Posted On: March 13, 2009 By: Cliff Comments: (0)

The Duke Blue Devils had a close call Friday night in Atlanta as they played their first game in the ACC Tournament. The Boston College Eagles gave the Blue Devils all they could handle and led for a good part of the game but when the final horn sounded, the Blue Devils were ahead 66-65 and moved onto the semifinals. Duke will take on Maryland who upset Wake Forest on Friday.

The man on the court for the Blue Devils was Kyle Singler. Singler tied his career high of 26 points and kept the team in the game while others struggled. Singler was a one man show for part of the game and really stepped up when the team needed him. Singler also added six blocks in the game as she showed he can play defense too.

Other high scorers for the Blue Devils were Gerald Henderson with 16 and Jon Scheyer with 14.

Now we can look forward to a 4:00 ET tip-off against Maryland. The Terps are playing some very good basketball right now and will be looking to knock off Duke who has beaten them twice this season already. Duke will have to come to play once again if they want to move onto the finals of the ACC Tournament. I’ll say the Blue Devils will get the win by four points.

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Category: Duke Basketball, Duke Basketball Game Notes

Posted On: March 9, 2009 By: Cliff Comments: (0)

I’m not sure how many of you seen this over the weekend before the Duke vs North Carolina game so I figured I’d get it embedded here on the site. The video talks about how Nolan Smith great up around the game of basketball and hung around his dad at the stadiums as he grewup. And then everything was turned upside down for the Smith family when his father passed away. It’s a pretty good video and I’d like to say thanks to ESPN for the video.

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Category: Duke Basketball

Posted On: March 8, 2009 By: Cliff Comments: (2)

Well, the Duke / North Carolina game sure did live up to the hype as both teams fared off on Sunday. The bad news for Duke is that they were on the loosing end of the game as they lost 79-71. It was the second time that the Tar Heels have defeated the Blue Devils this season. The two teams could meet up for a third time in the ACC Tournament this next weekend so we will see what happens there as Duke could have a shot at a little redemption.

The two teams battled back and forth pretty much the entire game and Duke was within two points late in the second half but a turnover and two made shots by Carolina quickly put the lead back up to seven points. One factor in the loss was that the Blue Devils only had five players score the entire game while the Tar Heels had seven different players score. In fact, they all scored in the first half.

Jon Scheyer led the Blue Devils with 24 points as he shot seven for seven from the floor including three for three from long range. Kyle Singler was right behind Scheyer in the scoring column as he finished with 23 points. Singler was redhot early in the game as he quickly scored 13 points in the first ten minutes of the game but he then went through a dryspell until late in the second half.

Gerald Henderson didn’t have a great game but he did score 14 points. Henderson took the ball to the basket quite often as he attempted 11 free throws but he only made six of them.

Freshman Elliot Williams scored eight points while Lance Thomas added two. Williams had two or three forced shots in the second half that he has to be second guessing why he took the shots.

So North Carolina is the regular season ACC champions. Duke will either be runner-up or in third place depending how Wake Forst does in their game against Clemson. The guys will need to get rested for hopefully three days of basketball down in Atlanta this coming weekend. Let’s bring home an ACC Tournament Championship!

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Category: Duke Basketball, Duke Basketball Game Notes

Posted On: March 5, 2009 By: Cliff Comments: (3)

The rivalry continues on Sunday afternoon as Duke and North Carolina will battle it out for the second time this season. The Tarheels got the best of Duke back on Feb 11th by the score of 101-87 so the Blue Devils are hoping to return the favor and beat the Tarheels on their home court to finish up regular season ACC play.

Once again, this game will come down to Duke slowing down Lawson and containing Hansbrough as best that the can. Do I think they can pull of the feat? No I don’t. However, I’m optimistic and think the Blue Devils can atleast keep this game close if Henderson, Singler, and Scheyer do not get into foul trouble trying to keep up with Lawson and Hansbrough.

We have to also look at the injuries for duke. Nolan Smith still has a mild concussion and has missed the last two games. Brian Zoubek has a broken nose, while Lance Thomas has a rolled ankle. I think Thomas will play, and Zoubek probably will to atleast foul Hansbrough three or four times in the game.

In the end I see the TarHeels winning the game by eight or ten points and winning the regular season ACC Championship.

What do you all think?

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Category: Duke Basketball