Gut Reaction to Selection Sunday: Duke Edition

Unlike our UK reaction, this one is from an actual fan of the team. Here's Russell Morris on Duke's NCAA tourney chances :

Jahlil Okafor looks deep into the committee's eyes and says, "Thank you, we didn't win anything."

After an uninspiring performance against Notre Dame on Friday night, I wasn’t sure if Duke was still going to be a one seed. Based on whom they beat and where, nobody had better wins, Kentucky included, but with not winning the ACC regular season or conference tournament, I thought a two seed was coming. In 2013, they had a one seed resume, but ended up as a two seed in eventual champion Louisville’s bracket. The team eventually lost to the Cardinals in the Elite Eight that year. With that in mind, as long as we weren’t in Kentucky’s region, I would be happy. As ESPN revealed the bracket, I was surprised and ecstatic. Not only was Duke a one seed, but they have the weakest bracket of the four regions. Duke fans couldn’t have asked for a better set up for a deep run.

A Fan's DNA: Raising a son who knows Dean Smith

My sister and I grew up in the home of an avid UNC fan, our father. When she grew up, she married a Duke fan. Two months ago, she and the Duke fan had a kid together. I asked her to write about it:

In sickness and in health.

Parents pass all kinds of things on to their children. Hair color, skin tone, blood type, mannerisms. Of course, biological parents have no control over what the child’s hair color will actually be. It is all complicated genetic science. And it is all out of the parents’ control. So no matter who the child looks like, and whether or not the child’s genes come from her parents, all parents work to pass on values, morals, and the traits that make up a personality. Yet, even though parents of all types work to instill these things in their children, they really have little control over what gets carried on and what gets left behind.

Non SEC Week Five Preview

Contrary to Langston's thoughts on the matter, there are actually some other games, outside the SEC, worth paying attention to this weekend. While the only game between ranked teams already ended with UCLA kicking the shit out of an Arizona State team that managed to throw for approximately 5,000,000 yards and still lose by 35 at home on Thursday night, here are some other games worth checking out:

In the Time of Tar Heels: A Short Story

The week ended and the weekend began with Duke losing. I laughed.

After I laughed, I texted Aisander, a Duke fan, "At least your sons aren't old enough that they will remember what Mercer means." Then I laughed some more and wished Aisander's sons were older.

Number of the Day: Coach K's Record 903

My mom taught me that if you can't say anything nice at all, then don't say anything, so I'll probably stop saying anything now other than the facts. Coach K is the winningest coach in NCAA history and a leader of men. Ugghh! Even I've been brainwashed. My real reaction is posted here at The Faster Times (I also wrote this piece on the NBA Lockout there a couple days ago), and I'm sure Russ will offer us his Duke-biased insight at some point, while I remain the sole objective voice here at LCB.

Molotov Cocktail: Links and News

Pic from The Velvet Rocket

-First, here's a story I wrote on the NBA labor talks over at TFT: "Occupy Wall Street: NBA Lockout Edition." It features a distressed David Stern, NBA players as protestors, and a molotov cocktail. Let me know if I'm crazy or not, and remember it's only fiction--sort of.

Farewell, Nolan Smith: Duke Wins the ACC Tournament

I remember when Nolan Smith was nothing to fear, when he came off the bench and it was unclear what his position or future at Duke would be. I'm a UNC fan, so I focused on his weaknesses; how he wasn't as quick as Ty Lawson, couldn't shoot like Wayne Ellington, probably wouldn't have cracked UNC's 2008 rotation of the aforementioned guys, plus Bobby Frasor, Marcus Ginyard, and Quentin Thomas. As a freshman, Nolan Smith didn't impress me much, but four years later he does.

Bracketing the End of Days

The sky will be on fire. The earth will tremble. The seas will swallow cities whole. And teams that we thought were long dead will rise up out of the ground with their dreams rekindled. While Revelatory statements about basketball may be deemed inappropriate in the wake of real life tsunamis, earthquakes, and personal loss, sport always epitomizes a way for us to understand and have faith in life regenerating, that new ages eclipse the old ones, and that all is not lost. Our obsession is both our cure and our disease, paradoxically putting our world into focus, while displacing us from the reality of what's truly important.

North Carolina Beats Duke: Championships and Refutations

A lot of things were said about this Carolina team before the season and during their rocky 4-3 start, but things don't always follow literary formulas and end where they began.

Breakfast with Berndon:A Final Farewell

In this edition of "BBE" Berndon gives us his preliminary top 25 for next year, the players whose stock rose and fell, and recaps the biggest games of championship weekend.

Every Storyline Under the Sun: A Duke-Butler National Championship Primer

I'm ecstatic. Much like the forthcoming feature film Clash of the Titans, Duke has escaped the rancid belly of its Cronus-like forebearers to become a National Championship contender. All the weight of the Duke's tournament history has lorded over this current team for 3 years, looming like a shadow cast by Zeus's storm clouds. Coach K has released the Kraken (aka Brian Zoubek) in each game with supreme results. The utter dismantling of a rugged West Virginia team on Saturday was but one more step towards the final goal of returning Duke to the ranks of the Elite Programs, the Olympians of the college basketball world.

LCB Hoops Picks: NCAA Championship Game

With the NCAA tournament down to the last two, we do our best to give you the winner before it happens. So make the jump to get our views on how the tournament has played out and our picks for the biggest college hoops game of the year.

Breakfast with Berndon: Capping off the Weekend

 

Author’s note: I’m making B.B.E. two parts this week. I wrote way too much about Duke-UNC to fit in my usual stuff, so I’m going to just put in the recaps and a much smaller version of “Around the Power 6.” Tomorrow, I’m going to take a stab at breaking down the Conference tourneys, and at picking my All-League teams for these conferences.

Duke 82, UNC 50: Just typing that score would have been unfathomable last year, two months ago, hell even two days ago. I brilliantly predicted that UNC would pull off the upset, but they weren’t remotely in the game from the opening tip. These two teams aren’t even in the same stratosphere anymore. The matchup was about as one-sided as if my Chancellor team played against Oak Hill Academy.

The only thing I kept thinking of was when I was playing 8th grade AAU ball. We lost to Prince William like 96-20, and the game was called after 3 quarters, making this the first and only time I’ve ever seen the slaughter rule applied to a basketball game. Honestly, they could and probably should have called this one at halftime. It wasn’t just a talent discrepancy because Carolina arguably isn’t that far away from Duke in this area. But in terms of heart and other intangibles, it wasn’t even close. Carolina didn’t fight. They were the pacifist who just kept getting punched in the mouth repeatedly.  They had worse body language after turnovers than the 6th grade girls team my father coaches. By the time you hit college and have a D1 scholarship, you should have learned to run back on defense without pouting or sulking.          

So where does Carolina go from here? I mean aside from the NIT, which they might not even get into. Honestly, and this might be a little bit of a knee-jerk reaction here, but I feel like Roy should do what Calipari did when he took over at Kentucky and just clean house. Scholarships are renewable, and from the way that these players “competed” this season, it might be wise for Roy to basically tell some of them they should try out another program. Kentucky brought in John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Daniel Orton, Eric Bledsoe, and Darnell Dodson, keeping Patrick Patterson, Darius Miller, and DeAndre Liggins as the only holdovers from the Billy Gillespe regime. Why couldn’t Roy do the same with Harrison Barnes, Reggie Bullock, and Kendall Marshall? Rebuild everything around these 3, keep John Henson, Dexter Strickland, Tyler Zeller, and maybe the Wear brothers, see if Ed Davis comes back, shorten the rotation, and go from there.

From what I saw this season, I don’t want Larry Drew running the offense, and I don’t want Will Graves erratically launching airballs from the perimeter. You could argue that UNC has won two national titles in 5 years, and that they shouldn’t necessarily go drastic with changing everything and panic. But it’s not just the 16-15 record, it’s the way they underachieved. This wasn’t the only time this season that they were simply outworked in route to losing. It happened repeatedly, and inexperience played a role; but, in the one-and-done climate that is college basketball today, you can’t sit around and wait for freshman and sophomores to figure things out. Injuries played a role, but they shouldn't have to the extent they did. They still had plenty of depth and should have been able to play through everything.

I honestly think that if Bobby Frasor would have been granted a 5th year, things might have been different. Frasor might have been able to do what Ginyard and Thompson obviously could not: lead this young team and get them to go all out and represent Carolina basketball the right way. Hometown biases aside, Frasor was a tremendous leader last season, never bitching about playing time, and stepping in for Lawson when he was injured, providing quality minutes and not making the mistakes that were made this season, always scrapping and hustling along the way. Ginyard and Thompson were always supporting actors, not leads that can carry a picture. Their lack of leadership had this team doomed from the jump. I just don’t even feel remotely comfortable with what is coming back, and again, it would be different if they lost a bunch of close games where they fought like heck and gave it all they had. But they laid down in way too many games and I don’t know if Roy can fix this stuff in practices. To go from having probably one of the hardest working teams in the country to the one that underachieved the most means that it’s not going to be just a matter of the team magically getting it next year and taking back their spot in the top 25. Roy needs to change things up, cut the dead weight, and start over. I don’t want to see Duke 82, UNC 50 ever again. Carolina’s the only consistently good team that I cheer for, I’d hate to see this change, with Roy’s legacy fading into the background in the process.
Man of the Match: Duke’s Program in general

 Maryland 79, Duke 72: I went through a lot to watch this game. I had to go somewhere during the first half, so I decided to DVR it and watch the whole thing after its completion. I was about 5 minutes in, when my ex-girlfriend called, which resulted in us fighting and talking for a good hour. I then proceeded to watch everything up until 1:27 left in the second half, where the DVR shut if off. I’m new to having a DVR, and didn’t realize that everything would shut off right at 11. I didn’t know what to do, but luckily ESPN 2 was showing a replay of the game from 1:30-3 in the morning. So I jumped right back in at the 1:27 mark, trying my absolute hardest to watch without looking at the bottom line updates. Long story short, it was Duke-Maryland, and with the Terps getting the win, it was well worth my struggles to bring my loyal readers, all 5 of them, my thoughts. Both of these teams will be around until at least the second week of the NCAA’s. Begrudgingly, I give Duke credit for coming back from an early 11 point deficit. Scheyer and Smith seemingly hit shot after shot, which bodes well for the Dookies because guard play is always a factor in the dance. Brian Zoubek has turned into a rebounding machine, and although he seemingly always shoots about 5-14, Kyle Singler is usually good for a couple of clutch 3’s and big rebounds each time out. As for Maryland, Grevis Vazquez is simply one of the best guards in all the land. I think the last, or second to last shot he hit, where he dribbled into 3 people and seemingly just threw the ball at the rim, is a microcosm for who he is as a player. It is one of those shots where coaches scream “No, no, no, Yes!!!” You question his methods sometimes, but he gets the job done. Jordan Williams bears an uncanny resemblance to a young Sean May, and he had a very Sean May-like output of 15 points, 11 boards, and 3 blocks. Vazquez led the Terps with 20, while Nolan Smith also had 20 for Duke. Now, the clash in Durham between Duke and the Tarheels takes on added importance, with UNC now getting a chance to spoil Duke’s chances at winning the league. (As you read above, you saw how that turned out).
Man of the Match: Vazquez 20 pts, 4 rbs, 5 assts

Tennesee 75, Mississippi St. 59: I watched UT play for the first time this season, so I could argue more effectively with Langston about their merits or lack of them. I also wanted to check them out because they have beaten arguably the two best teams going in Kansas and Kentucky. I don’t really think this game was a case of the Vols playing great, but simply Miss. St. playing terribly. They got down 17-0, then pretty much ignored Jarvis Varnado and just shot threes. What Tennessee does have going for them, aside from “Rocky Top” being a pretty sweet song, is that they are deep and athletic. Scotty Hopson relies on shooting triples a little too much, but when he’s on, he’s tough to stop. J.P. Prince led the Vols with 16, while Brian Williams had 10 points and 13 rebounds. UT could go anywhere from the Final Four to out in the first round, but either way they’ll make it interesting.
Man of the Match: Prince 16 pts, 6 rbs, 3 assts, 2 stls

"Around the Power 6"

ACC

Ascending: Maryland
Descending: Georgia Tech
Player of the Week: Greivis Vazquez (21.5 pts, 5 assts, 2.5 stls)

Big East
Ascending: West Virginia
Descending: Cincinnati
Player of the Week: Deshaun Butler (21.5 pts, 8 rbs, 4 assts)

Big 12
Ascending: Texas A&M
Descending: Oklahoma
Player of the Week: Cory Higgins (24.5 pts, 4.5 rbs, 3 stls)

Big 10
Ascending: Wisconsin
Descending: Illinois
Player of the Week: Raymar Morgan (19 pts, 9 rbs, 2 stls)

SEC
Ascending: Tennessee
Descending: Mississippi St.
Player of the Week: Mikhail Torrance (15 pts, 9 rbs, 7 assts)

Pac 10
Ascending: Arizona St.
Descending: UCLA
Player of the Week: Matthew Bryan-Amaning (14 pts, 10.5 rbs, 2 blks)

LCB Hoops Picks: March Towards Madness

This week me and Berndon take a look at the big game between Texas and Baylor... Oh and two schools from North Carolina that are playing sometime this weekend. I hear there is some sort of history between the two institutions.

The Greatest Rivalry (2010) Chapter 4: An Interview

Teach and Iceman prepare for Round 2 of the 2009-10 Carolina-Duke rivalry, with Teach doing the recognizance work this time:

Teach: Duke is 25-4, but no one really mentions them when it comes to making the Final Four or winning a national title?  Why is that?  How does it make you feel, and could you relay your emotion in the form of a color?

 Iceman: Duke should be considered to be in the mix, but at the same time, they don't have the horses that many of the other "top" teams do.  I mean they began this season worried that they may only have 2 scholarship guards on the roster.  It's hard to conceive of a National Championship caliber team only having two guards, though in the end they did reap the early metriculation of Andre Dawkins.  If I had to pick a color to represent this team and my emotional state it would be Pink.  This is team is overwhelmingly young and full of untapped talent.  Other than the three seniors, I feel like everyone else has a chance to blossom next year, Singler and Smith included.

 Teach: How will the Jon Scheyer and Kyle Singler era be remembered?  Seeing as they remind me of late '70s/early '80s British punk rockers, are they more The Clash, The Sex Pistols, or The Jam?  I'll leave that open to interpretation.

Iceman: The Jam, easily.  Although the only difference here is that the Jam's last album was a massive success, they came in with a whimper and out with a bang, like many of their early-punk contemporaries.  But in the case of Scheyer/Singer, I'm thinking they be in with a bang (highly rated recruits) and out with a whimper.  I think these guys may be remembered like many of the other great Duke players who did not play on Championship caliber teams.  Great players who were unfortunately in some ways to be playing on teams in transition.  Scheyer in particular had the poor luck of playing on the youngest team in Duke history and has had to be a leader since he first stepped onto campus.  I'll remember them fondly, but not with the same adoration as a Jay Williams.

Teach: Where is Kyle Singler next year, and what do you make of the fact that in terms of attention and pub he's now seen as the second banana to Scheyer, much in the same way that Reddick cast a shadow over Sheldon Williams?  For the record, I always thought Sheldon was more important to those Duke teams.

Iceman: As of right now, I'd say Kyle is back on campus in the fall.  And on top of that, I think Kyle will have learned a little bit more about what it takes to play on the perimeter instead of the high post.  I think coming into this season, people were extraordinarily expecting Singler to be much more comfortable on the wing as opposed to his role as a PF his first two years in college and during HS.  Singler currently has the game of a guy who could a deep-threat Power Forward, and not a SF.  I think with more work on his ball handling and his jumpshot, Singler could truly transform his game heading into next season.  Now as for Scheyer overshadowing Singler....this was bound to happen in my mind when Singler began struggling shooting the ball and with his turnovers.  If anything it lowers draft expectations enough to get Kyle back for his senior season and forcing him to really improve his perimeter game during the offseason.

For the Record, I always thought Chris Duhon was the belt that made those two cogs turn.

Teach: The following is Duke's record and where they finished in the NCAA's for each year of this decade:

2000   Sweet Sixteen 29-5
2001   National Champions 35-4
2002   Sweet Sixteen 29-4
2003   Sweet Sixteen 26-7
2004   Final Four Runner-up 31-6
2005   Sweet Sixteen 27-6
2006   Sweet Sixteen 32-4
2007   First Round 22-11
2008   Second Round 28-6
2009   Sweet Sixteen 31-7

Which begs the question, how washed up is Coach K?

Iceman: This question always cracks me up.  Let me put it this way.  If I picked any school in the country besides UNC, Duke, UCLA, and maybe Kansas, and told them that during the next 10 years of college basketball seasons, they were going to have the exact results that you listed above.  I don't think there is a single school that tells me that's not a great future.  You basically have 10 years of at least 20 wins per season, you make it to the NCAA tourney every year, and only once do you lose in the first round.  On top of that you have two final fours and a championship.

Look, Coach K is not infallible, but the guy is far from washed up.

Also, under this logic, you could make the case that Dean Smith was washed up in the mid-1970's, before winning his first Championship in '82.  Short of the 1977 season in which they lost the Championship game, Dean's teams were doing exactly what Coach K's having been doing since 2001.

1972-1973	North Carolina	25-8	8-4	2nd	NIT 3rd Place
1973-1974	North Carolina	22-6	9-3	T-2nd	NIT 1st Round
1974-1975	North Carolina	23-8	8-4	T-2nd	NCAA 2nd Round
1975-1976	North Carolina	25-4	11-1	1st	NCAA 1st Round
1976-1977	North Carolina	28-5	9-3	1st	NCAA Runner Up
1977-1978	North Carolina	23-8	9-3	1st	NCAA 1st Round
1978-1979	North Carolina	23-9	9-3	1st	NCAA 2nd Round
1979-1980	North Carolina	21-8	9-5	T-2nd	NCAA 2nd Round

Teach: Is the myth of Coach K's demise due more to the early departures of Elton Brand/ Corey Maggette/ Luol Deng, K's foray into coaching the National team, or people just hating Duke?

Iceman: Numbers 1 and 2, Teach.  But not 3.  I don't believe people hating a team have a huge effect on their success.  Also, to call a team that consistently gets 20 wins a season and performs reasonably well in the NCAAs as having a "demise" is a little strong.  But I would say that despite all of the positive-spin PR, Duke has "struggled" for the following reasons: 1. The recruiting landscape has changed and Coach K did not immediately change with it, and 2. Despite glowing reviews, Coach K's Olympic foray did have an effect on his recruiting and level of involvement with Duke Basketball.  

I don't care what everyone says, there are only so many hours in the day and the Olympics definitely took a lot of K's energy.  I'm not bitter or angry about that fact, I deeply respect the man's commitment to our country, but I think it needs to be said.  As for recruiting, I think the NBA rule change, along with changing attitudes about the effectiveness of college basketball as a training ground and the necessity of making an effort academically, has challenged Coach K's recruiting strategy.  Once again, most media speculation is that Coach K was never affected by the changes in recruiting tides, but I think he has just started to grasp what you need do and who you need to get to compete at the top level in this day and age.  I think there is evidence that he has softened on his "anti-one-and-done" approach with the heavy (albeit futile) recruitment of both John Wall and Harrison Barnes.

 Teach: Does any of the Duke hate stem from the fact that so many of their superstars are white?  In other words, does the fact that they are often led by players who most perceive to be from out of a Bob Cousy time warp result in the white fan simply bashing white basketball players because deep down we're all jealous and looking to make ourselves feel better about our own lack of athleticism?

Iceman: Haha, with the likes of a JJ Redick, I think the jealousy aspect comes into play.  But as for Duke hate in general, I think it stems from a few places.

   1. Duke is a private, very exclusive, somewhat snobby University, and not a state school.
   2. Duke has been good for a very long time with very few lulls.
   3. Some of the players appear cocky and in some cases undeserving of the attention garnered.
   4. Dick Vitale.  I hate him even though he loves most of my guys.

On the whole, I think elements of Duke hate do stem from acts of jealousy and a sense of everyman, classist spite and angst.  Duke as an institution reeks of self-aggrandizing and elitist sentiments, and I think the general public and especially those with teams that have been beaten regularly by Duke, find this to be completely hate-able.  Frankly, I don't blame them.  Deep down, part of me hates Duke the University, but just not the basketball team.  

Teach: What does Wojo really do?

Iceman: Sigh.  He is considered the "big man" coach, though thankfully they recently brought Nate James, who has some big man cred, in as an assistant.  I would say Wojo's strength primarily lies in his recruiting and his floor slapping workshops.  Kidding.  But to be honest, he's a nice guy, I met him at graduation last year and he was a normal dude.  If anything, my hope is that he focuses his energy on helping guys like Scheyer find crafty ways to score and move the ball, just like Wojo used to.

Teach: How good is that 2001 Duke team compared to the other champs of the past decade?  Looking at their roster made me reevaluate where they should stand: Carlos Boozer, Chris Duhon, Jason Williams, Dahntay Jones, Shane Battier, and Mike Dunleavy, Jr. (not to mention Nate James).

Iceman: Personally, for me (and I'm quite biased obviously), I think they are better than just about anyone else who has won a Nat'l Championship in the last decade.  Obviously there is NBA talent on every team that gets to the Championship, but that team really did have incredible players at every position.  Jason Williams in particular, was a fantastic player, and in my estimation would have continued to have been the best NBAer of this group had he not been injured beyond repair.  Yes, I'm including Carlos Boozer and Shane Battier in that conclusion.  

I have to temper my Duke fandom a little and say that last year's Tar Heels were a group I would consider similarly stacked with NBA talent, although their success in the NBA is yet to be foreseen.  I know people tout the 2002 Maryland team as a great one, but not compared the 2001 Duke and 2009 Heels.  Oh and didn't Florida win some Championships?  I guess they did, but I don't trust anything Billy Donovan touches.

Teach: What makes this Duke season a success?

Iceman: All of the beat writers and ESPN puff piece writers will say it's the 20+ wins, or they possible ACC Championship, or the continued string of NCAA appearances.  But to me, this team is a success primarily because I think they are over-achieving.  Coming into this season, this was a team with 3 scholarship guards, an all conference PF-ish player transitioning into his role as a wing player, and a slew of unpolished or offensively deficient big men.  Given that make up and some of the "athletic limitations", I'd say that this team is near and dear to my heart for all they have accomplished.  And once again, it goes to show that Coach K is not sliding into his "demise."

This season is also a success because the guys on this team are paving the way for what looks to be a much more balanced and dangerous team next year.  And I have to say I respect the job Scheyer, Zoubek, and Thomas have done on a team that looked a little unsure coming into the season.

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3 , 4, 5

The Greatest Rivalry (2010) Chapter 3: The Interrogation Process

Because his team won, Iceman will pretty much be running the debriefing of last night's Duke-Carolina game as well as the Q and A.

Iceman's Game Notes:
Just like every other Duke/Carolina game in the history of all history this one was competitive and meaningful. It was also the beginning of a new chapter in the rivalry, full of fresh faces. Duke is the more experienced and more polished team, but the odds and the Smith Center guaranteed this would be a close match regardless of the rosters and season records. From the onset Carolina just looked young and in need of a leadership. As you (Teach) so astutely pointed out at the beginning of the season, that leadership would more than likely have to come from Marcus Ginyard, but to date, it really hasn't. To me he seems to be the quiet veteran who knows what to do, but is not talented enough to "lead-by-example."

The Greatest Rivalry (2010) Chapter 1: The Invisible Men

Somehow, someway, this North Carolina team found a way to make H. G. Wells grin from inside a tomb of science fiction nonsense.

This time last year Carolina was well on its way to being crowned the ACC regular season champs with even bigger dreams of eventually becoming national champions. They did both, and the Carolina faithful were happy; but happiness soon gave way to madness. The phrase "gave way" even suggests that the madness was always present, perhaps as an intangible part of what makes college basketball such a tragically beautiful sport.

Greg Paulus: His Gift/His Curse/His Life

First, there are few Duke players over the years I've despised and ridiculed the way I have ridiculed Greg Paulus, so I'm beginning to wonder if this is some sort of personal vendetta he has against me. I mean, the tryout with the Green Bay Packers was embarrassing and resulted in me receiving several mocking text messages I'd rather forget, and now he's wearing Carolina gear and holding a baby wearing a Hansbrough jersey. I don't get it, but I will say this, and it feels quite strange to say indeed, he looks much better in Duke blue than he does in Carolina blue.  I mean, I thought everyone looked better in Carolina blue, but I was wrong.

This photo is brought to you courtesy of Thee Blog: AM 850.