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.
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.
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