Just got done with the week-long road trip plus the half-day in Boston today. Even though each day only involved a handful of meetings, the travel, shuffling around of meetings, inevitable hotel reservation fuck-ups, rental car snafus, and other what-have-yous tend to take a toll. I'm mad exhausted today--time to recharge the batteries for tomorrow, when I will try to take it easy, do a bit of housecleaning at the office, and undoubtedly disappoint TheWife on Valentine's Day.
One high point of the week, however, was getting back to the old digs in Durham, NC, grabbing dinner with Bashon and Bashali, taking my co-worker from India on a quick tour of Duke's campus, and hitting up Cosmic Cantina for a stealth burrito before driving out to Richmond. Sadly, left NC for Richmond the night of Duke-Carolina, but what can you do? Caught the first half with NanzoBot at a bar and raced back to the hotel for the second half. There, a skinny Asian kid was nestled up to the bar, paying close attention to the game. Lo and behold, I had found a Duke fan outside of Durham! As we rapped Duke bball and pleaded for our team to play defense and grab just a few rebounds, we slowly resigned ourselves to a 10-point loss. After a pretty decent outing in the first half, Carolina simply outclassed, outshot, outrebounded, out"physicaled" (whatever the hell that means), and I guess, out"athleted" Duke.
Thus, we decided to drown our sorrows with some scotch to end the night. But 2:38 later, after some fortuitous defending, three-point shooting, and Tyler Zellering, our funeral scotches morphed into party whiskey, because HOLY AUSTIN RIVERS! We must have woken up the first two floors of the Westin Richmond with our freakish screaming, as Duke put together one of the all-time classic comebacks that night, even if the first 37 minutes of the game were all Carolina. Shades of the Miracle Minute/Gone in 60 Seconds at Maryland in January 01. I'm still trying to figure out just how Duke stole that game away. Very early on in his career, Austin Rivers has put his stamp on Duke-Carolina forever with what must go down as a top-5 moment in the history of the rivalry. And, he's given Duke fans the satisfaction that Duke is 5-1 in the last six games against the Heels. That'll make the March 3rd rematch in Cameron all the better.
For all my Duke fandom, I do believe this is one of the weaker Duke teams we have seen in a long time. Not a great rebounding team despite having three guys 6'10" or taller who get significant time on the floor; a truly atrocious defensive team, sealing the basement of the ACC and allowing opponents to shoot 44%; despite the scoring stats, not a juggernaut offensively, especially when you consider Duke's atrocious performance in the assists department, an area in which classic Duke teams have excelled; and finally, a team that hasn't figured out its identity. You can see that in the play of Seth Curry, who last year nicely carved out a little spot as a scrappy defender, ball-handler, and 3-point assassin. This year, Curry has been slightly off-kilter on both ends of the floor--a bit more fouling, a bit less accurate on the threes, and on-and-off with the handle. This Duke team doesn't seem to rotate well on defense and tends to be extremely porous on the perimeter, allowing athletic guards to slash and attack the basket at will (see: UNC's first 37 minutes). For some reason, despite the lofty ranking, I just don't think this Duke team is that good, and the RPI tends to support that notion, keeping the Devils around the 10-15 ranking, well higher than their #4-5 ranking in the polls.
All that being said, this Duke team does seem to have a knack for winning, or at least playing well under intense game pressure. Experienced, the Devils are not. As far as being battle-tested over the last three months, no other team has a better claim. Discounting the 22-point loss to a terrifying Ohio State team, Duke's other three losses have come by 5, 3, and 4 points to respectable opponents. This is a team that simply knows how to stay in games until the final bell, and any team that can do that has a fighting chance to play deep into March. Duke has played the toughest schedule in the country, defeating the current #4 (Kansas), #7 (Mich. St.), #8 (UNC), #17 (Michigan), and #22 (UVA) teams in the AP Poll. Losses came to the current #6 (Ohio St.), #20 (Florida St.), #26 (Temple), and Miami (not receiving votes in any polls, but a respectable #41 in the RPI, according to KenPom). That's three RPI top-10 wins and 6 RPI top-25 wins for a young, young team, and no losses outside the RPI top-50. Not bad at all, considering Duke is just past halfway through the ACC slate and still will have games against UNC, Florida St., and RPI top-50 team NC State, not to mention the games that will come in the ACC Tourney.
So, long story short--I don't know what to make of this Duke team. I'm not even sure Coach K knows. Until he and the team figure it out, let's just sit back and enjoy the Austin Rivers backbreaker.
One high point of the week, however, was getting back to the old digs in Durham, NC, grabbing dinner with Bashon and Bashali, taking my co-worker from India on a quick tour of Duke's campus, and hitting up Cosmic Cantina for a stealth burrito before driving out to Richmond. Sadly, left NC for Richmond the night of Duke-Carolina, but what can you do? Caught the first half with NanzoBot at a bar and raced back to the hotel for the second half. There, a skinny Asian kid was nestled up to the bar, paying close attention to the game. Lo and behold, I had found a Duke fan outside of Durham! As we rapped Duke bball and pleaded for our team to play defense and grab just a few rebounds, we slowly resigned ourselves to a 10-point loss. After a pretty decent outing in the first half, Carolina simply outclassed, outshot, outrebounded, out"physicaled" (whatever the hell that means), and I guess, out"athleted" Duke.
Thus, we decided to drown our sorrows with some scotch to end the night. But 2:38 later, after some fortuitous defending, three-point shooting, and Tyler Zellering, our funeral scotches morphed into party whiskey, because HOLY AUSTIN RIVERS! We must have woken up the first two floors of the Westin Richmond with our freakish screaming, as Duke put together one of the all-time classic comebacks that night, even if the first 37 minutes of the game were all Carolina. Shades of the Miracle Minute/Gone in 60 Seconds at Maryland in January 01. I'm still trying to figure out just how Duke stole that game away. Very early on in his career, Austin Rivers has put his stamp on Duke-Carolina forever with what must go down as a top-5 moment in the history of the rivalry. And, he's given Duke fans the satisfaction that Duke is 5-1 in the last six games against the Heels. That'll make the March 3rd rematch in Cameron all the better.
For all my Duke fandom, I do believe this is one of the weaker Duke teams we have seen in a long time. Not a great rebounding team despite having three guys 6'10" or taller who get significant time on the floor; a truly atrocious defensive team, sealing the basement of the ACC and allowing opponents to shoot 44%; despite the scoring stats, not a juggernaut offensively, especially when you consider Duke's atrocious performance in the assists department, an area in which classic Duke teams have excelled; and finally, a team that hasn't figured out its identity. You can see that in the play of Seth Curry, who last year nicely carved out a little spot as a scrappy defender, ball-handler, and 3-point assassin. This year, Curry has been slightly off-kilter on both ends of the floor--a bit more fouling, a bit less accurate on the threes, and on-and-off with the handle. This Duke team doesn't seem to rotate well on defense and tends to be extremely porous on the perimeter, allowing athletic guards to slash and attack the basket at will (see: UNC's first 37 minutes). For some reason, despite the lofty ranking, I just don't think this Duke team is that good, and the RPI tends to support that notion, keeping the Devils around the 10-15 ranking, well higher than their #4-5 ranking in the polls.
All that being said, this Duke team does seem to have a knack for winning, or at least playing well under intense game pressure. Experienced, the Devils are not. As far as being battle-tested over the last three months, no other team has a better claim. Discounting the 22-point loss to a terrifying Ohio State team, Duke's other three losses have come by 5, 3, and 4 points to respectable opponents. This is a team that simply knows how to stay in games until the final bell, and any team that can do that has a fighting chance to play deep into March. Duke has played the toughest schedule in the country, defeating the current #4 (Kansas), #7 (Mich. St.), #8 (UNC), #17 (Michigan), and #22 (UVA) teams in the AP Poll. Losses came to the current #6 (Ohio St.), #20 (Florida St.), #26 (Temple), and Miami (not receiving votes in any polls, but a respectable #41 in the RPI, according to KenPom). That's three RPI top-10 wins and 6 RPI top-25 wins for a young, young team, and no losses outside the RPI top-50. Not bad at all, considering Duke is just past halfway through the ACC slate and still will have games against UNC, Florida St., and RPI top-50 team NC State, not to mention the games that will come in the ACC Tourney.
So, long story short--I don't know what to make of this Duke team. I'm not even sure Coach K knows. Until he and the team figure it out, let's just sit back and enjoy the Austin Rivers backbreaker.
