LIVE BLOGGING – Duke v UNC
By robmurray
It’s 4PM, but the Illinois St/North Iowa game is in overtime. A little depressing. I would have liked to see some of the pre-game material and senior night footage. Let’s just pray CBS is smart enough, unlike ESPN, to delay to Duke/UNC game a bit. It looks like Ty Lawson is starting. He hurt his toe in practice on Friday. Anyone who watches football, knows a lot about toe injuries and how they effect you. It can really slow down a speedster. Duke has its own injuries. We know Nolan Smith is out, but it appears both Thomas and Zoubek will play, but at less than 100%. Either sway, both bodies are needed.
Once we get to the Duke/UNC, we’ll be updating at the commercial breaks, so be sure to refresh to get all updates. GO DUKE!
15:30 Duke down 9-5. So much for winning the turnover battle. Duke starts off with three straight early. Hansbrough doing his best Paulus imitation. Hansbrough’s three. Ridiculous. He has eight all season and I could swear half are against Duke. Where’s G’s offense?
9:44 Duke down 23-20. How long will it take to see photos on the Internet of the Carolina foot on Zoubek’s crotch. Getting killed on the boards. Carolina got four shots in a single possession. Block out! Nice run, to take the 14-12 lead, all while Hansbrough is taking a break. On the offensive end, Scheyer’s do anything too much dribbling. He’s a point guard, but not really.
Right now Duke is struggling to stop Carolina. Hansbrough 2-2 from three? A joke. Duke needs to slow it up. Duke needs to walk it up, take off thirty seconds before shooting. The one way to get Carolina out of their offense is to slow it down. So far, all Singler. He’s got 13. Henderson has only two. He needs to get aggressive.
7:44 Duke down 26-24. I’ll take it. Down two despite the fact, Duke is struggling to stop Carolina. Is it me or is it a tame crowd? They only time I realize they’re there is when they feel like the ref makes the wrong. Watching this game though, it really shows you the talent difference. Every pass Carolina makes, it’s too a guy who is a threat to score. There is no ‘role’ player. For Duke, it’s still a three man team (Singler, Henderson, Scheyer). Right now, when Thomas or Williams gets the ball, you’re just waiting for them to pass it to someone else.
3:33 Duke is up 35-32. Duke looks confident. We’ll see how far that takes them, but obviously, they’re not bothered by the arena and senior night. REBOUND! Enough of the offensive rebounds. Carolina has three offensive rebounds and converted on all three. So far Singler, Henderson, Scheyer & Williams carrying the Devils. Someone else; Thomas (0-0), Paulus (0-2), Zoubek (0-0) needs to come through.
1:35 Duke up one 36-35. Again, I’ll take it, but I just don’t feel like we’ve seen the best Duke has to offer. Of course, you could say the same thing about Carolina. Duke needs to work on their mid-range numbers. Back-to-back possessions with a chance to up five, Gerald gives it up an Singler gets too deep. Shoot that short mid-range shot.
What the hell is Thomas handling the ball so much at the time of the key? All our ball handlers and Thomas has the ball?
HALFTIME Duke leads 39-38. I’ll take it, but again, I feel like Duke could be doing better. The Blue Devils need to be playing smarter. In the final four minutes of the half, they didn’t play smart; passing when they should be shooting, going to deep on a drive, fumbling the ball away, Thomas traveling at the top of the key. Dumb mistakes. Yet, we are winning.
The stats are even. They’ve taken two more shots and made one more, but we got two more threes. They have two more free throw attempts, but Duke has one more free throw attempt. No one is dominating the rebounds (12-10, Carolina) and they’re even in blocks. The difference (if you want to call it that) is turnovers. Duke started off turning the ball over three straight times in the first three minutes. They’ve since settled down, turning it over three times the rest of the way.
The final point, Singler has an impressive 15 points, but didn’t score a point in the final nine minutes. He and Gerald will need to take over, because Carolina will come out motivated. Let’s not forget, Duke led by eight at home three weeks ago against the Tar Heels and then proceeded to be outscored by 22 in the second half.
16:57 Carolina up 45-41. Gerald is fining himself in good spots, but struggling to make the shots. He’s missed four straight since the first half. Singler followed it up with a missed open three. Carolina is not missing and has come gone a 7-0 spurt. Duke needs to not get flustered. The shots will fall.
Just saw a Cameron Crazy commercial. All hell is going to break loose on the hate.
16:00 Duke down 45-44. I’m not sure I agree with the announcers that Ty Lawson looks fine. He does not look 100% to me, appearing to be unable to just turn the corner. Three times he’s gotten caught at the baseline. Maybe it’s Duke’s D, maybe it’s a little bit of both. Even if Ty is just 70%, he’s still 20% better than most other point guards.
Singler and Henderson have now gone over 10 minutes without a basket (Gerald’s basket t 6:02 in the first half).
Hansbrough now has three fouls with about 15 minutes to go (by the way, the one under the basket on the offensive rebound was a bad call. It happens to everyone and the refs will give it back later) . Duke MUST make him play defense when he comes back in. He doesn’t want to foul out.
11:18 Duke down 57-51. Duke’s offense is falling about apart. No turnovers, but they can’t hit a shot. They are also missing free throws. IF they don’t start falling, this game will get out of hand. Singler went 18 minutes without making a shot, until his three-pointer. Duke then followed it up with a turnover on a 4-1 break. Need to be SMART! What do I mean? After Elliot decided to shot a 360 airball, he followed it up with a stupid foul at half court. Duke is only 3-10 from the floor in the second half. Right now, lucky to be down only six. Carolina is also winning the battle of the boards, out-rebounding Duke 9-3.
It took nearly 30 minutes for a Duke player to score a point (Lance Thomas).
9:13 Duke down 59-55. A lot has gone wrong in the second half, yet Duke is still only down by four (thank you Ellington’s free throw shooting, 1-5). This is Gerald time. Let’s go.
7:50 Duke down 61-55. The games getting rough; some getting called, some isn’t. Duke needs to find a solution on defense. Carolina is approaching 60% from the floor (currently 57.5%). They now also have six more free throw attempts and 11 more rebounds. Gerald still hasn’t made a shot since the five minute mark in the first half. He’s gotten to the line during that time, but has missed a couple.
Attack the rim. Gerald is proving again and again, he can get into the paint. Force them to defend. Force them to foul. And make your damn free throws.
at least four times this game, Carolina has gotten three or more shots in a trp down the floor, with a offensive rebound, followed by Duke knocking the ball out of balance. You can’t do that and win. Good job Carolina fans, it only took you 34 minutes to stand up and cheer. Stunningly quiet crows, at least on TV. I’m sorry, Hansbrough must be the weakess player in the ACC. Who knew Singler’s elbow was so powerful. Twice Hansbrough has ended up on his back when Kyle drove to the basket.
Right now, it’s Scheyer keeping Duke in this game. He’s got 21 with five to play.
3:17 Duke down 73-68. A crazy few minutes. Duke keeps getting within two, but then can’t make that one important stop. If Singler can’t hit an open three, then we aren’t going to win.
2:39 Duke still down 73-68. Singler at the line. If you want to be a champion, this is where you earn it. Both free throws need to go down and then we need a stop. Maybe would should change it up and show a full court press or a zone…something to make Carolina think about it.
BULLSHIT no call. On Singler’s rebound, Hansbrough pushed him. Singler gets called out of balance, no foul call on Hansbrough. Have a feeling we won’t see that all over the web. Bullshit!