Nope folks, we aren’t kidding you. First off we apologize for air silence after the elite 8 but being on vacation and forgetting your laptop power cord equals no posting. But hey being the superstitious cat I am I should probably just wait til the tourney is over to do any posting at all..
Duke has returned to the final four, despite all of the naysayers and basketball pundits and experts. This “alarmingly unathletic” team with the non-tradition point guard and slow lanky players has somehow managed to beat a gutsy Purdue team, and an extremely motivated, home-crowd having, very good team from Baylor. This team still hasn’t played its best basketball, Kyle Singler was basically a shadow in the Baylor game scoring 5 points on 0-10 shooting and Duke still managed a victory. It’s both a good and bad sign for Duke. It means they can play better and will have to against West Virginia, and it means there is room for coaching and improvement. It could also mean a Singler slump, we hope he is not pressing and isn’t thinking toward next year and possible draft status for this year. It’s no failure to be a senior star at Duke University, just ask Jon Scheyer.
Also good news for Duke is the play of Jon Scheyer, he seems to have shot himself out of his slump and contributed along with Nolan Smith many winning plays against both Baylor and Purdue. Shooting 50% from 3 was really, along with Nolan Smiths offensive explosion, Dukes saving grace in this game. That along with some really good defensive stands. Mind you Duke beat Baylor in Houston. Cant have much more of a one sided crowd than that.
Duke also got production for the bench in this game to the tune of 8 points in the Purdue game to 12 in the Baylor game, this is going to again be a must for the Devils. Duke should have certain advantages in the game against West Virginia, most notably Duke has great guards and Coach K if anything knows how to get his guards to lead a team to victory. I look for Duke to come out and surprise the Mountaineers and pound the ball inside to open up the outside shots for Scheyer, Singler and Smith. Also look for penetration by the guards to lead to easy buckets for the bigs. This may not be what’s expected but I think it’s one way to go. It’s something that will not only keep the guards fresh but will add value to the time of the Plumlee brothers in this game. Good minutes are great but productive minutes are even greater.
