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

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!

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

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!

1. 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!
2. 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!
3. 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!
4. 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.
5. 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

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

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.