About a week before Christmas, Duke gave all its fans a wonderful present.  An absolute destruction of Xavier, who at the time was viewed as one of the best teams in the country.  That first half, was some of the best basketball I have seen in a long time.  As I sit here just a couple days till Christmas, all of the aftermath of that victory has come and went.  Duke is back in the top five after the Michigan lose, and we get to celebrate with our families knowing that Duke is playing great basketball.  Duke will play one more time before 2009 becomes official, and then a few days later ACC play finally begins.

It has already been a really fascinating season thus far, and still their are questions.  Last years Duke team was similar to this one, looking strong before ACC play started and still ended as a disappointment.  No matter what Duke does from now until March really won’t matter.  Even if they claim the ACC Championship, which will be a very strong accomplishment, everyone will still be waiting to see what they do come the tournament.

It is a sour way to look at it, but that is what comes with being Duke.  I am going to try to concentrate on each game, and hope for a strong performance night in and night out.  It is still a long way till March, and there could be many great memories prior to it.

Have a happy and safe Holiday season!!!

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Duke was supposed to beat UNC-Asheville.  There was no doubt about it.  But the purpose of this game was to see how the Blue Devils would come out after a their first loss of the season.  The big story of the game was that Coach K held back his usual starters and let the 2nd unit begin the game.  It is cliche to say that he was sending a message to his starters, but the way they played when they all got in their was a huge step up from the Michigan game.  We all know the UNC-A isn’t in the same league as Michigan, but they were playing much harder that they were against the Wolverines and had much better balance.  Of course it helps that their shots were falling, but they still used a solid inside game, and drove to the basket what seems like a hundred percent more than against Michigan.  Case in point was shooting 19 free throws, and making 16 of them.  39% percent of their shots were from 3pt range.  A stat that I think is important to look at with this team.  I would really like to see them take less shots one game to see how much more efficient they might be.  It helps that the 3pt shots they did miss were easily picked up by Duke, as UNC-A had a definite height disadvantage.  Duke took down 17 offensive rebounds.  However, they might find more trouble with other teams that have solid inside games.  Even if the shots are falling, they need to concentrate more on driving to the basket.

A thing I noticed was how Greg Paulus finally started making some shots, but looked a little rough running the offense.  When he tried to throw an alley-oop to Henderson it was no where close.  Smith ran the same play minutes before and it was perfect.  I have to believe that not running the point full time is really messing with his game.  I think he needs to be used more with Smith in the game, and running around screens to create shots for himself.  This all depends on if he is consistently making shots of course.

All in all a fun game to watch.  I was concentrating on Duke’s defense for much of the game, and thought for the most part the were doing a good job.  They still are susceptible to the back cut, which we all know killed them against Michigan.  But the help defense was much better.

No for the real test.  Xavier is without a doubt the best team we have faced.  Some call it home court for Duke, but when you have that many people in one stadium it is hard to tell who has the advantage.  I really interested to see how Thomas and Zoubek play against a formidable front court.  Should be an interesting matchup to watch.

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Here’s a You Tube video of Tyler Thornton, who will be part of our 2010 Freshman class. In this video he’s in the white Gonzaga uniform, wearing #1.

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In my post yesterday, I talked about how Duke was going into a trap game against Michigan.  My fears were realized this afternoon as Duke was outworked by a tough Michigan team.  No disrespect against Michigan, but Duke really shot themselves out of this game.  They gave it away.  Throughout the entire game, Duke was content throwing up three pointer after three pointer.  Even though they continued to miss, that didn’t stop them.  This has been the story in just about every game this season.  Duke is very good at penetrating and making plays in the paint.  However, even if they are cold from beyond the arc they won’t stop shooting.  I really don’t understand why Coach K doesn’t pull the choke chain on his players.  The entire game I was waiting for him to blow up on his players for continuing to shoot, but it never happened.  He simple let them lose the game.  Maybe he is teaching them a lesson, and it is a great time for these types of lessons.  A lose in December, isn’t as bad as a lose in February or March.  It is still frustrating to see this team get away from something they do so well, and try to do something that they aren’t very efficient in doing.  Stop shooting, and slash to the damn basket.

Michigan’s attack on the offensive in really hurt Duke all game.  That famous Princeton style offense, is the kryptonite to a strong pressure style defense.  Duke wasn’t up to the task.

If you look at the score board, it is pretty even.  However, for the first time in a long time Duke wasn’t able to get to the free throw line.  That might be an understatement as Duke shot 6 free throws to Michigan’s 22.  And of course the 3pt% was absolutely horrid.  Duke was 7-33 from three point range.

Until Duke learns that their strength lies in penetrating, they will beat themselves.  Scheyer, Smith, and Henderson should be driving every time they get a chance.  And Singler should just let the offense come to him and continue crashing the boards.  It isn’t complicated with this team.

Hopefully, Duke learned something from this game.  They have a long break (11 days) before their next game, and then a quick turnaround to that all important game against Xavier.

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I fancy myself a betting man.  Especially when it comes to sports.  And as anyone who bets on sports knows, that you need to always be aware of the dreaded trap game.

The upcoming game between Duke and Michigan smells a little funny.

*Duke is coming off a big win
*The media is starting to notice and fall in love with the Blue Devils
*Duke beat Michigan just two weeks ago
*The game is at Michigan

These four points are just a few of the criteria for a trap game.  All Duke needs to do is play exactly how they did against Purdue.  Smothering defense, that leads to efficient offense.  Michigan has seen what Duke can do, and even though they were manhandled in the first game, there had to be something they saw in Duke that can benefit them.  It is tough to beat a team twice in a year.  It is even tougher to beat them a few weeks apart.

I could totally be blowing this out of proportion.  After all, I was extremely worried about Duke against Purdue and the result was a great surprise.  The one thing that this team has going for it, that is more important than anything else, is that they play so damn hard.  They will never get outworked.  Hopefully they follow what they have been doing all year.  Because the only way you get beat in a trap game is by getting outworked.

Michigan will be ready.  Duke better be ready too.

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Everyone at Purdue was ready for Duke.  The entire campus was ready to take down a national power and put their team on the map.  But the actual basketball team forgot to read the memo.  Duke frustrated Purdue in every aspect of the game.  The better team came out ahead, and Duke walks away with a 10-0 record in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

There were so many positives in this game.  You have to look at the first half star and the second half star for Duke.  Jon Scheyer started out hot and got the Blue Devils up to a comfortable lead in the first.  Kyle Singler who started off a little cold, heated up quickly and continued his unbelievable season.  Singler would finish with 20 points and 12 rebounds, Scheyer with 20 points of his own.  Singler seemed to be in every play down low.  No one for Purdue could figure out how to box him out.  He was looking strong the entire game and snatching up loose balls and creating opportunities for himself.  And his defense on Robbie Hummel was solid.  Hummel finished with 15, but he had to fight for every shot.

The entire Purdue line up really couldn’t figure out how to get good shots against Duke.  They went a horrific 2-13 from 3pt.  Duke’s defensive numbers weren’t spectacular, but they were able to really dominate the boards.  They out rebounded the opposition 44-26.

The only annoyance was Duke running down the clock.  They lost their momentum and let Purdue have a little bit of life.  I understand the purpose of holding onto the ball, especially on the road.  However, it is like the prevent defense in football.  All it does is prevent you from winning.  Duke made a few mistakes and forced some shots during this period and Purdue showed some life.  Not until Kyle Singler drove past two defenders and dunked on another was the game over.

Even with a lead of 16, it could of been much worse for Purdue.  Ironically, the game wasn’t even this close.  Duke was on its game tonight and showed that it is an absolute top 10 team.  I think that it is to early to see if they are a top five team, but they are well on their way.  Michigan will be a nice road test on Saturday and should give another good test of Duke’s poise.

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