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McRoberts to the NBA?
CBS Sportsline is reporting that Josh McRoberts will leave Duke two years early to enter the NBA draft. The article implies that McRoberts will hire an agent and not just test the waters. For the season, McRoberts averaged 13 points, 7.9 boards, and 3.5 assists per game for the Blue Devils. What do we think?
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VCU Sends Duke Packing
By Michael
It was groundhog day as turnovers killed Duke again (TRR is absolutely sick of writing this about the Blue Devils). VCU used its pressure defense to get 13 steals and force 17 Duke turnovers and the Rams turned these extra possessions into points. Duke's string of 9 consecutive sweet-16 finishes is now over. The Rams advance to play Pittsburgh.
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NCAA First Round Preview: (6) Duke v. (11) VCU
And for our last NCAA First Round Preview, we have some thoughts on Duke versus VCU. Will this be the end of the sweet-16 run for the Dukies?
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ACC Receives 7 NCAA Tournament Bids
By Michael
We would have posted some comments on the brackets earlier, but the server was down for several hours. Of all days for that to happen...
North Carolina wins a share of the regular season conference title and wins the ACC Tournament outright...and what is their reward? Possible games against Marquette, Texas, and Gerogetown in the toughest regional bracket. Thanks, but don't do us any more favors.
That and other thoughts in this post.
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When You Can't Be Bothered to Leave the Couch
Robotic Beer Launching Refrigerator - More amazing video clips are a click away
A reader sent us this link just in time for the ACC and NCAA Tournaments. TRR thinks that this Duke Crazy is onto something.
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NC State Dominates the Paint, Downs Duke 85-80
By Michael
When preparing our previews for the first round of the ACC Conference Tournament, Chris noticed that the Wolfpack haven't won a conference game when they had less than a 55 percent EFG. Without Henderson to provide some additional muscle inside, NC State pounded it in to Costner and McCauley. The two responded with 45 points on 17 of 25 from the floor and helped NC State record a stunning EFG percentage of 65 percent against Duke. NC State rode these two and a stellar second half from Atsur to down the short-handed Blue Devils 85-80 and advance to the second round of the ACC Tournament. Good call Chris (you know how much it pains me to admit that!).
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Tobacco Road Report All-ACC Awards V
In this article we present our final TRR All-ACC Awards. Some of these awards are quite unconventional, including the TRR Coach with Brass Award, the TRR Shut-up Dickie V. Award, and the TRR Jason Vorhees Award for the team that comes back from the dead. That and much more is just a click away.
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Exit Stage Left
Arash, who sent in the View From Your Seat below, also sent us this photo of Henderson being escorted off the court after his hard foul on Hansbrough. Duke assistants blanketed him during his walk to the tunnel. According to Arash, the booing was extremely loud, as loud as it has ever been in the Dean Dome.
The View From Your Seat
[A loyal reader, Arash, sends us the view from his seat for the Carolina-Duke matchup.]
Tobacco Road Report All-ACC Awards III
In the third installment of the TRR All-ACC Awards, we reveal our choices for the Tobacco Road Report Freshman All-ACC Team and TRR Freshman of the Year Award.
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Tobacco Road Report All-ACC Awards
We've finished passing around the ballots for the 1st Annual Tobacco Road Report All-ACC Awards. Today we present our results for the TRR All-ACC Team selections and TRR Player of the Year in the ACC. Congratulations to the winners.
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On Gerald Henderson and Hansbrough
There's been some heated discussion on the Gerald Henderson foul during the closing minutes of the Carolina victory over Duke. TRR saw it live and thought it was malicious. The slow motion replays didn't change our opinion. Contrary to Billy Packer's protestations, the forearm across Tyler's nose was not an attempt to make a play on the ball and the classification of the call as a flagrant-combative foul was on the money.
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Maryland Makes it Six
By Michael
If you were like the staff at TRR, you were looking forward to Maryland-Duke all week. Unfortunately, fans of the ACC missed the first 7 minutes of regulation since the Villanova-UConn game ran late. Memo to the NCAA: when one team (UConn) shoots 24-44 from the free throw line and is still losing at home, they don't deserve more TV time! This stinker-of-a-game featured 75 total foul shots...that sound you hear is me snoring.
As for the real game, the meeting between Maryland and Duke felt like deja vu (all over again). Duke has struggled all year against athletic teams, especially those with speed and quickness in the backcourt. Maryland was more athletic from top to bottom and frustrated the Duke offense for most of the night. The solid defense was a catalyst for enough early offense to propel Maryland to its sixth straight conference win by the score of 85-77, solidifying Maryland's new-found role as the most dangerous team in conference nobody wants to face.
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Best Student Section "Sign" of the Week
The Best Student Section "Sign" of the Week goes to the student body of the Clemson Tigers. TRR loved the Flavor Flav clocks around the necks of the faithful in reference to the extra time the Blue Devils received in their win over Clemson at Cameron Indoor earlier this year. As Flavor would say, "Yeeeeaaaahhhh Booooiiiii!"
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Duke Struggles Late Again, Holds on Against Clemson
By Michael
Duke (21-7, 8-6) has managed to right the ship with three straight wins in conference. The Dukies, however, have fallen into a pattern of surging early and tightening late which has allowed their opponents to get back into the game. Last night it was Clemson cutting the deficit to five before falling 71-66. The Tigers have fallen to 5-8 in conference and need to win out against BC, Miami, and Virginia Tech to have a realistic chance for an NCAA bid.
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Duke Thrives on Tech Mistakes….71-62.
22 turnovers, 36 points off turnovers…game over, Blue Devils win.
Georgia Tech showed their youth on Sunday as the Blue Devils went on a 14-5 run over the last 5 minutes of the first half to get a working margin and a hard fought victory. Duke was led by their guard trio (Paulus-15 points, Nelson- 13 points, Scheyer-14 points) and won the game with the help of Georgia Tech’s fundamental errors.
Duke Undresses Boston College 78-70
By Michael
If you told Al Skinner that his Eagles would shoot an EFG% of 60 percent, score 1.03 points per possession, go to the line 28 times and make 22, and shoot 6-13 from three, I would think that he'd be happy to take that against Duke.
Unfortunately, his Eagles gave up an EFG% of 63 percent, only rebounded 61 percent of their opportunities, and turned the ball over 19 times in a 68 possession game. In case you're keeping score at home, that's a turnover on 28 percent of possessions.
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Putting Duke on the Couch
By staff
With Duke in their biggest conference slump in a decade, hoop fans are wondering what is wrong with the Devils. In order to find out, we’ve invited Duke to spend some time on TRR’s couch for some introspection. The Id of Duke’s fan base is rattled right now, struggling to fulfill its emotional, sometimes irrational, need to be on top of the college basketball world. What we at TRR promise is a good dose of Ego, using our tempo-free statistics to give the Id a cold dose of reality.
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ACC Men's Basketball Players of the Week for Feb 5
Congratulations to Jared Dudley and Brandon Costner. Dudley has come up big in the absence of Williams and Costner's excellent all around game helped lift NC State over Tobacco Road rival UNC. See more details here.
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Runnin' on Empty, Duke Falls to Carolina 79-73
By Michael
No. 5 North Carolina (21-3, 7-2) overcame the early Duke surge and used its superior depth to stay in the hunt at the top of the ACC standings. No. 16 Duke (18-6, 5-5) has now lost three conference games in a row for the first time since 1996. In another classic installment of the Carolina-Duke rivalry, the freshman came up big. Scheyer (26 points) and Henderson (14 points) led the Blue Devils from the perimeter while Brandon Wright (19 points) and Ty Lawson (15 points) provided an effective inside-outside combo that was too much for Duke to handle.
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Oops, We Did it Again! Virginia Rallies Late, Downs Duke 68-66
By Michael
Both teams entered this game with 5-2 conference records. Ahead of them in conference was North Carolina, Virginia Tech, and Boston College. With Virginia Tech stumbling in a loss to NC State and question marks surrounding BC's play sans Williams, the winner of Virginia v. No. 10 Duke would be in excellent shape to make a run for second place in conference. Virginia was just good enough, overcoming their second late-game deficit in a week, allowing us to quote Brittney Spears. We promise we won't do it again.
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Duke Wins: Grinds Out 14-Point Win Over BC
by David
Duke seems to be hitting their stride at the right time. Despite some sloppy play at times the Devils pulled away in the opening moments of the second half to close out BC and make sure there would be no clock issue for this game. To be entirely honest, once Duke got up by about 10 points the game got somewhat boring with BC unable to get closer than six but Duke unable to pull much further away.
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ACC Men's Basketball Players of the Week for January 22nd
Virginia's J.R. Reynolds was named the ACC Player of the Week, while Miami's Dwayne Collins and Duke's Jon Scheyer shared ACC Rookie of the Week honors. See the story here.
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Clemson Gets Robbed
By Michael
TRR has had enough with the advantage Duke receives a home. It's hard enough to execute a game plan five on six in Cameron Indoor with the Crazies performing with their usual high energy. We have no problem there...home court advantage is home court advantage. Visitors have to rise above that challenge on their own. Kudos to the Crazies. But to try and win five against nine is nearly impossible.
I've dumped the remainder of my write-up in favor of this simple premise: Clemson earned the right to have the game decided in overtime. After fighting to get within three points after a Hamilton layup with five seconds left, Clemson received a gift. Josh McRoberts looked to inbound the ball to Greg Paulus, but Paulus zigged while McRoberts zagged and the entry pass sailed out to the three point line into the hands of Hamilton who drained a three. With 1.8 seconds showing on the clock, the game looked destined for overtime.
Unfortunately, the refs decided to play clock management after feeling excessive time ran off the clock after Hamilton's made basket. Probably true, and your's truely noted it to the Official Wife of TRR when it happened. However, I also noticed that the clock started well after Hamilton received the errant inbounds pass. So if the referees were going to put time back on the clock for running too long after the made basket, they should have offset this by the amount of time not run off the clock on the inbounds pass.
On net, the clock should have read about 3.5-3.8 seconds left, meaning McClure's layup would not have been taken in time. By putting the clock back to 4.4 seconds, the refs were saying Hamilton caught, set, launched, and sank a three pointer in 0.6 seconds. Absolute hogwash (this is still a family site)...and we expected nothing less from referees in Cameron Indoor.
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Duke and Boston College Earn Top Honors In NCAA Graduation Rates
A reader of the Tobacco Road Report, who also happens to be a colleague of the Official Wife of TRR, passed along a tidbit of information yesterday concerning student-athlete graduation rates that had so far eluded our radar screen. With apologies for the delay, we at TRR would like to extend our congratulations to the student-athletes at Duke and Boston College for earning the top graduation rates in all of Division I.
Duke finished first on the list, graduating 91 percent of its student athletes, only slightly ahead of Boston College who finished second with 90 percent. The data is from the 2006 NCAA Graduation Rates Report and is based on the most recent graduating class for which six years of information is available. The NCAA press release can be found here.
We thought this might be a good time to remind readers of the site that these two schools generally do things right, despite recent "incidents" that have attracted media attention. We at TRR would also like to point out that the majority of the student-athlets that comprise these graduation rates -- those in the so-called non-revenue sports -- quietly pursue their disciplines without fanfare. TRR salutes your efforts.
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Duke 62, Wake 40: Duke Dismantles the Deacons
By Michael
Duke held the Demon Deacons to the fewest points allowed by an opponent in Cameron Indoor since 1958. In case you were wondering, 1958 is the year Sputnik fell back to earth, Bobby Fischer won the the U.S. Chess Championship at age 14, tuition at Harvard was $1250 per year, a gallon of gas cost $0.24, and the St. Louis Hawks defeated the Boston Celtics to win the NBA Championship. Yes, the now Atlanta Hawks were actually good at one point in their history, but that's a story for a later date.
It was hard to tell whether Duke's defense was that good, or Wake's offense was that inept. Probably some of both. Either way, No. 17 Duke (15-5) cruised to a 22 point victory and evened their conference record at 2-2. Wake (9-8) is still searching for answers, falling to 1-4 in conference play and quickly becoming a non-factor in any post season discussion.
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Tony Romo isn't the only poor ball handler...Tech Upsets Duke 74-63
By Chris
Georgia Tech finally got production from multiple upper-classmen in a hard fought win over Duke. Tech had beaten Duke once in the last 22 attempts, so I guess TRR will classify this as an upset. The Jackets were led in scoring by juniors, Ra’Sean Dickey (21 points) and Anthony Morrow (19 points), while Duke was led by Jon Scheyer with 16.
Virginia Tech Avenges Last Year’s Loss: Takes Advantage of 22 Duke TOs
By Michael
After appearing to regain his form, Greg Paulus took a serious step back today, turning the ball over 6 times in 18 minutes. Paulus wasn’t the only one who was careless with the ball as the Blue Devils committed 22 total turnovers. Virginia Tech used their backcourt quickness and the extra opportunities to earn a 69-67 overtime win at Cameron Indoor and avenge last year’s season-crushing loss against Duke.
Duke Dominates Temple, Ready for the ACC
By Michael
Duke (13-1) used its superior size and depth to control Temple (6-6), earning a 73-55 win at Cameron Indoor. Along the way, Duke showed that it’s ready for ACC play.
Christmas Comes Early for Duke
By Michael
Duke played well in the second half, especially versus the 2-3 zone of Gonzaga, to earn another win over a quality opponent 61-54. Before the game Coach K reached into his stocking and finally found his point guard.
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Duke Earns the Win Over Kent State, 79-72
By Michael
This wasn’t the typical post-final exam cupcake game to get the legs and lungs back in shape. Kent State beat Butler this year, hung with Ohio State for significant minutes, and the Golden Flashes have logged 8 consecutive 20-win seasons. Duke’s advantage in this game came from McRoberts inside and a steady stream of Blue Devil foul shots.
Duke Beats George Mason: The Importance of DeMarcus Nelson
By Michael
In our feature of Duke’s win over Holy Cross, which you can find here, we mentioned the importance of good guard play and the need to get DeMarcus Nelson integrated into the offense.
Apparently, the Dukies are as concerned as TRR is over the inefficiency of the offense. The players felt so uneasy that they convened a team meeting on Thursday of last week and came away knowing it needed an aggressive DeMarcus Nelson to propel the Blue Devils offensively. Hey Dukies…skip the meeting and read the Tobacco Road Report!
I decided that one way to measure the relative importance of Nelson was to chart the production of possessions where Nelson received touches versus possessions where he did not. The results are an excellent indicator of how the Blue Devils will have success.
Groundhog Day: Duke Finds the Range Against Holy Cross
By Michael
Coach K must feel like he’s watching Groundhog Day. Each game is another exhibition on poor guard play and sloppy execution, until the Blue Devils finally get it together in the second half to take out their opponent. The game is also another example of how senior leadership on a mid-major team can pull upsets against their larger conference brethren.
Duke Holds off Georgetown 61-52
By Michael
Instead of giving a full write-up on the game, I’d like to just share some of my thoughts on what I thought was a good win for Duke. Bottom line: it wasn’t pretty—against Georgetown it never is—but Duke earned a good W.
Duke 54, Indiana 51
By Michael
Despite not playing well, Duke found a way to win against a scrappy IU squad. This game was a real stinker, and part of me wants to skip the write-up in protest, but I’m going to try and forget that I’ll never get these two hours of my life back and push on.
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Marquette Upends Duke to Win CBE Classic
By Michael
No. 17 Marquette (6-0) used its superior quickness at both ends of the court to overtake No. 8 Duke (4-1) by the score of 73-62 and win the CBE Classic in Kansas City. In the process, Marquette laid out a blue print on how to beat the Blue Devils.
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ACC Lands Four in AP Preseason Top 25.
The Associated Press Top 25 basketball poll for week 1 of the upcoming college basketball season contains four ACC schools. North Carolina is ranked second, behind the Florida Gators who received 63 first place votes and one spot ahead of the Kansas Jayhawks. The Tar Heels received 9 first place votes while Kansas did not receive any.
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TRR’s Projected Order of Finish in the ACC.
1. NORTH CAROLINA. Roy Williams and company simply have too much firepower. The key will be getting the youth up to speed. Ellington, Wright, and Lawson surrounding ACC MVP Hansbrough will be too much for opponents to handle.
Postseason destination: NCAA final four or better.
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Duke Overcomes Fast Georgia Southern Start
TRR wasn’t watching this game for the outcome as much as we were to examine the new look Dukies at every position. Thus, you won’t see scores and statistics in this article beyond this…Duke won 72-48. If you’re looking for a blow by blow, then this isn’t the article for you. But if you want to know our early thoughts about the strengths and weakness of the Blue Devils at this (admittedly very early) stage, we invite you to read on.
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Pre-Season Preview: Duke: Restocking the Cupboard
Location: Durham, North Carolina
Division: Coastal
2005-2006 Results: 32-4 Overall, 14-2 Conference
Head Coach: Mike Krzyzewski
Record at Duke: 680-191 (.781), 26 seasons
Record Overall: 753-250 (.751), 31 seasons
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