for your lack of endgame in the Marquette contest, where you basically threw the ball away and had to have Kyle come all the way out to try to catch it, to the consternation of 3 defenders! Gerald, too, is clutch - how refreshing is it, to have 3 or 4 players on the floor who can hit free throws, and not have to pray for good luck? Great endgame, guys. Let's take a day off, then regroup. Did you like the Bobcats arena? I hope you did, because this is where you'll play the ACC tourney come March.

#2 UCLA vs #3 Gonzaga – Sweet 16 – the epitome of March Madness!

2006-03-24T23:35:00.000-06:00

I couldn’t let it go. The desperate last three minutes of the 3 seed Gonzaga – 2 seed UCLA game, where UCLA hadn’t led for a single minute in the entire game and now, suddenly, they want it, they want it bad and you can see it in their heightened movements, in their leaps and cries and blocks, blazing down the court – stealing, feigning, passing – it is impossible, but he passes the ball to Luc, who flies to the net, one movement, the ball going with him, through him, into the net, and UCLA is ahead, ahead by one, 72-71! All pandemonium breaks loose. The fans are screaming, the announcers shaking to their feet, their voices: “Amazing!” “Impossible!” “Climbed a mountain!” The ball is knocked loose in mid-court and there’s a foul, on Gonzaga! 5 seconds left! UCLA is ahead, by 2! 73-71. Oh my lord . . and then it’s over. An absolute miracle! The desperate last ball by Gonzaga zings past the rim, and the buzzer is drowned out by the roar, the shocked adrenaline of a thousand fans, the UCLA boys, hysterical, and Gonzaga’s best player sprawled out on the floor, crying. The same scene had happened 3 hours earlier between 4 seed LSU and 1 seed Duke, when the National Player of the Year, J.J. Redick, couldn’t do a thing but watch the last game of his college career careen down the drain, losing 54-62, his eyes red with tears, trying to hold it in, desperately denying, holding the awful hurt of losing out of the NCAA. The look of what it’s like to lose in the Sweet 16.

And the astounding, heart-stopping bursts of courage and undeniability that can flood the court like hail when a team wins, when a team comes from such huge deficits that the announcers repeatedly questioned if they were even in the game (“if you can call trailing by 15 ‘being in the game’”). What they were thinking? Where had their defense gone? Last year, when Illinois came back from 15 points down with 4 minutes left - to win, incredibly - over Arizona, 90-89 in OT for the Final Four. This year, when UCLA routes Belmont, when they must struggle and gasp and finally win over Arizona, then seemed to be dazed by Gonzaga for the entire first 37 minutes of the round of 16. Do you really want it?? Do you have it in you to beat them??

It doesn’t matter about your seed, your history, your odds. UCLA found a way to play their best ball at the end, with such a closing kick that completely overwhelmed the Zags, deflated them, shook the ball out of their hands. Adam Morrison, double teamed and stuck in a corner, desperately lobs the ball across the length of the court, only to see it get stolen, passed like lightening downcourt, and slammed into the net within the blink of an eye. Luc Mbah a Moute, coming out of nowhere. Chasing the ball back upcourt, gets loose, somehow a foul is called for UCLA. One more point. How can that be? How can 73-71 define the stellar ball they played for the first 37 minutes?? But it’s the last three that counts. The last three that matters. Three points. Only one winner. Stunned. You can’t ever look back. You can’t stop time, you can’t slow down the clock, you can’t deny the fervor of this team trailing you, by 17, by 9, by 4, and from deep in their hearts they fight back, they have nothing to lose, and all of a sudden they are up by 1, and now it’s not you but they who have the adrenaline, the incredible pride, to finish it – to win. 73-71. The buzzer sounds. And the tears flood like rain.

That’s what nails it. The March Madness of the NCAA, the incredible passion of the fans following the teams, clutching their brackets, cheering, cursing, bragging, wincing, and grinning like its theirs, their alma mater, their region, even if its not. Texas sinking the 3 with no time left to deny a rallying West Virginia overtime, for a shot, just one more shot, at this. The incredible things that happen when something is on the line, that most enviable thing: Pride. Youth. Ability. When you’re 19, and you can play the game of your life. You don’t ever want to stop, until you get to the final game, the championship game, and you look them in the eye, and they might be No. 1, but you don’t care, not for the whole world. You, are given one shot, at immortality. Nobody else need apply – this, is the greatest sport in all the world.