Duke set to battle with San Jose State

Posted On: December 29, 2006 By: Cliff Comments: (more)

Duke enters Saturday’s game with an 11-1 overall record and riding a seven game winning streak. The most recent victory was a seven point victory over Gonzaga in New York City’s Madison Square Garden in which the Blue Devils rallied from an early nine point deficit behind a brillant performance from Josh McRoberts and a career night from Greg Paulus. Things haven’t been nearly as good for the Spartans, who enter the game with a 1-10 overall record, on the heels of a 104-77 loss to Cal State Fullerton in their last game. On the whole the Spartans have lost four straight games by an average of 14.0 points per game.

The Spartans have 12 players on the roster averaging 8.7 or more minutes per game. And only six of those players have appeared in every contest as Coach Nessman continues to experiment with a team made up of players that have continually suffered defeats throughout their college career. Recently he gave Devonte Thomas his first collegiate start against Long Beach State. The freshman responded with a double-double (15 & 10), and has been a starter ever since averaging 17.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and shooting 68.8 percent (15-of-22) from the field as a starter. He also has the team’s best field goal percentage figure of 58.7 percent heading into the Duke game.

I don’t expect this game to be close at all.  Duke should play lights out and win by atleast 25 points.  McRoberts will have a great game, and you will see Zoubek and Thomas get more involved like they were earlier this season.

Our Prediction: Duke 83 San Jose State 52

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Category: Duke Basketball, Duke Basketball Game Notes

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2 Responses to “Duke set to battle with San Jose State”

1. hskrfan Says:
   December 29th, 2006 at 3:12 pm

   arent you a little concerned with mcroberts finishing shots close to the basket… he has all the talent in the world but seems to miss a lot of layups.

2. Cliff Says:
   January 2nd, 2007 at 8:49 am

   I am concerned with McRoberts, but I feel he is still trying to learn how to run this team and become the team leader that everyone is expecting him to be.

   Here when conference play starts up, you can expect to see a different McRoberts and Paulus show up.

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