Crazie Life in Krzyzewskiville

Game Review: LSU 3/23/06 Sweet 16

2006-03-24T11:24:00.000-05:00

Well, crap.
LSU upsets our Blue Devils, 62-54. Duke falls in the Sweet Sixteen, one game away from a rematch with Texas for a Final Four birth. Needless to say, campus is a bit down today, and basketball isn't a hot topic of conversation. I doubt there will be many LSU-Texas watchers here, but if LSU plays like crap against the Longhorns I'll be one of the first to wonder why teams kick our butt then can't perform vs others (see Wake Forest 78, Florida State 66 in ACC tourney eight days after the Seminoles beat us).

As for the game... well it was ugly. Lots of rough play, few fouls. Lots of missed shots. LSU's game plan on defense was to double J.J. Redick and Sheldon whenever they caught the ball, and that worked surprisingly well. J.J. isn't really used to that treatment out on the perimeter, and he unfortunately forced some (much replayed) turnovers while dribbling into traps. Sheldon wasn't double teamed every time he got it, but even when he was he was effective. His 23 points and 8 for 18 shooting pretty much made up all that was good for the team's shooting performance: a combined 54 points and an atrocious 18-65 FG's (yeah, that's 27.7%). Without Sheldon's numbers, the team was 10 for 47 on FG's (21.3%) for 31 points. J.J. himself had a poor shooting night (but pretty solid defensively), going a much-publicized 3 for 18 for 9 points.

Fouls mounted early on LSU, with their top average scorers Glen Davis (I am not able to use his nickname yet) and Tyrus Thomas picking up 2 each in the first with 7 minutes to go in the first and they both got to 4 with about the same to go in the second. However, those two played very well despite that, establishing LSU's strong interior defense (9 blocks) that really hurt our shot selection and percentage.

The bright spot in the game was the 17-3 (not sure on those numbers) run that the Blue Devils put on in the second half to take a 5 point lead. With great defense, a few steals, two McRoberts ally-oops (that boy is going to be really really good), and a much-needed J.J. 3-ball, the team looked to be ready to take over. However, the momentum changed, LSU's defense stuck again, and the lead disappeared as things got ugly. McRoberts and Paulus fouled out. LSU got a full block on drives by both Redick and Paulus. There was a full-length pass for the Tigers that led to a wide-open dunk. Davis got his own rebound on a missed free throw, when he was the only LSU player inside the arc. No miracles for the Devils, only tears and frustration. Another loss in the Sweet Sixteen (that's three in the last four years), and it'll take a while before J.J., Sheldon, our boy Ross, Melchionni, and Mr. Sean Dockery are ready to let go, just as it'll take a while before we, the Cameron Crazies, are ready to see them go. It was fun, guys... thanks for the 36 games we did get to see of you guys, even if games 37+ would have been incredible.

-Tent4

Tent4 will be back for Sweet 16

2006-03-19T11:31:00.000-05:00

So, as reported, Tent4 had the usual overlapping of ACC tourney, NCAA first rounds and Duke Spring Break. Despite our loyalty to the Blue Devils, some of us (at least this blogger and four other tenters) headed to Europe for some wonderful experiences and was thus unable to keep ye' crazielife regulars updated with game reviews, etc. For this, we apologize profusely.
However, seeing as we are back on campus and will be, as usual, following the team and the games religiously, expect the blogs to continue.

Last two games: Wins over Southern University and George Washington in the NCAA. For news on both, this is a good place to start: http://www.dukebasketballreport.com/main/index.cgi?7382.

Next game: March 23rd in Atlanta (time TBA) against the LSU Tigers.

Game Reviews: ACC Tourney

2006-03-12T11:01:00.000-05:00

Tent4 blogs from Paris! We are here (well, 5 of the Tent4 crew) for a few days, then off to Rome, Venice.. you know how a fantastic Spring Break goes!

Anyway, updates from a Tent4/Crazielife special guest-- my sister!
Go Duke! Today in ACC final vs BC, on your espn, but not on ours because apparently Paris has no bars with it (yesterday was spent trying to find one, no luck, only some stuff called Notre Dame, Versailles, etc)

First round: Win over Miami.
If you haven't already researched online...our beloved Blue Devils
squeaked out another win today in the first round of the ACC tourney.
Miami and Duke were neck and neck the WHOLE game....disappointing for
a 1st round game! Both Boetang and Boyken made it into the game
during the first half, and Sheldon managed to rack up 3 fast fouls at
the start of the second half, but Sir Coach K made the executive
decision to keep him in the game and he never commited another foul.
As far as JJ is concerned...it seems as though Nelson made more 3
pointers!! Let's hope they rally the troops tomorrow for the game
against Wake Forrest (yes they beat FSU AND NCSU!) I hope your
foreign friends are treating you like the kind and liberal Americans
you are!

Second round: Win over Wake (how'd we get lucky enough to play them?)

In case you didn't find a bar in Paris with ESPN, Craig:

If you hadn't known any better, you probably would not have thought
the game today was a 1 vs 12 seed show. but, the blue devils pulled
off another win largely due to fantastic performances by freshmen
paulus and mcroberts!! paulus had a career high 17 point game (also
named player of the game, yay greggie!) and josh must have had at
least 4 or 5 dunks and TWO behind the back passes! by the end of the
second half it had almost turned into a mcroberts show. JJ was
nothing spectacular, however, there was a brief scare when he fell in
the 1st half and was taken back to the locker room!! in a post
interview JJ said it was a bruise to the knee and that it would not be
a problem in tomorrow's game. (We will be playing BC, close win over
UNC today by 3.) Go blue devils! Enjoy your travels!

Game Review: UNC 3/4/06

2006-03-05T02:03:00.000-05:00

UNC 83, Duke 76.
I can't do the write-up right now, sorry. I'll hopefully get to it before heading out of town on Tuesday.

End of an Era: Tent4 has completed Kville '06

2006-03-04T02:20:00.000-05:00

Put away the gloves and hats. Deflate the air mattress. Resume a collegiate schedule of late nights, late mornings, and odd study habits. Pack up the tents.
As of 2:20am today (Sat, March 4) the 12 members of Tent4 have all completed the last test in order to gain admittance into the Carolina game. For the last two months and three days, we've had a presence in Kville with the rest of the Crazies, having at least one person of our twelve out there for 95% of the time (and 100% of the time that was mandatory). We missed zero checks, lost only one tent (malfunctioning zipper), had zero cases of Mono, and constructed and broke in the best Beer Die (the singular of dice, not "to achieve death") table in Kville history.

Tomorrow will be a time of getting on ESPN GameDay (live from Kville), sleeping a tad, catching some free food and TV in the ESPNU hospitality tent, and getting prepped for the 9pm matchup with UNC on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and ESPN360. After over 2000 hours of tent shifts for our tent alone, I think I speak for all of us when I say we'll be ready for tip-off.
Go to hell, Carolina. Go to hell.
-Tent4

Game Review: FSU 3/1/06

2006-03-02T01:33:00.000-05:00

Well, that's what I get for not reviewing Temple and GT from last week.
FSU played the most entergetic basketball I'd ever seen and beat Duke tonight, 79-74, in front of a raucus sell-out crowd. Hats off the the Seminoles, especially Alexander Johnson and his fade-away free throws, which I got tired of watching go in as he went 10-13 from the stripe. The Dukies played ok ball, but that wasn't enough to be a Florida State team that gave up only 11 turnovers and fouled 12 fewer times. A fine counter-argument would be that FSU shot a mere 35% from the field, but the 22 extra points on the free throw line were the difference. Makes me wonder how many more free throws Duke made in these two teams' previous matchup in Cameron... I'd guess 21.

Play of the Game: Coach K sending all but 5 Duke players to the locker room after the first court-storming with 1.7 seconds on the clock. Necessary? Probably not. Sends a message that 1) security seemed lax and 2) the game was over? You bet. To those of you that argue the "1.7 seconds is plenty of time to tie up a three-point game if it's tied" theory, I'll give you a little credit. Was this a case of giving up, to a small degree? I'll let you discuss that with comments.
Runner-up: Greg Paulus had a fast break layup with 6:20 left in the game that defied logic. He ended up driving down the right side of the lane for a layup over two taller FSU defenders, and to ellude them he banked a layup higher off the backboard than I'd ever seen. 2 points the creative way.
2nd Runner-up: Josh McRoberts' phantom 5th foul. The replay was pretty clear that it looked like he could have fouled, but by no means was the foul on the tape.
3rd Runner-up: Sheldon Williams' phantom 5th foul. Not as questionable as Josh's, but I think this call (on a shot by Alexander Johnson) was a makeup for a questionable no-call on a Williams' block a frew plays earlier.

Stat of the Game: Free throws. Boring Craig. Duke was 10-17, Florida State was 32-40. Well done, Seminoles. It's hard to miss a stat like that.

Best Commercial (a new section): Michael Jordan lookalike ads. The dunk from the free throw line is by far my favorite, with the legs first leaping, then contracting in and shooting out to the sides as he approaches the rim.
Runner-up: VW doing its "pimp my ride" scheme... very amusing.
Worst Commercial: Staples' crack on the ease of building the Great Wall of China.

Bloggin' from the Tent

2006-02-21T23:40:00.000-05:00

It's the last week of Blue Tenting for us here, which is the 'real' tenting period. On Saturday, the rules will change to White Tenting and we will only need 2 folks out here per night, while until then we need 8. That last week will fly on by, then the battle with UNC is on the following Saturday, March 4, then the tents come down (sniff, sniff).

At that point we'll stop checking weather.com religiously, we'll switch from getting together at 11pm every night at the night shifts to dinners or random visits or ACC/NCAA tourney games, and Kville 2006 will be done. As for now, the weather isn't too bad, despite threats for snow/sleet/ice over the last weekend that never came. And if the weather isn't too bad, then the only thing that can really cause grief is schoolwork, and as a second semester Senior I don't too bummed about that. Talk to Whitney/Razaan if you want that talk, or Becca or T as well. They are the ones that go to the IM building to do work at night, as that is an extension of Kville and it's legit to be there when you are on a shift.

I guess some poor basketball by the boys in blue (or white, or black for that matter) could bring us down, but Coach K has them running on all cylinders these days (see previous blogs). No #1 for them and the women's team is a great treat for us... the only problems come when they both gave games at the same time (such as tomorrow, Wednesday, Feb 22, at 7:00pm). As far as being a fan of sports in general, you know you're lucky to have your teams a combined 49-2 during the same season. Don't get to see that many combined wins at many schools, so here's to enjoying the success at Duke!

Well, for the realtime update of Tent4 members we have: Whitney sleeping, Razaan and Tim doing work, Weston and Tim playing bball, and Steve and Sylvia mysteriously missing... ok, maybe they are just in the IM building. I'm on the laptop blogging, and I feel a tent check coming shortly as the line monitors were just spotted heading towards Kville. G'night!

Game Review: Miami 2/19/06

2006-02-20T11:25:00.000-05:00

"King of Cameron."
"Move over Johnny, J.J. is #1"
"Miami loses 4th Straight"

These headlines pretty much sum up the media's split personality of this game: there was J.J. Redick scoring his 2,557th point, putting him on top of the list of all-time scorers in Duke (men's) history. Then there was also #2 Duke running over Miami, going 13-0 in the ACC and pushing Miami down into the ACC wastelands at 6-7 in conference play. Take your pick! Here are some links to other stories, plus a discussion of Paulus's play and Sheldon's overlooked defensive contributions.

Play of the Game: J.J., off a hesitation move in the lane and a double screen, launches one from the left wing--feet from Johnny Dawkins--and puts it through for the record, setting Cameron on fire. No question about it.

Stat of the Game: Josh McRoberts had 14 points, 9 of which were from the free throw line. First of all: nice point total for the big frosh, and secondly: from the line!? This means Josh is taking it to the hoop enough for the fouls, and perhaps that Miami was seeing that he is 61% from the field and 67% from the line... so if you can take an easy bucket from him it's a pretty good foul. However, that strategy probably should have been revoked when he was, say, 5 of 6 or so. In other news, forward Jimmy Graham had 4 fouls in 13 minutes for the Hurricanes...
Runner-up: Total points by half: 102 and 61. Let's just say the first half was packed with free throws and a hot Blue Devils squad, and the second half took it a few notches down.
2nd Runner-up: Duke's largest lead was at the end of the game, 21 points. That is courtesy to a Jordan Davidson 3-ball with 18 seconds left. That puts him at 100% from behind the arc.

Crowd: Featured some 150 or so (possibly more) football recruits, who were kind enough to take up the non-TV side of the student section. No word yet on their commitment status...but I think this is a great recruitment tool, and I'd personally like to enjoy the Fall a little more each year with a good team on the gridiron. But that number of recruits is pretty staggering... what army are you building, Coach Roof?

Sorry for the brevity here, class calls.

Game Review: Wake 2/14/06

2006-02-14T22:18:00.000-05:00

Duke dumps Wake on Valentine's, 93-70. Nobody sheds a tear, as Wake slips to 1-10 in the ACC and Duke slides into a comfy 12-0 in league play. Highlights were all about Mr. J.J. Redick, who became the all time leader in NCAA history for made three pointers, putting down one from the left wing with a defender in his face for number #414. What a sight... luckily for Tent4 it happened right in front of where we were sitting for a great view.

Play of the Game: Obligatory nod to Redick's record-breaking three. 7:53 left in the first half. Noteworthy: Redick followed the play with a steal off a Wake pass, a fast break layup with a foul, and the ensuing free throw. If the crowd hadn't been noisy enough after the record-setting three, it was pure insanity in Cameron as we watched J.J. get up from after the layup and foul and hug his teammates.

2nd Play of the Game (NOT a runner-up): Josh "Air" McRoberts had a highlight reel first half. Outstanding hops on this guy.
First play: 2:35 into the game, Sheldon gets a double team on the right baseline, leaving Josh to streak to the hoop. The pass is golden, the jump is high, and the catch-pull down-jam is incredible for an ally-oop. Cameron goes nuts.
Second play: 3:01 into the game, Greg Paulus is driving to where Sheldon was the play before. Are we going to see another ally-oop? Nope, we're going to see a kick right to McRoberts who is perched, on the arc for a pretty, nothing but net three pointer of his own. Josh 5, Wake 3.
Third play: Just a pretty simple drive the lane and dish move by J.J., finding Air Mc for a 3.4 on the Ritcher Scale jam. He had made two free throws before, putting the point total at 9 thusfar.
Fourth Play: On the next play down, there's another J.J. drive and dish to Josh. Air McRoberts has his wings underneath him now, some air in his lungs, and a HUGE one-handed, cock-back-and-slam, why-does-Kyle-Visser-bother-playing-defense, 7.0 on the Ritcher slam dunk. And the foul. Cameron Indoor Stadium was insane! It was huge, Josh was swamped by teammates afterwards, and women and children were treated for mild cases of shock. Phenomenal play. The free throw afterwards put it like this: Air McRoberts 12, Wake 11. 11:23 left to play in the first half. We thought Josh would declare for the NBA a halftime at this rate. Next play he had a pass to Sean Dockery that became an assist when Dock drilled a three. Unfortunately, McRoberts picked up foul #2 with 9:31 left in the half and went to the bench.

From there it was less than two minutes till J.J.'s moment in the books, and Duke was up 31-17 by then (and 34-17 after the old-fashioned three point play that followed). DeMarcus Nelson had a fine-looking pump-fake reverse layup in the half as well... but you could already see what had happened: The Crazies were exhausted.
The pregame warmups. The going nuts for introductions. The 26-11 start to the game. The highlights mentioned above: Josh ally-oop, three pointer, two more dunks, J.J.'s 414th three-pointer, the steal and layup... the fact that Wake was playing like they were 1-10 in the conference already, the disappointment of tenting for 6 weeks for Wake Forest and their Paul-less line-up. The Crazies were exhausted.

The second half was slower, had more fouls, had fewer monster highlights, and (admittedly) it had a few yawns from the Tent4 crew. First and second rows, even with the free-throw line across from the Wake bench, with ESPN.com's Gene Wojciechowski right in front of us, yes we yawned a bit. A sad moment for the Crazies, but it was short-lived as the Blue Devils still won the second half 41-32 with a very tight defense.

Stat of the Game: besides the # of three pointers... I'm going to be predictable and go for Duke's Free Throw performance, which was 17-18. Pretty good % there.

Cheers: We had a cheer sheet that was one-half Eric William's facebook.com profile. Hilarious. All this talk of calling himself "Atlas" and tattoos and glamour-shots looking photos and claims he will "take you on trips to the moon in bed." Yes, he is looking for "whatever I can get" from a woman, and if you're interested I'd try his email address at "willeb2@wfu.edu." Congrats to whoever gets with Atlas.

There was also a pretty classic sign up saying "you can't spell AWFUL without WFU" and a few good "If you're lucky... NIT" chants. Such a fun time.

Celebrity watch: Curtis Staples, UVA. The previous record-holder for most 3's in a collegiate career came and looked sharp. He gave J.J. the game ball after the matchup, look as seen in the picture above.

Up next: a much-deserved break for a few days for the team from now until their Sunday showdown with Miami in Cameron, game time at 5:30. Fox Sports Net should have that one for ya.

Personal Checks before Wake

2006-02-13T14:25:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend, the Tent4 crew was out in the cold and rain for 'personal checks' that guarantee our admittance into the Wake game, coming up on Tuesday. The rules are that over Friday and Saturday nights, there are 5 random checks and that each of the 12 members of the tent must make 3 of them in order to get into the Wake game. The same thing will happen before the Carolina game on March 4.

The actual happenings are more like this: The forecast for Friday was decent: not freezing, no precipitation. The forecast for Saturday looked horrible. Rain, possible snow, freezing temperatures, hell. We all guessed that there will be two checks on Friday night and three on Saturday (as per tradition) so the strategy was to get one or two on Friday and then survive on Saturday night until you have enough to go home.
Well, Friday was a blast. Plenty of folks in Kville, some partying, some football, some hypothesizing on the following day's game at Maryland... and two checks done before 2am (earlier than expected). Needless to say, Tent4 for the most part got the first check and went to the dorms for pizza/warmth/drinks, and we missed the earlier-than-expected second check. Oh well, a good time was had by all.
Saturday was as miserable as expected, weather-wise. Not too many party folks, less football, but free pizza from the Alumni Association, which is always appreciated. To top it off, the second check of the night was at around 1:30am, which meant we were back in our beds for the night at a great time (having gotten our 3 needed checks).

The aftermath was a fairly-littered Kville (not on Tent4's plot of sidewalk, of course) and the expected: 12 sick Tent4 members. Craig has had a fever, Carley a sore throat, Razaan takes the cake with all kinds of nasty symptoms, and Tim, Whitney, Weston--almost everyone has had a diagnosed cold of sorts in the last week. The only good part has been comparing symptoms to see who got what strand of the bug from whom (sounds like a lot of intra-tent kissing, but not really the case; sharing sleeping bags and blankets probably is enough). Perhaps we'll be healthy when tenting starts up again Wednesday night (after a three-day break for the Wake game).

Bring on those Deacons!

Game Review: Maryland 2/11

2006-02-12T12:12:00.000-05:00

As the Chronicle said, "(Still) Not Our Rivals" as Duke wins, 96-88. Much like the previous game between these two at Cameron (Jan 11th blog), Maryland never really made a run at a large Duke lead and the game ended quietly. Also like that game, Sheldon Williams had a big game, with 26-13-7 this time (last game was his 19-11-10 triple-double).

Play of the Game: Hands down, it goes to a J.J. Redick three ball in the first half from . The guy wasn't on the three-point line. He wasn't a foot back, either. He was some 5 feet behind it, pulls up straight, knocks it down. Incredible range on that guy.
Runner-up: On two straight possessions in the second half, Sheldon was wide open on secondary breaks (after the first sprint down court, after a pass). The second one of these (both ended in points for No. 23) had Maryland defenders with outstretched arms asking "who's going to guard him!?"

Stat of the Game: 92 of Duke's 96 points came from Paulus (16), Redick (35), Sheldon (26), and Dockery (15). It's great to see Dock and Paulus come up with so many, but it's never good to see an off game by Nelson (2pts), Melchionni (0pts) and McRoberts (2pts) all at once. Surprising how the offense never looked pitiful despite the relative lack of support from those guys, but give them one game and the situation will certainly adjust. Just last game we were talking about Josh's career high, so of course anything's possible. Oh, and we play Wake next... so hell I'll go ahead and say that Lee could go for 25.
Runner-up Stat: Rebounds went 37 and 37, which has got to be the first game Duke didn't lose on the boards since Seton Hall or something. Well done (Josh with 12, Sheldon 13).

So why did this game have 184 points while the first game between these teams had only 128? This one had 29 turnovers, while the last had a sloppy 49 (29 for UMD alone), which meant 8 more field goals taken. Also, Maryland could actually shoot this game, getting 45.1% on FG while last time it was 30.2%. Lastly, the free throw line offered 47 points this time, up from 24 last time. Which does Tent4 prefer? The 96-point one, of course, given that we get to see things like Paulus go 4-5 from behind the arc and Sheldon mops up like he did.

CBS: Eh, besides the supposed (I can't confirm this) "Josh shoots left-handed and dribbles right-handed, which makes him pretty much amphibious" quote, I don't have much to comment here. Of course, if they insist on calling him Josh MacRoberts (and not McRoberts) then I will personally seek Josh out on campus and urge him to go pro ASAP. Who can't read McRoberts? It's on his jersey!

Up next: "Not worth tenting" Wake Forest, fresh off a win vs Charlotte, and looking to keep their losses in the ACC down to single digits. Tuesday night, 8pm, FSN for us in the area. ESPN FullCourt for the rest of you, or just stick to the Tent4 blog to get your full scoop after the game.

Game Review: UNC 2/7/06

2006-02-07T23:32:00.000-05:00

Duke 87, Carolina 83. That's what we're talking about!! What a game, with a 17-point Duke lead shrinking and disappearing completely before some J.J. magic turned it into a win for the Blue Devils. In a game almost completely defined by momentum swings from light blue to true blue and back, the last swing put Duke on top.

[[Because the media has outrageous coverage of these big games, I'll stick mostly to the experience of the Duke students watching the game from Cameron Indoor Stadium, ironically enough from the student's section courtside. If you'd like the media writeups, try here for a bunch of them.]]

The Scene in Cameron: A true ruckus. Probably 1,000 Duke students, two big-screen TV's, door prizes, chicken nugget eating contest (35 eaten in just over 4 minutes by the winner), the Duke pep band, cheerleaders, the whole works. What a place to be with the cheers, songs, and Crazies at hand. They even had the scoreboard running the score from the game. Afterwards, it felt truly like a home game, with the Crazies all filing out of Cameron into the night with cheers and hoarse voices. Didn't get sweaty during the game, but certainly made Cameron roar a few times as the points racked up and the clock wound down.
ESPN U was there, too, to get footage that will surely play on March 4th when ESPN College Gameday comes to Krzyzewskiville for the rematch.

Play of the Game: J.J. Redick had three steals that led to breakaway layups, the cleanest of which was 37 seconds into the second half. He sprinted in front of a Carolina pass at the top of the key, caught the ball in mid-step like a wideout, and raced down for the layup. The two other plays were similar, with J.J. poking the ball loose or catching a pass near the top of the key and turning them all into layups. Career high 4 steals for #4, and those plays can really frustrate an opposing team's offense.
Runner-up: Josh McRoberts (career-high 17 points) had a reverse dunk ally-oop in the first half followed up on the next play by his 2nd career 3-pointer, putting the Blue Devils up 49-35.

Stat of the Game: Rebounds: UNC 42, Duke 21. Ouch, that hurts. Offensive boards were even more lopsided, 21-4. Everything else was darn near even on the team level, with assists at 14-14, fouls at 24-21 in Duke's favor, blocks were 5-4, and Free Throw percentage a creepy 79.3% for Carolina and 79.2%2

UNC Tonight!

2006-02-07T09:10:00.000-05:00

Big time TV-watching tonight, as Duke takes on UNC at the Dean Dome at 9pm. Tent4's prediction goes something like this: big game for J.J. (no defensive specialist on UNC to stop him), an average game for Hansborough (nervous rookie factor hurts), a high number of fouls on Duke (refs will be scared of getting suspended), and a Duke win by 8. Take that to the bank.

Check out all sorts of pre-game stories here, courtesy of Duke Basketball Report.

In other news, the requirements for tenting have dropped for this week, going from 8 people per night per tent to 2, in what is affectionately known as "white tenting" in preparation for the Wake game on Feb 14th.

Game Review: FSU 2/4/06

2006-02-04T15:29:00.000-05:00

The End: Duke 97, FSU 96 in OT.
The Journey: Crazy as it gets. Check out the Game Flow, courtesy of ESPN.com.

It was neck and neck, with Duke's largest lead at a mere 5 points and Florida State's at 7. Now, the good stuff...

Play of the Game: With the score 62-61 with FSU in the lead, Coach K calls for an ally-oop to Josh McRoberts that is executed by the book, with an assist by J.J. It gave Duke the lead, and Cameron almost lost its roof after that throw-down.

Stat of the Game: I sound like a broken record, but with the Free Throw stats at 31-43 for Duke (wow, that's a lot) and 10-11 for Florida State, that stat looks a lot like the BC game. The eight Duke misses seemed crucial when they happened, but in retrospect going 72% for the game isn't too shabby (although it's below the season average of 77%). FSU's 91% for the game is something to behold, though.
Runner-up: 7:40 into the game, Florida State had 5 guys on the floor with a combined 0 points for the game.
Second Runner-up: Another career record for an opposing big man... Al Thorton had 37, on 17-32 shooting. What a player, if you ask me, although I'm sure I saw one of his best college games today. Dunks, dunks, put-backs, a few layups, and a dunk or two on top. We got tired of him scoring... 10 minutes into the game.

Scary moment: Sean Dockery went down hard under the FSU hoop during a 10-second battle for rebounds right around 4:30 left in the game. He wasn't moving much and laid face-down under the hoop until he'd talked to the trainer and Coach K had paid a visit. I'm guessing he was just dazed from a blow to the head or gut perhaps, because he wasn't limping afterwards and actually returned to the game before OT (and played quite well upon returning).
Runner-up: Sheldon Williams and Alexander Johnson got into a quick shouting match after Johnson had committed his second intentional foul of the game on a Williams post move with 9:24 left in the game. Williams had hit the deck after the foul, got up and got into Johnson's face, which is a rare thing to see because Williams is usually a cool customer. They both got technical fouls for that, putting Johnson out for the contest.
Second runner-up: Official Ed Corbett actually left the game due to cramps or a knee injury in the second half, leaving two officials to cover the end of the game. There were plenty of questionable calls on both sides throughout the game (including Sheldon's block/no foul on a drive by Galloway by FSU with less than a minute left in OT).

Up next: At UNC, Tuesday at 9:00pm on ESPN. GTHC!!

Cheers: A ton of Duke and defense cheers, seeing as the game was soooo close. The one chant that the FSU behind-the-bench crowd got going ("F-S-U!") was quickly drowned out with a "Lets Go Duke" cheer by the home crowd. Much of the cheer-friendly lulls in normal games just weren't there tonight, with few FT by FSU and so many stressed fans.

Fox Sports Net: Couldn't even tell there were there after their on-the-sidelines pregame report. No banners, no Doris of course, and no crowd-surfing annoucers. No complaints here.

Celebrity Watch: A-Rod, of all people, was there by the Duke bench. Sporting a Duke hat and shirt, he seemed to enjoy his fantastic seats. We gave him a cheer and he obliged by pointing to his shirt and the Duke bench, letting us know he was a Crazie for a day.

Runner-up:

Game Review: Boston College 2/1/06

2006-02-02T11:27:00.000-05:00

In the first ACC matchup of Duke vs BC, the Blue Devil's pulled one out 83-81 at a sold-out Conte Form in Chestnut Hill, Mass. Duke held the lead from about the 6:30 marker in the first, but boy was it close down the line. Again the Blue Devils couldn't keep the offense productive for a good while in the second half, at one point only putting up 6 points in 6 minutes (14:00 to 8:00 left in the 2nd half). BC brought it close, really close, then it was 79-78 with 15 seconds left.

Play of the Game: I'd say it started with 18:30 left in the second half, when J.J. hit a three, which he followed with another after he assisted Sean Dockery on one, making it a 9-point run in under a minute and a 55-38 lead.

Stat of the Game: Another Duke opponent with a season/career high: Jared Dudley with 28 points. If you look back, you see names like Killingsworth (IU) and Simmons (NCSU) doing the same thing--scoring with abandon on Sheldon (despite Sheldon's 7 blocks this game!).
Runner-up: Free throws... Duke shot 29 of 37 (that's a lot) vs BC was at 10 of 13. So, first things first, Duke picked up 19 points at the line over BC. Secondly, is there reason for conspiracy calls, like this in the NY Times, of all places? I'd disagree, because the game was very physical and there were instances where both teams were pissed at the officiating. I am, despite my bias, very concerned about the no-call on Tyrese Rice's drive in the final seconds. Sheldon got a piece of that, and by 'that' I don't mean the ball, but no whistle came, and the game ended. Not sure it would have changed the winner, but a foul should have been called regardless.
Second runner-up: Attendance at the game was a sold-out 8,606. It's smaller than Cameron! I love that about a place, and I know that just makes the experience that much more intense, especially when you have over 1,000 students in there. Don't upgrade, BC!

ESPN: Pretty good coverage. Check out the ESPN Motion highlights, where the commentary for the Marshall-Redick sharedown in the second half was "do you like my mouthwash?!?" and I'm pretty sure the answer from Redick would have been "not one bit."

Celebrity watch: Doug Flutie, Bill Belichick, and I'm sure some other BC alums.

Up Next: FSU at Cameron, noon on Saturday, February 4th.

Women's Game Review: Carolina 1/29/06

2006-01-29T21:22:00.000-05:00

Well, boo. #2 UNC came to Cameron and topped our #1 women's team, 74-70. UNC had an early lead, then Duke took a big halftime lead, but the second half went to the 'Heels.

Stat of the Game: The scores, by half. First half was Duke 40-27. Second half was UNC 47-30. The difference? UNC's offence came alive, and Duke's stalled as the second half wound down. I'm not sure if either defense was significantly different over the game... it seemed like more of an offense-dominated plotline.
Runner up: Fast break points for UNC in the first half. It had to be 14 or 16 of their 27. Can't find the official number online, but they had a bunch of long-ball passes for open layups in the first half, and their half-court offense just sputtered along. In the second half, Duke came back on D a lot faster, and UNC made a few jumpers, so the scoring was much less fast-break related.
Second runner up: Duke's second half free throw percentage. Gave the game away here by going 7 for 15 as the lead shrank.

Crowd: Sold out. Alive. Loud. Pretty strong representation from UNC, which always makes the game rowdy. The competition between the crowds is certainly different than men's games, where you'd only see maybe a hundred fans in the whole building from the opposition. There were probably a thousand UNC fans spread throughout the gym. I'll reserve my comments of how much I love UNC fans, for the sake of impartiality (and cause they have the same thoughts about us, so the discussion would go nowhere).

Cheers: Lots of GTHC, of course! Some "Latta nothing" and "air-ball!" chants focused at little Ivory Latta, cause she's so good for being so short (5'2" I think.. not sure).

ESPN.com: Check out the box score for the game here.... and click on the UNC players' names (supposedly to go to their bios). Does anyone else wonder why Ivory Latta's name links you to Adam Robinson of the Rice Owl's men's bball team? Bizarre... or perhaps there's a ABC (anybody but Carolina) fan in the ESPN sports info department. Well, it actually goes wrong for all the players I've checked... so ESPN.com just got a check-minus for their database functionality.
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Tent4 Attendance: 9 of 12.. the usual Lady Blue Devil women's fans (Weston especially) and pretty much the whole tent. Clif is ill, Aaron had a Rubic's cube to solve, and Razaan had to study for some mysterious test... some MCAT thing. Of course, that attendance level gets us grace (a night off) on Tuesday, which those who were sleeping on Tuesday really appreciate.

N&R covers Tent4, round 2

2006-01-28T08:36:00.000-05:00

A second story by Rob Daniels of the Greensboro News & Record about Tent4. Enjoy!

2006-01-27T13:28:00.000-05:00

Tent4 Kville 2006

Close call for Tent4

2006-01-25T11:33:00.000-05:00

So on Monday--by the way, did anyone see the Duke women destroy #1 Tennessee that night?--we came pretty close to missing a tent check. Well, I (Craig) did, and the rest of Tent 4 would have been paying the price, too.
The situation was this: 10:45 on Monday night, I'm in Kville, and I've got to, well, use the restroom. Not the quick use, the longer type. So, I figure a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, and I set off for the gym to get that done. Well, what felt like a few minutes later, my phone rings and Carley is telling me "we missed a check, we just missed a check!" and she's not the last to call with that news, either. So, I wrap things up and head out in a hurry, just in time to catch the line monitors leaving after they had called an entire check. Much to my embarrassment, I had to explain that yes, I was in the restroom and missed the check and yes, I was in the bathroom for the whole check (must have been the shortest check ever), and yes I won't be so leisurely in my breaks from the cold in the future.
After some talking with line monitors, some hoping, some praying, the "missed check" was excused, and Tent 4 stands pround and unblemished once again.
To make it up to the tent for the stress I caused, I made sure to dry almost everything out on Tuesday afternoon when it was sunny outside. Sleeping bags, sleeping pads, blankets, pillows... some crazy bag of "Stevie Wonder's toys" I found... ok, kidding on the toys. Sorry for the stress, Redicks (that'd be the name of folks in Tent4... J.J. is number 4...), and bring on the Hokies!

Game Review: Georgetown 1/21/06

2006-01-22T13:36:00.000-05:00

Well, it'd be hard to miss the news that Georgetown upset Duke today, 87-84 in the MCI Center in Washington DC. From the dorms of Duke, it was a sad sight to see our boys go down, but first and foremost was the question: where did Georgetown come from?! A great game for the Hoyas, I'm sure they were pumped for a big matchup, and they pulled through. Other thoughts...

Play of the Game: J.J.'s pump-fake, crossover, behind the back, drive the lane, lose and regain the ball, double-clutch-and-the-foul drive in the second half. At this point, a lot of the offense was in, as Coach K called it "J.J.-watching mode" and this was a pretty gritty attempt to keep us in the game. It worked for 3 of J.J.'s 41 points, that's for sure.

Stat of the Game: I hate to point out a unimpressive stat for a Blue Devil, but Sheldon Williams was 2-for-8 for 4 points. Tough game down low for the big man, obviously.

CBS: Not a fine job. CBS had a number of production woes during the game, including (but probably not limited to)

spelling "field goals" two different ways on the screen at the same time... of course one was "field gaols"
having some black graphic come up and block the screen 3 or 4 times in a row in the first half
playing their commercial-break music during the action
saying this was the second game that Duke was behind at the half this year... it was the third (VT and NC State)

I know I'm picky on this stuff, but it bugs me because it's not hard to avoid most of it. Field goals.

Campus Feeling: bummed, obviously. Not that the undefeated record was a huge sense of pride, but to lose to an unranked team is obviously not on the "to-do" list. Some said "at least it wasn't an ACC opponent" because we keep our conference standing, some said "thank God Florida lost, too" because we could keep our #1 ranking (or at least #2), some said "Paulus lost it on the last play of the game (with a turnover near the Hoya's basket, down by three points)" but I'd say no, the game had already been lost.

Next polls: Does Duke stay at #1? The obvious contender is #3 UConn, who won at #14 Louisville to move to 16-1, with that loss coming at Marquette. But, I'm going to pull out all the stops and bring up that Louisville was/is on a losing streak of three games, the loss at Marquette was by 15, and that UConn has beaten only 4 ranked opponents. Both teams have had almost-upsets (VT for Duke, LSU for UConn) and have tough roads ahead. Duke has 6 wins versus teams that were ranked, lost by 3 in their only loss, and thus shouldn't lose it's top spot in the polls. We'll see how this plays out...

N&R Features Tent 4!!

2006-01-21T10:27:00.000-05:00

Rob Daniels of the Greensboro News and Record has stopped by a time or two to the tent and put together this article about us. Hopefully we'll see more of us from him, as the Wake game is weeks away and the Carolina game is, as he noted in the article, some 40+ days away.

Game at Georgetown this afternoon... CBS... 1:30 pm. Go Duke!

2006-01-20T13:36:00.000-05:00

Coveted space taken by Tent4's expansion

2006-01-20T13:35:00.000-05:00

Coveted free space in Kville

Game Review: NC State 1/18/06

2006-01-18T22:49:00.000-05:00

Wow.. quite a game from Cameron. Duke pulled out a 81-68 victory, on the heels of J.J.'s 28 points and Sheldon's 21. Boy, does "on the heels of this guy's points" make me feel like I'm trying to write for a sports section. Lets hope I can make the rest sound more "college basketball fan and friends who wants to share their experiences."

Play of the Game: I wish I could provide a play that wasn't so obvious to the TV/newspaper audience, but at 65-65, Sean Dockery's three pointer with a foul, rebound of his missed free throw, and assist to Lee Melchionni for a three and a six-point lead is hard to beat. Proved to be the winning points, as well.
Runner up: Josh McRoberts' dunk in the second have on a dish from Sheldon (I think) was monstrous. Good to see him do that again.

Stat of the game: Sheldon Williams, with 4 blocks, took the all time Duke record for career blocks from Mike Giminski. Both have just had outstanding Duke careers, and while one's jersey is still in action, one's is in the rafters, which is a wonderful place to be.
Runner up: For NC State, Astur, Bethel, and Evtimov were a combined 3-14 for six points, when two of them each average double figures alone. It was a game for State's big men, though, seeing Cedric Simmons' 28 points and 7 blocks.

Deja Vu?: Anyone watch the NC State @ UNC earlier this month? Let me describe a game, and you tell me whether it was that one or this one tonight. State gives a heck of an effort, pushing the home team hard on defense. State takes a halftime lead. State continues to keep a lead or keep it a small deficit until, say 3 minutes left. Then, the home team piles on the dunks, free throws, and steals and State falls by 13, scoring either 68 or 69 and allowing either 81 or 82. VERY similar matchups, very similar results. One major difference was that in the UNC game, State did best when the game was slow, with half-court offenses. Tonight, they were the team to accel when the pace picked up, as seen by numerous fast-break points for the Wolfpack in the game.

ESPN: Doris & Co were there, although she was in pink, and as we all know pink is just a shade from NC State's red, so she goes back on the "watch what you wear, Doris Burke" list until she can show us in consecutive games that she knows not to wear team colors to a game.

Cheers: A small moment for the cheer sheets that almost made it out before the game. What we did have, of course, were some "Big. High. School." chants done very well. The "Warm up the tractor" didn't happen mostly because the game was close till the end. I would have personally like to hear a "Mike Giminski" cheer in honor of the big man, who had his record for career blocks topped by Sheldon Williams during the first half. "Sheldon Williams, all time blocks" did make it, though. I also thought a "Juuuulius" cheer from years past would have sufficed and entertained, but the other Crazies would have nothing of it.
Honorable mention: Crazy Towel Guy had a great role in the first half, getting the whole crowd pumped up when things weren't so exciting on court. By the end of the game, the Crazies were insanely loud, though, which is the top reason for being there in the first place.

Celebrity watch: ehh... not much when compared to the Maryland game. Halftime gave us presentations to some Duke ACC champs (Women's and men's cross country teams) and to the top female golfer in the nation, Duke's own Anna Grzebien. Of course, President Brodhead made it on court to give Anna her trophy, after we had spotted him pregame and gave him a chant of his own.

Tent4 attendance: perfect. 12 for 12, with Clif and Weston on front row, Becca Whitney Carley Craig on the second, and others not too far back.

Next home game: Virginia. Saturday, January 28, 7pm on your ESPN.

In line for NC State

2006-01-18T01:01:00.000-05:00

The NC State game tomorrow night, 7pm on your ESPN, is worth waiting in line for. To see Sheldon Williams go for the Duke all-time record in career blocks is worth coming out at 5pm (or noon, if you are Clif!) to wait for wristbands to be given out at midnight. To see if DeMarcus Nelson will return from his bone bruise is worth some of the wind we got while in line. To see J.J. hit a few threes is worth just about the rest of the 20-mph wind gusts we had. To see Jamal get in the game ("who let Jamal out?!") is worth dodging the tent that was unstaked and rolling through Kville. To be courtside for the No.1 vs No.14 matchup was worth the rain that came just as wristbands were given out.

The 100,000 points on TextTwist, the pizza and wings from the Papa, and the wind/rain/hell grace that we got for the night didn't hurt, either. Bring on the Pack!

Game Review: Clemson 1/14/06

2006-01-14T22:42:00.000-05:00

Clemson wasn't a home game, so we have limited comments... for the news coverage try this link out. Also check out a good one by the News & Record. Duke won 87-77, no matter where you read it.

Play of the game: A fast break dish to Redick from Greg Paulus in the first half. Paulus was way behind Redick with a man in between them, and Paulus took flight in order to get the angle for a long-distance bounce pass. Result: layup. Level of difficulty: 8 out of 10. See the play here, on ESPN's Motion highlights of the game.

Stat of the game: Clemson, as I'm sure you noticed, was 3% from the free-throw line. Well, it was actually 6 for 21, with Duke at 29 for 36. That just about explains the score. It got so bad that with 4:14 left in the game, Clemson's Steve Allen actually made one--the first in the half for the Tigers--and the crowd pretty much gave him a standing ovation... only to see him miss the next one.

Next up: Home game versus NC State. Expect Tent4 members (and the rest of the Crazies) to line up Tuesday afternoon and night to get wristbands at midnight, then back in line on Wednesday to get in for the contest. Tip off at 7:00 on ESPN. Should be a great game, as State is doing pretty well so far.

Bring on the Tigers

2006-01-14T10:43:00.000-05:00

(this is the first post from Kville..so exciting)

2pm today is Duke @ Clemson... hopefully a game review will come up later.

Tent4News: We've grown to three tents total now, with Becca's 6-man monster, Clif's 4-man that's in the middle, and now Craig's wimpy-looking 2-man on the end, like a deliquent child. Pictures coming!

Grace was granted to Tent4 and all of Kville's residents last night due to a tornado warning, the first time in recent memory perhaps. So we left the tents to weather the storm, which luckily had no actual tornados, and they were all still up and dry this morning. Hopefully we'll finish putting tarps on top of them all soon, leaving us exposed only to the inevitable tent-divers and gale-force winds.

Pretty cool 56-hour marathon basketball game going on between UNC and Duke this weekend, started at 8am Saturday and it runs up until Monday night at... well.. you do the math. Of course, Duke is favored by a few hundred, and I can't wait to read about it after the fact and see the high scorers and to see if anyone got The Unthinkable. You know what I'm taking about. It's not a "bald-headed lie" either. The Unthinkable is the quintiple-double.

Game review: Maryland 1/11/06

2006-01-11T23:41:00.000-05:00

Tonight the Devils polished off the Maryland terrapins 76-52 in a very roudy Cameron Indoor Stadium. For a news-worthy writeup, try here. Now, for the good stuff.

Play of the game: J.J. Redick's fast-break dunk in the second half. Could he have dished to Sheldon Williams for an assist? Yes. However, J.J. filled a small gap in his POY profile by getting his first collegiate dunk, a pretty emphatic one at that. Kudos to the 6'4" guard.
Runner-up play: Sean Dockery's faked behind-the-back pass in traffic on another second half fast break. Turned into a nice assist to Williams, and had more than just the Terrapins looking for the ball.

Noteworthy stat: Sheldon Williams had 19 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 blocks for a rare triple-double, a feat of feats in college basketball. Mo Currie had one two weeks ago for Duke's women's team, which makes this year pretty special in that regard. Looks like Williams was 7 assists short of the elusive quadruple-double, and an additional 7 steals from the unheard-of quintuple-double, only heard of in outtakes from The Lebrons.
Runner-up stat: Maryland's largest lead was during the first 1:12 of the game, the only time that the game was tied.
Second runner-up: Score at half: 45-22 in favor of Duke. Wow.

ESPN: Doris Burke wised up from last year and sported a black shirt for tonight's game. Last year, when reporting the same game courtside in Cameron, silly Doris had a red sweater on. Needless to say, we reminder her with kind words of her error, and this year she didn't repeat the error.

Cheers: Maryland brought out the usual "sweat Gary sweat" rants from the Crazies, as he earned them throughout the game. Hard to catch that man on the bench and off the floor, or with a dry brow for that matter.
Quite a few "pay your rent!" chants, due to Sheldon's blocks. "J.J.'s better" chants followed Chris McCray's only trip to the line, as both do pretty well from the stripe. Nik Caner-Medley escaped relatively ignored, as his 8 points didn't get much attention.
UMD forward James Gist made a big no-no by hugging his dear ole Momma during warmups, and "Momma's boy" chants followed him throughout the night. Bless her for being proud of these, waving her flag as her boy and his team suffered through the game.
A new variation of "lets go devils" was started twice tonight, with the cheer rotating through the grad students, the non-tv side, and the tv side in succession. Pretty effective, and would be a dynamite cheer if the folks in the upper deck got on board. Similar to what we'll see next week with the "big. high. school." chant for state. Should be a great game.

Celebrity spotlight: The Maryland game brought the best Terrapin-killer of recent memory, Jason Williams, to the sideline with his former teammate Nate James. Christian Laettner and Brian Davis were rumored in the building, and NBA Hall of Famer Magic Johnson was also there. Johnson's appreciation of the Redick dunk was noteworthy (us Crazies loved it, as well).
Also, halftime brought Duke's three Rhodes scholars for 2006 out to midcourt with President Brodhead. Judging by some of their participation during the second half, these boys might have been new to Cameron. Judging by their recognition for Rhodes scholarships and their rumored GPA's, these boys might have been new to Cameron. They were: Adam Chandler, William Hwang, and Rahul Satija.

Tent 4: 11 of 12 in attendence, all with some pretty dynamite spots. Weston on the front row, T and Becca on the third, and a bunch on the 5th all at center court.