ANAHEIM - Blue Devil Nation is in the house at the Honda Center where Duke hit the practice court today. As always, we bring you videos, you'll see nowhere else, so bookmark BDN now! Support BDN's efforts by joining Blue Devil Nation Premium where you will get full site access and can check out our insiders message board. Let's us take you behind the scenes in Anaheim with out members only blog, but of course, there is plenty free, like these timely videos from Kyle Singler, Miles Plumlee and Andre Dawkins. Go Duke!
As Duke took a 15 point lead over Michigan in yesterday's game, the song "California Dreaming," started to play in my head, but a furious Wolverine comeback almost burst that dream bubble and that's what it is all about. It takes but one made shot to send your dreams packing and nightmares to begin, but Duke survived and advanced and this is how you do in the NCAA's. In this weeks Monday Musings, late afternoon column, we'll take a look back and ahead with happenings surrounding Duke Basketball.
Sometimes, you have to make your own emotion
For the first thirty minutes of the game I kept thinking to myself on press row, how flat the crowd was in Charlotte. Across the way, the only person I could make out standing up in the Iron Duke section was Debbie K, Coach K's daughter. A few moments later with the team looking flat, Coach Krzyzewski slapped the court with his hand, jacket peeled off, arms in the air exhorting fans as he walked out to meet his team, emotion clearly implanted on his face. It's not the first time he's had to do this for as fans we get a little fat and happy. Regardless, without that emotion Duke would have never vaulted to a substantial lead, one which they had to hang onto for dear life to advance.
900 wins, 1,2,3, 4 ................. 896 more
Wow! Coach K now has 900 wins! Amazing feat indeed and it deserves even more attention than it is getting but make no mistake, Coach will reflect on this after the season. For now, he wants nothing more than this team to win, not for him, but for them and the fan base. With so much going on, BDN hasn't even been able to write much about the accomplishment but we want to address that after four more victories if you know what I mean, wink, wink. We do however salute him with the count box on our main page which will soon contain a link to his vast accomplishments.
LK Image for BDN
The return of Kyrie Irving
Let me tell you first hand that it was quite the circus surrounding Kyrie Irving this past weekend. Never have I seen so many cameras on a kid during NCAA events. Irving is clearly coming along fast at this point and he will see even more minutes against Arizona and may even start. We have several video interviews up with Irving, so check them out. You could see flashes of Irving getting back to where he was but there is a ways to go yet with concern to his Still, Duke may not have advanced had it not been for his second half play. His one steal was a key one and the only one the Blue Devils made all day and that runner was the difference in the end.
... but Rollin' Nolan is the backbone
Make no mistake, Nolan Smith is the leader of this season's team and his skills have allowed Duke to get as far as they have to date. Nolan put the team on his back, scoring 10 straight points against Michigan yesterday and without him Duke would be staying in Durham until graduation. Smith has been flat out hard to stop and when he gets on the same page with Irving ... watch out! He is the most dependable player on the team and his consistency has been amazing. Give him a good look the rest of the way Duke fans, because he's having one of the best seasons of any player in the Blue Devils illustrious history.
Kyle Singler, he's not that good
Relax! I didn't say it, an astute well thought of sports writer beside me on press row did. Look, Kyle had some misses yesterday that make you want to hide until the next play and it is funny how some only seem to recognize an air ball. That was the case with the writer beside me. I then pointed out that Kyle had 7 rebounds and led the team with assists with 4 with about 17 minutes left in the game. It amazes me how people fail to see what he does off ball and how good a defensive player he is. Singler is a flat out winner who could care less about his stat line. You better get a good look this week at #12 Duke fans, for you will not realize how much you miss an eternal starter until he is gone.
Jet lag and adjusting
Duke will leave tomorrow afternoon for California in order to adjust to a three hour time difference. It will be quite an adjustment for the Devils and could point to a slow start. Arizona is much more familiar with the turf, having a lot of players from Cali on their roster mixed with some street tough New Yorkers. Anaheim is a nice family oriented place so it shouldn't be too many crazed fans and for the first time, Duke is away from the baby blue bunch that is booing them heartily at every turn.
Speaking of the lunatic fringe fans ...
Okay, there are a lot of Carolina fans, so that means more fools in their fan base and all schools have them. But I just cannot understand the make up of hate some of them seem to have. F&%$ Duke shirts are a bit over the top and you never see Duke fans, no matter how redneck they may be in similar garb. There were fans there whose soul purpose was to spew hate when Duke took to the court, spittle flying out of their mouths, faces red with last nights beverages. One got escorted away and even more rational Tar Heels fans actually clapped. One couple held up an anti Duke sign saying I hate Dooke? Any Tar Heel hating fan knows its Dook. On to a public restaurant where four Heels fans were asked to leave or take off their F&%# Duke shirts. Not the kind of thing one would wear in public unless of course they are part of the lunatic fringe. The hate really is disturbing at times.
Get well soon to one of our cheerleaders!
One of our own suffered an injury yesterday, cheerleader Hattie Cutcliffe. BDN loves the support group behind the Blue Devils and we wish her a speedy recovery. She's the one that turns like 164 flips in Cameron, being the best at that! No details on the injury but we have our sources working on it;)
We love what we do!
Just wanted to take a moment to say thanks for all the fans who support and make up the Blue Devil Nation! We love what we do around here and will continue to bring you passionate yet professional coverage of all things Duke Athletics. We will be working on some changes soon which are sure to please and our AAU Basketball coverage will begin soon. You can support our efforts and ability to bring you up close and personal with the teams by joining Blue Devil Nation Premium, our subscription service. It is our members which help keep the site going and that give us the ability to offer so much on the free side of the site, much of which other sites charge for.
In closing, a little story for you
After the media scramble where I interviewed players in the Duke locker room, I ventured back to my computer which was court side. Most of the media had left for the media room but I remained with maybe five others due to a faster Internet connection. It must have been maybe an hour after the game ended when I looked up from my work. Walking towards the court with his head hanging was a player in a Michigan warm up. As he strolled out on to the court area, I could see tears in his eyes. He walked onto the court and then started from just inside the free throw line and walked through and took a shot with and imaginary ball and repeated this two more times. You could see his mind working and he was doing all he could to fight back more tears. He then strolled silently off the court and walked to the top of the arena where he stood and reflected one more time before turning and walking off until he faded from sight. It was Darius Morris who missed the shot at the buzzer. Folks, this is what it is all about! And this is why you need to relish every single victory and understand it is not your birthright as a fan to see Duke win every game. Each win is sweet and it should be cherished for there are players on the losing team who showed as much heart despite the loss. Keep your head up Darius for you guys played a helluva game.
CHARLOTTE - BDN remains on the scene in Charlotte where we are using every opportunity available to bring you coverage on the Blue Devils run through the NCAA Tournament. Kyrie Irving took time to chat with media and we were front and center to bring you what he had to say. Check out the following two videos from
Here are several player post game interviews from yesterday. Enjoy being close to your Duke Blue Devils. BDN will continues it's coverage today and tomorrow from Charlotte
Monday Musings is back! Well, at least for now. The main reason for our three weeks absence has been the fact that our platter is more than a little full of late. BDN really gets out there in the trenches when covering Duke men's and women's basketball and football. That coupled with a bevy of Sunday evening tip offs has made for an unusually busy schedule.
Speaking of Sunday games, ESPN will take over those games starting next season and our understanding is that no game will tip off past 6:00 which helps. If we had it our way, that time would be 4:00. Heck, we'd do away with those brutal Sunday games all together.
Just yesterday, we attended the championship game of the ACC Women's Basketball tournament and you know by now, that the women took care of business beating their arch rival North Carolina. As usual, Jasmine Thomas led the way, but Duke is getting great contributions from freshman and that bodes well for the future despite the fact, they're losing three great seniors in the aforementioned Thomas, Karima Christmas and Krystal Thomas. The bottom line is that the program is on firm footing and recruiting has been strong of late. Back to the title, Duke remained poised and wore down the Tar Heels and now they await NCAA pairings which are announced next Monday. Check out our raw but fun videos from the title game and Lance King's photo gallery
And this week, the ACC Men's Basketball Tournament starts up on Thursday, but the Blue Devils tip off Friday at 7:00 against the winner of the N.C. State-Maryland game. Duke is looking to regroup after a tough loss to North Carolina on Saturday where their offense became bogged down in key stretches. BDN will be on the scene in Greensboro and we'll add a lot of updates via twitter, the site itself and video. In fact, we head to Cameron Indoor Stadium this afternoon where we'll share in a Q & A session with Coach Mike Krzyzewski. Of course, you'll hear what he had to say shortly after it's completion, so come back and see us.
I cast my vote for the All ACC teams yesterday and there were some tough choices. We pick three All ACC teams and when you get down to the last spot on the third team, well, there is not much choose from. For the record my last spot went to Derwin Kitchen of Florida State. Roy Williams got my Coach of the Year vote and John Henson, Defensive Player of the Year. Yes, I am more than able to remain objective and I am glad this site is known for it's balance in such arenas. Another Tar Heel, Harrison Barnes got my Rookie of the Year. Nolan Smith earned my Player of the Year vote and it was the easiest pick of the bunch. Kyle Singler was a first team All ACC pick for me as well. The Coach of the Year came down to Saturday's game in that I would pick the winner of that contest. Coach Krzyzewski has done an amazing job after losing Kyrie Irving having to retool his team and I have often wondered why he has so few ACC COY awards with consideration to his vast accomplishments. Williams took some hits with player defections and after a loss to Georgia Tech on the road, those guys have been one of the hotest teams around. When picking the all rookie teams I so wanted to put Kyrie Irving on there for after three players, there were few obvious and or worthy picks. After discussion it with several trusted friends in the media I balked in that he played in just eight games and none of those were conference games. This morning, I actually regret changing the pick and wish I had left him on the team for he was that good in games.
We have continued to cover football recruitingwith vigor and we will bring you more from spring practice after the break. The timing of the practices have conflicted with hoops, making it hard to be in two and sometimes three places at once. If you want to catch up on Patrick Cacchio's latest football blurbs, simply go to our football section. Our premium football side is growing as is our new premium Duke Women's Hoops forum where we talk recruiting on that front as well.
We'll be talking with some prospects in basketball this week as well, so our premium members have that to look forward to as well. We're still making some site changes in the near future but most of that will roll out after the season. We'll guarantee you that our new Duke prospect data base will be the best you've seen anywhere to date.
We have a very large free section of content at BDN, but it's also a great time to join Blue Devil Nation Premiumfor we will follow Duke every step of the way in the NCAA's. We were the only site to do so during every game last season where we reported from he Final Four on an hourly basis. Our members have rational discussions with other members on the subscription only message board where you do not see a ton of immature posts which are sometimes found elsewhere. The bottom line is no site is more dedicated to bringing you a Duke-centric experience and we're only getting better. With AAU season around the corner, I can assure you this is the place to be for we are the only Duke related site that covers ALL the major events in person and in depth. BDN does not lean on national or corporate beat guys for content. Instead, we focus on the kids you want to hear from in a most concise manner. There is a difference when a kid iis interviewed for multiple sites and when it is more personal. Our in home recruiting analyst Andrew Slater is the best in the business with concerns to hoops recruiting and he is a walking, talking encyclopedia of information. Between Andrew, myself and our correspondents, we get the job done. The bottom line is that our AAU coverage rocks and there is no comparison when compared to others and that is nothing but a straight forward fact.
We have recently added videos but it is a work in progress, but again, BDN is the first to break out this medium in an up close and personal manner with concerns to unofficial sites. We try to feel the gaps between the coverage of GoDuke.com and Duke Blue Planet, Official sites covering Duke. In short, we are at the head of the pack in the new age of Duke beat coverage as newspapers continue to decline for we follow Duke in person to bring you the coverage you deserve.
Yeah, we've talked a lot about the site today, but that's because we're excited about the coming changes, the ACC Tournament, NCAA's, recruiting and everything surrounding Duke Athletics. For now, we remain independent but there are some corporate sites knocking at the door. No matter what we decide to do, you will never see a drop off in coverage from the site that truly covers the beat every day of the week. At the end of the day, it's all about the content and we'll put our coverage up against any independent site and let you be the judge.
You must be logged in to post a comment.