Monday, February 22, 2010

Duke Basketball vs. Virginia Tech: 67-55

First off, Duke probably only needs to worry about Maryland right now in terms of winning the ACC regular season. They should be able to beat Virginia. Maybe they lose to Maryland. North Carolina will be a tough game. Carolina won't go down without a fight, but it is in Cameron and Duke should prevail.

As for this game, not pretty. As mentioned, I have this ten minute rule and none of Duke's reserves played more than ten minutes.

Andre Dawkins is getting court time, but that guy now needs to start scoring some baskets to stay on the court. He took five shots. At least for two of those shots he was wide open. It isn't like his teammates aren't looking for him. I've wanted him to get some court time. Now that he is getting time, he better start scoring some points.

I got on Kyle Singler earlier this season for not putting up points. The last couple games I've seen, I now say he's playing like he should be playing. Solid defense and offense.

Nolan Smith needs to get his shooting percentage up.

Brian Zoubek. This guy isn't going to get the points, but he sure gets the rebounds.

An honest Duke fan would have to call this game frustrating. When your top three score 63 of your 67 points? And there were little if no points scored by pounding the ball inside. I know that when watching the Maryland game, it was mentioned that Duke was able to get inside scoring because of matchups. Hey, I think Duke should always try to score inside. Obviously, Zoubek isn't the person, but what about the Plumlee brothers. Just look at what people always say about the Lakers: they should throw in to Gasol. Duke needs an inside threat and there are only a handful of games left to find it before March Madness.

The positives though: a win is a win, Virginia Tech isn't some push over and will get into March Madness, Villanova lost two straight so Duke should move up to fifth.

Stupid Question: When did Singler get that black eye? What's the story behind that?

Charter Cable did a reboot during the last three minutes or so of the game. When the game finally came back on, Virginia Tech was running out the last eight seconds of the game. Technology.

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