- NC State WRs really stepped it up today. Jarvis Williams made 2 excellent “jumpball” catches on deep throws. Anthony Hill made a SportsCenter caliber catch on 3rd and long, setting up his TD catch on the next play. Darrell Davis made a nice catch on the sideline setting up the FG that iced the game.
- Russell Wilson made plays with his legs and arm. He’s getting better at using his mobility to buy time for receivers to break open, rather than always choosing to tuck and run. You may consider this heresy, but I believe he’s playing better and smarter than Philip Rivers in his freshman year (of course, he didn’t have the luxury of a redshirt).
At long last, the Devils and Pack meet in the post-expansion era. Even though the teams have combined for just one ACC win, entertainment potential is high, and the TV folks will likely regret passing on it. Yours truly will be inside Wallace Wade, semi-live blogging as blackberry reception allows.
Kenny Boynton, one of the nation’s top scoring guard recruits in the class of 2009, committed to Florida Thursday evening, choosing the Gators over Duke, Texas, USC and Georgia Tech.
Additionally, I just ran across this article on the internet.
“Duke has been calling my coaches and sending me letters. They are trying to get in there and I am looking at them a little,” commented Wall.
You can click here for other recent basketball recruiting entries.
NC State’s visit to Wallace-Wade Stadium to battle Duke on November 8th has been set for a 3:30pm kick-off. The game will be televised on either ESPNU or ESPN360.
This may be your only opportunity to catch David Cutcliffe on the Blue Devils’ sideline as the rumors surrounding Phil Fulmer and Tennessee continue to intensify. (See a little bit in our previous entry.)
One can only imagine the recruiting implications that astute competitors can find in a University ADMITTING that they are the worst football program in all of America.
Despite a lot of talk recently, the leaders of the Atlantic Coast Conference decided yesterday not to consider a proposal to expand the number of conference games played in both football and basketball. The Charlotte Observer provides an update of league meetings in this article.
ACC schedules will not expand to nine conference games in football or 18 in men’s basketball, conference officials said Tuesday.
Some basketball coaches had expressed interest in an 18-game conference schedule, but the issue died this week at the ACC spring meetings when coaches were reminded that a year ago they committed to 16 conference games through 2010-11.
=======> Congratulations to Sean Miller and Xavier! In just 4 years he has already taken Xavier to a place in the NCAA Tournament where his former boss at NC State couldn’t achieve in a decade. It’s kind of hard to blame the strength of Duke and Carolina for our failure to succeed in anything outside of playing Duke and Carolina as we have never lost to the Tar Heels or Blue Devils in the NCAA Tournament. So, it must be Xavier’s facilities!
Duke Basketball Report had to shut down their message board after today’s loss against West Virginia. I am not sure if you guys ever had the misfortune of reading “Carolina Blue” back in the 80’s and 90’s, but DBR’s propaganda would make John Kilgo blush. We can’t wait read their post game recap from the West Virginia game. Get ready for Coach Kool Aid.
We’re turning the board off for a bit. Some of you are out of control.
Belmont almost took Duke out Thursday night, and Huggy Bear and crew finished the job today. UConn and asshole-in-chief Jim Calhoun were bounced yesterday. UNC is the last team left to carry the banner of evil in the big dance. Still bummed about our Tigers, but it could be worse.
As both replays in this entry indicate, there was the slightest bit of contact during the first part of Nelson’s drive that was obviously initiated by Nelson’s hook. No whistle blew at the time of the contact. The whistle didn’t blow (and a foul wasn’t called) until a part of the play where there was no contact and until Nelson jumped out of bounds with the ball still in his hands. At that point the whistle HAD to blow. But, as we all know in the ACC, the call also HAD to go against Duke’s opponent.
And naturally, we end the game down twenty and in complete surrender mode on defense. Have some pride to wear the uniform, and at least hit somebody if you don’t want to get into defensive or rebounding position. But don’t stand there holding your junk while a guy drives for an uncontested layup.
Not that I’m surprised, mind you. But that doesn’t stop me from being pissed.
It’s a game no one expects the Pack to win, at Cameron Indoor Stadium against the No. 3 team in the nation, the Duke Green1 Devils.
The facts of the matter are, however, that it’s a rivalry game and it’s the ACC, so all bets are off. To win, the Pack will need superb PG play, toughness in the paint, a scrappy defense, few mistakes and many good plays. Plus a little luck can’t hurt.
Fellow SFN authors: Feel free to add to this as necessary. I couldn’t wait any longer to begin the discussion of tonight’s game, but I’m more of a big-picture analyst than a nitty-gritty, X’s and O’s type.
We’re throwing some random stuff out today to keep your brains active. We praised DBR in this entry, so I guess it put Duke on our mind.
With that said, we thought that you would enjoy the following comments written about the worst early-entries into the NBA draft. (Warning: the link takes you to a Gregg Doyel article. To be fair, Doyel has proven a penchant to criticize Duke as much or more, than most of his targets. This link will take you to a related entry that you will enjoy today).
This topic was stealing center stage…so, we wanted to extricate it from the State-Duke entry that should be focused on…well…State and Duke!
With 14 seconds to go in today’s Duke/Carolina game - and with the game firmly in the hands of the Tarheels who had a 12 point lead - Duke’s Gerald Henderson connected with a forearm across the bridge of Tyler Hansbrough’s nose on a put-back attempt after a rebound of missed Carolina free throw.
The N&O continues:
The contact was after the ball left Hansbrough’s hands and Henderson was ejected. Hansbrough exited the court with blood pouring from his face and fuming at the intensity and timing of the foul.
The facts of the matter are, however, that it’s a rivalry game and it’s the ACC, so all bets are off. To win, the Pack will need superb PG play, toughness in the paint, a scrappy defense, few mistakes and many good plays. Plus a little luck can’t hurt. 
