astoria26's Blog

Memphis vs Kansas Game Blog :: NCAA Championship

astoria26 — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 22:12:20 GMT

My pick to win it all? Memphis. And not just because of Chicago phenom Derrick Rose. When the tournament turns straight chalk and your favorite team bows out to a Big East also-ran? The most interesting story becomes the athletic, electrifying, and still-with-a-chip-on-their-shoulders Memphis Tigers. I remember a story from 7 months ago, when back in early September John Calipari looked at his team and got goosebumps. "It's taken me eight years of ups and downs and piecing things together to get this team, the kind of team that players want it more than I want it for them." Eight years of ups and downs, two years of Elite Eights - and all it takes is one exceptional player to bring out the best in them. The Derrick Rose Invitational. Gentlemen, start your engines!!!

The roar of the crowd soars with the ball. Rose has it! It's begun! Oh, the electricity! The emotions! Dorsey scores immediately, a power move inside, and as the ball snuggles into the net, every Memphis fan is giddy with glee. This is the year!

Every move, every look, every pass is heightened, magnified tenfold. In the final game of the year, and in front of millions across the globe, not one thing is let go. Every turnover is howled at; a colossal mistake. Every pinpoint pass, every hard-fought rebound, is cheered and celebrated and screamed at by a mass of 42,000+ strong. AMAZING. Sizzling. Spine-tingling. Even though we know there's still 40 minutes left to go, we are convinced that every single move right now denotes what will happen next, what will unfurl, over the entire game. I am hunched so forward on my chair that I'm almost falling off. How can the players even play? What must they be thinking - finally, meeting their equal - and getting challenged, for some of them, for the first time since - ever?

It starts out pretty even. Kansas is definitely clogging up the middle, not really playing zone but some damn good defense all their own, and daring the Tigers to drive into trees or settle for jumpshots. And Derrick Rose, the unflappable Rose, is finding this defense much stickier than in games past, almost losing the ball twice and indeed losing the ball once to those extra-grabby hands. Taking it to the rack - and BLOCKED! But OH! How can he see the whole floor??? How can he drive, with supposedly blinkers on in his determination to get to the goal - and then suddenly reverse direction and freeze the entire defense with such a pinpoint pass to a wide open Robert Dozier - not exactly offensive weapon #1 - who drains a high-arching 15 footer? And when he does drive - despite Russell Robinson sticking to that scouting report like glue that says take away his right, take away his right - he gets the bucket - AND one???? Then before you know it, Memphis is already up 9-3, handing Kansas its largest deficit of the tournament - and you're going - what??? I thought this would be competitive! HA! Apparently, simply staying with the Tigers has become a competitive sport. Good luck.

Ack! Alley-oop dunk by Kaun? Nobody on him???? Wake up, Dorsey! Pounding the ball inside to Arthur to make it 9-9 even. I am starting to see some zone. Can we have an even game of talent, and not junk it up? Ball instantly stolen away from Dorsey by a quicker guard. UGH.

Whoa! Was that a shot???? A one-armed "heave" coming from out of nowhere by CDR - and it flies in! Amazing! Every Jayhawk was as amazed as I was, watching that ball soar over their heads and wondering where the invisible Dorsey was to guide that errant alley-oop pass in? Oh no, Sherron Collins just blew by Rose for a layup. Nice.

Uh oh - the foul trouble is already starting to pile up. Taggert with his 2nd foul, 12:17 still to go, while the ball was nowhere near him. Great. So now Dorsey comes back in. Kansas, meanwhile - and you have to hand it to them - have a much deeper and more talented frontcourt than Memphis. "So Memphis CAN get into foul trouble. Kansas almost cannot." Swell. AAGHHH! There goes Dozier committing his second foul, 15 seconds later! And they haven't even trotted out their super frosh yet, Cole Aldrich, still in his warm-ups on the bench looking bemusedly on. 13-11, 12:05.

What's up with Rose? After being heralded 24/7 that this would become the Derrick Rose Invitational - and after a scintillating first 3 minutes - Rose has switched to cruise control, giving up the ball much too quickly at the start of the offense, and then shooting 3s and turnaround jumpers rather than taking it to the rack. And is that a screen I saw Dorsey set for him on an off-kelter 17 footer? I thought Memphis is the antithesis of screens? Don't they hate conventional basketball's guts??? Yet, here I am, starting to see flashes of the Memphis team that lost to Tennessee again - rather than the team that blew out UCLA, Texas, and MSU in a blitzkrieg run just days ago. Memphis has been trying to answer Kansas's points in the paint with some post-up moves of their own - but Taggert and Dozier, though long, are more face-up types than back to the basket PFs, and they're being resolutely limited to one and done by the incredible rebounding machine that is the Jayhawks.

Oh, the balance on Kansas is incredible. Incredible. Double in on the Kansas big guys - and they kick it out to Mario Chalmers, who is like a ridiculous 47% from beyond the arc, and he knocks it down. When they start shooting 3s - as Memphis has been cold so far - watch out! 13-18!

Crap! Dorsey over the back - his 2nd foul! 9:42! And the howls in the arena rain down like Judgment Day. Is this the end? Is there that much riding on one call??????

Oh, wait . . it was only his first. Ah, no big deal. They're now saying CDR has finally met this match in the 6'6" Brandon Rush. Rose is clearly bothered by somebody. Someone needs to step up or this whole thing is going down the drain.

DORSEY with a STEAL! And cross-court layup! This senior wants to PLAY! Haha, gets right in Aldrich's chest with a hearty thump and scream - though not AT Aldrich - letting them know that the Tigers still got some tooth. A steal! By Rose - then in the rush to beat that damn zone/man switch back upcourt - stolen again by Chalmers! Who lays it up in the blink of an eye. A flying alley-oop DUNK by Darrell Arthur! Transition basketball in its finest! And suddenly I gape: 15-22??? Has Memphis been down so much in the entire tournament???? NO! 8:18. C'mon, boys!!!

Awww, awww, Rose answers. 2 crisp assists to shooters on the wing, 3s raining down from every which direction - and we're back in the hunt! First trip up, he spins into the lane and draws the focus of an entire nation - then kicks it out sharply to Anderson on the wing for the 3. Then - again, slashing into the paint - looking like he was taking on the entire Western Front - and kicking it out to Dozier - whom I didn't know was a 3 point shooter? But who apparently can nail them when left wide open! 21-24 and we're quickly within shouting distance again. 7:25.

Roy Williams with a Kansas sticker on his shirt in the stands? LOL - over our miseries so quickly, eh? OH, there's teamwork! There's heart!!! Dorsey with a BLOCK of Kaun's apparent slip of the screen and wide open layup - Antonio Anderson immediately zips off the other way with it, speeding in for the transition layup with a freight train of players behind him - but NO! ROSE!!!! Flying up to the rim to save that ball! But without enough momentum to put it back - so he comes back to earth and lands right on the baseline, mere micro-inches away from the out of bounds line - and uses his butt to save his balance. For one frail second, he balanced there, frozen, too afraid to move in fear of a whistle. Everybody else freezes too. Nobody bumps him. And then - heart afire with decisiveness - Rose spins around 180 degrees into the air and snaps a quick, super-strong overhead pass out 20 feet to CDR, who is perfectly stationed on the wing, rises to meet it, and goes up for the 3, all in one smooth motion - and BAM! THERE is the LEAD! There is Memphis, with the go-ahead basket! 26-24!!!!!!!!!!!!! 6:21.

28-28 tie at 3:50, and Dorsey, CDR, and Rose are pretty damn tired. I don't think I've seen Rose take a breather yet. At this point, you can no longer deny the depth of talent on the Kansas team. What worked out well for a deep rotation against C-USA is not going to cut it here, and Cal is sticking to his Thoroughbreds, Rose, CDR, and Anderson, pretty much the entire way. 3 guards against 4 - which one would you take? I'll like to think that truly great players can overcome that . . but c'mon. Memphis is already losing the rebounding battle against Kansas' stellar and deeper frontline. Is it possible for its guards to win the battle in the backcourt? Can talent and desire overcome fatigue?

"Where is Rose?" Packer wonders. "He has not made a field goal in 7 minutes." He is only 1 for 4 so far . . and herein lies the problem. He's been cut off on every drive, with a big defender and his own guard defender staying with him and clogging down the lane on every possession, and now he gets caught in mid-air trying to bail himself out - and a turnover! Pass picked off like that! Crap! And in a total reversal of previous games - it is now the Memphis guards who are slipping on the floor as the Kansas guards zoom past them - the Memphis guards who are getting beat on drives and who can't even beat out the Kansas big men for a loose ball careening dangerously towards the wings. Kansas is not exactly playing a zone - but it seems to be some sort of hybrid - and it is potent enough to contain the most dangerous duo in backcourt history. And as the seconds tick off towards halftime - the Kansas team seems to be getting fresher and more aggressive by the minute - and their fans are standing and cheering for their Rock Chalk Jayhawks. These are the bluebloods, the revolving door of talent, the close-your-eyes-and-pick-anyone-and-they-can-be-the-leading-scorer type of club, and the lack of eye-catching wins earlier in the season notwithstanding, the weakest #1 seed notwithstanding. It doesn't matter anymore, none of that matters. If your team can peak on championship night? Then none of the rest matters at all. 28-33, 1:02, timeout Memphis.

And they completely mess up the last possession. They kept the ball for the entire last minute before the half too. What happened? I don't know. Rose dribbles out 25 seconds of it. Then they try something but it's almost stolen - then Anderson has to take a hurried 3 with a hand in his face before the shot clock expires - then Taggert somehow comes up with a miraculous rebound, but still they can't get anything. A screen? Yet another screen for Rose? All that does is make Kaun jump out at Rose and frighten him, double team him, so that he gives the ball up to someone else - and it's scuffled out of bounds with 0.1 left on the clock. Okay . . What do you do with 0.1 left on the clock? Nothing. Buzzer. Endgame. 28-33 halftime.

So either Rose is still sick from the gummy bears - or this Kansas defense is something else. I pick the latter. If he wants to win this game - it has to start with him. That's a little unfair, but that competitor in him has to come out and ROAR. It can't shoot jumpshots. It can't give the ball up. It needs to ATTACK. If I were coach Cal, I'll use the full allotment of time at the half to get that point across - and leave everybody else alone. There's plenty of other things that needs fixing too - but none of that matters, if we don't have Rose.

Second half: Oh, some LIFE!!!!!!!!! Rose takes it strong to the rack - no, he intends to find Dozier waiting there in the wings - and the ultra-lengthy forward dribbles once and then lets that tiger roar with a DUNK! As Kansas turns to go back on offense - Anderson forces a turnover from Chalmers! Gets a big congratulatory slap on the back from Dorsey. Frightening moment as they almost lose it - Kansas, ticked off, applies the double trap on CDR - but Rose recovers it and hands it to Anderson - who, with the shot clock winding down to 5, 4, 3 - takes a three - and HITS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TIE SCORE, 33-33! This is the bloody lowest scoring opening 2nd half I've ever been this excited about! It's a game again!!! 18:52.

Oh, what a beautiful cut by Anderson to take that bounce pass from Dorsey - takes on TWO defenders! AND finishes - AND one! Gorgeous! Couldn't be prettier! LOB to Dorsey! Who finishes with a DUNK, then pulls the ball out of the net and smiles for his Kodiak moment, flashing a wide grin and pointing his finger towards the stands. Thank you, Rose, for the assist. Oops, but then picks up his 3rd foul a couple seconds later, guarding Kaun. Cal hollers and swears along the sidelines and immediately pulls Dorsey for his mistake. 38-39, 15:15.

OH, FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Rose we've all come to see! Grabs the loose ball from a wild shot from Sherron Collins, flies the length of the court, and you can see it in his eyes, he's taking it all the way - and he beats two Kansas defenders up the court for a flying layup that rims in. 42-43, and despite all kinds of shots being missed by Dozier/Taggert, being outrebounded by 8 so far, and having some trouble driving despite Kansas not playing zone, the Tigers are still, almost a bit miraculously, in the hunt. We need more plays like that from Rose. When will he take over? When will it come?

Huh. With a slim lead now, 44-47, Kansas goes to its 2nd set of zone on defense - except now it's a box and one on CDR. Ahhhhh! Some breathing room for Rose! And say hello to Mr. Robert Dozier, the one-man zone breaker. After scoring through the heart of the defense, Rose comes up the court on the next trip and now drives into the jungle again, except this time he makes a dangerous pass to Dozier - who collects it and goes up strong for the basket - and ONE! Oooohhh . . except he can't make the "and one". Is free throw shooting still an issue?

ROSE FOR THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And as the place erupts in wild cheers - the whistle cuts across swiftly, sending the white flag from Self that Kansas is sinking. This damn zone isn't working, is it??? 3 times now, and 3 times the Tigers have broken it and scored. You put a box and one on CDR? So Rose can step back and bury the 3. 49-47 now, with Memphis finally taking the lead after a loooooong time - and Kansas needs a timeout. 8:08.

ROSE! YYYYYYEEEEEEEESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The best play is a broken play! In the sets, Rose seems almost tentative to drive, continuously looking for holes that just aren't there. With a loose ball in his hands? Oh, he becomes a rocket of dynamite! Rose roars up the court, grabbing that rebound and cutting straight through the scrambling defense for the climb to the rim - AND ONE! Oh, how much an open lane - any opening, any seam - can light up his eyes! He reminds me so much of Tony Parker, just a terror in the open court. He is the star attraction, and for so long tonight he's held it in, or rather - Kansas has done a number on him to hold it in. But not anymore. He can't. Kansas has gone cold on the offensive end - and the Tigers have taken full advantage, grabbing every opportunity by the throat. Just a little more than 5 minutes to go - and with that scintillating move - with that nonchalant turn-around-and-walk-off from the basket as the whistle comes - haha, it seems every time Rose makes a big play, Bill Self has to call a timeout to try to ground that freshman back into reality. Hear those fans screaming for you? Hear Billy Packer singing your praises? Oh, oh, how beautiful this spring blooms! And to see the Memphis-blue-clad nation waving their banners, their flags, their programs - oh, oh, Rose!!!! You carry the hopes of a city. Can you fulfill them? 53-47, 5:10, timeout Kansas.

HOW DID HE DO THAT?????????? 3 seconds on the clock - crazy inbounds play - nowhere to go - a defender right in his face - AND he's off-kelter? But he just heaves that shot up there - and as the buzzer sounds - banks it in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOLY FREAKIN' COW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Shot of the game???????? A near impossible lead now, 56-47, 4:16.

Crap - what a mean thing to do, pulling a 1-2-2 zone on us now? With only 3 minutes to go??? With the shot clock winding down, Rose has to take another 3, from almost the same spot as the miracle shot he'd just made earlier - but this one rattles out. OH!!!!!!!!!!! SAVED by Dozier! Then a shaky pass - again, SAVED by Rose! And they work it inside - power forward to power forward - and Taggert with the ball banks it home! Huge shot, because when Kansas rushes down the court and gets blocked - now Memphis has a 7 point lead, 58-51, with a little more than 2 minutes to go - and they have to foul.

They do. They've tried everything in the book. They've tried, even, every junk defense known to man, or at least can be covered within the last 48 hours. Now? Now they will try to make a reality of the myth that Memphis cannot shoot free throws. Rose is the one getting mugged. Oh no! That was only the 6th team foul! Now they mug Dozier. Crap . . .

He hits them BOTH! YAY! 60-51, 2:12!!!

****! Ball stolen away by Kansas! Then kicked out - for the THREE??????? Deadly turnaround of 5 quick points right there, and suddenly we're in danger???? 60-56! Nothing's safe anymore! Still 1:43 left! **** it! How can the clock tick so slow???

They foul CDR immediately, not even bothering to wait for the inbounds play. Cool Hand Luke CDR swishes both. 62-56, but now I'm frightened by Kansas' newfound swagger at the 3. We are guarding their perimeter play like tigers. But - OH NO! Dorsey fouled out! Dorsey fouled out! 1:23 still to go! We need his rebounding strength! And Cal covers his face with his hands - but then swiftly recovers and hurries his team over. Ok, relax, guys. The lead is still yours. It's Kansas that has its backs to the wall. Protect that lead!!!

Oh crap. They foul CDR - and though he looks up with earnest concentration and rocks his body with that rhythmical, tap-shoulder dribble, tap-shoulder dribble thing he has going on - he CAN'T HIT! It was a 1 and 1! And now the Tigers have to defend with their life, 62-58, 1:14!

Ok, so much for that. They must have the mantra in their head not to foul, because Arthur turns around on Taggert and banks home a shot that looked astoundingly easy in 15 seconds flat. The score is now a heart-pounding 62-60, and I don't know what to think. It seems to be anybody's ballgame now. Rose takes the inbounds ball and jogs up the court, the din of the feverish crowd in his ears, and he's waving everyone off - forget it, it's mine now, this lead has dwindled down to 62-60, and there's no way I'm letting us lose. There's still too much clock . . they will get one more possession . . so we need some points here, fast . . and Anderson, after being a shaky recipient of Rose's pass, calls timeout. 0:44 left.

Absolutely nothing good seems to come out of these timeouts - how come? CDR gets the rock - drives - NO GOOD! Wild shot goes nowhere! And now Kansas grabs that ball and is high-tailing it to the other end as if the place was on FIRE! A tangle at the basket! NO CALL! Anderson comes away with it! Run, run, run, there is no other choice, this might be it!!! And out of the left wing guns CDR, with that long pass up from Anderson to him - meets the defender at the basket at 90mph - WHISTLE! FOUL! 2 shots coming up!

But the nightmare becomes a reality. 16 seconds left. The chance to ice the game with the entire world watching. And CDR goes for some dramatics. Missed the first. MISSED THEM BOTH??????????????? WHAT are you thinking????? But oh, oh, oh - Dozier! Saves that ball in a heart-pounding moment that could've killed all their chances - a lifetime of hopes. The ball lands in the hands of Rose - who's promptly double teamed and fouled. PHEW! Now there's only 10.8 seconds left, and I have confidence that our super frosh won't miss.

So Derrick's at the line. Baby - this game is in your hands now. 2 shots. 0:10 left before the celebration starts on Beale Street. You have the chance, to win this game, to win this game of all games - for your team, your city, and for yourself. There is no doubt in my mind that this is the #1 pick in the draft. But it would be infinitely sweeter if he could make these last 2 free throws to ice the game. No way does the Jayhawks deserve to win. They did some things very nicely; they have a boatload of talent; but they are not special enough, not memorable enough, not interesting enough, to deserve the win. This Memphis team - as much as you can disagree with many aspects of how they play - you cannot disagree with this kid right here. Derrick Rose. What must be going through his mind right now? All those childhood dreams, of shooting the shot that wins the game? This is it. The biggest stage. The biggest moment. The biggest 2 shots of your life.

Missed the first???????? C'MON! C'mon, Derrick. The Kansas bench is getting to its feet. They smell hope. Rose never wavers with his eyes - never gets distracted. He's in his own cocoon now. Concentrate. Takes that ball again - raises it high over his head and flexes his muscles - then brings it down again, dribble, dribble, dribble - and then with one forward motion - shoots. Oh thank God! It's GOOD! 63-60! We've got that crucial point at least! Now the onus is on Kansas!

WTF??????????????????#@&#?#!@($@&$)(@$#(%*#)!!! CHALMERS with the THREE???????? 2.1 left??????? Oh no - OVERTIME????????????

Um . . I mean, wow. Good game, Kansas. Er, really great. We have no more Dorsey for the OT! F***! How much does it hurt watching the final game of your college career - the most important one - from the bench? UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rose looks ok. Bloody pissed off, but at least physically ok with his leg/cramp. Between him and CDR, they'd lost the game for Memphis at the FT line, missing 4 of their last 5, and one of them a 1 and 1 opp. No sweat though. Let's play.

Oh, oh, crap. Kansas is going to win. No doubt about it. Rose is damn tired. So is CDR. They cannot get by their man, thus, no driving lanes, and thus, no bloody baskets either. On the other end . . suddenly Kansas is so loose that it can get anything it wants - including a lob and a dunk. Awesome. The clock is ticking down, and now it's not the friendly clock on your side when you have the lead, winking at you; it's the clock of DOOM. Half of the OT is already over - and the Tigers have not yet scored???? 63-69????? What more can go wrong? Rose is walking the ball up the court - and now Cal needs to take a 2nd timeout to try to stop the bleeding. 2:29.

65-69, we've worked so hard to come this far - and its just heartbreaking to see Rush gambol the length of the court like a deer for a freebie dunk - oh, missed it! But Dozier had already flown by and Rush gets his own miss for the second chance shot. "We need a 3, we need a 3," Packer begins chanting ominously, and I suddenly wonder if all those blow-out games hurt Memphis - because now Rose is doing what losing teams do - let the ball roll on the floor to save that one tenth of an extra second, before picking it up, hurriedly waving to Anderson to stop gawking at him and run back on O, when suddenly, out of the corner - a THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A rim-rattling THREE by my new hero CDR! Ah, he has all 5 of Memphis's points so far in the OT! And suddenly, with 58.8 seconds left, we're alive again, 68-71!

Um . . what??????? Sorry, but I agree with Packer here, and we do NOT need to foul. We just need to play 35 seconds of solid, solid defense. We're down 68-71 already, you want to be down further, 68-73? Yes, apparently, we do. CDR fouls bloody Mario Chalmers with 45 seconds to go, and the team that does not shoot 3s particularly well is now trying their own hand at employing that dangerous strategy of trading foul shoots for 3s. Memo to Coach Cal: that only works if they miss!!! Which they do not. 68-73.

Oh, it's over. It's completely over. And the nightmare begins. Rose is staring at the floor as Collins walks victoriously to the free throw line, that light in his eyes as he feels the hum of the crowd . . the sun shining down from the basketball gods. What an epic game. And now - the clock doesn't matter, all the prior 44 minutes of the game doesn't matter - because all of that is done, and the 2 made baskets by Collins at the free throw line just iced it. CDR with a good look at a 3 - "they didn't need a 3," Packer insists - but as it bounces off harmlessly - I don't know, maybe you can blame the coaching a little bit here, the decision-making a little bit there. But in the end - this was David vs Goliath. 2 superstars, Rose and CDR, got worn down in the end by the super depth and talent of Kansas. What was apparent in the beginning of the season with the preseason ratings became frustratingly true. How much hope does that give to the rest of us, stuck in this oil-crazed recession economy? None. The rich get richer. 68-75 final.

Post-game thoughts: You know, everyone is pointing to the 4 missed free throws in the final minute or so of regulation as the reason why the game was lost by Memphis. This is pretty stupid. Yes, ok, they are very important, and missing them was pretty glaring. But they're only that way if the game becomes tight. How did the game become tight? By blowing a 9 point lead with 2:12 to go and letting Kansas score, almost at will, in about 12 seconds flat each trip down. You can't ever relax. You can't ever think that you have it won, because that Miracle Minute of the Duke - Maryland game in 2001 always haunts my memory whenever I see two championship-caliber teams duel it out and one has a "comfortable" lead that was never, in fact, comfortable. They're not ever gonna quit. And when Memphis tried to lengthen the game at the end - they started playing ‘not to lose' rather than to win. And Kansas saw the opening. Kansas wanted to win. And suddenly, it became Memphis trying to stop Kansas from winning, rather than Memphis staying on top and in control for the win. It completely flip-flopped, and it was not just because of the free throws. Kids are not machines. Memphis got out-rebounded too, and it obviously hurt a lot to lose Dorsey and not have him for the OT. Boy, those last 2 minutes were just about the longest in recent memory. Choke job? Definitely. This one hurts a lot.

Kansas was the definition of balance. It had 7 guys play 20+ minutes in the national championship game, and it's got one of everything you could possibly want: 4 guards and 3 big men; 3 seniors, 2 juniors, and 2 sophomores. If you can't win with that much talent and depth, how can you win? The 4 guard rotation was also able to wear down Memphis' 3 guard rotation of Rose, CDR, and Anderson. I really don't think CDR missed those free throws because of the Memphis "inability to shoot free throws" tagline being thrown about all year. It was fatigue, plain and simple. How many minutes did that super duo play on Monday night? 45 + 42 = 87 out of a possible 90. There you go. Add Anderson and that's 129 out of a possible 135. Sure, Rush and Chalmers also played on exhaust fumes, combining for 82 of a possible 90 between them. But did they have to go to the line in the endgame? No.

Who knew, when Brandon Rush tore his ACL prior to the draft last summer, that he would end up leading his team to college basketball's most coveted prize? Depth, athleticism, and talent. You can take 8 years to build that up. And all it takes, is one decision, one decision that is not even yours to make - and it all goes awry. Good luck, Derrick, in the NBA! And Duke - can I circle 2010 as our title run?

Duke vs WVU Game Blog :: NCAA R2 :: My Kingdom for a Center!

astoria26 — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 17:20:18 GMT

Just two days after we squeaked by 15 seed Belmont on a Gerald Henderson coast to coast, we face 7 seed West Virginia in round 2 of the NCAAs. My heart is racing 100 mph. After that uncharacteristic first round performance (all other 2 seeds won with relative ease), we have gotten the usual reassurances: that this is in no way indicative of how Duke will fare the rest of the way, that Belmont played out of their minds, played loose, the crowd was cheering for them, our coach was sick (104 temperature!) and at least some of the players were also coughing afterwards (DeMarcus Nelson), and that we are still hungry, fresh, and confident. All good words. Bobby Knight: "the way [Belmont] moves, cuts, they can play with anybody. They played the game of basketball very very well." Dickie V: "Duke found a way to win. As Jimmy V would say, ‘survive and advance'. Duke needed to win 6 games in this tournament? Now they've only got to win 5." Even better.

Ok, so now we're set for round 2, we're gonna kick some butts, and we're gonna show everyone how Duke basketball is played. G is doing some high jumps before the jump ball, a very good omen. They get first possession - oh, a lucky roll on their first shot! On our first shot . . well, we turn it over. Nelson makes a risky baseline drive to give to Kyle on the opposite end, aaaaand . . he steps on the line. Oooo-kay? Boy, Kyle looks bewildered. Wow, they're getting some very good looks on their possessions - taking Singler right into the lane? Just not finishing. G with a missed 3. WHAT??? Nelson turns it over??? Traveling?

Ok, calm down, calm down. We still have 39 minutes left to play. This is not exactly a 1 seed, guys . . relax, have some patience. I need some fresh air already. OH, FINALLY! SOME POINTS! And it's our gritty point guard, Greg Paulus, who gets the screen from Lance and fires off the THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 3-4, 17:36.

OH NELSON! There's our senior leader!!! Looks to pass . . nobody open . . Singler points to a spot . . and he takes it in himself, lowering that muscular shoulder, driving, driving - then elevating strongly for beautiful right hook. And we take the lead! That is not to be taken for granted anymore. 5-4, 17:00.

Oh, GREAT call. Great call, officials. Wellington Smith with a solid immovable wall on Paulus, just drops him stone cold to the ground as Nichols coasts by, and the whistle comes immediately. A chorus of throaty boos descend upon Smith as the possession arrow swiftly goes the other way (at least, I hope they're booing Smith, and NOT Greg - you can never tell with these anti-Duke crowds). So Smith gets a free pass to the bench with 2 early fouls - do not pass Go, do not collect $200 - as Huggins argues in vain. Greg nods vigorously to his teammates' questions of ‘are you ok?'.

In the slight cloud of chaos that ensues - Greg is dribbling innocently out on the right side - eyes the basket - and somehow G is left completely alone - and you know what that means! OLE OLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ALLEY-OOP FOR GERALD HENDERSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW-EEEE! "Superior athletic ability!"

Haha!!!!! DUKE IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Singler with the hand-off, and Greg just runs to his spot and fires, hand in his face and all - AND HITS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bottom of the net, baby!!!! He's excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pump ‘em up, y'all!!!!! C'mon, cheer for your Duke Blue Devils!!!! 10-0 run!!!!

Whoa. Huggy Bear with some foul words during a timeout, and is hit with a technical. Damn! Just give the game to us, why don'tcha? So Scheyer comes off the bench and enters the game, and with not a second gone by, snags 2 points. 12-4, 15:36. "Well, Bob Huggins is certainly known to be an intense coach. And maybe his team needs something to get their fire started." Sure, alright . . bring it on.

Some teeth-gnashing, as Paulus finds a cutting Lance Thomas with a perfect threading pass - but Thomas can't finish!!!! You're 1 inch away, dude! FINISH! Zoubek with the alert offensive board - but can't muscle his way against Smalligan, shuffles his feet, and it's all over. Turnover. Can one of our guards please always be available by his side, so that he can dump it off before being whistled for the inevitable TO? Kinda like a personal assistant? Just an idea. That ball is kinda valuable.

Wow, great defense from Paulus! Nichols shakes Paulus off, but when the pass soars overhead to a cutting Nichols, Paulus sprints his way over and puts up both hands up high, using his body and his strength to push back against Nichols and stand his ground - and force the turnover! Radical!!!!!

Shoot. Scheyer drives into the lane, finds his path cut off, and gets whistled for the turnover. Nice try though. Sweet! Duke's defense is looking SOLID. 35 seconds of solid, solid work. When Joe Alexander drives - with Singler on him - G rotates over to help, and the two of them pin him down almost on top of the baseline, with G easily blocking his shot attempt. Hell, if it worked against Hansborough, it's gonna be fool-proof against you. Smalligan squirrels for the loose ball, but the shot clock continues to run, and though they swing it around for a 3 point shooter . . it clanks off the rim, and the clock expires. Thank you for playing - next!

The lane opens up for Nolan, and he licks his chops while taking it all the way - but gets fouled. Knocks down both free throws, for a 10 point lead! 14-4, 14:06, and we've held WVU scoreless for 4 full minutes now. They suddenly realize that too, and comes roaring back to life, reeling off 4 quick points, including one off an inbounds play that is quite breathtaking. But we respond right back with defense turning into offense. Singler with a great play to leap up and alter a shot, then grab the loose ball out of the air. Scheyer runs it up the court, looks to shoot, and Alexander looks overmatched, trying to guess where the quicker Scheyer will go and then jumps into the air, boxing Scheyer's shoulder as he comes down and promptly getting the whistle. As Scheyer snickers and steps up to the free throw line, the announcers applaud that "this foul Alexander had on Scheyer was a real foul. He deserves to go to the line." Oh, ok, thanks. Yeah, as opposed to the imaginery fouls that we so often must contend with. Unreal. 16-8, 12:35.

Oh, Paulus, Paulus, Paulus!!!! He gets elbowed in the face and drops down to the ground, but no whistle - they race the ball away from our full court pressure like a bottle rocket, gets it in the hands of the always-dangerous Alexander for 3 - nope! - but they grab the rebound too - and here comes Paulus to slap it away! A STEAL! And quick as lightening, he's off to the other end, G running with him, ALL FIVE WVU guys chasing after him, a pack of bloodhounds chasing one lonely fleet little fox with the ball. Crap - fastbreak too fast! And the ball slips away/is slapped away and out of bounds. Grrrrrrrr.

ANOTHER STEAL! G this time, and now it's in the backcourt, where we have more of a head start. Singler is the running mate this time, and G sends him the bounce pass - fouled! Da'Sean Butler with his 2nd. "This is going to test the creativity of Bob Huggins on the sidelines." Yeah, I hear WVU has a thin bench? Good luck with that, dude. We are perfect on the charity stripe so far, 8 for 8, as we once again grab a 10 point lead, 18-8, 12:02.

WVU goes small, with Joe Mazzulla at the controls, and it works like heck. They make a 7-0 run to cut it down to 18-15 in a hurry, with Alexander in there making a 3 point play and a beautiful finger roll as he got past Thomas in the lane. The cheering for them gets louder and louder. Uh oh, Singler with his 2nd foul, guarding Alexander, 10:00. David McClure comes in for him. Hmm, so far, LT has been unsuccessful, Z's still not ready for primetime, and Singler with 2 fouls. Can McClure do better?

King all alone in the corner! But no - first shot is short. Maybe too wide open? Awww, Paulus with the drive and floater! Iron will! YAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! KING!!!!!!!! This time, when Paulus finds him in the corner again - he fakes the 3, takes his defender off balance, then takes 2 dribbles inside the circle and snags a difficult, 15 foot jumper from the elbow. "Mr. Greenlight!" I am liking this cushion that we have once again: 24-17, 8:01.

"I tell you what, Duke's defense is so good. I can't imagine the difference between Thursday and this one. They are denying the first pass . . WVU already has 2 guys in foul trouble, Smith and Butler, 2 very athletic forwards." I tell you what, our offense is pretty darn good too. Hee hee, G with the long loping stride, has the rebound, wants to try that coast to coast thing again - but oh! Blocked? Hit the rim? Lance with a nice post-up move! AND NELSON! Just when Scheyer looked to be in trouble on the far right wing, pinned down by 1 and now 2 defenders - Nelson flashes into the paint, receives the pinpoint pass from Jon, waits calmly for his defender to excuse himself by flying out of bounds, and then easily ratchets up for the deuce.

"Look at how tired West Virginia is. 4 guys and it took 8 seconds to bring the ball upcourt." And as Mazzulla tries to cut and trips himself up trying to reach for the pass that zips out of bounds, "when you are fatigued, you make mistakes like that. The normal rotation is off sync with Butler and Smith with 2 fouls each." Singler, with 2 fouls, checks back into the game.

OH, pretty! Scheyer is so crafty! He knows he wants to find Singler, but he's such a threat himself to score that they all key in on him, and as he dribbles, waits, tangles a bit with the ball on the free throw line . . he finds the opportune moment for Singler to wiggle free, and then BAM! The pass, the catch, and the release. Boom, boom, boom! Layup, and we're done. Gorgeous.

Boy, look at Alexander work! Their 3 pointer again is off the mark - but Alexander is right under the basket, and he somehow grabs the rebound. Alarmed, both Singler and McClure front him, trying to shove him out of bounds, both hands up high - but Alexander just pushes, pushes, his eyes peering straight up for the slightest seam to get that shot off. And it goes! "He should get FIVE POINTS for that effort!" Well! He is pretty damn good, isn't he?

Scheyer answers right back with an authoritative baseline drive and 7 footer. His first points from the floor? Wow. 34-27, 1:17 left, and Paulus with the ball dribbles casually over to Coach K for a word and a shamrock shake, some magic words, then crosses the line and lets the ball dribble by itself as he crosses his arms and yells said words to his teammates. Hmm, wonder what they are connotating? A 3 by Scheyer. No good. Ball falls right into the hands of Paulus! Who lets it fly for another 3 point try. Awww - nope, no good either. Is that 2 for 9 now on threes??? When we started off so hot? They run the other way and Scheyer fouls Butler. 34-29. Then we throw it away??? Damn! Paulus gets caught up in the air and finds no one to throw it too. They run the other way . . scramble for the loose ball . . out of bounds . . to WVU. 2.8 seconds left - and they can't hit from 3. Phew! 34-29 halftime.

Second half: OOOOOOHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! G with another DUNK-A-THON! Way to start off the half! And this one courtesy of Lance Thomas, who feeds Gerald in the post, with just one defender on him - never, never enough - and he elevates for the DUNK! "Henderson starts the second half with a slam and a look. Did you see the look?" You mean the "how'd you like that!" look? Oh, I wish I could see it.

WVU is 0-8 when they are trailing at the half. Nice. Oh, a STEAL by Singler! Nelson grabs it and runs - but can't finish! That's 2 close ones now that he's been unable to finish. Still, I like this game very much. Whoever said WVU can't be turned over? Hmmm, and now Nelson, all alone in the corner, can't hit the three. We've been having some tremendously, startlingly OPEN looks on 3s today . . just can't knock them down! If we did, we'll be up 12 or 15 rather than just 7 right now; our defense is that good. Wonder what's wrong?

WOW. GREAT D by Duke! 35 seconds of running WVU in circles, trying to find openings, and they make a pass here, a look there, no one getting open even a hair - and finally they take a drive, but it is way, way too late, with the buzzer sounding as the shot is desperately heaved up. Nope. Doesn't count. Better luck tomorrow! "Credit Duke! It looks like they've got 7 guys out there right now."

Then on the other end - we do not look much better - but we do wind up with 2 offensive boards! Nelson is looking, looking, G looks too, but neither can find a clean path to the goal, and finally Nelson gets to the elbow and tries a floater - no! But Lance with the board! Henderson tries a baseline jumper - no! But Singler amongst a pack of guys grabs the board - and is bodily fouled. That's 3 on Smith.

Uh oh. Airball three from G? Who worked so hard to get open! I mean, nobody was within 10 feet of him! Then they race down court for a transition 3, and it's danger time. 37-34, 16:03, and the place is going bonkers. We are 2 of 11 from 3 point land, which is a nightmare. And Nelson, knowing that he must answer the call, that he must somehow find a way of penetrating into the lane no matter what the odds - finds it cut off and turns around . . turnover. Crap! You can see the frustration all over his face. 2 of 9 shooting so far for him? Bully.

SHHHIIIITTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 35 seconds of GREAT defense, and then the dagger! Ruoff is pinned down in the far corner by Scheyer almost to the point of the bench - and he has to toss up a hopeless three - but it hits! **** IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 37-37 tie???????? They get a miracle shot when we can't hit for our life, even if left WIDE OPEN????? Arrrrrgggghhhhhhh!!! At least it's only 15:03, still plenty of time left.

Alarm bells are ringing in Gerald Henderson's head. He takes it personally, and drives to the basket with only one goal in mind - ATTACK. Ugh, he's fouled. But boy, when he steps up to the free throw line and misses the first - the cheers that erupt from the pro-underdog crowd now seethes at him. Taking a deep breath . . he lines up the second, and makes it. But already the announcers are turning against them, pulling now for the underdog too, calling Duke "rattled" by WVU's transition threes. That is "three", thank you. Singular, not plural. But now on their end, with every bit of momentum on their side - Alexander slips by Singler and gets a clear lane to the goal, and G tries to block it - but gets called for the foul instead. Count the basket! 3 point play again by their golden boy Alexander! "Boy, has the emotion in this building FLIP-FLOPPED!!" the announcers roar with glee. As the thunderous applause rains down upon the Mountaineers. Relax, Devils. Feed off that hatred. Imagine they are Carolina. We will wear them down. 38-40, 14:38.

Oh no. In the caldron of emotion right now, WVU, overeager, feeling it, hopping up and down, commits 2 fouls in a row on Singler and G to disrupt our offense. Off the 3rd reset - Nolan does a drive-by - but misses! Singler is there for the key rebound - but NO! Push-off! FOUL! Crap! 3rd on Kyle! Then on the other end - Scheyer exacts revenge, draws a charge from Ruoff - his 3rd. "Nobody wants to go home!" The announcers cry over the noise.

Singler drives on Alexander - but is BLOCKED! The cameras capture Alexander talking smack to the freshman as well - but WHY is Singler getting blocked on every drive he attempts nowadays???? Is it because he's lost his foot speed? Oh, Scheyer with a beautiful pull-up jumper! Smooth as butter! Ties it up, 40-40, 13:25 to go. DAMN! Alexander gets free from McClure, and hits a THREE! Then - Nelson is BLOCKED! By Alexander! This dude is everywhere!

Oh, no, no, no - Singler with his fourth foul??????? 12:43 still left? C'mon! You know they're calling every stupid little thing! Arrrrgghh!

****. But the trouble does not end there. Nolan cannot hit the 1 and 1. They grab every offensive board known to man, and they make their bonus attempts too. 40-45, Scheyer is now at the point, advancing up the ball, we need to stop the bleeding - but, WTF? Whistle? LANCE?????? Awww, offensive foul? And as the ball swings quickly the other way - the crowd is just baying for blood, their throaty roars drowning out the frustrated looks on the Duke players' faces. This cannot be it. This cannot be our last stand. If our 3s aren't falling, then attack! attack! and attack! They are calling every single thing, WVU is in foul trouble, and you have to take advantage of that! They are not deep. If you can get Mr. Golden Boy over here in foul trouble, or get Smith off the floor too, then at least we may be able to wear them down. And Nelson. You've got to try harder. By that I mean less forcing shots and dropping that shoulder, and more using all your wiles and all your 4 years of experience to help us out. You know that we suck when you don't come to play? Oh oh oh . . and then they blow right through our defense for a layup. Classic. 40-47, and Coach K has seen enough. Timeout, Duke, 11:43.

There it is. Smith with his 4th foul, 11:04. But we don't capitalize. I mean - C'MON! You get two timeouts, and you come out of them with nothing better than Paulus trying back-to-back long threes? To run our tally up to 2 for 13? That's our answer?

Nice! Nelson with the rebound, is immediately double-trapped and shrink-wrapped down against the baseline, gets so frustrated waiting for the whistle to blow that he leaps into the air and bounces that ball hard out of bounds off the WVU player. There. Now go to hell.

THERE IT IS! 3rd foul on Alexander! And it was Scheyer, doing what he's been doing better and better nowadays, driving into the lane and then finishing despite a whack on the arm from Alexander. AND ONE! Oh, Greg hugs him! The Duke section standing up and cheering for him! That was our first bucket since - god, when? 4 min ago? 43-47, 9:23.

Whoa . . Nelson is only 3 for 16 today????? That is beyond morbid. Makes 1 of 2 at the line . . and then on the other end, picks up 2 fouls in a hurry. ****. That Mazzulla kid too quick for him? A frustrated, shut-down Nelson is NEVER good for our team. 44-51, 8:36, and the bleeding continues. If we somehow win, with these kind of numbers? It'll be nothing short of a miracle.

Awwww, G! G answers with a quicksilver baseline drive - and REVERSE! Awesome! Then Lance quickly reverses that smile off our face with a foul on Alexander, trying to tie him up. Uh, no - that'll be a reach-in. Three on Lance. **** - everything is going WVU's way. Everything. If they'd wanted a genie in a bottle, they would get that too. Alexander only makes 1 of 2 at the line? No prob-lemo. They'll just grab the offensive board. LANCE!!!!!!! C'MON! Foul #4 on you? Do you WANT to go home?????

So now Kyle must come back in, earlier than what Coach K wanted. Let's hope to God that he does not foul out. This is not a good strategy. We are cold from 3 point land - woefully, bewilderingly, disgustingly so - so what do we do? Shoot some more threes?????? Oh, let's!! Nelson with one. Cling! Scheyer with one. Cling! Singler is in there - can we please get him a touch or two before he inevitably fouls out? We have missed 13 consecutive shots from beyond the arc! Please grab a score sheet the next time you want to chat with your coach and read up!

Hey, G with a great STEAL! Tries to save it in vain but can't, as it flies out of bounds. Great, great effort though. It's a weird noise level right now: a mix of "Let's Go, Duke!" commingling with boos. The Duke section behind the bench is on their feet, clapping and cheering, trying to rally the Blue Devils on, but it's a small contingent by far.

Can we cut this s**** out????? No one wants to drive, so Paulus takes yet another long three - and once again, it's short. "Tired legs," the announcers say ominously. This is starting to look like Illinois in the 2005 championship final, so stymied by Carolina's big inside presence that they prayed to God to bail them out with threes. It didn't work then, and - despite WVU not having any kind of similar inside presence - it's not working out now. We've never made a comeback without hitting our 3s. Never. And now with every tick of the clock winding down . . and with no appearance from the Blue Devils in changing their ways - I am sagging deeper and deeper into the couch. They are about to shoot themselves out of this tournament. Not just this ballgame - but this tournament, this great Madness of March, this whole season. Nelson will end his career with 3 alarmingly bad games. The whole team will end this season with 3 terrible games from beyond the arc. And it will be to a 5 seed, a 15 seed, and a 7 seed. Embarrassing. Do you not even want a crack at 3 seed Xavier? At 1 seed UCLA? . . . Kyle?

Remember how giddy everyone was when the brackets came out? Giggling with glee at the thought of sidestepping such intense 3 seeds as Louisville and Stanford, then smiling when Xavier had to fight for its life against 14 seed Georgia? Remember? That was all of 6 days ago. How can you tell me now . . that we're already done? In none of our dreams, did we dare imagine this. Down 46-54 to a 7 seed with 5:43 left, and seeing no hope. None.

Because WVU is now laughing at us. Yet ANOTHER backdoor??????? The antidote to our pressure D!$&@#*&*$#%! Heartbreaking! Then - a backbreaking three by Ruoff! It's over. It is clearly over. 49-60???????? And, now, finally, the notion of rescuing ourselves by our 3s are kaput. G drives!! Promptly gets fouled. WVU is very smart, fouling G every time he gets anywhere near the basket to stop our momentum and confidence. If he's our only hope - and he starts getting frustrated at not being able to finish - then we have no hope of making a comeback. Heehee! Lance is frowning like a demon right now from the bench. Glad to see some anger from him - though why does it NEVER translate onto the court? 51-60, 4:23.

Oh Jesus Christ. Perfect timing. With such a commanding lead, WVU plays stallball, and though we defend our tails off, they grab offensive boards like they have magnetized paws, hogging an entire minute and then some of our precious clock to themselves. It is beyond over at this point. I mean - we are hopelessly being outrebounded, 26-43. No turnover advantage whatsoever. 3 point shooting down the drain. And the most frustrating thing is that it's not like WVU is a brilliant club that's doing anything spectacular defensively. It's us that's the problem. Those are WIDE OPEN shots. They're just not going down! And then, on top of that, we take some more long jumpshots, with no offensive boards in sight if we miss. I just . . I don't know what to say. It is so, so heartbreaking. If the team that you love goes out of the tournament . . then I could care less, frankly, what any other team does. The whole beauty of March just goes right down the tubes.

I think desperation calls for desperation, don't you think? Zone? Full court pressure? Zoubek? We are down ELEVEN. How are we gonna get back into it without 3 point shooting? HOW????????

Oh no. Another foul on Duke. More points for them to build onto their lead. And they don't miss a thing from the line. When he hears the whistle, G covers his face with his hands in despair. But look! Look at Kyle with a nifty spin move in the lane and a double-pump to draw the foul, the 4th on Alexander! NICE!!! Can he leave the game now, please? Singler at the line, but we're still down 51-64, 2:50 left.

Full court pressure now - but they beat it pretty easily with high passes, looking to run away from us for an easy bucket - but OH! Ill-adviced decision to reverse it out, trying to milk the clock - and Scheyer with the STEAL! G knows what to do with it - push, push, push! - and after his heroics in the Belmont game, they are not going to let him finish one iota. Fouled, on his way to the bucket. Well, bye bye Da'Sean Butler. You're gone.

But Gerald does not make a single free throw. Meanwhile, the shortest guy on the floor, Mazzulla, gets his mitts on his 150th rebound, and Paulus fouls him. Of course, he makes both free throws. Oh, finally. About 10 minutes too late. G with a three pointer that finally goes in. So there is no moving basket, huh? It really is there? 55-66, right back to where we started, oh, 5 min ago. But now, there's just 1:54 left. No chance in hell. Timeout to drag out the pain a little bit more.

The crowd is on their feet. They play keep-away, and Paulus is forced to foul. And now Nelson comes off the floor from his final career game. To the stinging ring of cheers for the opponent in his ears. Terrible day. Terrible shooting. Terrible performance for him. But Greg is still on the floor, still fighting. Races up the court and drills a three from the top of the key, 25 feet out, in about 4 seconds flat. Very thankful for that, but we are still parked at 58-68, 55 seconds left.

Ok, so now the 3 point shots fall? How cruel is fate? Nolan with another one, despite a hand in his face. A forced turnover. A nice offensive put-back. But yeah, it's over. 67-73, no quit in the end to at least close the gap a little in the score, but . . it is way, way too late. So. The Belmont scare was not an anomaly. The NC State scare was not an anomaly. The Clemson loss . . this loss . . 5 losses in our last 11. All not aberrations. The bench gave us no lift. Mazzulla had a career game for them. Kyle with some untimely fouls that really limited him . . and oh, oh - DeMarcus Nelson. The look on his face, as he walked the post-game line, was just - awful. Blank. Almost expressionless, closed off - but wrestling with monumental hurt and disbelief. I want to cry. But I can't. I won't. These kids played their hearts out today. They really wanted to prove something. But the shots just did not fall. And the rebounding differential: a heartbreaking 27-47. This, when the other team was not a big team at all. Not by far. O, my kingdom for a center!

Oh, you know the vultures are circling in already. The lion has fallen. Doug Goettieb on ESPN News: "Stunning? Is it really stunning? I think there's several levels to this. Since winning the championship in 2001, Duke has yet to be a top 4 seed (talent-wise). Whether its because of recruiting, or players leaving early . . " WVU players, as reported by The New York Times, when told there's 8 McDonald's All-Americans on the Duke roster: "Really? Who???" The headline on SI.com: "Down Goes Duke". And I don't even want to touch the boards.

I understand the concern. This is our second quick exit in 2 years now, and this year was especially puzzling because we had such a red-hot start, 22-1, 10-0 in the conference. Usually after a loss I can write an entire term paper on why we lost and what we need to do better. But, this one? Our very last game? Let me just say that no other game this year has so prepared me for the bitter result at the end than this one. I could see it from a mile away. I knew it by the 8 minute mark. And thus, I'm not as bitter/angry/sad as I usually am when we lose. I don't feel like dissecting it too much either. I'm just going to let it go.

Watching the post-game presser . . my God, the look on G's face . . or the 2 seconds I could see of it, he had it down for the majority of the time. Here was our hero from the Belmont game, and he could not even lift his head to face the reporters. It was so heartbreaking. And suddenly, I didn't care anymore. I mean . . who cares how they got all those rebounds? Who cares about strategy, rotation, who should've played over whom . . .

Our season is over. It's the worst feeling in the world. And I have nothing but thanks for our players. To see Gerald, with so much talent, not even look up from the podium . . C'mon. Let him go. Just - let this one go. We don't need to dissect it to death. It's fine. It's a game, and it should stay that way.

My heart goes out to DeMarcus Nelson, our senior captain. Thank you for leading the team to a most memorable, 28-6 season - and good luck, on whatever you do in the future. I am sure you'll make it to the NBA!

Pittsburgh Out-Toughs Louisville in Garden :: 76-69 OT

astoria26 — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 03:08:10 GMT

Wow. Watching Pitt and Louisville battle - it was just so reminiscent of Pitt - Duke, and the toughness that I saw there in December - at the time, loved/hated - and now, here, I suddenly loved. What a team. Individually, these are not great players. They're not the highest recruited players, not the McDonald's All-American, won't wow you with any one thing they do. But together . . together they operate as a unit on the highest level possible. It's a marvel, watching them. They just seem to know what's needed to get done, and when that clock ticks down to the last 2 minutes of regulation, or the last 3 minutes of overtime, they just go about their business. Never bats an eye. Never panics. They are able to get their stops, makes Louisville adjust their shot, grabs all the loose balls, all the free throws that counted (9 of 9 in the end). Down 1 with 13:51 to go, they went on a run, then Louisville went on a run of their own, and Cards, fresh and deep, look confident. The announcers are saying how nobody can match up with their 6^th man, Earl Clark. They appear to be able to run away from Pitt. Louisville was up 4 with 2:40 to go, with all the momentum on their side.

But Pitt comes right back. They don't budge. They hold Louisville to without a field goal for more than 2 full minutes while they tie it up, while they get the go-ahead, and suddenly they've wiped that smile off the Cards' face and made them play catch-up! Unreal! If Blair had hit his free throws at the end, they might've won it in regulation. Instead, the team that had to play an extra game last night came roaring out in OT - to forcefully claim the lead, AND the game - from the higher-seeded Cardinals. Sosa, Caracter, Padgett's back, the long, lean, almost-double-double Earl Clark off the bench, Terrence Williams, almost any other night a triple-double threat, he's supposed to be the best athlete on the floor, wasn't he? The whole team? They were going to wear Pitt down, down, down?

Yet, they lost. Both teams had a lot of NYC-area kids, and during one timeout it was NYC darling Edgar Sosa who had the long face, while Levance Fields on the other end was smiling. This, when Sosa and the Cards still had a great chance. But he just couldn't see any light. Credit that, to the toughness of Pitt. This is the same Edgar Sosa that I watched last year go up against a veteran Texas A&M squad, with A.C. Law, and almost single-handedly will his team to victory. How much has changed here? Wow. Big props to Pitt. I'm glad we played them, and that Coach K scheduled them in the Garden. Big-time game for a young Duke squad, against a program that's very quietly built a stellar record in the last few years. 6 Big East title games in 7 years! That's insane! Will they do it again this year? 76-69 OT, with the semi-final game tomorrow night.

Duke at NC State Game Blog - Coach K's Memorable 800th Win!

astoria26 — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:25:14 GMT

Is it March yet???? Is it the final stretch before the Madness?? All around the nation, games were being decided by 2 points, by overtime, bubble teams scrambling for marquee wins, underdog teams pulling out all kinds of monumental individual career highs (Rice! Singletary!). But in Raleigh, we're not going to need a miracle. We're back on the right track. After 2 road losses, we buckled down and came up with a fantastic defensive effort in the GT game to get back in the race for the ACC title. No, this game won't come down to a must-win for some post-season tournament hope - it is for something far greater. It's a must-win, for one extraordinary coach - and the team that he's put together that defies all preseason expectations. For a team, one year removed from a 22-11 season, to be talking #1 seed possibilities - is just mind-boggling. How many of us had dared to dream this big when this season began? How many of us still remember arguing on the boards about how Duke could possibly beat UNC ("that is why the games are played"), or the difference between believing we can go to the Final Four (far-fetched, but allowed) to actually thinking we can go (unthinkable)?

One man did: Mike Krzyzewski. He has taken Duke this year - and actually made them underrated! No small feat! And today, he is going for his 800^th career win. Whichever Wolfpack we will see today - the team that gave us hell in the first half back on Jan 31, or the one that's lost 6 straight since, getting no closer than 10 points in any of them? Doesn't matter. We will be ready. If college basketball is a game of emotions - hey, just look at what Indiana did to Michigan State when told they might lose their coach, Kelvin Sampson. We will be ready. Senior Day or not.

Courtney Fells attacks Kyle Singler on the very first possession and draws a blocking foul in 14 seconds flat. UGH! They go ZONE on Duke, a 2-3 eerily similar to what Miami employed so well, and now let's see if Duke had learned anything from that game? We pass the ball around, set some screens, Paulus draws 2 defenders because of his ability to drill the 3, and then he sends it to Singler at the top of the key for a long 3 - too hard - but the rebound bounces off to Thomas, who gives it to Nelson for the point-blank layup - missed! but Henderson grabs the rebound and goes right into attack mode! Fouled. 2-2.

Oh my - HEY! Son of a ****! Greg is bleeding under his right eye. The blood is quickly spilling over the wound, and he wipes it off without a word, getting up in a maelstrom of hate. The NC State crowd is booing him, loudly - are they blind, or heartless, or both? And as he jogs back to the bench, he turns around to say something, or react to something, with a withering look that all but screams "Hey! Back off! Let me know how you feel after you get socked in the face." As they show the replay: it is the same old trick, and the kid should be tossed for this second attempt. In the first NC State game, Javier Gonzales swings a vicious forearm to dislodge Greg from his side - right in front of the Duke bench. No call. Greg goes to the bench with a groggy look, but later comes back to scorch them with 5 three-pointers. In this game, barely 2 minutes in, Gonzales pulls the exact same kind of crap. Sick of Duke's full-court pressure, he swings his elbow right into Greg's face - and again, this foul does not get called what it rightfully is - intentional. Maybe even flagrant. The announcers agree that it's way out of line. "That looked like an intentional foul." "Sure was." But of course, as we go back to the game, no such foul is called. Play on. 2-4, 18:40.

Off the inbounds play, Nelson is promptly fouled by Tracy Smith, a guy I didn't even know was on the team, much less in the starting lineup. That's 4 fouls on 4 possessions, not even counting Gonzales' on Paulus. Nelson knocks down the first . . and the second! Hurray, Nelson! They show Greg being patched up on the bench, and the announcers give him props for wanting to get back into the game, saying "It hurts Mom more than anyone! I assure you." Sure . . go tell that to Singler, who has an ACC-high of 21 stitches so far.

5^th foul on 5 possessions now, as Courtney Fells gets loose and Gerald Henderson flies in to swat the ball away, but gets his hands too, and Fells goes down hard onto the floor. For a brief second I'm afraid that he'll get a bloody nose or something, and then Henderson's "reputation" from last year will wrongly influence the officials to . . never mind. Thank God Fells is fine as he gets up. Sinks both free throws.

Oh, that's crazy. Absolutely insane. Nolan Smith runs with Gonzales trying to pressure him, and I can't even see nothing, but they call a foul. Coach K is understandably livid - throwing an elbow to demonstrate the injustice of the foul on Paulus being equated the same as this tiny cheap foul by our freshman. Play goes on. Wow, Gavin Grant under all kinds of pressure by Nelson buries an off-kilter 15 footer! Then Gonzales trips Nolan, sending him flat onto the floor, and finally we get rid of him with 2 fouls to the bench. 4-8, 17:39.

I hate this zone. It's so hard to play against, we can't drive and kick, and it sure ain't pretty to watch. It will contain us to the low 70s in the score, if that. But Greg answers back emphatically with a THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Let's get that heated up!!! A looong 3, with a hand flying in his face too! Then Kyle, having missed his first 3, is not going to go 1 for 6 anymore, and, zone or not, bullies his way inside, gets the ball, doesn't want to settle for some turnaround jumper, and continues to attack the basket against the 6'7" svelte Grant all the way in before drawing the foul. As he's shooting his free throws . . huh. A huge round of applause erupts, and I'm looking around for the celebrity that must've just stepped into the game. Ah ha - Ron Weasley from the Harry Potter movies is on the squad! That's definitely someone we didn't scout! As Ron, under the moniker "Trevor Ferguson", with a head full of moppy-red hair, steps to the free throw sidelines, Kyle sinks his second free throw. We're perfect at the line so far! 9-10.

Brandon Costner is in, and immediately swipes the ball away from Paulus, 20 feet in front of their goal. S***! But we dish it right back and draw the offensive charge. Paulus then gets too aggressive with 2 consecutive misses - both too early in the shot clock and too hard, bouncing off the back iron each time. We are air-tight defensively, though, with Zoubek scaring the heck out of a NC State guy and then Greg taking a charge from their backup PG, Marques Johnson, who now also collects 2 fouls and goes to the bench. Holy cow, did Fells just block Zoubek?

Nelson is whistled for an offensive foul, his second, and must sit at the 13:01 mark. This is not good; they are getting anything they want, while we are . . 1 of 10??? Is that right? As Nolan misses . . we're taking shots too fast, too hurried, and too many long jump shots. Have some patience! Let's get some ball movement and exploit this zone! As big Z finally ends the drought with a put-back. Henderson with that great loping stride coming up the court, is determined to right the ship - and attacks the heart of the zone defense, throwing up a last-minute runner as the whistle is blown that goes IN! Awwww - NO BASKET??? Why the hell not? Oh, whatever, foul before the shot. I'll rather have the shot. But G erases my worries with 2 great free throws. 13-15.

JJ Hickson gets free for an easy deuce, but Jon Scheyer penetrates and single-handedly folds the zone defense from a 2-3 into a 0-5, herding almost everyone back into the low block, before sending a breathless pass out to Henderson, who fires - and HITS!!!!!!!!!!!!! THREE-BALL! "Mm-mm!" The announcer says, because there are no words to describe this - hilarious!

G loved that trick by Scheyer, and emulates him the next trip down, driving right into the heart of the defense and folding them like an accordion to finish at the rim. 20-21, 10:17. D-Marc now comes in for G, and immediately, he makes his presence felt with a deadly THREE! Transition basket, before that damn defense is set! For the LEAD, Markie! "You leave that guy alone and you can say good night!' 23-21, our first lead of the day, 9:51.

The offense is finally starting to come alive. First, Kyle Singler does a great defensive job on Hickson, putting up a wall in front of him and making him lose the ball out of bounds. Then Paulus with a snap pass to Nelson underneath the basket for a layup - our 6'4" guard, posting up! Kyle misses a soft 6-footer, but the next time down takes it more aggressively to the hoop and draws the foul on Hickson, sinking both free throws. This is an astounding statistic: both teams are hitting free throws at a 100% clip! Duke: 12 of 12. NC State: 10 of 10. As Thomas draws the offensive charge from Hickson to help out Zoubek with the double team - great job, Lance! - he's wearing a black bandage around his right wrist? Oh no - is this another unannounced injury? That's now 2 fouls on JJ Hickson as well, 8:01 remaining, and he sits.

Oh, great overhead pass from Nolan to Zoubek, who almost cannot believe it - he's wide open! - and he does a double take before putting it up there, almost disappointed that he isn't challenged more! Yo, Brian! Hickson's out! No one's gonna block you anymore if you go up there strong - and fast! 29-26!!!

Ugh, I spoke too fast. Gonzales takes a 3 and nails it - right in Nolan's face! Then - he blows by Nolan and no one rotates over??? We are one and done at the other end, Thomas can't make a zero-range put-back, and it's 29-31 in a heartbeat. Nolan with a tough pass up high to Zoubek, who can't handle it, and that's another 35-second shot clock wasted in about 2. They get a slam at the other end. This is alarming: Duke has only made 7 of 22 field goals??? While NC State only needs 14 to make 10. Wow. Utterly unreal. In that light, being down 29-33 is almost miraculous. 6:29.

McCauley with a 3 point play - man, he's showboatin' and stompin' like he's never gotten a 3 point play before! - and now the deficit is a dangerous 31-38 with 4:49 left. They are hitting 71% - yes, 71%! I'm aware that we usually allow a high percentage of 2s around the basket, due to our lack of interior defense - but where is our trump card? Where is the havoc we generally wreck on opposing backcourts to negate that high percentage allowed? This is not exactly a name-brand backcourt we're facing, guys! Ah, Scheyer! Who comes to the rescue by drawing the 3^rd foul on Fells and stops the bleeding with a pair of free throws. 33-38, 3:47. Is that a piped-in wolf howl in the RBC Center I hear?

Duke is now trying a 2-3 zone ourselves. Give you a little taste of your own medicine! Well, what do you know, they hit a 3. Way to go. 33-41?? Henderson spins, shoots, it doesn't work, but King grabs the offensive board and kicks it out to Scheyer, who drains the THREE! 36-41. Paulus then tries a 3, but his shot has been awful all night. OH, HENDERSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! REJECTION CITY! From what looked like a surefire dunk - G is there to send that out of the gym - and as we pick it up and go the other way - Paulus finally hits with a good-looking THREE from the top of the circle! 39-41!!!!

We go back to zone, but King is called for a foul trying to get the steal. Then he draws one on the other end from Horner, but . . wow. Poor kid can't buy one. First miss at the line by either team tonight. Misses BOTH?? Scheyer draws a foul and gives us 2 more, but now we go to a 1-2-2 press, and they beat it with ease, getting an uncontested layup at the other end. It is now 41-47, and the crowd is just going berserk. Is an upset of the #6 team in the country in the offing? Can a 4-10 team beat a 11-2 team? Can it???? Timeout, Duke, 47 seconds left.

KING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH, SWEET JESUS! He FINALLY gets one! A deep three from the corner from a Henderson kick-out, and Taylor King is on the board! 44-47. 22 seconds left, they hold for the last shot, and our zone forces a 3 from Ron Weasley, who can't hit. Halftime, and that wolf howl is sounding a little better and better with each glance at the score.

Second half: First possession for Duke, Paulus comes out on fire and a great drive into the paint, gets the runner - but crap, offensive foul? Greg claps his hands in frustration. They get a put-back at the other end, but we don't care, we're running the floor, G sees the zone defense nowhere to be found and cackles with delight, zeroing in like a cat to a mouse for the DUNK - OH! But fouled!!! UGHHHHH! Yet he won't be denied, sinking both free throws despite all those waving flag balloons in the endzone. 46-49.

OHHHHHH, SINGLER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just taps that ball out of Fells' hands and out in front of him, one smooth motion, no look back, no scramble, no sweat even, just blazing up the court and then the emphatic DUNK! OOWWWHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Duke is flexing its muscle! 48-49.

Nelson picks up his 3^rd foul, over the back, 18:35. Singler wants the ball. Claps his hands for it from Henderson, but gives it back when he doesn't see anything. Next trip - he drives right inside, spins, handles, gets the mop-haired kid all kinds of confused and gets right up to the backboard and kisses it off the glass. "The handle! The delivery! The smooch!" Awww, beautiful pass from Paulus to Nelson threading through the running defense - but Nelson can't finish!

Oh, s***. They make us pay on the double team, hitting 2 consecutive threes from either corner, and suddenly the deficit is 53-61 with 5 minutes gone. Can't believe it. Who are these people? Aren't they supposed to be 4-10???? Did they just decide to roll all their energy into one against us?? As the wolf howl permeates the gym, the crowd goes nuts, baying for an upset. C'mon, Devils. Shore up. Take them off the dribble. Attack that zone! C'mon, Nelson! This is March now! You gonna let them walk all over you?

Ron - sorry, Ferguson - with the put-back? "He's not supposed to do that!" Seconds after they show Gonzales having reached his career high with 13 points despite there still being 15 minutes left in the half . . what has this game become? 55-61 already, on track to the 90s? And we can't keep up! As they kill us with another transition 3 from Gonzales - it is 55-66. The deficit is the largest of the game so far, at ELEVEN. WOW. I am speechless. What's going on? Do we not want to win number 800 for Coach K? Do we not care about winning the ACC conference outright?

Oh, we care. We care very much. Singler runs the floor and raises his hand to show he's wide open, and Henderson gets him the ball low in the paint, where all he has to do is eye the basket and put it up. 57-66. Off a deadball, Coach K immediately sends in 3 fresh bodies: Nolan, DeMarcus, and Taylor. It doesn't help though. McCauley burns our interior defense twice, once with a step-through and layup, and once with an uncontested jumper. Meanwhile, we keep up our brick-fest. 57-70 now, with every tick of the clock threatening to turn this into another Miami road loss. And now Ben McCauley has hit his season high, with 15 points. Ridiculous. Meanwhile, all our players are looking to hit their season lows. 12 minutes left.

Scheyer lets Gonzales fly by him and then calmly steps over a smidgen for the three. 60-70. Nelson attacks the rim and gets the whistle - awww, the ball rims out. 2 free throws - great job, D! - 62-72. King gets fouled on a 3 pointer, as 2 kids jump out at him as if in a back-alley - and he hits all 3 free throws! Nice! 65-72. But they come right back, with McCauley getting Zoubek called for a foul - and the bucket! No more stompin' this time? K immediately pulls Zoubek and sends in Kyle. 65-75.

Paulus fouls Johnson 30 feet out from the basket, and I throw up my hands. We're done. We're beat. Our defense sucks, we are being forced into a halfcourt game, and we just can't do anything for some reason against a 2-3 zone. No finishes around the rim. No three-point prowess. No steals or run-outs or anything fun. We are making our living at the free throw line, and thank god we're quite good there, but they are equally lethal, so that cancels itself out. I squeeze my eyes shut. I have to come to terms with it. We are going to lose. We will finish 2^nd in the league. We'll get a #2 seed. And that's going to be fine. We have overachieved all year anyway. 7:53.

Do we have a window of opportunity? Do we? They are in foul trouble, with 2 guys having 4 fouls each, Fells and Grant. Gonzales and Johnson each with 3. Let's attack them! No more threes! They're obviously not falling, and we're being out-rebounded terribly to boot. And just as I say that - Greg "never say die" Paulus with a ridiculously long 3, just catches and shoots - FOR THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 70-75!!!

We trap, make the big guy handle the ball and make the decision - and off the hand-off - Thomas with a STEAL! Taps it out and runs off - but "jog" is maybe a better word - and just as he's going up for what is seemingly an uncontested layup - in flies Costner to throw him to the floor! INTENTIONAL FOUL! YES SIR! Singler grabs him immediately as he gets up to avoid any Ts, and the officials are quickly talking to them, explaining the situation, not wanting any confrontations. On the replay - oh yeah, Costner was going for his hands, his head, actually, rather than any part of the ball - but you know what? The announcers are right. Off that steal, Thomas should've been sprinting like hellfire down there to make the dunk, not half jogging. C'mon, Lance - we need all the points we can get, and whatever happened to aggressive Lance from the UNC game? But, to be fair, I think it was his first steal in the open court like that, and he just got too excited.

So now he's going to shoot two. Thank God it's two and the ball - otherwise, we get no good out of this. And I'm right. Look, I want to believe - really, I do. Nelson has been soooo solid at the line, making ALL his free throws. But Lance? "You know he's not a good free throw shooter." Yeah, I know. His teammates know. We all know. And though Lance tries, and tries hard - thumping his chest, nodding vigorously to the encouraging words of Greg and Kyle and Nelson - he just can't hit it. First one, short. Second one, short. You just can't leave a 50% FT shooter all alone down there for the intentional foul, and then expect him to make it in that raucous din. It's okay, Lance, still 7 minutes left in the game. We get the ball, and what do we do? Drive and kick, baby!!!!! Nelson with the THREEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Aww, perfect!!! 73-75, we're making a comeback!

Or, um, not so much. They reel off 6 straight, we can't get our 3s to fall, and now it's under 5 minutes to play. 73-81, all our hard work has vanished. And I'm really having a problem with Paulus today - what is up with him? A shoot-first PG now more and more - yes, we needed your scoring last year, but how about finding some other people now before launching a long three from about 30 feet out, 5 seconds into the shot clock? Have you looked at your box score today?

Singler with another 3 - and miss. "They're taking a LOT of 3 point shots," the announcers say, shaking their heads. No kidding. Nelson agrees, and goes to his specialty - attack the rim! - and gets the foul. Pleading the case for the basket too - no. 4 for 4 from the line today! But no go on this one. The roar of the crowd as the Wolfpack pull it off the front iron is just chilling to the bone. 4:10 left, and we're still down a miserable 8 points. No one is stepping up. No Nolan going coast to coast. No Scheyer stealing and trapping and firing off 3-bombs from all over the court. Ah, but here is Scheyer - with a STEAL! And the subsequent THREE! by Paulus in transition! 76-81, 3:47 left. Henderson is fouled on the way to the basket and makes 1 of 2, 77-83. 3 minutes left.

DeMarcus Nelson grabs the loose ball and tears up the court, zip-zagging right, left, then going all the way to the basket! And fouled! By Gavin Grant, who's GONE. Wow, poor Gavin. He only nets 6 points today before fouling out. On Senior Day, no less. But his team is up, aren't they? He goes to the bench with a dazed look on his face, so disappointed. Their lone senior leader. Meanwhile, our lone senior leader is at the line shooting free throws . . and willing to do whatever it takes . . even defy his normal 60% free throw shooting percentage, to get us the win. First one . . good. Second one . . GOOD! 79-83!

Awwwwww - NO! Singler with such a cheap, cheap foul away from the basket that the announcers call it from "Finley's Basement." Oh, nice, Gonzales misses his first. Makes the 2^nd. 79-84.

Nelson takes it up the court, and everyone has that look in their eye, glancing at each other - this is it, it's crunch time. We better win this one, guys, if we have any hope of surviving tournament games. We are so close! We can't let these ones get away! Think Sweet 16. You're 2 minutes away from the Elite 8 - or going home. Which one do you want? Do you want it???? That damn zone again. But we are patient. And we run the classic Duke offense - crisp passes around the perimeter, move the ball around, screen, Henderson, Paulus drives, Scheyer spins, someone on defense falls down, and that leaves a wide open DeMarcus Nelson, who has the luxury of pausing and realizing he's not beyond the arc, then stepping back, before jumping and launching - and it's the MONEY BALL! Oh, NELSON!!! 82-84, 2:04 and we've got a shot! We're alive! We can come back!!!

Oh, you've got to be kidding me! Kid-ding!!! Greg Paulus for THREEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And that's courtesy of G Henderson with the scissor-kick in the lane to give up that 2, in order to trade for 3, and Greg Paulus rewards him big by being wide open on the perimeter. Classic, classic, classic Duke shot. TIE GAME, 85-85, 1:30 to go! ****! Have we ever led by more than a few seconds? Or ever, in the 2^nd half???

"F***." Damn. Fourth foul on Singler, 1:11 away from the ball. McCauley on the line, but like Gonzales before him, he can only make 1 of 2. Watching that ball bounce out - Kyle yells to his teammates to get in position, get ready, box out for this crucial rebound, and bends down in warrior stance. His hands on his knees, he's ready to use his muscle and his remaining strength to keep #23 out of the lane for the rebound. His 3s are not falling - due to some mystical ailment - but he'll help out, he'll continue to contribute, in any way possible. There is so much fight in him that I want to leap out into the TV and help him rebound. Just one more minute! One minute, between victory - or defeat.

Nelson is our go-to guy. He's gonna take it. With the bigger McCauley on him - he drives right away, no hesitation, no fake, just drives, and the whistle cuts across the raucous din of the arena like a knife. McCauley looks exasperated - throws up his hands, complaining about Nelson with the hook afterwards. Hey, you fouled first, buddy. Speed trumps size! 85-86, 1:01 remaining, and Nelson . . my God, how solid has he been? His free throws, long a hole in his game, is as air-tight as his defense today. With so much imperfection everywhere else - this perfection, no matter how small it might seem to the casual bystander, is HUGE to me. It speaks volumes about his attitude . . his emotions . . his will. And as he hits the first one - phew! TIES IT, 86-86. Second one, as Singler prepares to fight for the rebound - GOES! AWWWWW! 87-86!!! It's a ballgame! Our FIRST LEAD of the half!

They go twice to McCauley in the post. The first one is tipped out by Singler, but they don't learn, and try again, with the second one erratic and too high and sails harmlessly out of bounds. Turnover, Duke ball. 40 ticks left. If we can hold onto this possession . . .

4 corners. Paulus dribbling. This familiar sight when we have the lead is suddenly so alien that I have to come out of my seat and remember to breathe. How can they be so calm??? Singler making small moves to keep them honest. 40 seconds left . . 30 . . 20 . . 19, with 14 on the shot clock, and Coach K calls a timeout. Who will take the last shot?

Out of the timeout - Scheyer now handles the ball off the inbounds - Nelson tries to drive but finds no seams - their defense is suddenly air-tight - and with the clock running down, it's Scheyer, with a desperation three at the buzzer - NO GOOD! Damn! But they only have 5 seconds left, and their shot - goes nowhere! DUKE WINS! DUKE WINS! OH MY GOD! 87-86??????

And the first thing Scheyer does is go hug Coach K. Then the entire team is on him, surrounding him, congratulating him on his 800^th victory, and K is smiling, knowing that it was his kids that pulled it out. Extraordinary. What a game, huh? The Wolfpack played gangbusters, Gonzales stepping up big - but they couldn't keep their composure in the heat of the fire, and they lost. Now they're on the court with dazed looks in their eyes, like they can't believe it - I can't believe it - how did it happen?? Our 3s weren't falling all night - and then suddenly we make back to back threes for the tie? DeMarcus Nelson, whose free throws have been suspect all year long - suddenly makes everything they give him, for the lead? WOW. Just . . wow. I still can't believe that we've won. It's almost illogical. I still feel like, somehow, we'd lost. We played poorly all game long. There was no sustained run to get us back in the ballgame. We NEVER LED after the 7:52 mark in the first half - until now, until deep, deep in the second half when the game is nearly done - and then suddenly, with 1 minute left to go, and the clock stopped, on the free throw line - we get it back. Our senior leader gets it back for us. Our poise. Our fight. Our cohesion.

CONGRATS, COACH K, ON WIN #800!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Post-game thoughts: Scheyer is so funny: "[We] definitely [made] it as memorable as possible."

This game had it all: there was blood within the first 2 minutes, a surprise 2-3 zone that would frustrate us all game long, full court pressure, amazing 100% FT shooting for a long while, a Singler dunk, a King three, a lot of NC State players that apparently weren't on the scouting report but wound up with career highs, 9 guys who played 8 minutes or more, an intentional foul, a couple comeback bids snuffed out, a litany of insanely gut-wrenching wolf howls piped into the arena, a late barrage of threes, a last critical defensive stop, two nail-biting Nelson free throws, one last possession running down the clock to perfection, and:

One sweet victory on the first day of March that signifies this team's willingness and poise to fight through a brick wall to get this win. Did I miss anything? 87-86. We wouldn't have had it any other way.

#13 Indiana at Illinois - Gordon is human

astoria26 — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 17:39:33 GMT

The crowd goes wild. OOHHHHH! OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TEN SECOND CALL!!!!!! DAAAAAMN! And there is Eric Gordon, boy wonder no more, his palms up, his mouth open wide in shock and disbelief. Did he just throw the game away?

Cause his nonchalance just got spanked. Double-clutchin', granny-shifting . . guard down, mouthpiece danglin' - Indiana's Eric Gordon, the Illini's public enemy #1, so coolly tried to walk the ball up in an effort to shed the crowd's boos that - Illinois, without having to do a thing, got the ball back with 26 seconds left in double OT because the freshman was just a little too cool with his surroundings. Awww, man - don't think you all that! We know you hear us! Don't think you can just waltz into Illini territory and just walk the ball up!

That boy - look at him - mistake after brilliance after mistake after brilliance. Dribbling out along the perimeter - he looses the ball off his foot - but it rolls right to teammate Jordan Crawford, who picks it up and immediately lets fly a 3. Heh heh - thanks, man. Then, at the end of regulation, with just seconds left on the possession, he steps back out 25 feet with Brock all over him to coolly knock down a triple, just banking it off the glass, to tie the game up. 3 seconds left - and he fouls Shaun Pruitt underneath the basket scrambling for the rebound to send the big fella to the line - thank God he can't hit the ocean 15 feet out, right?

And now, now, with 26 seconds left in the second OT and Indiana up by a shaky 3 points, 79-76, he turns the ball over to give them a second chance, a second chance!! to the crowd that's been booing him all night, all because of a swimming desire to show that he ain't affected by nothing, that he ain't thin-skinned, that he ain't even heard them - mouthpiece dangling, arms down by his side, relaxed and casual and strolling, walking the ball upcourt. My God, the noise when that mistake was called!! Oh, the blood that the crowd's been calling for all night, finally spilled!

But will it be fatal? Will the Illini capitalize on this gift? Welllllll . . . that's a whole ‘nother story. But, hey Eric, ‘s ok - we all know it bothers you. Heck, it bothers us the hell more than it bothers you. That's obvious, right? What was that blow-by from Chester Frazier in the pregame introductions, when he chest-bumped you all the way back to Bloomington? What were those boos, those catcalls, raining down from the student section all night?

But baby - those emotions - it's what makes this rivalry real. What makes it special. It's what fuels Duke - Carolina. And now, with Demetri McCamey dribbling that gift possession into the ground trying to get it on the exchange with Meachem - it's what fuels Gordon as he puts unbelievable pressure on the ball, forcing McCamey to throw it out of bounds. Take that, Illini! OH, the howls!!! Illinois suddenly has no choice but to foul - and then it's all over. 83-79. And the kid survives, to fight another day.

Arizona at UCLA Game Blog - the Prince and the Pauper

astoria26 — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 03:50:52 GMT

I've been waiting for this matchup since early Jan. Jerryd Bayless vs Darren Collison. I'm a big fan of several freshman phenoms, and this game promised a freshman scorer vs a veteran jet, plus Jordan Hill vs Kevin Love, and Chase Budinger vs Josh Shipp/Russell Westbrook. This is gonna be a battle for the ages. 5 days before Duke/Carolina - this is the game that had me running for my Tivo.

And from the opening tip, Bayless is clearly bothered by Collison - and nearly throws it away. Off the inbounds - he hits Budinger, who immediately whips it inside to Jordan Hill, which is instantly challenged and the ball tapped away by a swarm of Bruins - where did they come from??? - and suddenly you have a 1 man fastbreak in the motor Russell Westbrook, who just floats in the air for the deceptively easy layup. Wow. 2-0, Bruins.

Then Kevin Love shows his behind to Bret Brielmaier and says "see ya!" as he seals him off and goes up for the easy deuce in the post. Holy cow! Shipp with a great runner that he still manages to toss high off the glass even though he's careening 70mph towards the exit with a guy all over him and his arm! And one!

Kevin Love is for real. Kyle Singler's high school nemesis is showing all kinds of moves right now that is completely befuddling the Arizona big men. He's already got Bret B beat. Now Darren Collison drives into the lane, dishes down a perfect pass to Love, who head fakes, doesn't get the look he wants, steps back out, there's only 4 left to shoot, but he shows great poise by going back inside, getting Jordan Hill in the air, and then going up for the easy two. The effort brings his parents up on their feet, the whole student section, cheering for him. What a workhorse. What a beast, both offensively and defensively. How much could they have turned a team around, Kyle and Kevin, if they'd gone to the same college? Much like what Michael Beasley and Bill Walker is doing for Kansas State? If we meet in the NCAA championship game, Duke vs UCLA - and Kyle plays against Kevin again - that will be a dream matchup come true.

Kevin Love is not the only player who knows how to get to the FT line. Jerryd Bayless, quiet so far, gets his man in the air and just kinda leans into him, firing off an errant shot but being rewarded with his real motive - a foul. Sinks the first, misses the second. 6-12 right now, 14:33 to play.

Nic Wise comes in, and it goes completely haywire. He can't hang with Collison, Hill is forced to step outside for a long jumper, and suddenly the Bruins are racing the other way again. Hill tries to intercept a pass to Love - but Love, steamed about not getting his mail delivered, goes right after him - and steals it right back! Mbat a Moute scores after the shot clock is run down to 3, and in the blink of an eye, its 6-16, UCLA. Kevin O'Neill (KO), clapping and trying to cheerlead his team on a minute ago, immediately calls for a timeout. They better get Bayless untracked, fast. 13:18.

Jay Bilas is hilarious. Pac-10 is the best league, Pac-10 is the best league - okay, okay, I got it. How about the ACC, with two top-5 teams in Duke and UNC? Can you say that about any other league? Sure, there's a mess down beneath, but you cannot just say that the rest of the leagues are "pillow-fighting" while the Pac-10 are going bare-knuckles at it. You think Duke - Miami today was a pillow fight, with 54 fouls? You think going on the road to Maryland, we're checking out our sneakers and their cheerleaders? If you want to talk about pillow fights, talk about the C-USA, where Memphis barely squeaked by UTEP - yeah, check out their RPI! - at home.

The Bruins are playing stifling defense, at times making Arizona look like a JV team. A long pass off a miss is thrown out to Love ahead of the pack - but Arizona grabs it right back - only to get it stolen again by the Bruins! Except Mata-Real can't hit the easy dunk, is stripped by Wise, and Bayless tries a transition 3 - which bounces off badly. It swings to Shipp, who slows it down to a more moderate pace. Another timeout is needed by AZ. Hmm, is Bayless wearing 2 kinds of shoes? Ah, they're dual-colored, white on one side and red on the other. Yeah, nothing too exciting to write about here: 6-19.

Jesus. KO is forced to call his 3rd timeout, and maybe he should also call a 4^th and 5^th and 6^th if he had them, cuz otherwise 8-23 will start looking real good later on if he doesn't. 8:56 left to play, and Arizona can't seem to get anything going. I have not seen a team struggle so much since Duke put Princeton on the ropes in the first Maui game - and this is actually a quality team!! But when you've got a team as dependent on 2 big stars, Budinger and Bayless, as much as Arizona, with nobody to bring off the bench - how can you respond to a defensive monster such as UCLA? Who can basically lock you down and keep throwing fresh bodies on you, even as you struggle through it? Watching these two teams - it's like a poor guy going up against a rich guy - the prince and the pauper. You've just got no chance at all, no resources at your disposal to win. Why I ever thought it might be a great game, I don't know. This ain't a great game. Bayless is so frustrated right now that he stuck out his right foot to trip Josh Shipp coming down the mid-court as he got a loose ball. This is a kid averaging 20+ points ever since he got back from his knee injury, and he's been channeling all his frustrations at having to sit on the bench watching his team lose while he was out onto the hardwood. Now, he can't even get a decent shot off that's not contested or a bit forced coming off a screen.

OH, WHAT a pretty move! Just as I'm looking for a Wildcat to do something, anything - Bayless grabs an iffy pass right out of midair, charges into the post, and lays one up off the glass in a hurry. Boy, when he sees daylight, there's almost nobody faster than him at getting to the rim.

Aaaaaaaaand - that was about the only highlight of the half. UCLA reels off a bunch more points, including another Love-fest in the post, and Josh Shipp left all alone under the basket for what must be the easiest bucket in the world, and its running away from Arizona again, 14-29, 6:30 remaining. I mean, this is Arizona, with 3 NBA prospects playing. They have 3 MickeyDs. This ain't exactly Arizona State (no offense). But will they be run out of the building like State was, to the tune of 33 points??? We'll see. As KO calls his fourth timeout.

WooooooooW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jerryd Bayless needs to do that more often!!! Like every time! He's dribbling, staring Collison down, and once he makes up his mind, he's gone. He zips right by Collison, leaving him in the dust, the guy doesn't even try to go with him, no one rotates over, and suddenly Bayless is all alone in the lane with an uncontested, beautiful layup off the glass. 18-34, is there still hope left?

Another great drive by Bayless, but what happens next's got to dishearten him. Off the make, Love takes the ball out of the hoop, makes a 50-feet chest pass to a running Darren Collison on the dime, who passes the torch on to Shipp, who finishes the play - all in about 3 seconds. Wow, wow, wow. And the crowd LOVES it. They rise for a raucous standing ovation as Collison dribbles down the clock, holding for the final shot. 42-22 at the half.

Man, do I wish I could hear what they're saying in the Arizona locker room. Remember - this is a rivalry game. It's a Pac10 league game, an ESPN primetime showdown. It's not a non-conference game, and its certainly not a non-conference game at Memphis, where the Wildcats were shorthanded with a surprise injury to Bayless just one day before the big game. Even on that day, they were never embarrassed, and lost by a respectable 10 points. But not here. Not like this. This is embarrassing, and I don't know how much more KO can do, having burned through 4 timeouts already. Maybe he just can't. Maybe this is the national championship team. Let me tell you, I have not yet seen any team play with the poise and the swagger that the Bruins are displaying right now. This is brutal. Losing Arron Afflalo, in hindsight, is no big deal - gaining Kevin Love is. Maybe this is the freshman that will finally lead UCLA past the dreaded runner-up spot, and into the record books as the national champion.

5 minutes into the second half and nothing's changed. Arizona is able to get more stuff run, more open looks, but UCLA is answering right back. Love is cleaning up off the glass, grabbing rebounds, and impressing the hell out of Jay Bilas. 30-49. What's this about KO being more of a defensive coach than Lute Olsen? How come I haven't seen one crucial stop that really tells me Arizona is in it for real?

Wow. I know I've said this 5 times already, but - Wow. This is the difference between Chase Budinger and Kyle Singler. I'm just amazed. Sure, I know he's a "3" playing the "4". And Kyle's a "3" playing the "5" sometimes. But when Kevin Love got Jordan Hill to bite on a head fake and then stormed in for a dunk - I mean, Chase Budinger got out of the way. He said, nope, I'm not rotating over, I'm not laying my body down for that runaway train wreck, I'll much rather just let him have the 2. I mean, you team is down by 21, Chase. And now 23. It's a nightmare. And yet, you won't go out of your comfort zone for a little defense? I know you guys are thin, etc, only playing 6 or 7 guys. But you cannot win ballgames this way. And with 12:56 remaining, Ben Howland's been kind enough to call 2 timeouts now after great UCLA plays to let Arizona talk it over and decide whether they want to be in the game or not. You have to guard, and you have to do better than let a guy like Kevin Love, who is not exactly Mr. Explosive First Step, get to the rim so unimpededly. Kyle Singler would be looking for ways to get stops, to make plays, and to take away the driving lane by laying his body down for the charge. Chase Budinger has let Russell Westbrook do whatever the hell he wants, and now, here, Kevin Love.

Holy cow, COLLISON! Flipping a behind-the-back dribble, refusing the ball screen, penetrating deep into the lane to dish a point-blank pass to Aboya right under the basket who unfortunately can't finish - but Love is there to clean it up! Then, with a steal, he just streaks upcourt and lays it in, end to end. The strong, 50 to 70 foot chest passes from Love . . the flying athleticism of Westbrook . . and the speed and vision of Collison. I don't want to sound like Bilas, but this Arizona team is giving me no choice. Bayless has been the only bright spot for the Wildcats, but he's only gotten 4 or 5 shots off, tops. 40-64 with 10:45 remaining, and Arizona is not making a comeback. That's an affirmative. I just got the memo, 30 minutes too late.

Oh no. Mbat a Moute goes down with an injured left ankle. Looks like a sprain. Poor Ben Howland must be fearing the worst, with all the injures his team's got. I mean, some of them look like they'd just come back from the war, with Collison wrapped on his arm and Mata-Real with thick white wraps left and right. 7:30.

"Chase Budinger just did something that can be interpreted a number of ways." Oh really? Which are the other ways? In an eerie isolation play, Josh Shipp had stolen the ball, and is streaking up the court with Budinger glued to his hip chasing him, and in a flash of frustration, Budinger just reaches out to shove him, and Shipp, in full speed, tries desperately to get a shot off first before tumbling awkwardly out of bounds. Intentional foul. Oh, no doubt. 2 shots and the ball. C'mon, Chase, what's gotten into you today? An intentional frustration foul is not going to help your team one bit, and besides, you're taller than Shipp, you probably could've guarded him 1 on 1. 46-72, 6:22 to go.

Well, it's over. What a terrible game from the Wildcats. UCLA is up 30, and finally shows some mercy by sending in the secondary unit. KO sets out the chairs for one more pep talk that may cut this lead down from an embarrassing 30 to something more swallowable, but still - the damage is done. Whether they ultimately lose by 30 or 13, they know there is a GULF that separates them, from the best in their league. I mean, when Jerryd Bayless got to the FT line like he wanted at around the 4:00 minute mark, and made his first free throw, nobody on his team even cared to give him a slap on the hand for good job done. Nobody. He had to go up to Hill in order to receive one.

I mean, c'mon guys - you've got great talent. The final score was 60-82, but should've been more like 55-87. It's not like UCLA has 8 McD AAs. But they work well together as a unit, they communicate on defense, and that's the difference. And - okay - they can create mismatches. Collison owned Nic Wise. Westbrook beat both Bayless and Budinger on offense. Hill could not contain Love whatsoever. And their coach, KO - has a loooong ways to go before he can teach the kind of defense that Ben Howland has instilled into his team. One thing is for certain: this UCLA team deserves a #1 seed. They responded in tremendous fashion after the USC home loss, and that's the hallmark of a championship team, to take one loss and extract every kind of motivation from it. Will Arizona do the same?

With 6 weeks left before the start of March Madness, the top 5 teams are pretty much set. UCLA is better this year than they were last year. They are older, tougher, and got a real gem in Kevin Love down low. So is Kansas. So is Memphis, with the addition of freshman stud Derrick Rose. That's 3 #1 seeds right there. The fourth, is up for grabs. And right now, it's a titanic fight between Duke and North Carolina. Personally, I do not think UNC is better than they were last year . . but we will see. Whoever wins the ACC - wins the #1 seed - and the surefire path to San Antonio through NC (the state).

Post-game thoughts: After watching this game . . I don't know, I really felt cheated. I didn't spend 2+ hours to watch a walkover game for the Bruins. Why couldn't Arizona at the very least make a run? What, exactly, have they been doing in practice that is making everyone say KO is a defensive coach first? When you fall behind like that . . you gotta have 2 things to go on a run: defense, and furious shooting. By furious shooting I mean grabbing a steal and storming the length of the court, or leaping up - whether you have a hand in your face or not - and firing off that three knowing that it's going in, or slashing to the basket looking to score even though they foul you in 5 different spots. I didn't see any of that.

And one more thing: the huddle. Maybe it's because ESPN didn't show it, but I didn't see much of that either. Whenever a Duke player gets whistled for a foul, or draws a foul, they would huddle together and exchange a few words. Whether they're words of encouragement, or advice, or whatever, you got the feeling that they were in this together - that they believe in collective responsibility, and share every winning basket, every bruising setback, together. Their body language, their hands on each other's backs, their eyes and focus, are entirely on the team. They had their goal, and they would not be deterred from it. That, is a winning basketball program. Now I'm not saying that Arizona doesn't have that attitude, just that I didn't see any of it last night. I didn't see any fight. Just a bunch of guys, individually, looking frustrated and annoyed. Even after nice baskets and drives, they were frowning.

As the final seconds ticked down, the announcers echoed what Coach K had once so famously said, and what must be swimming through Kevin O'Neill's thoughts as well: here, is to never forgetting about tonight.

Duke vs Pittsburgh OT - what a game!

astoria26 — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 01:44:31 GMT

(Dec 20) Two UNDEFEATED teams steps into the ring - someone is gonna go down tonight!!! In one corner is Duke, winner of the Maui championship, slayer of two top-20 ranked teams. In the other corner is Pitt, who's beaten . . well, let's see. Exactly who have they beaten? Never-heard-of Duquesne by 5, a stone's throw away from home? Pac-10 second-tier Washington, who pushed a runner right through their defense, at the buzzer, and Pitt needed a friendly zebra-stripe to waive it off? But consider this: an unchallenged challenger may be the worst, outside of a truly marquee challenger, because you don't know what their holes are. You don't know if they've been playing at their level, or way below, and will only call upon that extra gear when you suddenly come up to them and look them in the eye. Will it beat Duke? I don't think so. But it'll be a whale of a game to find out!

Lance is in! (ankle sprained a few days ago) Ugh - Paulus loses the ball while dribbling around Blair, and Blair just grabs that thing and starts breaking to the other end, with only one thing in mind - dunk it - dunk it hard - make a statement! But Gerald is fast on his tail, streaking up to him, overtaking him - and he goes up high, blocking that thing - whistle? Foul? Whatever. Blair smiles as he goes to the FT line. Never seen that before! Must be because Pitt has 3 turnovers already in a hurry - I would laugh about that too!

Way to go GERALD!!!! Blazes right into the lane, leans right to avoid an oncoming defender, and takes that ball up strong to the hoop for an emphatic two! But seconds later, he gets a little too aggressive and picks up his 2^nd foul, offensive charge while trying to push the ball up too fast. He sits. They've read the scouting reports on Nelson and Henderson, and figured hey, if we don't have the athletes to stop them, we'll just stand in front of them. Singler! Dribbling right into Young and then elevating to shoot over him, using the glass. Then slipping past him to grab a runner in the lane and posting up. But what's this with Pitt trying to send a message? Twice now, they've tried to power-slam the ball through the rim, as if trying to scare us? Nice try, but you might want to pick up the 2 points first, and worry about the message part later, bud. Out of the media timeout - Kyle with a nice layup inside the paint! Caught them completely asleep!

What is wrong is Greg Paulus????? First turnover I can understand, sure - but this one? Where he tentatively pushes the ball inside to absolutely no one, certainly none I could see, that would've been wearing a Duke jersey? Hmm? Wow. Of course, they grab that puppy like a loose pack of change and race it to the other end for a quick deuce, and we have a nice, 9-9 tie. C'mon, Greg, remember that the opposing PG, though he sure looks burly, is only 5'10" - shorter than you! Hmm? Greg comes out and gets treated for what looks like a bleeding cut on the cheek. Hello, Nolan!

Nelson with a three!!!!!! Thank you, Nelson, to break that tie. OH!!!!!!!!!!!! What the - ??? Scheyer has the ball, on the perimeter - and gets the hell knocked out of him from behind, goes sprawling to the floor, the ball of course goes loose, and they have an uncontested layup. HEY!!!!!!!!!!!! Scheyer does not look very happy . . no call . . some boos. Oh, he gets fouled on a 3 point shot! 3 freebies!! Or, 2 is ok as well. This is amazing - I don't think I've seen Duke lose that many balls - and here we lose another one, with Nolan being called for the foul for trying to get it back. Gerald is back! And he promptly makes his presence felt by pulling up for a jumper. It snuggles in! Life is too short to sit on the bench with 2 fouls, huh, Gerald? They show a replay of how Greg got his nasty-looking cut - by way of Singler? Awww. They were both defending Blair, and Singler caught him in the face with an elbow. Gerald stuffed by Brown! Paulus comes back in - eager to prove himself. Duke with 8 TO already???? Singler pulls up on the arc and fires off a three - clang. But Scheyer is so alert that he's dashed into the paint anticipating the miss - good job! - and grabs the rebound, trying to put it back up while being surrounded by an avalanche of dark-blue shirts. Block! By Blair! Scheyer looks annoyed, but puts his hands up, saying hey, that's our ball still. That's all that matters. 7 seconds! I'm yelling at Paulus - there's 7 seconds left and you're peace and quiet all the way out 30 feet from the basket! But he knows what he's doing - and finally gets what he wanted - Thomas breaking out all alone in the paint - and he promptly gets fouled to boot. Nice. Oh, another nice Lance move in the paint, to get the basket and one! Thanks Lance for coming back from your injury so quick! 19-13 all of a sudden, 7:46 to go.

Oh, Paulus with a TRIPLE!!!! We break through 20!!! It's been an uphill battle, but we're seeing some daylight, baby!!! Hail to Greg!!! Oh, someone needs a timeout! 22-13.

They obviously emphasized coming out of the timeout to get the ball to Blair, so yep, there they are, getting it to him. But Thomas and Singler are all over him, vehement that he work for his two points, if even that, and Blair tries to turn but Thomas is right on his left, and Singler is right in front of him, not giving an inch, dauntless, not giving a hoot that this dude is 265 and being recruited for football season. You're not bloody getting past me. And Blair, instead of trying to pass out, keeps bulling, keeps trying to force the issue - and, there it is - whistle - foul. Give up the rock, baby. I think you've had it for long enough!

Ha! Hilarious! They're back down, Singler is guarding Blair, falls down trying to draw an offensive foul, gets no call, about to get up, and I brace myself for an easy Pittsburgh two - but no! Lance strips him of the ball, so that it looks like Blair flips the ball down to a sitting Singler, who looks quite amused and appreciative but quickly flips the prize back to Paulus for safekeeping, who races it to the other end. Now that's the definition of landing right in his lap! Oh no - another Paulus turnover - miscommunication between Greg and Kyle, who thought Greg was going to shoot. Pitt gets another quick one - and I'm amused that everything Pitt has gotten has been in transition, while Duke has not been pushing tempo or running or really getting great looks from spreading the floor.

Then Gerald gets the steal, and so silky smoothly converts the goal, avoiding the double team flying at him with no qualms at all, clutching the ball in his arms, laying it up, and turning to run off pretty much without even a backwards glance, just knowing its gone in. Awesome. Meanwhile, Taylor and Nolan are changing into every kind of comfortable sitting position they can find along the sidelines, watching the game avidly and wondering when they can get some sleeping bags and potato chips over here or something? Other end - Young runs right into Singler and over him and just topples over right on top of him - turnover #14. King for three! 31-15! Oh, he's so happy! The place goes nuts! It's not even a contest! 3:52 left.

WOW! King with a monster bounce pass to Nelson about 20 feet away, cutting backdoor to get wide open on the left side and just so easily lays it up. WHAT A FEED! Next play, Nolan gets into the lane and sends a great pass to Zoubek, and I'm getting ready for a deuce . . but he loses it???? Awwww! That was right on your doorstep! A pass that high, could only be corralled by you! Thank god on the other end, they are bricking everything they can when not turning it over. Pitt is starting to look whipped. They don't know how to play, all of a sudden - they sure as hell haven't been pushed quite like this. Sure, they are grabbing every kind of board ever . . but that really can't help you if you can't hit it for your life.

Uh . . terrible, terrible endgame for the first half. What the hell was that? Nelson, as always, gets 1 of 2 FT . . Duke fouls a rebounder, who makes 2 for Pitt . . Paulus turns it over . . Duke loses Blair for a second on the other end who promptly rings in 2 . . and then Scheyer hikes up an off-balance shot to beat the clock, to no avail. 34-22 halftime.

Second half: Gerald with a crazy drive under the basket for a dunk - missed! - gets the ball back - and Nelson turns it over. But Coach K is not happy - neither am I - and he calls a timeout to let his team have it. He is very animated, yelling, throwing up his hands, rattling Nelson's arm to show how aggressive Pitt was playing them and how they were letting it happen. Nelson lowers his head . . I got it . . I got it, coach. Wojo, too, throws an arm for emphasis.

Back on the court: Singler with a BEAUTIFUL PASS to Lance for the stuff! Lucky Lance! But wow, what vision - Kyle, immediately upon getting the ball, knows Blair is on his back and he's attracted a double team, and quickly turns to find an open teammate. Perfect, under-the-arm pass around Blair for delivery. Faster than the eye can see but when they show the replay, you just sit back and whistle at that ingenuity. Marvelous. Eagle-eyed. Great, great vision.

Hmm . . is Kyle hurt? He's wiping his eye/cheek after a Pitt basket on the baseline, dropping the ball to the floor, looking like he got a cut or something . . oh, but of course they'll rather talk about Cutliffe? (new football coach) Fine . . can you also, perhaps, narrate this ballgame I'm supposedly watching? Henderson goes to the line and clanks both FT - we are possibly 1% on FT tonight - but why say anything about that? No! Let's keep talking about football! Grrrr . . . Singler with his 3^rd foul, sits down. 13:38.

Okay, I have to say something right now - can we F***ING teach Lance/Z how to rebound, so that we don't have Kyle Singler being WWF tackled/slammed/shoved every freakin' game? Singler and Blair are tangling for the rebound, he's got position over Blair, so what does Blair do? Whatever he thinks he can get away with, which is to tackle Kyle around his chest with a burly forearm and pull him down hard with him as he goes to the floor, then dropping him, so that Kyle hits the hardwood floor with a smack, on the back of his head, and rolls off in pain. Jesus! God damn - WTF??? Kyle covers his face for a second, stunned, dazed, hoping and praying nothing's broken. Intentional foul. Of course. Thank you. 2 shots and the ball. 10:06.

So you would think, that with that swing, and then Singler coming right back to score a layup, that Duke would coast, wouldn't you? 48-38! But no. Within about a minute - from 9:15 to 8:16, Pitt rattles off 9 unanswered points, and suddenly, at 48-47, it's a ballgame. And we've got no answer. We've forgotten how to play. Now, it is Duke who's lost their swagger. Kyle and Gerald are taking all the shots, and nobody else is stepping up. Scheyer misses everything he touches. Nelson gets fouled every single time, and then he botches every single FT handed to him. Paulus is looking beat. I mean, just beat, bewildered, not capable of playing with the big boys. How many turnovers has he got? And now Pitt is stronger - they are struttin' - they are flashing out for transition points, hitting three's when it counts, getting the lockdown D.

6:10 . . Blair and Singler shares a joke? "What does it take to knock that smile off his face?" Jay Bilas wonders. Ugh, maybe cuz he knows something - namely, that they can win. Duke has no idea how to beat Pitt's pressure. They call 2 sets, cannot get a shooter free, and then takes a wild three to completely blow their 35 second shot clock. Offensive weapons, ay? We've got none! We will proceed to go without a single field goal for a good 4, 5 minutes! While they reel off 12 straight! Sigh. Nelson is playing both smart and dumb - flopping on Blair to force him his 3^rd foul, offensive - then double-teaming to let Henderson get the block, ripping that rebound and racing with it - then, reaching out with his arm to push off to create space for his shot, cuz he does not want to go to the foul line - and whistle. Offensive foul. His 4^th. He goes to the bench.

And immediately, Singler follows suit. And this is where I become completely scared of Pitt. Blair gets the 2^nd offensive rebound in a tangle of players under the basket for Pitt, goes up, and I can't see it, but apparently Singler fouled him. I thought it was Lance Thomas, who put his hands up, but what do I know, watching from home, right? Poor guy. No one else will help him out, this Blair is just a beast on the glass, and LT has helped some, but it's mostly been him against the bear the whole night, tussling it out, and there's only so much you can do when you have a 45 lb disadvantage from him. 5:28, Duke huddles after the whistle - and my heart sinks. Kyle is shaking his head in defeat in that huddle - like he can't believe it - he can't believe it, because it's not like he's putting a body on him, he's not even aggressively defending him, he knows his worth to his ballclub - but he's being called for the slightest thing, barely grazing his fingertips playing the kind of foul-free defense he has patented - and it's just not working. He can't get rebounds. He can't box out. He can't, even, apparently, box out a smaller guy in Sam Young who has repeatedly spun out or muscled his way out of the second slot on the FT sideline to beat him to the basket, and this time, as Blair misses his 2^nd FT, he does, going up to grab that rebound and beating every Dukie to it, forcing intense mayhem once more until the whistle is called and I just pray it is not Singler. It is not. It is LT.

Well. Coach K is not taking any chances. He immediately sends in fresh bodies McClure and King, and pulls Singler and Thomas out of there. But back to what I was saying: Kyle Singler has no answer for DeJuan Blair in the paint.

He's not Josh.

A junior Josh, 6'10", 240 lbs, would've done the work on Blair. Shut him down. Thrown down a couple dunks. Shown them who's boss. A freshman Singler? I love the kid, I do - but he cannot be our only answer to a quality big because he's not that strong. He's smart, he's keen, he's efficient - but he's not dominant. And this game - when it gets down to two Goliaths duking it out - you can't just look at the name on your jersey. You gotta bring it. And as much as we should've trampled them on paper - in reality, this is still a young, untested team. And about to play the worst second half ever known to man.

For about 1 minute, just long enough for Nolan to miss a hook and McClure to get fouled and miss the first of 2 FT, Kyle, Gerald, and Nelson are on the bench looking stone-faced, knowing the work they have cut out for them. Intrepid reporter Jay Bilas, meanwhile, is reiterating how this current lineup on the floor is basically trash. King, McClure, Nolan, Scheyer, and Paulus are "not going to get to the rim" against Pitt. Gone are the euphemisms about how deep Duke's bench is. Gone are the magic that Paulus and Nolan created in the Michigan game when they played for the first time together. Gone is the gushing about Duke's bench being a top 25 team by itself. It is not. We're right back to where we were a month ago in the Marquette game - and it's like the last several games have not occurred at all. Oh, it was great having Taylor and Nolan break out against lesser teams, and lead in scoring. It was great to see Zoubek contributing, and working on his confidence, and learning about next play, in the Albany game. But you knew what was going to happen, right? When the chips are down, Coach K will look down his bench, and you know who he'll call. Henderson. Singler. Nelson. And here they come - abandoning their towels and water to run to the scorer's table, one by one, ready to finish out this game that has come down to the wire. Here they come. Here they come. McClure hasn't even sized up his 2^nd free throw yet, and they're already being replaced. 4:37, Duke 49, Pitt 50.

Levance Fields scores, and it is now 49-52, Pitt. Game starting to get away from Duke. Singler calls for the ball. In 3 long strides, he's taken the pass and gets up for what looks like an uncontested lay-up . . . that rims right out. You need to finish that up strong, Kyle. Even if Blair was lurking there looking to challenge you again. HENDERSON!!!!!! Taking Duke on his back. What hops! Stepping, slithering, dancing his way nimbly to the rim, he won't take no for an answer! 51-52, and the whistles are blowing all over the place. Time-out! Time-out! Let's talk this over! 2:51, both coaches seeing things that they do not like. Yes, once again they remind us that Singler has 4 fouls. My heart is pounding out of my chest already. Do we need to make it any worse?

Now Paulus is getting aggressive. Staying close to his man, knocking out at the ball to try to grab a steal or force a turnover for Duke. He gets one - but it stays with Pitt! Awww! He was already running the other way - so disappointed. Another timeout. Okay, just breathe. Breathe . . .

Levance Fields sure is fast. He's lulling Paulus to sleep out there, here comes Blair with a screen, forces the switch, and Fields just runs right into/around Singler towards the basket, looking to either draw that 5^th foul or get an easy look at the lay-up if he backs off. Thankfully, Paulus realizes his intentions and got around in time to foul him and stop his drive - and Singler, when he hears that whistle, just falls onto the floor on his butt, looking wide-eyed at the officials like "that better not be me". Fields shoots 2. 51-54.

LORD ALMIGHTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HENDERSON!!!! "Athleticism trumping toughness on that PLAY!" the announcers roar. Jesus, what a sweeeeeet move! Paulus gives him the ball, he waits a little bit out on the perimeter, watching the right side just clear out for him - and as he starts his run, circling wide towards the right wing, Scheyer comes out to draw his man away - and suddenly, he's motoring, it is WIDE OPEN for him, and he wastes no time, circling in from the right wing like a freight train, Blair thinks about stopping him but immediately backs off, completely blown, and Henderson can just do whatever the hell he wants - 360, tomahawk - complete carte-blanche - and he stuffs it! 53-54! 2:10 left.

After Sam Young answers, 53-56 - OOOOOOHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BIG TIME!!! SINGLER FOR 333333333333!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "There is just answer after answer!" Bilas roars, enormously impressed. The crowd is on their feet! After that Sam Young basket, we come back upcourt, and Gerald is running the pack again, circling in sniffing for blood, and the defense this time collapses on him. But he is cool as a cucumber, instinctively sending out a no-look pass to Kyle Singler on the 3 point line, and he knocks one down as beautifully as anything I've ever seen. Thank you, Gerald, for the assist! And Kyle, so proud - teeth bared a little, tongue wagging, then breaking out into a wide grin upon seeing a congratulatory Scheyer jumping up to chest-thump him. 56-56, it is tied, 1:31 left.

But they're not done! Sam Young, again, manages to slip away from Henderson just long enough to get the pass on the wing and send it up, and it's good! Damn! 56-58. We go back upcourt, and the ball is in Henderson's hands, again. It looks like they're going to run the same play again? Henderson on the perimeter, circling out wide towards the right wing, as Scheyer comes out . . but this time, instead of attacking, Henderson just fakes right, then turns back around to his left and elevates up to shoot - a tough, high-arching 12 footer that sails in smoothly! How does he do that??? And make it look so easy? Tied again, 58-58, 0:56 left.

The place is just pure pandemonium. Everybody standing, willing their team on. Ramon is way off the perimeter, dribbling, Paulus is getting impatient, meanders over to the right wing, and I'm amazed how stone-still the Pitt players are standing, as if they don't get all this noise, and then Paulus has knocked the ball loose but the refs whistle it back to Pitt possession. Awww! C'mon!! Paulus lets out a holler of frustration. Give me a steal, PLEASE! So here we go again . . some ball movement now . . kick out to Cook ALL ALONE on the 3 point line!!!! What happened there???? HE SHOOTS - - - !!!

OH! AN AIRBALL! DUKE BALL!!!! 16.6 seconds left. Timeout. And I'm thinking - should we be calling a timeout?? Let them set up a defensive stance? Let's just play, put it in the hands of Henderson or Singler! C'MON!! We need to get something here . . anything.

Henderson - NO! - KYLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tip-in no good! He falls to the floor instead of going up strong, we miss, the buzzer sounds - and it becomes sudden death. 58-58. OH MY GOD. DAMN IT! GOD! ****!

Just as I had feared. We are not going to learn anything more out of a timeout other than give the ball to Henderson and then maybe hand off to Singler if he can't get free, or have Singler go for the tip-in. Well, it got down to 16 seconds, long ball thrown out to Scheyer, so the clock starts at 12 for Henderson. 11, 10, and he's circling to the right wing again but he finds 2 defenders draped on him like a cheap suit. He can't shake free. Singler is calling emphatically for the ball, being guarded by little 6'0" Ramon, but Henderson is sure he can do it. He switches tactics, bulldozes through into the middle of the lane, gets bumped by Sam Young but forces up a difficult shot anyways, thinking Singler might possibly be Joey Dorsey or Damion James and can just clean up around the glass whenever an errant shot is tossed their way. Well, Singler tries. He's not as close to the basket as he would like, so he pushes off on Ramon just a bit to get the rebound, but then Ramon is pushing him back as he tries to tip it in, and it goes up too soft as he's falling back. It barely grazes the rim, and no one else has skied for that ball. Pitt pulls it down, sends it hurtling the other way. Overtime.

My God. My heart is thundering. Singler has 4 fouls. Nelson has 4. Lance is on the bench, so we have Henderson in the jumpball. And he gets it to Paulus - great! Here we go, the extra furlong, the test of champions. Nelson gets fouled. Oh, of course. I am praying for him. Misses the 1^st. Makes the 2^nd. Cook is down . .

Oh my God. Mike Cook is really hurting. It is too painful to watch. As he limps to the locker room . . get well soon, Mike. I give thanks that no Duke player got hurt. Yes, Paulus got cut up on his cheek. Yes, Scheyer got knocked down to the floor about 3x this evening (but still went hard to the glass looking for every kind of rebound - he'll end the game with 12!) And yes, Singler always seems to get targeted for one, if not three, WWF-type moves under the basket, simply because the opposition thinks they can. But no one got hurt from anything that they can't recover from, and that's what I'm thankful for. Let's close out this game, guys.

Defensive switch pits Paulus against Sam Young, and Singler looks over from the post from where he's guarding Blair and thinks "oh god, I'm gonna have to come out and help", and I'm thinking, why isn't Nelson on Young? Why don't we have someone else taller than 6'4" to help Singler out??? Young had missed the first point-blank shot, he won't miss the second, and he hits. 59-60, Pitt leads. On the other end, after Henderson had missed his last shot - another difficult jumper in the lane, hotly contested - we now trust the ball to Nelson. And he starts making an attack - but the guy who's guarding him flops on him - and Nelson's thrown so off-balance that he loses the ball - no call - and Levance Fields beats everyone to the ball - but Paulus gets there just a step later and swipes the ball away - whistle! Foul! Oh, c'mon! Paulus is on his knees, he hasn't even had chance to recover - and Bilas is praising him for fouling in exchange for an easy fastbreak deuce. I wouldn't count out Henderson miraculously shot-blocking, but okay, you're right. Fields, of course, knocks both ones down, making it 59-62. 3:01 left in OT.

Henderson - oh! Finally starting to look mortal. He's missed his last 3 now - after taking a long jumper that he's buried in this game before but now eludes him, hitting the back of the rim too strongly and bounces out to Pitt. They race it down, swings the ball around, and suddenly someone's open along the baseline and Singler immediately switches over to help block out. Even with 4 fouls - he must've looked imposing enough on the smaller player to kick it back out - and it's thrown right into the hands of Henderson, who immediately turns tail and starts motoring the other way. Ramon, feeling helpless, fouls him across the arm - but Henderson still gets the shot up - OH!!! A block from Gilbert Brown! What hops, huh? So Henderson gets a chance to go to the line - but his first FT misses terribly. He cannot believe it . . walks around to try to relocate his shot. And suddenly - is the air is out of Duke? Still down 59-62, 2:19 left, and our go-to scorer, whom Coach K entrusted the last shot to, having gone stone-cold?

He knocks down his 2^nd, but Coach K is not taking any chances, and immediately sits him in favor of some fresh legs: McClure for defense and Nolan to replace Paulus. It is 60-62, and Pitt is so patient, running their set play and then finding Brown all alone, unguarded, on the left wing! Up goes the shot - sure to be a dagger - but it doesn't hit! Nelson with the rebound! Phew! Can we get the ball to Nelson, now? Please?

OOOHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! NELSON!!! Hail to GOD! WHAT A MOVE! Just blazes to the basket, sheds his defender completely, doesn't care who's coming at him, takes on Blair one on one, takes the bump, and then finishes the play, using the glass in an acrobatic up-and-under to bank it in!! Blair is GONE! That's 5 on him! And Gerald Henderson! Man, is that the sweeeeetest smile I've ever seen or what? Just all teeth and dimples, couldn't be prouder. HUGE, HUGE play. And he makes the bonus free throw. 63-62, Duke! 1:36 left.

Man, Pitt's just getting every rebound. They miss on the other end, but grabs the board, and sends it back out to Fields to run. He blazes to the hoop - but oh! Sweet whistle! Travel! Ball is turned over. Coach K is sending Paulus and Henderson out there again. We'll run something, right? We'll get a good shot? But no. Apparently, Coach K's instructions out there for Greg was: run stallball. How else do you explain Paulus dribbling by his lonesome self out there, running the precious shot clock down . . while nobody else on the team even looked in the semblance of running a play? Oh, sure. Run the clock down to 16 seconds. Gratuitously use another timeout. Then in-bound the ball again - get it in the hands of Scheyer - and let it roll off to the opposition's hands again. Smart. (rolls eyes)

Well, we need a stop here. And I gasp as Nelson, on Fields, takes his head fake and then completely loses him as he blazes to the net - and Singler switches over! NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He tries taking the charge - YES!!!!!!!!!!! HE GETS IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bodies flying everywhere, Scheyer neatly dives over him as he tries to help out, Greg gets the rebound and gets mauled over the back, but all eyes are on Singler, pumping his fist "YES!" as he hears the call - thank God! That was very borderline, and pure instinct - he wasn't thinking about his 4 fouls, he wasn't thinking about what it would mean if he fouled out - he was gonna step in and take the charge, no matter how dangerous - and deny that point guard the basket. Nelson looks over sheepishly - thanks, man. I owe you one. As everyone collectively lets out the big breath that they'd held.

0:36 seconds left, we are miraculously up by 1, and the shot clock is turned off. They must foul. They trap Scheyer along the sideline, and he twists enough to invite the foul - but no call. They know he's 90% at the line. He sends a long pass to Henderson - who thankfully saves it with a nice tip to himself - and then he sends it immediately to Singler, who should've held onto it, instead of passing it off like a hot potato - but oh, he got fouled. Finally. Thank you, God, for sending Kyle Singler to the free throw line. "He's a freshman in name only," the announcers praise. Shhhhh. Quiet on the set. Let him size it up . . that mental toughness . . that Marquette game winner coming back to him . . he's gonna to make it. For sure. Dribbles. Bends his knees. Shoots. RIMS OUT! Dear God! Second one . . ok, ok, take it easy . . dribbles . . shoots that high-arching shot - and before it even goes in, he's gone. Is it in? It rolls . . just a little too strong . . and drops! Phew! 64-62.

But the last shot. It belongs to Pitt. And it's a dead-aim three. BAM! Right in the face of Duke. 64-65. And there's no time left! Singler throws it to Scheyer, who races it down, takes an awful, too quick, off-balance three with 4 seconds still left, no good, it bounces off, he gets it back! and again, falling down, he throws it back up, but it is too strong, and that's it. 64-65. I am in shock.

It's over. Duke is beaten. We are undefeated, no more. 10-1.

Post-game thoughts: You know . . watching the tape again . . I don't get the sense anymore that we played an overwhelmingly bad game and didn't care. That's not true. Yes, we did not look like the Duke that we'd come to know - the beauty of the spread offense, the speed of the transition game, the rotation after rotation of sharpshooter coming in for sharpshooter. None of that really showed tonight, and that's a credit to Pitt and their brawn. Even in the first half when we were clearly bothering them, we also let them bother us and not slam the door on them when we could have. I saw the lack of a killer instinct in the Davidson game . . and I saw it again here tonight. Up by 16 . . we let them come back to 12 just before the half . . and then the rebounding differential (39 to 53!) and the fouls really started to hurt us. Yes, we have Henderson and Singler - but they also have some playmakers in Fields and Young - and when it becomes about trading baskets, the FT misses catches up to you (54% - terrible) - and when the clock starts running down, every shot, and every point, becomes magnified. We definitely lacked some poise and smarts down the stretch . . but we also made some spectacular plays. It hurts the most, when it's lost like this - by 1 point. But we will bounce back. We have the best 2, 3, and 4 in the country. We just need our 1 and 5 to step it up, big time. Paulus?? What happened to you tonight? And Lance? Please get well soon!

Which brings me to my main point. Sometimes, it takes a loss like this to finally admit to ourselves what we'd refused to admit: Kyle Singler is not a 5.

"I was on [Blair] all night," Singler said after the loss. "It was my responsibility. My fault."

Oh, Kyle. It is not your fault. No one will come out and say it, but Kyle Singler did not sign up to play the 5 for Duke. We need him to, but that does not mean we should. Alas, we have no choice. And no, Gerald Henderson is not a forward. He, too, is effectively playing out of position, often taking the role of the 4, because of his athleticism. But neither are. I understand they are NBA-caliber players. But against good rebounding teams - this is what can happen. Zoubek, McClure, King, and Thomas, our other choices for the 4 and 5, played a total of 6, 8, 11, and 15 minutes each, respectively. Singler played 38. Yes, that is the combined total minutes of all our other 4 forwards and centers. Super. And unless we can figure this out, and find help for him, fast - no lineup magic, no, not even Nolan with Paulus - will solve this issue. This loss wasn't a mistake. It wasn't a giveaway. It was a legit breakdown in the face of a stifling, defensive rebounding team. Simply put, we met another club who's as serious about defense as we are - and we couldn't rise above it.

Oh, and I'm still trying to figure out how in the world Paulus managed to time-travel back to his mid-Jan breakdown last year, when he had more turnovers than assists and points combined. He again found his evil doppelganger tonight, handing out a grand total of 1 assist and hitting one basket while losing the ball 5x and getting 3 fouls. Oh, while the other PG went off for 21 points, 4 assists, and 2 steals. Grand, ain't it? And if I hear the word "rebound" one more time, I'm going to smash something.

But I want to end this on a bright note: how much do I love Singler, Henderson, and Nelson? That trio is going to carry us far. In the last dying seconds, when it became 1 on 1 isolation plays, they gave us everything we could've asked for. Toughness. Heart. And they never backed down, not even when they were giving up 45 lbs, or nursing 4 fouls. Singler stepping up in front of a charging Fields to take that charge in OT was as big a play as Nelson, blazing his way to the goal, no holds barred, or Henderson, exploiting every weakness and mismatch against Pitt for his jumpers. I wouldn't trade places with anyone else in the country right now. We can still go far; we just can't let another team dictate what we do. Never again. You think John Thompson III is sleeping easy these days? You think Roy Williams is happy with his team's latest effort against Nicholls State? You think John Calipari, Tom Izzo, and even Ben Howland, all FF coaches, don't worry about their teams, don't tinker here and there, and still see holes that they'll need to patch up, somehow, some way or other? We can still win this war. We just need to earn our battle strips first.

Get Well Soon, Jerryd Bayless!

astoria26 — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 03:07:26 GMT

Memphis - Arizona game going on right now (Dec 29), and after a great start, Arizona has flattened out. 18-31. As Dozier steps up for an easy three. 20-34. How much, is Jerryd Bayless crying inside?

He's sitting at the tail end of the bench, looking . . actually, very sharp. Bayless is wearing a black suit and blue tie, with a single earring on his left ear. But - the worst, worst thing in the world is for a world-class player like Bayless to have to sit on the sidelines, all because of an accident that just had to occur one day before the big game. They land in Memphis, they see their friends, they practice - and boom, he's hurt. He's played every game all season, and suddenly he can't move his knee. It just kills you. And it kills you even more, to see those keen eyes, look out with an expression that cannot be expressed. He cannot tell the world how sorry he is, how much he would give to be able to play right now. To be on the same court as Derrick Rose? To be able to lead his team to victory? That's all he wants. That's all he's thought about since weeks and weeks ago.

As the game ends, Jerryd is walking glumly towards the line, ready to shake hands, ready to get the hell outta here. A potential blockbuster road win - gone. Before the game - oh! How he had fantasized! How he was gonna take the game to Rose, to have it be a showdown in the Heartland, the two top 10 guards pushing tempo and dictating pace and dishing out the superlatives while shooting right in each other's faces all night! How much fun would that have been?? He's read the accolades for Rose, and he couldn't wait, couldn't wait to get out of the desert and into the limelight that will be shining on Memphis, on this perfect team that supposedly had all the talent to go all the way, undefeated, earning the overall #1 seed, and basically sleepwalk through the first rounds of the NCAAs while the rest of them slugged it out tooth and claw with their major-conference foes. UCLA? USC? Washington State? Yeah, all those were still waiting for him, but now, tonight, it was about Memphis. It was about youth and athleticism and redemption, about turning this program around that got ousted in the first 2 games of the post-season while Memphis went to double Elite Eights. We're gonna be right there with you, bud. Heh, I hear you're practicing how to stop me in your Friday session. Well, we're practicing the same thing - how to stop Derrick Rose. Yo, Derrick! Can we play Madden in your souped-up 11-bedroom mansion after practice is over?

But now . . now was the worst. 2 hours of sitting stock-still in a chair at the end of the bench, forced to watch as Memphis slowly tore his Arizona team apart. They did well in the beginning - good ol' Chase Budinger putting on a show. But oh . . the seams unraveled almost immediately afterwards. You can't win road games without your starting point guard - you just can't. Take a good look at Pitt. And how in the world did Wisconsin do it? Against, supposedly, the deadliest backcourt in the country in #9 Texas? Two ranked teams go into foreign territory without their starting point guards, for all or half the game . . and who survives? Neither one. The unranked team, however, does. The Badgers. Who would've thought?

Back to the line: Derrick has come up, taking both of his hands, leaning in so nobody else could hear - "You would've beaten me tonight. I had 6 turnovers! What would you have done to me?" He smiled, his award-winning smile. Jerryd couldn't help but laugh. You would've made me have 6 turnovers, bro, he thought. But it would've gone down to the wire. It definitely would have. "You played a great game," he said, wistfully, half-heartedly, grinning. "We should do it again sometime. Maybe in the NCAA final." Derrick's eyes lit up. "Oh yeah. Hell yeah." People were shouting congratulations, and Derrick turned around momentarily. Then he turned back. "When do you leave?" "Tomorrow morning." "Early?" "Yeah . . you know how it is." "Right, right . . call me, ok?" "Sure." "Hope you get better." "Thanks."

Then - redemption, the words he so longed to hear: "It just wasn't the same without you. It would've been a ballgame, man."

Oklahoma at West Virginia 2OT - the Play of the Year

astoria26 — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:17:26 GMT

Wow . . Blake Griffin! I had no idea.

8:20, they're down 7 - and it is the play of the year. No doubt. My jaw is on the floor. And this is a freshman?? The ball is loose, 3 guys fly onto the floor after it, Griffin goes after it just a little harder than all the others, grabs it, dribbles it, keeps it alive, and then scrambles back up, quick as a cat, has only one goal and that is to go straight to the basket, goes right around his man, completely ignores him, charges up, sees daylight, then suddenly - sees a guy standing right there trying to draw a charge! - changes direction, changes the trajectory of his powerful, 243 lb body, and then acrobatically, magically, somehow propels his way up to the side/back of the goal and lay it in even as he's falling out of bounds. HOW ‘BOUT THAT! And he doesn't even acknowledge it, running round the other end and jogging away, but oh, it swells in him, he knows that was a terrific play, and to the birds that are booing him - he runs all the way down to the other end of the court and reaches up high for the rim with one hand before turning back to the timeout that's been called. You're booing him?? C'mon! This guy is something special.

If one film reviewer described the 5 minute, single-camera tracking shot across Dunkirk in Atonement as Scene of the Year . . then, I nominate this one, this heady, spectacular play, for Play of the Year. I don't think anyone else could've matched the wits, heart, or body control that Blake Griffin showed on that play right there. And congrats on being named the Big 12 Player of the Week! You totally deserve it.

Several terrific games were on tap this Saturday (Dec 29), and this is the one that I am glued to. To see Griffin - manhandled, pushed around, double-teamed, raked across the face - and his fortitude, how much he wants to win! It is his engine, that powers this Sooners team. And he knows it. 13:03 to go in the second half, PG Austin Johnson misses a runner and Griffin is in the middle of 3 yellow shirts jostling for that rebound, grabs it, fights it up, can't get it to go, fights up for it again, gets pushed down to the floor on one knee, which is jammed behind another player's leg, but he doesn't care, doesn't dare move - all he wants to do is find an open teammate to pass the ball to, and save this possession. He doesn't give a damn about himself. From amongst 3 yellow shirts towering over him - he finds his man - and only when he finally passes it out does he succumb to the pain and falls onto the floor. Oh, that leg hurts. It hurts bad. He's flat on his back, laid out on the hardwood, his eyes closed as he tries to will it away, push it away, wish it away. Not now. C'mon, not now. I know it's hurt but . . just let me play. Let it not be anything serious.

They help him sit up. He stretches his hamstring, testing it. Then he's up, walking to the bench. 30 seconds later, he's on the floor again. 11:34, he grabs a loose ball, and even as he's running for it, he sees another player flying at him, hands out - and the guy hits him hard in the face even as Griffin tries to shield himself after securing the ball. Damn! He falls to one knee on the floor, still holding the ball - but his pain is so much that he almost offers the ball as a sacrifice - like, here, God, take it, just take it, what the hell do you want me to do? He goes to the bench again, this time for some cotton to stop his bleeding. 1 minute later, he's back in, giving a hurray to Longar Longar to sink his FTs.

5:11 OOOOOHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "Bob Huggin's team doesn't have an answer for him!" He sure DOESN'T, LEN! Not one! Johnson is dribbling the ball, or more like desperately trying not to lose it between 2 sticky defenders Velcro-strapping themselves to him, the ball bounces wildly along, low to the ground, too low - but Griffin is running strongly to his left side, he's calling for it - and Johnson somehow controls it long enough to flip it up to him - high - and Griffin just grabs it out of midair and slams that home! What a JAM! Oh, he just meets that ball so perfectly and delivers it undeniably into the rim, saying emphatically "There! THAT'S where you belong, and don't you forget it!" And as his momentum carries him spinning round the rim hard before he comes back down, the WVU team retreats. They've got no answer.

The score is tied 60-60, 3:05 left . . and Longar Longar, who is purportedly a bad free throw shooter . . now steps up to the line and shoots both FT with just about the loveliest pure arc you've ever seen. 64-64, 0:39 to go. The senior, David GodBold, who's played every minute so far, gets the ball with 7, 6, 5 seconds left to shoot, and he bulls his way to the goal, he must, there is no other way, and as he falls down/is fouled/loses it, he somehow tosses it up in the vicinity of the goal, and it hits the rim. Foul! 2 shots? 1 and 1? They rule it 1 and 1. He steps up to the line, and calmly, steadily, eyes the basket . . dribbles . . and shoots. First one, good! Second one, good! 66-64! And then WVU, showing equal grit and determination, grabs a key, key rebound with about 3 seconds left and tosses in a put-back - its GOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 66-66! OVERTIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2:36 left in OT, down 5, 66-71, and Griffin travels. Ohhhhh . . the crowd is just seething with happiness. They are going to tear his heart out. When that whistle blew - Blake just gave up that ball and turned to walk the other way - but when they pull in a close-up of him, you can see he's just biting his lip, trying not to scream. You are kidding me. We're down 5 points. Half of the precious 5 minutes of OT is gone. And you're gonna call a travel on me now? We didn't come this far, to lose! I can't bloody give it up!

And Oklahoma is done. I am sure of it. In overtime, the home team gets an undeniable advantage. Everyone is tired. But because WVU can feed off that energy from their crowd, they must be feeling like Supermen out there. They can do this. And for the first 3 minutes, it is simply too much for OU. Suddenly, WVU is beating them to the rebounds, to the passes. They are making every goal, while OU can't get it near the basket. Ah, but thank God for GodBold! Thank God for the senior! He cuts to the basket and lays it in so quick, then happily catches the ball as it comes through the net and hands it back to the defender who has fallen on his butt, saying "here ya go".

70-73. 32 seconds left. What do they do? Len and Patrick are arguing over whether to play hard-nosed D or foul. They agree on playing hard-nosed D. They don't get the memo to Jeff Capel in time, though, who decides to foul. So they foul a 90% FT shooter from WVU. Nice. But OH - HE MISSES! Griffin rebound! Johnson tearing upcourt with the ball! They're going for the 2! STOLEN!!! Ball in the air - STOLEN BACK!!!!!! Sooners have it again! Ball loose again - out of bounds. Phew! Back to OU! 16 ticks left. We need a 3. Backcourt scare . . ball moved to Crocker - their best 3 point shooter - OH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's pure! It's good! It's a TIE GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!! 73-73. 6.6 seconds left. They inbound . . races it up . . they fall down! Griffin grabs it, sends it the hell outta there - and the buzzer! Rifle shot! DOUBLE OT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As I gather my breath . . I now think OU can win it. I want them to win it. All game long, they've fought back, always seemingly a play away from being 10 down but somehow coming back and coming back, until their rebounds and their toughness and their sheer will to compete has negated the horrific 20 turnovers and 13 missed free throws. And I am almost in tears as Griffin fouls out. He just looks sooooo disappointed. As he walks back towards the bench - he sees his coach kneeling by the sidelines and he just puts his hands out, like, "I'm sorry, coach. I really am." 5 fouls. Gone. The fans are waving him deviously goodbye. He just wants to either scream and shout or cry - or both - reaching up inexplicably with both hands to squeeze something, grab something, anything - but he only grasps air.

Was that even a foul? "Freshman mistake," the announcers shake their head, but I have flashbacks of when Singler fouled out of the Illinois game. He was just trying to set a screen for his PG and got pushed into another defender by Randle. Foul? Same here . . it looked like Griffin was just trying to keep his defendee in front of him, and got pushed into another guy. Really? Foul?

But the Sooners refuse to fold. And I really starting to like that little guy, Johnson. He looks so slight, and slightly suspect, with those missing/buck teeth and goatee - and he must weigh what, 160 lbs? But he finds people. And man, can he hit a 3 to lift up his team! From being 4 down in double OT, to suddenly just 1 - like it ain't nothing! Longar hits both FT again! 78-77! We have the LEAD! Oh, and a 3 point play! This is where a strong frontline helps you in OT. You can just pound it inside, again and again, until the other team has no choice but to foul or allow it. I'm not a huge fan of their uniforms, though. Gray? Not a flattering color.

Wow . . what a game. 88-82 is the final score, Oklahoma. You can fire all the rifle shoots you want, man, but Oklahoma walks out with a win over a ranked opponent for the second game in a row. How cool is this team? Blake Griffin is definitely a prize freshman in a year of super froshs that needs more ink! Longar Longar is the best name ever. And Jeff Capel - nice to see that he's doing well, and beating a very respectable Big East opponent, 5 feet away from their home campus! Both teams, really, went all out to make it a whale of a game, but OU showed its resilience at the end. Down 7 in the first OT? And being walled in by that deafening noise? No problem. Down 4 in the 2^nd OT? And 3 players hitting the 48 minute mark, while losing their star power forward? No problem. That, is the heart of a Sooner. Great, great win, and a fantastic way to close out 2007 heading into Big 12 conference play.

Kansas vs Georgia Tech - last 8.2 seconds

astoria26 — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 22:29:43 GMT

Dang . . so consensus #3 pick Kansas is VERY mortal. They couldn't shake a Georgia Tech team that is 4-4 . . with about 8.2 seconds left, they were only up 69-66, with a chance to be forced into OT by the Yellow Jackets. Then, of course, the funniest thing bailed them out - the GT guard, maybe too tight, maybe too inconfident in their ability to break the defense - throws a quick, too-strong pass that appears to be totally unexpected by his backcourt mate, and he fumbles it, 50 feet away from their goal - the goal that should be the only thing they see, the only thing they focus on, drilled into them and pounded into them just a few seconds ago by their sweating, gritted-teeth coach - but oh, why d'you have to throw it? Why hand off the pressure to me??? I DON'T WANT IT!!!! And quick as lightening, it's over. The Jayhawk guarding him (the dazed recipient of the pass) picks off the ball like a hawk coming down for a mouse, swooping low to the ground and grabbing that ball and within 4 steps had dribbled it to their own goal to lay it up. 71-66! It's out of reach! Thank you! Goodbye! That was nerve-wrecking while it lasted.