Tag Archives: Kyrie Irving

Duke Basketball, Duke Football

Monday Musings – Duke Basketball and Football tidbits

Here's another Monday Musings Cheeleader of the Week pic!

Welcome to another edition of Monday Musings Blue Devil Nation!  Duke Athletics had another full weekend slate and we'll take a look back and ahead on the latest edition of Watzone's Monday Musings.

Enter Goliath!

In the pre season Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski joked about during the annual ACC Media Day about how Duke became known as Goliath in media circles once they entered the championship game against Butler, a team that rolled their way to the final.  Everywhere you turn Duke is getting cover boy status with magazines to go along with the outstanding ESPNU Special.  And then Duke has been named the favorite to win another national title, yet we all know that the teams generally picked for that spot rarely are there in the end.  Anyway you look at it, Duke is Goliath this season or the 800 pound gorilla in the room for they will be painted as such so there is little any of us can do about it.

A pretty good start to the season for the Duke Men

Duke was hardly clicking on all cylinders against Princeton, yet they still won convincingly via the three point shot and their staple defense.  Duke had a long time to prepare for Princeton, more time than anyone else might receive the rest of the way.   It'll be interesting to see how Duke plays Miami of Ohio after having less prep time.  But back to last evening, Duke looked every bit the part of the aforementioned label Goliath.  It's got to be scary for opponents to realize they might shut one or even two players down on this seasons team, but Duke has too many offensive weapons and somebody will almost certainly pick up the slack.

The Duke Women are rocking too

Duke has an interesting mix of youth and experience on the basketball court this season and they should be a top ten main stay all year long.  I was really impressed by the play of young freshman guard Chloe Wells the other night and she'll take to the court against Southern Cal this evening.  Duke handled BYU in the opener by dominating the paint and tonight is another good early season test, so turn out in Cameron if you are in the area.  The Duke Women, like the Duke Men have been rocking the recruiting front as well, but we'll talk of that later in the week.

Devils oh-so close on the football field

Duke lost a heart breaker to Boston College as a pass was batted down as Duke was knocking on the door in what would have been a rousing win.  Despite the loss, Duke continues to show improvement in many areas and the team will show up in Atlanta and in my opinion give Georgia Tech all they want.  A look up and down the roster shows how many players Duke will return for next year and they are playing to get better in closing out a season where they fell just short in three ACC games.  For the record had they won those tight contest, Duke would have been 6-4.

Two Devils will push for All ACC honors

When it comes time to vote for All ACC teams, the media will realistically consider Duke placekicker Will Snyderwine and wideout Conner Vernon for first team.  Snyderwine is as accurate a kicker as Duke has had in a good while and he made second team last season.  Vernon leads the ACC in most receiving categories.  And go ahead and pencil Kelby Brown on some freshman All American teams.  And note that all of these player return next season.  The Blue Devils lose six starters but have replacements with experience coming back and some pretty decent redshirts to add to the mix.

Sean Renfree

Renfree didn't put the ball in the end zone but he had another solid game going 35 of 49 for 285 yards.  His experiences this season will shape and mold his character even more and he will never give up as seen by this quote, "Nobody's going to put his head down.  We have two games left against two very good teams.  We're going to prepare as we have all season long."

And the Viking ship was set to sea

Students wore Viking Helmets in tribute to Drew Everson who had a fall to his death on campus recently.  Drew was a popular fellow amongst his peers and the head line monitor and he was given a Viking salute last evening.  He would have been proud of the Cameron Crazies efforts which were praised by Krzyzewski in his post game press conference.

Duke Basketball

BDN Post Game Report – Duke tames the Tigers 97-60 – Coach K post game audio

Kyrie Irving makes his collegiat debut - Lance Images for BDN

Duke opened the season in grand style by defeating a pesky Princeton team 97-60 in their first game in the CBE Classic.  After a sluggish start on the offensive end, Duke imposed their will in the second half and ran away from the visitors.

Duke was led in scoring by Nolan Smith with 22, followed by Kyle Singler with 16, Seth Curry 14 and Andre Dawkins with 13 to round out double figure scoring.  Here are my game thoughts and observations -

Three ball still Duke's bread and butter

The Blue Devils connected on 14 of 26 three point shots which translated into 42 of their 97 points.  In the pres season I exclaimed that Duke had more three point threats than at any other time in the Coach K era and the Devils are making me look like a prophet.  When Duke nails the three to the tune of ten or better, it'll be hard to take them out.

 
 
 

A Cameron salute to Drew Everson - Lance Images for BDN

Cameron Crazies honor Drew Everson and they were on fire all night

Just moments ago, Coach K praised the Cameron Crazies for bringing the most energy in an opener than at any other time in his career and he was right.  The students were on their A game tonight it it helped propel Duke to reach deep when they struggled.  The Viking helmets were a tribute to Drew Everson who passed away far too early in life.  He was also one of the head line monitors.  His parent were on hand tonight and they had to enjoy the love the students showed their son.

Kyrie Irving and the freshman make their debut

Irving dropped 9 assists to go with his 17 points  making his debut quite successful.  Tyler Thornton had a steal and then a bucket and a couple of assists to get his name in the books for the first time.  Josh Hairston 2 points, 2 boards and a steal.  Make no mistake, Kyrie is the real deal but he is still learning and that's scary for opposing teams.  Kyrie was the first freshman PG to start at Duke since fellow New Jersey native Jason Williams.

Seth Curry made his debut too

Curry came off the bench at the 14:26 mark in the first half to make his collegiate debut and his 14 points was more than any other players debut save Roshown McLeod who actually started as a transfer in his first game.  Curry really turned it on in the second half and nailed 3 of 5 three point shots for the game.

Leaders lead and Nolan and Kyle led Duke

Kyle Singler got into foul trouble by playing help defense according to Krzyzewski.  Despite being saddled with fouls, Singler was 7-10 from the floor and 2 of 3 from the beyond the arc.  Throw in 2 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks and his numbers speak loudly.  Nolan led the team in scoring with 22 points and his 6 assists stand out as well.  Irving said he played off their energy, the same energy they played with in the Final Four.

Pressure defense forces turnovers

Coach Krzyzewski loved the fact that Duke forced a methodical Princeton team into 27 turnovers which was the most since 2009.  He said all along that Duke could press this year and trust me, Princeton is a well coached team that will never have that many turnovers again this season.

Cal Ripkin Jr. was in the house

The Baltimore Oriole's legend Cal Ripkin Jr. took in the action tonight along with his wife and son.  It was obvious that he enjoyed the game.  Being an Orioles fan I would have killed for an autograph but media protocol is something I adhere to.  It was still cool to see one of my two favorite players of all time.

Zoubs beard still casts a shadow

Big ole Brian Zoubek took in the action and he got a pretty good cheer from the Crazies.  Steve Johnson was there too and after my typo on twitter I cannot tell you what the Crazies were cheering about him.

Coming clean on the typo

As many of you know, we tweet observations from the game in Cameron and some road contests.  I thought I typed Duke shot 40 something percent in the first half.  The thing is that the "i" and "o" keys are beside each other and I can get in a rush with overloaded senses from being in Cameron.  Hey, I'm human!  Sign up for BDN Twitter and get lots of royal blue updates.

Marshall Plumlee and Rodney Purvis in the house

Future Blue Devil Marshall Plumlee and top prospect Rodney Purvis were behind the Duke bench tonight.  For more on recruiting, come off a few ducks and join BDN Premium where we will overload your senses with royal blue information.

Another sell out

Duke has sold out 306 consecutive home openers but that streak would be a lot longer if .... I bet you didn't know that game came in the Bobby Hurley area versus Boston College who at that time was not in the ACC.  The game was part of the pre season NIT and the Duke powers that be made the game a separate ticket from the season ticket package, meaning you had to buy it on your own.  As it turns out there were about 700 or so unsold seats due to many not knowing of their availability.  In short, had the tickets been part ff the season ticket package, that streak would be a lot longer.  BDN was on the scene back then too.  Check back in for more game coverage, but until then here are Coach K's post game comments vis BDN Audio -

Coach K's press conference comments -

Duke Basketball, Duke Football

Monday Musings – Men’s and Women’s Hoops and Football

A Monday Musing tradition is the "Cheerleader of the Week," pic. We like to bring some attention to those behind the scenes and that includes our lovely cheerleaders and the best mascot in the land. Photo - BDN

The Duke Men's Basketball team were an offensive machine in route to scoring 141 points against St. Augustine's in the season opener while the Duke Women held their Blue-White game entertaining key recruits.  Meanwhile the football team continues their struggles on the gridiron and we'll talk about all that in the return of our Monday Musings article after a one week hiatus.

These Devils can run

Beep-beep!  That's the sound the infamous cartoon character the "Roadrunner," makes when churning up and down the countryside as he outwits Wile E. Coyote along the way.  This seasons Duke men's basketball team reminded me of  a bunch of roadrunners in the way they pushed the ball up and down the court with ease while never being threatened by an outgunned St. Augustine's in their exhibition game opener.  The bottom line is all but possibly one of the Duke Scholarship players thrive in a system where Krzyzewski will more often than not turn them loose.  During the post game interviews, Kyle, Kyrie and Nolan all told BDN that they have never played on a team that dropped 141 points.

Coach K shares criteria for this seasons bigs

During last weeks ACC Operation Basketball, Krzyzewski spoke of how his bigs needed to be efficient this season for Duke to have success.  In short their role will be to rebound the ball, defend the post but more importantly to be efficient with limited offensive touches.  Mason Plumlee's stat line from Saturday epitomizes what he is looking for in that he was 6 for 6 from the field, grabbed 8 boards to go with 2 assists, 3 blocks and a steal in just 19 minutes of play.  By comparison, his brother Miles Plumlee found just 2 points and 2 rebounds in 22 minutes but he did have 4 blocks, yet I realize that we cannot judge a player off of a simple exhibition game.

Blue Devils depth is just plain nasty

It's fair to think that even if several Blue Devils struggle on the offensive end this season, their depth will bail them out.  With a team full of shooters, especially those who can drain the three point ball, somebody shpould  always be able to step up.  A scary thought is what will be when all the Devils are hot at the same time.

BDN Premium checks in with Alex Murphy and player interviews

We posted a couple of post game interviews with Kyrie Irving and Nolan Smith and will continue to bring you exclusive post game bits all season long.  BDN Premium chatted up key prospect Alex Murphy last evening and he gave us some lengthy answers to burning questions.  Support Blue Devil Nation by joining BDN Premium and get full site access which includes all of the recruiting, inside stuff and the ability to chat with other members via our private members only message board.  We think you'll be happy with what you find as a member here.

Duke Women hold their Blue-White Scrimmage and entertain key prospects

The Duke Women's Basketball team held their annual Blue-White scrimmage on Sunday where two true freshman led the way.  Chloe Wells and Tricia Liston scored 18 points apiece and the duo and their mates will mix with three Duke veterans this season, meaning they will play key roles.  For more, check out this link. 

Coach P and Duke entertained verbal commitment Whitney Knight and the nations #2 rated prospect  Elizabeth Williams this weekend as well as BDN will continue to focus in on the women's team recruiting efforts.

Can Duke catch Navy napping?

The  Duke Football team now enters a stretch where they should be able to compete against the teams on the remainder of their schedule.  The next opponent Navy could be fat and happy, coming off a victory over Notre Dame and this could prove to be a trap game for the Middies.  It's true that Navy will be a favorite but the fact that they do not pass the ball a lot helps Duke prevent some of the big plays that has rocked them in the season to date.  The Middies open as a 14.5 point favorite.

Renfree too good to continue his struggles

I feel for Sean Renfree who is simply learning on the fly this season.  Expectations were high for Renfree in that he had a lot of success spelling Thaddeus Lewis last season.  Renfree is a good quarterback that has hit the skids and in the process he may be overthinking the game.  Whatever the true issue might be with concerns to red zone and turnover struggles, Renfree is the only capable Duke starter in that Brandon Connette is simply a true freshman.  Of course, it would help Renfree if the vaunted Duke wideouts would reel in a few more passes which at times are right in their mitts.

Have a good week Blue Devil Nation and join us each and every Monday for more random musings.

Duke Basketball

BDN Post Game continues – Nolan Smith & Kyrie Irving comments

Nolan Smith drives the lane - Rick Crank/BDN Photo

DURHAM - Here's a couple of post game interviews with Nolan Smith and Kyrie Irving who form the Blue Devils starting backcourt.  Smith led the team with a game high 9 assists while Irving tallied 7 and the two have a friendly competition going. Just press play -

And here is Kyrie Irving -

Duke Basketball

The BDN Post Game Report – Duke Runs Past St. Aug’s 141-68, Krzyzewski Post Game

Dawkins throws down a dunk on his way to 20 points Sarturday evening as Duke defeats St. Aug's 141-68

DURHAM - The Duke Blue Devils looked like a bunch of roadrunners on Saturday evening on their way to a whopping 141-68 exhibition victory over the defending CIAA Champions, St. Augustine's. No matter who Duke went to on a ten player deep bench they didn't lose a thing no matter who was on the court.

Kyle Singler led Duke with 31 points and 8 boards, while six of his teammates scored in double figures. "I thought Kyle played great tonight. He's been shooting the ball like that," said Krzyzewski in his post game press conference.

Dawkins dropped 20, Irving 17, Curry and Smith had 15 apiece while Kelly added 12. Duke shot 65.7% from the field and the most impressive stat were their 39-0 edge in fast break points. Duke held a 34-13 edge in points off turnovers as well.

Duke doubled St. Augustine's in the paint 40-20 and six Blue Devils had multiple three point buckets and that will obviously be a major strength of this seasons team.

"This is a good shooting team and we want a lot of possessions because we can space the court. The thing we have to do is play defense and rebound and if we do that we can be very, very good," said Krzyzewski.

BDN Sidebar - Duke will have 12 days before they take to the court again against Cal Poly-Pomona in their final exhibition game and they open the season on November 14th for real against Princeton in the O'Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic. Duke scrimmaged with ACC officials this past week and Coach praised the guards assist-turnover ratio, but mentioned that the bigs were not as effective. Coach told me that the big men needed to be effective with fewer shots this season during Operation Basketball and he had to like Mason Plumlees total of 6-6 from the field to go with a 8 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 blocks which epitomizes what he is looking for.  Check back in for more on Sunday and bookmark Blue Devil Nation for some of the best Duke Hoops coverage you'll find.

Coach K post season press conference -

Just press play -

Duke Basketball

BDN chats it up with Duke’s new #1, Kyrie Irving

Kyrie Irving stutter stepped, juked, slashed and dished in his Cameron debut - Photo copyright BDN, Rick Crank

DURHAM - Duke's Kyrie Irving made his debut in Cameron Indoor Stadium this past Friday evening where the Blue Devils celebrated the program amongst their most faithful fans.  Irving, sporting his number one jersey didn't disappoint, playing for the winning team in each game and dishing over ten dimes over the course of the evening.  BDN caught up to Irving after the game to get his thoughts.

Just press play -