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.