Duke Blue Devils Vs North Carolina Tarheels

I love this time of year.  Spring is right around the corner and college basketball is at its zenith.

Tonight my beloved Duke Blue Devils (27-3) are playing arch rival Carolina (21-9) at the famed “Dean Dome” in Chapel Hill.  Tipoff is 9:00 PM ET and airs on ESPN.

This is the last day of the ACC’s regular season.  Duke has been on one helluva roll of late devastating the hapless Demon Deacons of Wake Forest 94-51.  Seventeen days ago the Tarheels lost a heartbreaker to Duke in overtime 92-90.  The Heels are looking for payback.  Can they do it?  I don’t think so.  They’re playing at home but the bad news is they’ve won a scant 6 games in their last 16 meetings against Coach K’s team.

If, and I do mean if, the Heels miraculously win tonight the Louisville Cardinals will be the fourth seed in the ACC Tournament.  But I’m not going to think about that.  Duke is 4-1 against the top five teams in the league and the Heels are 1-4.

First round games start this Tuesday.  Second round is Wednesday with the quarterfinals set for Thursday.

None of my friends are Dookies, but that won’t stop me from donning my Blue Devil’s regalia (there’s no shame in my game) and walking into my favorite watering hole/sports bar where they will all be congregated to cheer my boys on to victory.

GO DUKE (GTHC)

And since no basketball post would be complete without some pom-poms, here’s a pretty Duke cheerleader to feast your eyes on.

A Coach Whose Name You Can’t Spell

Folks who visit this blog know well my devotion to the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Green Bay Packers.  I’ve said often enough that my devotion to these two teams goes all the way back to the 1960’s.  That’s a damn long time. 

For 35 years, I’ve also been a devout fan of the team America loves to hate—the Duke Blue Devils.

The Great State of North Carolina is home to some of the best men’s college basketball teams in the country—the Tarheels, Wolfpack and Demon Deacons—but Duke, now there’s a team!

A list of some of the Duke players who have gone on to the NBA include Johnny Dawkins (1987), Mike Gminksi (1991), Christian Laettner (1991), Bobby Hurley (1994), Grant Hill (1995), Cherokee Parks (1996) and J. J. Reddick (2007).

Most everyone in North Carolina is a rabid Tarheels fan. I’m a “Dookie” and damn proud of it. That makes me a target of some fierce teasing from friends who simply cannot fathom why I would root for Duke. 

While there is no championship, no conference title or Gold Medal on the line, No. 5 Duke hits the hardwoods against The Red Storm of St. John’s in Madison Square Garden.  It’s the same venue where Coach K became the winningest coach in college basketball history.

On that night his mentor and friend, Bobby Knight, was calling the game for ESPN.  When the buzzer sounded and Duke had defeated Michigan State 74-69, Coach K walked over to the broadcast table and told Knight he loved him.  It was a remarkable moment when the two switched places in the NCAA record book.

The Garden is special to Coach K. “Kids dream, and coaches dream, of playing in this place…Just the way the court is lit, the sound, how the ball bounces, there are different sounds here. The Garden sounds different; the horn sounds different and it’s all good. Those are things that people recall when they think of their playing days, so it’s a great experience for us,” he said.

A win today against 13-5 “Johnnies” would bring his record to an astonishing 1000 wins.  Krzyzewski has led the Blue Devils to 4 NCAA Championships, 11 Final Fours, 12 ACC regular season titles and 13 ACC Tournament Championships.

No matter the outcome of the game today, Coach Mike Krzyzewski is a legend.  I think it’s fair to say his level of achievement is otherworldly. 

GO DUKE!

Duke Blue Devils’ Impossible-To-Stop Two-Man Wing Game

I insist on gloating today.  I insist on being annoying about it too.  Today, that’s how I’m going to roll.

All season long, I’ve heard it said and I’ve seen it written that Duke has been on an up-and-down roller coaster ride with a “bitter slump pushing them to the brink of being unranked” before finding themselves late in the season.

The first meeting of the 2013-14 regular season between Duke and Carolina was to have been February 12th.  Mother Nature decided to dump “Snowpocalypse” on Chapel Hill and the Dean Dome instead.  That game was rescheduled for February 20th.

Duke led the Tarheels during the entire first half but lost control in the second to lose 74-66.  I was crestfallen.  A short two days later, my boys would take revenge for their February 1st overtime lose in the Carrier Dome to Syracuse 91-89.

The Orange came to our house, Cameron Indoor Stadium, where all the “Crazies” live.  It was at Cameron that The Orange found out that they are not the gods of the ACC and that rules ignored at your house can be equally ignored at our house.  It was the scene of Coach Bonheim literally losing his shit over a clear blocking foul and enduring a 66-60 loss to my beloved Blue Devils.

Last night was Senior Night.  The Tobacco Road Rivalry was set between The Heels and the Devils.  I had a feeling in my heart of hearts that this meeting would end in victory for my beloved Blue Devils.

I was right.

Jabari Parker had his most polished game of the season late night.  Even with Carolina’s best defender, J. P. Tokoto, draped all over him in an attempt to frustrate him Parker patiently picked his spots.  One possession he would receive a post entry pass, face up and nail a jumper. The next, he'd face up again, see Tokoto anticipating the jumper and drive right to the rim.

Rodney Hood scored 24 points and combined with Parker for 27 of Duke’s 40 first-half points.  As strong as their first half was, the real clinic came in the second half.

The Blue Devils led by as many as 19 points during multiple stretches, breaking down the North Carolina defense to shoot 50.9 percent from the field.  At certain points, it looked as if Hood and Parker were toying with a fangless Tar Heel defense. 

Hood finished with 24 points on 8-of-13 shooting and knocked down three of Duke's eight shots from beyond the arc.

Duke's last 16 points came at the charity stripe. The Devils did not hit a field goal in the final 6:56 because Carolina had apparently decided to start fouling early to get back in the game.  On a lesser team that strategy might have worked.  Carolina didn’t reckon that Quinn Cook and Rasheed Sulaimon and the shooter-heavy lineup were going to be cold-blooded at the stripe.

Oh yeah, Marcus Paige, the vaunted second-half wonder boy looked scorched at the end.  I loved his expression.  That’s why I picked that photo to chop.

It was an exhilarating game to watch.  I couldn’t have asked for anything better to cheer me up after spending a week at home with pneumonia.

From here, it’s on to next week’s ACC Tournament in Greensboro. 

Four slots still remain to be determined as of this writing.  Already locked are (1) Virginia, (2) Syracuse, (3) Duke, (4) North Carolina and (5) Pitt.

Carolina and Duke have drawn byes and won’t see action until Friday.

Go Duke.  And by the way, Carolina GTH.