What a great game last night right? The excuses are coming in fast and heavy since last nights loss to the Duke Blue Devils. I’ll recap some players, some plays, and throw in some of my own barbs because frankly I’m sick of listening to the crybabies over in UNC.
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5- The Matchup That Never Was - Every blog, newspaper article, that I’ve read in the past few days regarding Hansbrough and Henderson, you would have thought they were bringing their gloves to the basketball court. The Tarheel fan base tried to desperately make a mountain out of a mole hill and failed miserably. Why? Because they are scared to face the truth. What is the truth? Henderson called Hansbrough and apologized for the foul. Hansbrough accepted that apology. Then they proceeded to play pickup games against each other and together! UNC tried to make it appear like World War III, when in fact, it wasn’t even close to it.
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4- Lawson - What a joke. UNC fans are coming out of the woodwork making up excuses about Lawson not playing. What that really tells me is that your team sucks just because one player is out. If Duke loses Nelson, Scheyer, Henderson..whoever, we would still win. Duke can talk crap about not having a big man to match up against Hansbrough but we don’t. We didn’t recruit one and it appears we don’t need one. Everyone is bitching about Lawson’s ankle. What happens when you shut down Lawson when he plays? Maryland is what happens. Clemson is what happens. Georgia Tech is what happens. They didn’t lose them all but when you’re team is so heavily dependent upon one guard, its time for your team to re-evaluate your offensive strategy. Enough excuses already. I’m sick of your crying.
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3- Flopper of the Game Award - As stated in my previous post, how does a a 6′9″ 250 pound Center managed to draw 3 offensive fouls (almost 4) in the first half from gaurds that are half his size? For all the bullshit Paulus puts up with about flopping, I have news for you. Hansbrough really took the cake the first half with his fake flops. What a joke you UNC fans are.
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2- On to Duke - Why They Won - Duke won because they executed their game plan from start to finish the entire night. Drive and dish, drive and dish. Three, Three, and Three again. When you have a balanced team that can drain three pointers from everywhere its no surprise this game plan worked out just like it has all season. Whats so great about the drive and kick out is that Henderson or Nelson might just throw down when they drive. Any team has no choice but to collapse and stop the ball only to be beaten by a kick out and three pointer from down town.
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1- The number one reason we won last night - We’re Just Better Than You - period!
Everyone makes fun of Paulus and his flops…this just in for you UNC cry babies… Hanbrough flopped 3 times in the first half.
I can’t wait to see the second half!! Update: I posted this with 4 minutes left. Tyler just flopped for number 4 but this time he actually picked up the foul.
Its no wonder why this is known as the biggest college basketball rivalry ever. We even have our own “Rivalry Week” set aside by our friends at ESPN. Yes there are a few other conference rivalries taking place but don’t kid yourself, Rivalry Week exist because of whats going down on Wednesday night at 9pm. What to Expect:
Let’s be honest. The Carolina fans are in a tissy about Henderson rearranging Hansbrough’s nose last year. I’d be too actually. But no matter if it was intentional or not, the Heels are going to complain and make more of a show out of it than what it really was. A foul. I apologize on behalf of the Carolina Fans that have their heads so far up Hansbrough ass that they can’t deal with the facts. We’re just better than you. Yeah you might have won last year but unfortunately for you, that was last year. You guys suck this year. It will be physical and we will take your big man to 5 fouls by the time the 7 minute mark rolls around and will take our 5 point lead and turn it into 20. After all Lawson won’t be around (unless he’s faking, then I’ll be sure to post one hell of a blog post if thats the case) to penetrate and run up and down the court like he could have.
Rumor mill also has it that the Carolina fans will be holding up flip flops everytime Paulus touches the ball. I have to admit, thats kinda funny……if you’re wearing wimpy Blue colors.
Paulus will have the game of his life, yup I said it and posted it. He’s playing with tremendous confidence and he just needs a little room to step back and make a few threes.
Henderson will drive and throw down on Hanbroughs nose again because they’ll least be expecting it. Singler will take care of business as usual but nothing spectacular.
Whats the over under on the number of times we get watch Henderson rip Tylers nose open during the replays on Wednesday. Maybe I’ll post a few stills for everyone
Duke defeated Miami 88-73 this past weekend in the only game I’ve been able to see this year. Cameron was of course packed but unfortunately the refs called one of the worst games I’ve seen in quite a while. Not only was this the only trip I will make all year, it had to be the one where the refs were whistle happy.
Paulus hit the deck on a no call and we all know what that means. He flopped right? If he did it was a helluva an acting job because he wasn’t on the floor for some time. Now that the word on the street is that he’s a professional flopper, the refs won’t be calling the serious fouls anymore.
So be it. It really doesn’t matter at this point. The kid is playing with a tremendous amount of shooting confidence going into the big game on Wednesday. He could be the factor that makes the difference in the game.
Singler played well in the second half as well. What really kept the ballgame under 30 points was the horrible free throw shooting in the first half. Duke was 26 of 40 but more like 1 of 20 in the first half (ok I made that last statistic up but statistics show that 87% of statistics are made up on the spot).
In order for Wednesday to play out like Duke wants, all wheels need to be turning and the throttles on high.
thats what I’d love to be and Coach K lashes out at Duke for not coming to play tonight. Its halftime and Duke is losing to friggin NC State. Are you kidding me? Somebody wake me up please.
On a quick side note, it looks like Paulus is fulfilling everyones prophecy of the next hated Devil. He’s wrestling with State tonight too.
More to come…
Yeah I know, it’s been all of 12 hours before the post. Thats what happens when you have a 20 month old. On to the goods! Duke came back from a half time deficit that had me worried. Maryland played a solid game but Duke simply turned it up a notch in the second half. Riding the back of Nelson, the Devils turned what looked to be a “down to the wire” game into 9 point win. Marylands free throws really sucked downed the stretch. Again, an ACC team has a chance to topple a top ranked opponent only to let a simple free throw or two make the decision. Thats the difference between a “top ranked” team and one that wants to be one.
The fans were packed and making plenty of noise the first half and Duke really quited them down in the 2nd half. Maryland hit a few big threes near the end but wasn’t enough to make them compete.
Henderson from Duke had another fine again, but the show of the night belonged to Demarcus Nelson again. He is THE leader of the Devils this year and he shows it. Noone can guard him and if they do Nelson’s upper body is just too big and broad to make them a factor. He’ll simply muscle his way to the hoop, make the shot and draw the foul.
Nelson finished with a career high 27 points with a crucial bucket with 61 seconds to play that sealed the deal.
Duke travels to College Park to take on the team that took down UNC. Maryland has struggled all season until they found their groove against the Tarheels. When you’re a top ranked team everyone guns for you. Whether its UNC or Duke, you better believe Maryland’s fans will be rocking that joint tonight come tipoff.
Maryland is considerably bigger than Duke but that hasn’t stopped the Devils run all season. Instead of focusing on their lack of size this year, the Devils have focused on their quickness and their ability to kick it out for the open J. That type of play should be seen again tonight as they take on the bigger Terps.
I think Paulus will come out strong as his last performance was sub par. Henderson and Singler will have their games again. I’m hoping Henderson takes some more shots but we’ll have to wait and see.
Shoot! I missed it by one. It was a 17 point win instead of 18. The Devils countered the Hokies aggressive play during the entire ballgame. The theme of the year seams to be “play physical” in the ACC. When you’re going up against the top ranked teams the underdogs are muscling up against the big boys. Its happened twice to Carolina, Clemson and Maryland, and Clemson almost pulled it off.
Washington, who’s always asking for trouble, almost got it tonight from Nelson. During the game, Washington really got the best of him in my opinion. If Demarcus didn’t foul out I think it may have gotten really ugly down the stretch.
This Duke team is alot more experienced and deep than years past. Everytime I see the four corners being run thoughts of years past start to creep into my mind. All I can remember is a VERY inexperienced team that tried to run the four corners only to blow games down the stretch. It different this year and I’m getting over that “four corners” fear.
Scheyer had foul trouble unfortunately and I did not get the game out of him that I expected. Singler once again played strong. I’d like to see Henderson shoot more.
VT shouldn’t be too much of a problem for the Devils tonight. Then again this is the ACC. VT’s Jeff Allen was suspended for bumping a referee so he’ll miss the game. Pretty smart since he’s their top rebounder. And I think Paulus will probably want a little revenge on this move from Washington in Cameron last year:
Even though I’m a Dookie, sometimes you have to post a shot like that.
In Dukes corner, I’m expecting a 18 point win. I want to see a solid game from Nolan Smith tonight. He’s next up on Dukes “ball handling” list in the next few years. I also think Scheyer’s going to have a solid 20+ game as well. There’s my prediction! Let’s hear yours?
