Duke Beats Cancer
By robmurray
Actually Cancer lives on, but Duke did beat Presbyterian, Georgia Southern, Southern Illinois and Michigan to win the 2008 Coaches vs Cancer Tournament Title.
The Devils improved to 5-0 for the season, but let’s be honest, no one is going to be impressed. Duke wins in November. Duke doesn’t win in March, just ask Andy Katz. Obviously, we can’t blame anyone for thinking this way. Until Duke drives deep into March, that will be the theme of ’08-09. The Blue Devils could start 15-0 and that will be the theme. Deal with it.
RANDOM RANTS
– Look who just showed up, Nolan Smith. Don’t get me wrong, he’s played well so far this season, but this game, he was in complete control. He scored (16 points), he rebounded (five) and he actually dished it out (four assists). Most importantly, he played suffocating defense. Michigan’s point guards could never get their offense going. Speaking of Nolan, I never knew this but Smith was thinking about leaving Duke this past summer. Luckily for us, Coach K obviously read Big Duke Balls last year and took my advice about putting in Nolan Smith as the starting point guard.
– Kyle Singler was all over the place tonight. He got 15 tonight, but he pulled down three crucial offensive rebounds. He was also the only Devil to hit above .500 on his threes. I overheard at least three conversations at the game regarding whether Singler would be a better player in the ACC than Hansborough. Personally, I’m not buying it. Long term, yes, Singler will be the better pro. Hansborough will be a decent pro. He’ll be a high-energy rebounder coming off the bench. However, let’s not forget, Hansborough is a senior on the nations best team, he’ll be the top ACC player again this season.
– Who needs threes, when you got twos? Duke struggled from behind the three-line tonight, shooting an unimpressive 4-19. However, they made up for it closer to the peach basket, hitting 20-31 in the paint. Scheyer struggled the most. After hitting his first three in the first minute of the game, he missed his next six shots.
– Reason number #247 why I’m not the coach. At the eleven minute mark in the first half, Coach K came in with a lineup of Smith, Williams, Pocius, Thomas and McClure. My first thought was, where will the points come from? The lineup produced. They ran off eight straight points, opening up a ten-point lead over Michigan. The points all game from Smith and Williams, but more importantly, the lineup held the Wolverines to just two points in 3+ minutes.
– Is Brian Zoubek a legit center? For moments last night, it looked like it. He scored a solid six points on 3-4 shooting (although he grabbed only one board). He did a nice job handling the paint on defense, frustrating Michigan drives to the hoop. However, there is still plenty of work to be done. During one stretch in the first half, Duke actually fed Zoubek the ball down low four straight times. The first he scored, the second he turned it over on a bad pass to Henderson, the third he missed and the fourth he let the defender get in front of him. Obviously a work in process.
– I’m loving the free throw shooting so far this season. Today, they shot 76%, hitting 19-25. Singler actually missed three of those. So far they are hitting about 74% on the year, a five-point improvement over last season.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Nolan Smith. Coach has faith in the little guy and he’s showing us what he can do.
PROPS GO TO: Manny Harris rolled with 24 points, being the only Wolverine to hit at least 50% of his shots (6-12 from the floor).
STATS & MORE STATS: Duke has held four of their five opponents to under 35% shooting. In fact, two haven’t cracked 30%. Only Rhode Island lit up Duke at 54% from the floor.
Anyhow, a great tournament for the Blue Devils and a good start to the season. It’s still too early to get a good sense of what kind of team we have. In my eyes, I still see the second best team in the ACC and a team that is both capable of going deep in the tournament and still losing on the first weekend.
Don’t get me wrong, this team is better than last years team. The players are older, wiser and most importantly, physically stronger. The big men are certainly improved, but we’ll hold off judgment until they face the real power forwards the ACC will offer up. Prior to that we have some good match ups coming up the next two weeks that will tell us a lot more, road games at Purdue and a second match up against Michigan, followed by a great game in Jersey against Xavier (yep, Big Duke Balls will be there).
Paulus ready check in.
Henderson and Singler waiting for the free throw.
DeShawn Simms with a monster dunk.