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ACC Tournament Duke 76, NC St. 61 Duke 84, Maryland 82 Duke 79, UNC 53
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I had the rare opportunity of attending the ACC
tournament this past weekend (thanks to Chris I!), sitting in the
not-unpleasant upper deck. With a pair of binoculars, it actually proved
to be a decent viewing experience, because our seats were in the 8th row
of the upper deck, right at center court.
The view was absolutely perfect.
And what a view it was.
Despite shooting 41%, 38% and and 36% in consecutive nights, Duke
easily won 2 of 3. And the
reason is simple: defense. That's
right, this year's team's greatness weakness has become their greatest
strength in their hour of need. I'll
have more on this later, but first I'll break down each of the games.
** NC State
State was considered to be a tough draw for Duke because
their biggest strengths were considered to be their bigness and their
strength. State's experienced
post players were expected to be able to shut Duke down inside, allowing
the Pack to pressure Duke's shooters.
Of course, no one was really expecting State to win because of
their own offensive difficulties and a true lack of incentive.
Two games under .500, they couldn't make the NIT. Still, this is a
long-standing, traditional rivalry, and the Pack were certainly thinking
back to 1997, when the 8th seeded NC State team upset the 1st seed Duke
and went all the way to the tournament final.
Of course, Duke was thinking that as well.
They were also thinking that they needed to continue to prove that
they could win without Carlos Boozer, and that their victory over UNC
wasn't a fluke. In the end,
Duke had something to play for and NC State didn't.
The starting lineup throughout the weekend continued to be Sanders,
Battier, Dunleavy, Duhon and Williams.
Duke started off the game on a nice run, with Williams delivering a
bullet pass to Duhon, Chris reciprocating by finding Jason for a three,
and Chris hitting a couple of free throws.
State quickly caught up, tying the game 7-7.
Battier was struggling from the field,
missing his first 3 threes and even coming up short from closer in. Grundy
was keeping things interesting for the Pack, giving them a 10-9 lead.
The only player who was doing anything on offense was Duhon, who
was blowing by State's Archie Miller, scoring on a drive and a three point
play that put Duke up 12-11 with fourteen minutes left.
Miller hit a three that gave State its last lead of the game. At this point, Battier was scoreless, Dunleavy was scoreless,
Williams was struggling from the field and missed 2 foul shots, and the
team was looking for someone to provide a spark.
Naturally, they turned to grizzled veteran Reggie Love.
HUH?
That's right, with Duke down 15-12, Reggie went to the boards and
got fouled, and then sank his free throws. After another Duke miss, he got
a rebound basket to pull Duke within 1.
With about nine minutes left in the half, Duke suddenly started to
employ the trap that had worked so well against UNC.
Just as quickly as you can say "15-0 run", Duke suddenly
led 31-19. And it was the
Jason Williams show, scoring 9 of the points and getting an assist.
He got them through dribble penetration, spotting up for a three,
and playing the passing lane as Battier and Duhon trapped to pick up a
cherry-pick dunk. Shane was working the defense masterfully, picking up 3
steals and 2 charges, dishing to Nate for a three that sent the Duke
section into a frenzy and hitting a three of his own.
The rest of the half was not quite as brilliant for Duke, although
Nate continued his offensive
revival by getting a steal and layup.
The Devils took a 39-25 lead on a Battier rebound with just two
seconds left on the clock. Duke
had turned a tight game into a comfortable lead, thanks to their
quick-strike capability. About
the only thing they did wrong was get into foul trouble, putting the Pack
on the line towards the end of the half.
The second half was mostly Duke holding serve.
Duke held around a 13 point margin for the first five minutes.
The Devils were again having problems scoring from long-range, so
Battier and Dunleavy compensated by hitting 10' jumpers.
Duke turned up its defense once again, and the Pack wilted under a
game-ending 11-0 run that put Duke up 57-33.
Duhon was abusing State's Clifford Crawford, picking his pocket a
couple of times to set up James for a dunk.
Battier hit a three, Duhon took them off the dribble again for a
basket and then James and Battier finished the run with free throws.
After Williams scored on a drive to make the score 61-38, Duke went
four minutes without a field goal. After
Jason missed a couple of foul shots, he was so angry that he picked a
State player's pocket and zoomed in for a slam.
He finished the game by feeding Dunleavy for a three (desperately
needed for his confidence) and finishing inside one more time. Duke
brought out the deep reserves for the last three minutes as State made a
bit of a comeback with a 10-0 run to close out the game, but the Devils
had done their job.
Despite their shooting woes, Duke actually took control of their
game much more quickly than any of the other quarterfinal winners.
UNC struggled with Clemson in the first half of their game, while
Tech and Virginia went right down to the wire.
Maryland blew away Wake Forest in the second half of their game.
While it seemed like the dome was affecting shooting conditions, it
didn't bother Jason Capel of UNC, who was 6-6 from three. Will Solomon
also lit it up for Clemson, until the Tigers ran out of gas in the second
half.
** Maryland:
This game was the true gem of the tournament, already an
ESPN "Instant Classic." It
was a back and forth affair between two teams at the height of their
powers. It featured big
scoring runs by both teams, as well as inspired comebacks.
There were excellent performances by the usual stars as well as
some big surprises by role players. The
end sequence was one of the more dramatic in ACC tournament history, a
"can-you-top-this" chain of events that continued to the final
buzzer. It was a game between two teams that desperately wanted to
beat each other for different reasons.
For Maryland, it was a continued quest for redemption against their
nemesis. For Duke, it was a need to show that they could still be a great
team without Boozer, and who better to prove it against than the team that
gave them their worst defeat of the year?
After the game, Nate James said he had been praying that they would
get to play Maryland again. He
wanted a chance at redemption after his poor Senior Day showing, and
did he ever get it.
Maryland was the hottest team in the ACC coming into the tourney, and
they presented more matchup problems for Duke than any team in the
league--and possibly the entire country.
They had the size to push Duke around but also the athleticism to
cut off drives, get out on the three point shooters and take the game
right to them. Duke didn't
match their intensity in either of their games, even though the Devils
escaped one of their games with the comeback of the year.
And without Boozer, Maryland was able to obliterate Duke on the
boards in Durham. Lonny
Baxter in particular had to be licking his chops in matching up with the
foul-prone Casey Sanders.
Things certainly started off well for the Terps, blowing out to a
10-0 lead as Duke missed all of its shots in the first four minutes.
Duke wasn't turning the ball over or playing poor defense, the
Terps were simply playing very efficiently.
For the half, the shooting numbers weren't pretty. Dunleavy was
0-6, Williams 2-8, and Duhon 1-4. But
Nate hit perhaps his biggest three of the season to get Duke on the board.
Unlike the shots in his last few games, he took it with no
hesitation--one of his high-arcing shots from the corner.
Nate was back. That sparked a Duke run that saw a number of different
players step up. Shane drove
for a bucket, Chris hit a floater, Jason finally got a drive to go down
and Shane hit a three. The
Terps responded with a three-point play, but Duke showed they weren't
going away when Casey Sanders tipped in a miss.
Duke continued to fire away and the Terps twice did something they
did in Cameron--they fouled the three point shooter.
They were so anxious to get out on Duke's shooters that they were
too aggressive, and Duke took advantage by hitting 5 of those 6 free throw
attempts to stay even.
The rest of the half was a remarkably even affair as the Terps
continued to hold onto a slim lead. Williams
did his part by sinking one of those stop-on-a-dime 15' jumpers on the
break and dishing to James, while Nate headily beat a Maryland press by
passing to a wide-open Reggie Love for an easy dunk.
Duke took its first lead at 25-24 on that play, but Terence Morris,
Baxter and Juan Dixon kept
Maryland ahead or tied things up. Shane got into the act by scoring on a drive and getting a
tip-in. Duke took leads when
Jason dished to Nate for a three and Casey for a layup.
After Maryland tied it up at 35-35 with three minutes to go in the
half, Casey sparked another surge by getting a three point play on an
offensive putback over Baxter. Fired
up, the team stopped the Terps on the next play and Battier hit a jumper
to put Duke up 5. Maryland
simply responded with a 10-2 half-ending run, interrupted only by 2
improbably free throws by Matt Christensen.
The Terps held a 45-42 lead after an incredibly hard-fought half.
Remember the poor shooting I mentioned?
It was 15-44 for the half and 3-13 from three.
Duke decided to do something about that, and dropped a 19-2 run on
Maryland to start the second half. Jason
came out with a swagger in
his step, with his shootin' irons ready to start blazing.
Dunleavy spotted him for a three, and then Duke's defense
really sparked a run. Casey
blocked a shot out to Duhon, who then fired it to Jason for another three.
After a Terp basket, Battier spotted up and nailed a trey. The
Terps in disarray, Jason found the struggling Dunleavy for a long-range
shot, and then Shane nailed a ridiculously long jumper.
Duhon pulled up as if he was going to take a shot, but instead
drove all the way to the unguarded basket for a nasty two-handed slam.
Nate contributed with a couple of free throws, and Duke was up
61-47 just five minutes into the half.
A lesser team would have packed it in.
The Terps have proven that they are not a lesser team.
They quickly fought back with a 9-0 run as Duke's shots started to
clank. Jason hit a long three off the dribble and Mike D also sank a
trey on a relocation feed from Casey to boost the lead back up to 9, but
Maryland scored 5 in a row to creep back to within 67-61.
The next five minutes featured a tired Duke team desperately trying
to hold off the hard-driving Terps. Battier
and Sanders both went 0-2 from the foul line in the half, drained from
dealing with the Terp frontcourt. James hit a couple of free throws to
make the margin 8 and then Jason hit an even longer three to make it 9.
The Terps kept coming with frosh Chris Wilcox hitting a long jumper
and then soph Tahj Holden driving right at Battier, getting a three point
play. This was just a couple of plays after Battier took a charge
on a remarkably similar play, so it was gutsy of Holden to try it.
Duke went up 77-72 on 2 Dunleavy free throws, and then the fun
really began.
Dixon hit a three with 2:42 left to make it a 3 point game.
After a Duke miss, Danny Miller hit a three to give the Terps their
first lead since the beginning of the half.
Duke did not panic. With
Battier being heavily guarded and running on fumes and Williams being
locked up by Dixon, Dunleavy decided to step up and drove, hitting a
hanging jumper and getting the foul. He missed the free throw, and Duke
led 79-78. On the next play,
Morris drove baseline and was blocked by Sanders from behind, who tapped
it out to Dunleavy. He drove
and was fouled, hitting 1-2 with 1:37 left.
Miller got fouled but only hit 1 with 28 seconds left, cutting it
to 80-79. The Terps fouled
Dunleavy on the inbounds, who responded by calmly sinking both with :17
left. Zipping up the court,
Steve Blake took a very long three and nailed it with 8 seconds left. Duke was out of timeouts, and prefers to attack right away if
they have over 4 seconds left. So
Jason got the ball and zipped up the court.
The Terps all moved in front of him but allowed him to get close
enough to get off a runner. It
bounced off the back of the rim, but an alert Nate James was right behind
him. He figured that he might
get a tip-in, much like he had against Stanford a second too late. This time, he went right over Casey's back to knock it in
with just 1.3 seconds left. The
alert Terps quickly inbounded and Dixon got a good look at the basket from
40' away...but it was just a bit short, bouncing
off the rim. Duke had
survived despite being outrebounded 51-30 and outshot 48-36%.
What won it for Duke? I'll
say it again: pressure defense. Duhon
and Williams had 5 and 4 steals respectively, forcing the normally
unflappable Blake into a 6-tunover game.
Duke had a remarkable 14 steals overall and only committed 6
turnovers of their own against a great Terp defense. So many players
contributed in so many ways. The Committee in the post combined for 12 points, 5 rebounds,
2 blocks, 38 minutes and 9 fouls.
That was 9 fouls that Battier or Dunleavy didn't have to
absorb. But the
Sanders/Christensen/Love troika did more than just steal minutes, they
played great defense and even knocked down some free throws. (Of course, Casey was only 1-7, but Matt was 3-4).
Not to be overlooked are Duke's 15 offensive rebounds, 1 better
than Maryland. Duke got
several easy tip-ins after missed shots, none bigger than Nate's at the
end. This was one of Duke's
finest wins of the past several years, going up against a team at the
height of its powers that hada number of significant advantages
and winning despite shooting a low percentage.
** UNC
One might suspect that after the epic semifinal between
Duke and Maryland and the very competitive semi between UNC and Georgia
Tech, that the final might be a bit of an anticlimax.
That one of the teams might be tired or lack the emotional
willpower to compete at a high level.
One would be correct on both counts, but the big surprise is that
it was UNC who gave up early in the second half.
Meanwhile, an undersized, undermanned Duke squad outworked,
outhustled and outrebounded the Heels.
The basic story of the game is this: UNC controlled tempo early by
pounding it inside.
Duke struggled offensively for a bit, then threw on precisely the
same sort of trapping defense that they used in Chapel Hill.
The Heels promptly fell apart as Duke closed the half on a 27-10
run, and UNC never did much to catch up.
There were many times in the game where I remembered past games and
Heel comebacks and thought, "OK, **now** they're going to make a run
on us." Right after
halftime, at the 16 minute mark, and when Jason went out of the game with
an injury, I was certain the Heels were going to increase their defensive
intensity and catch up. It
never happened.
Even though Duke went an amazing eight minutes scoring only 2
points, the Heels were only able to score 5 points in the same span as
Duke methodically used the clock. UNC's
struggles reminded me that Matt Doherty is a young coach who may not
understand how to deal with a fatigued team.
After Duke lost to Louisville in the '86 finals, Coach K
later said that he didn't do
very well in preparing to play his team when they were fatigued.
That was pretty clear in this game, as the Heels could barely
get up and down the court in
the second half. They could
never summon the energy to go on any sustained run, and Duke absolutely
strangled them on defense, which is significant
because this Duke team has not had a vintage year defensively. Which is
not to say that this has been a bad defensive team, because it hasn't, but
that it hasn't locked up opponents the way the teams of the late 80's did.
Kris Lang scored UNC's first 4 points while Duke missed their first
7. But solid defense kept UNC from gaining any significant advantage, with
Casey Sanders doing an excellent job on Brendan Haywood.
But Lang, slowed because of a leg injury, picked up 2 quick fouls
and was a non-factor the rest of the game.
Jason connected with Shane on a three for Duke's first field
goal three minutes into the game, and Shane then hit a nice turnaround
jumper in the lane to put Duke up 7-6.
The ACC Tournament MVP actually scored Duke's first 7 points of the
game. UNC struck back to take
a 10-7 lead with fifteen minutes left, which would turn out to be their
biggest lead of the game. But
then Mike Dunleavy, sensing that his team needed his scoring and that he
could get his shot against Jason Capel whenever he wanted, started to heat
up. First he drove for a
basket and one. Then Chris
spotted him in the lane, where he hit a 15' turnaround jumper.
Mike then swished a 15' baseline jumper to give Duke a 14-12 lead.
Sometimes, Duke's best defense is its offense.
By that I mean that if Duke is hitting quickly and consistently, it
can put more mental pressure on their opponents to score right away.
This becomes doubly true if Duke is attacking the offensive boards.
Duke held a 16-14 lead after Jason hit a 17' jumper and he was now
at the line for 2 shots. He
missed both, but the second was picked up by Christensen, who had just
replaced Reggie Love at center. Matt
alertly tossed it to Nate in the corner, who hit the three.
Duke slowly continued to put more pressure on the Heels, but they
matched 2 Battier free throws and another mid-range Dunleavy jumper with a
couple of threes.
But when Duke answered with back-to-back Battier and James threes,
the Heels were suddenly down 29-20. The
time had come for Duke to really go on the attack, and the last eight
minutes of the half were featured a relentless
defensive performance by Duke. Shane
suddenly trapped Curry with Duhon, who threw a pass to the center of the
court. Williams knew it was coming and stole it for an easy dunk.
Jason turned his game up to 11 for several minutes, driving for
easy scores, getting more steals for easy baskets, and generally making
Carolina's life hell. Then
Casey got into the act with a three point play, and Jason got another
steal and dished it to Chris. Love
rebounded a miss and dished to Shane for a three. The capper came when
Doherty put in frosh Adam Boone at point guard to replace the reeling
Curry. Boone crossed half
court and held up the ball to make a pass, and Shane simply ripped it out
of his hands and tossed it downcourt to Jason for another easy basket.
Duke was suddenly up 42-23, and that play encapsulated their
dominance. UNC was able to
grab back a bit of
self-respect with a 7-3 run, but Duke squelched any thoughts of a comeback
with a late Williams three and a Dunleavy putback.
Duke had a shocking 50-30 halftime lead against one of the better
defensive teams in the ACC.
Duke continued to attack early in the second half, with Dunleavy
pulling up for a 15' jumper and Mike finding Shane down low for an
up-and-under move that turned into a three point play.
Duke then struggled on offense for a bit, but the Heels ran into a
defensive buzzsaw every time they came down the court.
Casey has early on established that he wasn't going to be pushed
around by blocking a shot so effectively that it was called a held
ball. Haywood looked dazed
after getting grilled and put up a number of bad shots as Casey was able
to push him away from the basket. Of
course, by this point, most of UNC's offense consisted of Forte taking
off-balance jumpers with a hand in his face.
Dunleavy and Battier were in complete control of the boards,
getting lots of extra shots--an amazing 20 offensive rebounds!
The play of the game came with about fifteen minutes left.
Jason was driving on the wing, stopped and instead of shooting,
fired a backwards bounce pass between his legs to Dunleavy, who
effortlessly popped a long three. That
put Duke up 59-36 and sparked another mini-run featuring Jason's last
basket of the game--his patented stop and pop from 18'.
He turned his ankle on the next play and sat out the rest of the
game, but Duke didn't really need him.
Chris, despite some foul trouble, smoothly ran the team and kept up
the defensive pressure. From
the ten minute mark on, Duke was just basically killing time, not really
worrying too much about scoring because the Heels lacked confidence and
cohesion on offense. UNC had
half-heartedly started to trap Duke, which resulted in a turnover or two,
but not at a very fast rate. Dunleavy
then decided to remove any suspense by hitting another jumper, going in
for a dunk with the shot clock winding down, and then driving for a layup
as the clock wound down once again. Coach
K started to pull his starters one by one to let them soak up the
applause, and the last couple of minutes featured a huge stuff by Matt
Christensen on UNC benchwarmer Brian Bersticker that made me shout,
"Uncle Matty says NO!"
The win was Duke's third consecutive ACC title, matching a feat
accomplished back in the 60's by UNC and the 50's by NC State.
Battier, Williams and Dunleavy were all first-team All-Tournament,
joined by Forte and Dixon. James
was second-team All-Tournament, joined by Haywood, Baxter, Capel and Alvin
Jones. It was amazing to see
maintain such a high energy level throughout the game; Duke seemed to
actually get quicker as the game went on.
And on Duke's big run, it was amazing to see the Carolina players
almost standing still as Williams and Duhon rushed by them.
All things considered, this has been one of the greatest weeks in
the history of the program.
Player-by-Player:
** Sanders:
Casey started out a bit hesitantly against State, but then went
stronger to the basket against Maryland and proved to be very tough
defensively. His block
on Morris was absolutely crucial, and the reason it was so great is
because he simply reacted--he didn't think about the play.
And that has been his problem all along--he doesn't have a strong
enough feel for the game to simply make plays instead of worrying about
what to do. I think a lot of
his newfound progress is due to playing in practice every day against some
of the best players in the country, and simply absorbing their knowledge.
Combine that with repetition of certain situations he might be in,
and the result is a player who is now well prepared.
Casey was already earning more playing time before Boozer's injury,
and he's embraced his new role not because it meant that he was going to
play a lot more (which isn't necessarily true--if he wasn't playing and
practicing well, he would be sitting no matter how many players were
injured), but because his team needed him to step up.
He kept up a good attitude and was ready when the time came.
His best offensive game came against Maryland, while his best
defensive game was clearly against UNC. He still has a lot to work
on--catching the ball, finishing, hitting free throws.
But one can see that he's getting there.
His biggest area of improvement has been learning how to play with
foul trouble. Though he had 4
fouls against both Maryland and UNC, he didn't foul out of either game,
and made a crucial block down the stretch against the Terps.
It'll be interesting to see if the tournament continues to boost
his confidence as Duke plays in the NCCA's.
** Battier: Extremely steady in
every game, which earned him the MVP. He had 2 double-doubles and took 3
charges over the weekend. He
was 16-20 from the foul line and hit 8 threes.
He also had 7 blocks and 8 steals. He did everything, and did it
well. His defensive
performance was a work of art and not adequately summed up by his stats,
impressive as they are. He
played a lot of help defense with Casey to boost his confidence, then was
the point man in Duke's trapping defense.
The only time he started to wear down was against Maryland, where
he was 2-8 in the second half as the Terps' army of big men tired him out.
But he still averaged 19 ppg in the tourney and was the dominant
leader on the floor. I've
never seen an one player dominate three games the way Shane did last
weekend, and he did it in every facet of the game.
He richly deserves all of the plaudits he's now receiving.
** Dunleavy: His first three
halves were near-disasters, but he turned it on against Maryland in the
second half, scoring 7 of Duke's last 9 points. Then he kicked it up
another notch against UNC, dominating them with drives, short jumpers and
threes. The transformation
was rather surprising. It was
clear that he was struggling at first, forcing Battier and Williams to
take over the offense. But he
was pretty rested against Maryland, playing only 31 minutes, and was ready
to take over down the stretch when Battier had nothing left and Williams
was being swarmed. Scoring 7
of the team's last 9 points, and most importantly, the go-ahead basket,
shocked both me and the Terps, who hadn't worried that much about Mike
prior to that. His success made him want the ball against UNC, and he was
one of the few who was hitting everything.
Even more impressive than his scoring was his rebounding, as he
controlled the defensive boards. Preventing
UNC stickbacks was crucial, and he simply gobbled them up.
He also picked up 3 steals against the Heels, his long arms
thriving in Duke's traps.
** Williams: Jason was truly the
difference against Maryland. Against
a team that was suffocating Duke on defense, Jason's ridiculous long range
threes deflated Maryland and kept Duke afloat.
Against State, the run that he led at the end of the first half
ended that game's competitive phase. And when playing the Heels, his
quickness gave Duke's trap its teeth as he would intercept any pass thrown
in his general direction. Jason
did not shoot all that well, but he kept firing away because he
knew he would break an opponent's will by maintaining his confidence.
And he alternated between passing, shooting and driving rather
well, always keeping his opponent guessing. Jason
averaged 3 steals a game, frequently resulting in easy baskets.
The worst part of his game was his foul shooting, which was a
gruesome 1-9. Jason is too
good a shooter to go through this kind of slump, but he would often react
to a miss by making a great defensive play on the other end.
** Duhon: Chris was
brilliant against NC State, but a lot quieter offensively against Maryland
and UNC. Part of this was
because he was busy defending Juan Dixon and harrassing Ron Curry, but I
also think he deferred a bit too much.
He only took 3 shots against UNC and 7 against Maryland.
While his playmaking and maturity were excellent as always, he
needs to stay aggressive. Still,
he and Jason carried the team in the first half against NC State, with
Chris being especially effective on the drive.
And while he didn't score much against Maryland, his slam will be
appearing on his senior highlight clip one day.
** James: The slump is over.
The Dogg is regulating once again.
While he was solid with 10 points and 3 boards against UNC and 13
points, 7 rebounds against State, it was against his own personal
archrival where he made the biggest impact.
He hit Duke's crucial first shot after being down 10-0, and he hit
the last shot to win it. His
defense was also superb, forcing Forte to take bad shots and helping to
lock up State's dangerous Anthony Grundy.
Even Juan Dixon was only 7-20 against him. Seeing him bust out of a personal slump in such a dramatic
way made me feel great for the fifth year senior.
He was there when his team needed him and didn't let them down at
either end of the court. I
think his problems on Senior Day were more emotional than physical--he
badly wanted to win, but started to think too much about the event and it
affected his game. He's now
back to being his usual hustling self on the floor and his confidence has
been restored.
** Love: Reggie has gone from obscure football walk-on
to cult hero in the span of one weekend through his hustle and defense.
In fact, a Duke football player outperformed 2 UNC football players
in the ACC final. His 5 offensive rebounds against UNC in the finals were
a product of a powerful but
undersized body who really understands how to block out.
Haywood had no idea what to do with him and he did a great
job fronting him when Duke went to its trap.
Reggie also knocked down a couple of free throws.
A friend of mine who has played pickup with him reports that he's a
good shooter, loves to dunk and can really jump.
The fact that he can step in at the post is a tribute to his
toughness despite his size. Reggie has become quite the fan favorite for
his hustle and his astonishing increase in minutes of late.
All he has to do is rebound and screen, and that's what he's
doing--and then some.
** Christensen: Uncle Matty
had a few big minutes here and there.
His rebound of a miss and pass to James for three was a turning
point against UNC, while his 3-4 shooting from the line against Maryland
proved to be the difference. And seeing him stuff that clown Bersticker was immensely
satisfying.
** Buckner: Got the last basket
of the tournament.
** Caldbeck: Got his first point of the year, against UNC no less!
** Dome Delirium:
The Dome wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I was in the dreaded
300 level of seats, in the upper deck.
But the Dome was only going to be half-used, so the ACC closed off
half the stadium and had 40000 come see the games.
The acoustics are not all that great and tend to swallow sound.
That didn't stop the loudest fans, belonging to Maryland.
They sang and yelled like they were at a soccer match.
They booed Coach K's image every time he appeared as part of a
public service ad by the league. And they sold off many of their tickets
when they lost to Duke. The
Dome was nearly half full of UNC fans, and hearing their silence when they
left the stadium with ten minutes left.
The awards ceremony was great, as the players got a chance to shine
and absorb the crowd's response. The
most excited player was Nate James,
who was pumping his fists as he went up the ladder.
Now, the awards:
Best Mascot: As always, Clemson's Tiger.
The only mascot who is actually amusing.
(Tech's Buzz is second.)
Hottest Cheerleaders: Tech.
Thanks to the miracle of binoculars, I noticed a number of rather
attractive honeys (2 short haired blondes in particular).
Runner-up: (Wake.)
Best Stunts: UNC. The synchronized flips are pretty cool.
Ugliest Cheerleaders: Brian Bersticker, Michael Brooker,
Orlando Melendez and Will Johnson.
** Next Game: Thursday, March 15th vs Monmouth.
Duke's mission is to stop leading scorer, assist-man and rebounder
this year for the Hawks, and that would be Rahsan Johnson. Locking him up and playing standard Duke defense on everyone
else should get the win.
Williams Career Assist Watch: 7. Grant
Hill 461
James/Williams scoring watch:
30. Bernie Janicki
1247
Reported by Rob Clough, tmc@duke.edu |
| Rob is a thirty one year old Duke grad who's been an ACC fan since he was nine years old, when a young Duke team was beaten in the finals by Kentucky. Since that time, he has been fascinated by the entire league and started writing volumes on it in rec.sport.basketball.college and other electronic forums in 1991. Recently, he has been writing ACC analyses for Jazzy J's colbasketball.miningco.com site and regularly contributes features on women's basketball for the Duke Basketball Report. |