Thursday, December 22, 2005

Vote!

Ok, so Shanoff at the Quickie is saying that the College PoY award should not be a debate confined to Morrison and Redick. And of course, then Shanoff plays the race card. Honestly, don't play the damn race card in BASKETBALL of all sports. That's like playing the race card in marathon-running. Black athletes absolutely DOMINATE every level of basketball, but this year, it's quite obvious (ahem, #1 and #2 scorers in the nation are Adam and JJ) that there is an anomaly at the college level.

Which brings me to the next point: the college level and ONLY the college level should be considered in judging the winner of this award. That bastard league called the NBA which has taken a great game like basketball and bent it over has absolutely nothing to do with the PoY award. One of my co-workers says, "if you can't play at the next level, it demeans the award." Valid point. However, when the next level has demeaned the game itself (which the "me-first" NBA has), all bets are off on his point. College basketball is basketball at its purest: defense matters, players pass, and individuals praise their teammates instead of themselves. At one point last night, Duke had 17 assists on 23 FGs. Maybe I'm biased, but that is what basketball is about. So what if Kobe scored 62 points in three quarters? No one else on the team scored in double figures! Basketball is a team sport, and the NBA has systematically destroyed that concept by encouraging selfish play. I'm sure Aldridge and Gay will be superb NBA players, but no one on the college scene is more valuable to his team than Adam Morrison or JJ Redick.

So vote now, my 5 ardent followers! Who is the best player in college this year? Morrison? Redick? Write-in?

Monday, December 19, 2005

A Good Website...Falling Fast

First, hats off to Paulus for the 15-assist night. Those 3 turnovers don't look so bad now! And how did JJ manage a quiet 30? Was it just me, or was everyone surprised when the announcer said "Redick has 29, and can knock this free throw down for 30"? Shelden was good for his regular 19 and 11 and finally Melchionni scored some much-needed points. You can tell Coach K told him to shoot. And Dock turned in another solid effort with 14 points, 4 boards, 4 steals, and 2 assists in 29 minutes.

Onto my beef: DBR is fast losing its credibility. Just a few goofs from the Duke-Valpo recap: they applaud Melchionni for going 8-8 from the line, when in fact he was 8-9; they say Dockery had three steals, when in fact he had four; they claim Coach K yelled "Get over here!" to Paulus during a defensive breakdown, when in fact it was Pocius receiving the wrath of K; they say Pocius fouled out in 8 minutes, when in fact he fouled out in 17. And this is all just in one article. Hopefully at the very least, the DBR guys will start fact-checking with the box score for each game. Their stats are sketchy and their commentary is getting more and more meaningless. They claim, "the holiday break, and what is accomplished then, will go a long way towards determining the trajectory of Duke's season." Over the holiday break, we play St. John's, UNC-Greensboro, and and Bucknell. How does that determine anything? I'm going with the BC-FSU-Carolina-Maryland-Wake stretch from Feb. 1-Feb. 14 as our true test.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Take the Quiz



"Who else even works here?"

"F**K YOU! That's who works here!"

Ha!


I wanna walk the penguins!

Rohan, if ever you become disgruntled with your job and pursue your fascination with penguins, you should start here.

Also, Princeton scored 21 points last night against Monmouth.

Monday, December 12, 2005

I've Got Good News

I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico!

Err, I mean, the idiots at ESPN are finally giving Duke some cred. They're like the analysts at Goldman Sachs: once a stock goes up 20%, all the analysts decide to slap a buy rating on it.

Saturday, December 10, 2005

Critics. Silenced.

I haven't seen Duke play such a great game in a very long time. We kept turnovers low, took great shots, passed well, and rebounded well. Defense was smothering. And oh yeah, JJ Redick is now officially a god.

To Dan Shanoff of the Daily Quickie: Who's #1 now, bitch? Stop hatin' on Duke.

Thursday, December 8, 2005

Here we go...

You know the media is eagerly waiting to pounce on the air marshals who shot that mentally ill man who claimed he had a bomb.

Wednesday, December 7, 2005

Melissa Theuriau

I just don't understand why more people don't know this woman's name. Seriously, at the very least, the French cinema gurus must be clamoring over her, right?

Tuesday, December 6, 2005

My Newest Obsession


My PSA to all that I am currently trying to attain the hallowed title of DK Bongo Maniac. If you haven't seen this game, I strongly suggest doing so immediately. I hadn't heard of it until two weeks ago, and my life is forever changed. For crying out loud, the game requires Bongos (as seen in the pic). Get to a game store and check out Donkey Konga. Learn it, love it, live it.

Logorrhea

It's today's Word of the Day, and it means "excessive talkativeness or wordiness."

We have the word, we have the definition. Surely I'm not the only one pushing for a much-needed and sure-to-be-applauded change:

logorrhea \law-guh-REE-uh\, noun: diarrhea of the mouth.

Also, I believe that word was the winning word at the Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee a few years ago (and yes, you know an Indian girl won it).

Monday, December 5, 2005

So Is Sean Dockery



While we had no business being down 1 with 1.6 seconds left, Dock saved the day.

Saturday, December 3, 2005

Reggie Bush is SuperMan



15 rushes, 196 yds, 1 TD. 5 minutes left in the 2nd quarter. UCLA needs to find some Kryptonite.

Friday, December 2, 2005

Hilarious

Kenny Rogers Jackass from MAD TV. There's another one out there, but this'll do for now. Get ready to laugh your ass off.

Thursday, December 1, 2005

Bite Me, Shanoff

Dan Shanoff of the Daily Quickie likes sitting on his pedestal. I agree, Duke has not looked great in the last three games, but Duke is 3-0 in those three, and last I checked, a win is a win, even if it's ugly. In fact, I found last night's win refreshing. Last year's Devils would have suffered a minor collapse after Killingsworth's monster dunk to put IU ahead 59-58. We would have seen bad shots taken and more frequent turnovers (how many times did we have the dreaded "Duke FG Drought" in the final 7 minutes of a game last year?). This year's Devils responded with energy and intensity, and smeared it in the face of an absolutely maniacal crowd. JJ silenced them after layup and a free throw, and we walked out of there with a W after a 17-8 run to finish the game. Good teams finish well, and Duke finished beautifully last night.

After the game against Memphis, Shanoff said "Like in football, Texas should be #1." I don't want to argue as to the quality of the Longhorns' team this year, they're obviously very good, but here's my beef, Dan: Texas beat West Virginia by ONE point in the Guardians Classic, then let Iowa make a game of it in the final. West Virginia? The same team that lost three in a row and fell out of the top 25 after losing to a Brandon Bass-less LSU? Yes, that team. Iowa? That offensive juggernaut that hung up 45 points on N.C. State last night? Yeah, them. Dan, if you're going to lament about "paper inferiority," you have to be impartial and look at Texas' close calls against inferior teams.

How come Duke gets the hate because we fight with two top-15 caliber teams, while Texas "should be #1" after struggling to finish off two teams on the cusp of the top 25??

Oh that's right, because we're Duke.

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Meanwhile...

Here in Seattle, the #19 Washington Huskies don't seem to have lost much steam after losing NateRob and Tre Simmons. Brandon Roy has picked up his fair share of the slack, and the team is averaging almost 99 points per game through 6 games. Although the schedule's been light, to average 99 through six games is commendable.

We'll see how they fare against the #7 Zags on Sunday. I can't remember the last time we had so much quality basketball in the first month of the season.

Duke at Indiana, ESPN, 9 PM ET

It's gonna be fun to see the kind of reception Josh McRoberts gets. If it's anything like what Sean May received in his homecoming, McRoberts is in for a long night in Bloomington. When UNC played IU, fans booed May relentlessly (May turned down IU to go to UNC), blatantly ignoring the mere fact that May's father is the reason IU won its 1976 championship. Combine that hatred with a dash of "white guy" and a dollop of Duke...not good. It'll be interesting to see how McRoberts responds to the adversity. Let's hope Paulus keeps making beautiful dishes inside and can finish some of his drives to the hole.

Meanwhile, IU is lighting it up from behind the arc: 10, 16, and 16 threes in their first three games (although I grant, they were playing Nicholls St., Florida A&M, and Western Illinois). We've been giving up a few threes this year though, letting Drexel and Memphis hit six apiece.

Bubblicious



From Bridgewater. Looks like the NASDAQ circa 2000.

Can the ACC do it again?

ACC has won the last 6 Big Ten/ACC Challenges, but this year is much closer. Tied 3-3 right now, with 5 games on the docket for tonight, I'd give the ACC 3 wins (Duke over Indiana, Virginia over Northwestern, Maryland over Minnesota) and the Big Ten two (Michigan State over Georgia Tech, Iowa over NC State).

Remember Face/Off?

In the words of the Farkmaster himself, "What could possibly go wrong?"

Not Bad for the Heels

Hanging tough with a pretty good team. Mitigates the buzzer-beating win against perennial powerhouse Gardner-Webb. Tyler Hansbrough will be good, there's no doubt about that.