Blue vs Blue examines the week’s three games as Carolina learns the importance of actually making threes, and Duke uses some clutch outside shooting to complete a huge comeback against NC State. Zeke talks about the hot and cold of Harrison Barnes and incredible shrinking bench of the Tar Heels, while Bart and Alex chime in about the hot and cold of the Blue Devil’s execution and the incredible shrinking production of Duke’s big men. We dare to gaze again into the mind of Dick Vitale in the latest iteration of Dick’s Degrees of Separation, as well as our new segment called What’s That Stat - a funny and insightful look inside the numbers. Join the three of us, won’t you?

I’ve just had enough.

All day long I’ve been subjected the apoplectic ravings of disconsolate State fans ( and Carolina fans for that matter) and various hosts on sports radio and elsewhere, decrying how the grossly unfair and biased nature of the foul calls in the Duke game last night was the cause of Wolfpack’s epically egregious  loss. Yup, that’s right, folks!  It’s time for the “Duke Gets All the Calls” idiot parade to come tooting their sad and tired little trumpets down main street. The certifiable ones insisted that State actually leave the conference because they were never going to get ” fair officiating” with Duke and Carolina around, even though the number of fouls called in this game was effectively even ( 24 for State and 21 for Duke, and mind you 2 of those State fouls were of the “intentional” end-of-game variety). The marginally sane insisted that it wasn’t the number of fouls but the distribution of them that was unfair, as though the officials were somehow looking to call more fouls on State starters than Duke starters. See, somehow the refs were able to accurately assess that Ryan and Andre were not as important to the Duke cause as C.J. Leslie and Richard Howell are to the Pack cause ( despite the fact that Ryan Kelly, though not a starter last night, averages more points per game than Mason Plumlee and that Duke changes it’s starting lineup almost every single game ) and therefore chose to distribute the Duke fouls to the “less important” players while doing the opposite for State. Yeah. Uh huh.The almost reasonable ones still had to mention how Coach K  “worked the refs” as though a) it’s against the rules and b) no other coach in America would think of doing such a thing and c) this always sways them to see his point of view.

I thought Coach K said it best after the Duke loss to Indiana in the Final Four in 2002. At the end of that game Carlos Boozer was absolutely mauled after grabbing a missed free throw and should have been going to the line to shoot for the win, but no call was made, causing Matt Christensen to have to be physically restrained ( which was no small task). When asked about the impact of that call on the outcome of the game, Coach K responded by saying, essentially, that it demeans the game of basketball to reduce wins and losses to a call (or calls) made or not made. In other words, as a team you have to be good enough in all of the areas of the game that you can control so that you can overcome things that you can’t , like calls that don’t go your way. In other other words, even when the officiating completely and blatantly screws your team over for some other team that they have an inexplicably deep seated fondness and bias for (read : Duke as far as the rest of the country is concerned) you can’t blame the officiating. Why ? Because then you don’t own the mistakes that YOU MADE which put you in a position for those “bad calls” to have an appreciable impact. You don’t get better as a team or smarter or more respectable as a fan base when you conclude that the ultimate reason you lost was somebody else’s fault !!

Was the officiating last night terrible? Absofreakinlutely. But that door swung both ways the entire game, as was obvious to even a marginally savvy basketball-watching eye. Was the second half called differently than the first? Again, yes, largely because Duke came out of the locker room playing much more physically and aggressively on both ends. They set a particular tone with their play which caused the already suspect group of officials to go into ticky-tack mode. Given State’s lack of bench, this impacted them more than it impacted Duke. So, if a State fan wants to claim that the shift in the manner in which the game was called was harder for the Wolfpack to handle than Duke, I can live with that. But the loss itself is far more attributable to the Pack’s failure to deal with the shift than the shift itself. And none of this even takes into account the actual reasons they lost : the slew of bad shots they took, the missed free throws, the good Duke defense and the great play of Curry and Rivers.

And so  good sports fans, I adjure you one and all,  please hold your crazy at bay, your stupid conspiratorial insinuations in check, and your teams ( whoever they may be) more accountable than the refs who preside over their games.

Good night and good luck.

Join Zeke, Bart and Alex as they take a walk down memory lane, revisiting the wonderful/horrible week that was. Listen as Zeke admirably manages not to break down in tears or say anything he will regret (much). Marvel at the unrestrained (and probably short-lived) enthusiasm of Bart and Alex. Find yourself agog as we wrestle titanic questions like “Who was really to blame for the UNC loss?” and “Is the Maryland game evidence that Duke is a better team as a result of the UNC win?” to the earth with ease. It will claw at your unbelieving mind !! You must listen or else consider the rest your time spent on earth an utter waste!!!!!

This video has been reedited since it was first published so it has lost some of its luster. Duke fans may wish to cut to the chase at the 2:20 mark

http://www.dailytarheel.com/index.php/multimedia/10634

To be honest, folks, I can’t believe I was able to sleep at all on Wednesday night.

A game for the ages that left Duke fans disbelieving and ecstatic and Carolina fans disbelieving and cataleptic, also left us all very tired Thursday. I know that blogmate Zeke was up ’til 5 or 6 am in a less-merry-than-usual old England while blogmate Alex was so consumed that he watched the game again in it’s entirety here in very merry old Durham. Now that’s dedication.

     When a little bit of the shock had worn off, I found that the overwhelming sentiment from both sides  in the Twitosphere, the FB-osphere, the textosphere, and the various fan boards was some version of  “How the hell did that happen?” I mean, most of us are smart and honest enough to recognize that UNC won the majority of the rounds in this one. Duke’s initial flurry took the first 12 minutes 32-25 on the scorecard. Then UNC just pummeled the Devils to the tune of 57 – 40 over the next 26 minutes.  At that point the game ( in my mind) was largely about getting out of Chapel Hill with a loss that wasn’t embarrassing and for most UNC fans (and I’m probably projecting here) was about how and to whom the gloating would be done.  Then, suddenly and incredibly at the 2:13 mark, UNC lost their poise, took a few body-blows, and then collectively dropped their gloves and got popped right in the puss with a big ol’ Rivers roundhouse.

Don't Call it a Comeback!

Any 10 point comeback with 2 minutes must necessarily involve to some degree 1) A lack of offensive execution on the team with the lead (2 turnovers and 2-4 FT shooting in the final 4 possessions)   2) Clutch shooting on the part of the team that is behind (4-5 from the floor including three 3-pointers, not-counting the Tyler Zeller tip-in)  3) A wee bit of good fortune (See number 2 and Zeller, Tyler) and 4) probably a last second, crowd-silencing, grab-your-head-in-abject-disbelief-if-you’re-a-fan-of-the-choking-er-I-mean-losing-team shot of some kind.  Suffice it to say, this kind of thing doesn’t happen often in basketball, period.  And to have it happen in a game of this stature is just remarkable.  Frankly, what happened to Carolina is exactly the kind of final 3-5 minutes-of-the-game performance I have come to expect from my Devils this year. So to have ye olde scripte flippede, and on the Holes of Tar no less, is, let’s just say, extremely gratifying.  As my buddy remarked, ” The best thing about winning the game like that is knowing that Carolina fans will get to watch that shot dropping in for the next 20 years, whenever these teams play.”

Anywise, here are some of my takeaways from the game.

• Duke’s defense still stinks (and so, frankly, does Carolina’s) – Duke really only does two things halfway decently defensively. One is their 3-point defense (4th in the ACC).  As it happens, Carolina is 9th in the conference in made threes. This played out as you might then suppose, with UNC going 1-6 from distance. What being good at defending 3′s means for this Duke team, however, is that seemingly anyone with two legs and an ability to dribble a basketball can drive by our defenders at will. We made Kendall Marshall look like friggin’ JWill out there at times (and JWill he ain’t.). In effect, with this style, Coach K is declaring he’d rather give up more easy twos than easy threes. That in itself is nothing new, but the problem is that this team gives up so many easy twos that the cost/benefit analysis isn’t really supporting that particular choice anymore. The defense has been bad all year and unless Coach K switches things up and packs the D in a little, I don’t see that changing. The other thing that Duke does well is a little known defensive stat I like to call Free Throw Percentage Defense. Duke is holding ACC opponents to an ice cold 60% from the charity stripe this year and that’s got to be the best in the ACC (though I have neither the patience or interest to verify this). I don’t know what we’re doing or how we’re doing it, but it would be great to keep it going. UNC, it seems, is also able to work some mysterious mojo of their own. Though the numbers will tell you differently, they completely fail the eyeball test when it comes to defense, and particularly when it comes to defending the 3. I have seen UNC opponents (including Duke Wednesday night) miss more wide-open looks from distance than I can possibly describe. Maybe it’s the Roy Williams power squat of doom that hexes the other teams or maybe the opposing players just freak at how wide-open they are, I don’t know. Whatever it is, UNC better hope it keeps working, because outside of Henson and Bullock, the rest of their players are average defenders at best.
• Austin Rivers aka Sub-Zero aka Austicles aka Double Edge is now the leader of this Duke Team – Yes, he’s a freshman. Yes, he’s a loaded gun. Yes, he looks for his shot first (and often second). Yes, he sometimes makes bad decisions with the ball. But you know what? The kid has BALLS, the kid HATES losing, the kid has sangfroids out the yang-yang (or yangfroids, if you will) and the kid sounds like a leader when he talks. This Duke team has lacked any sort of metaphorical center, any sort of go-to-guy, and any sort of collective will all year. We need someone to step up and be a spirited and galvanizing force. Would we rather see this from one of our upperclassmen? Sure, but it’s too late for that now. We will hitch our wagon to this kid because, though sometimes a wildchild, he’s absolutely the best option to lead this team going forward.
• Mason Plumlee struggles against size – Duke has played nine ACC games and Mason has scored in double figures in only 4 of them. Those 4 games ( UMD, GT, Clemson, and UVA) were against teams with fairly small front lines. The five other games, in which he has averaged an anemic 8 points, were against teams (Miami,UNC,Wake,FSU, and VT) with legitimate size on the interior (with the exception of VT).  I don’t know what conclusions there are to be drawn from this, other than that his apparent emergence as an offensive force may have been overstated. His rebounding has been, and continues to be, outstanding; which is crucial for Duke since he is their only player averaging more than 6 rebounds per game.
• UNC’s best offense is a missed shot – I’m being tongue-in-cheek here, obviously, since Zeller and Barnes are pretty dadgum capable offensive players. But let me put it this way: UNC had an off night and finished with a “paltry” 14 offensive boards, which is two below their #2 nationally ranked 16 ORPG average. For perspective, the second best ACC team in that category is Maryland (surprisingly) at 12 per game. Given that UNC has the tallest starting 5 in the country, these numbers are not surprising but impressive nonetheless.
• UNC ain’t deep – McAdoo is like Austin Rivers without the made shots or good decisions, Hairston has struggled mightily in ACC play and Stillman White and Desmond Hubert look like marginal ACC talent. There’s your bench, Carolina. Last year a great deal was made about the lack of depth in Carolina’s frontcourt, with essentially Justin Knox as the only backup. Well, this year it’s even thinner (due to Mcadoo’s unforseen struggles) and strangely no one is talking about it. Carolina has no reliable back up point guard and no reliable back up post players. Foul trouble could doom this team at the end of the year or really hamper their ability to play defense down the stretch of coming games.
• Expect nothing different on March 3 – It will be Duke’s threes against Carolina’s twos (or Duke’s backcourt versus Carolina’s front court). Only the Devil’s 3-point flurry at game’s end managed to bring their 3-point % up to their season average, so there’s room for improvement there. Carolina ate Duke alive in the paint, but only outrebounded Duke by 7 (their average rebounding margin is +11) so there’s room for improvement there too. Duke can’t defend the rim and Carolina can’t defend the three. That means another high scoring close game is likely in store.

So, the last 76 games between these two teams have been decided by a collective total of 2 points ( as Duke inched further ahead on Wednesday) and Coach K ( I believe) is now 39-38 against UNC in his career. It just doesn’t get any better than this, you guys. And, even though Duke has taken 5 out of the last six, the one thing you know is that there will always be a reckoning. Will that come on March 3rd ? Stay tuned…

Alright folks, we’re starting up a little something new with Blue vs Blue – in advance of next weekend’s podcast, we’ve created a BvB voicemail inbox that we’re asking listeners to call in to and leave us messages to play during the pod. Call the number before, after or even during a game (in fact, that’s encouraged) and let us know what you’re thinking. That can be anything from pre-game predictions, post-game MVP, or in-game thoughts such as: “Dexter Strickland looks really nice in paisley on the bench,” or “Does Ryan Kelly look the way he does because he’s taken one too many charges during his career?”

So, the number to call during tonight’s big matchup is:

(919) 213-1920

Why that number? Because 1920 is the year this whole Rivalry thing started. (And anything that spelled “Blue” wasn’t available).

Give us a call tonight and look for the best messages on the BvB podcast this weekend. As always thanks for reading and thanks for listening.

Zeke, Alex and Bart discuss winning weeks for the Devils and Heels before getting to what really matters this week: Duke-UNC, 2012 round 1, Wednesday night. The guys discuss what has to happen for the opposition to win, ask what former non-lottery-pick alumni could plug the holes their teams are facing right now, make their predictions for the game, and talk about what they hate most about the team down the road. Because during Rivalry Week, haters gotta hate, and that’s our job around here.

"Somewhere floors are slapped, and somewhere guys box-out; But there is no D in _urham, to make the Crazies scream and shout."

Time again for the weekly weigh in from the bluest eight miles of Tobacco Road. Duke’s wins over Maryland and St. Johns (including Coach K’s vitriolic comments) get full coverage as well as the first two (mostly impressive) games for the Tar Heels in the post Dexter Strickland era.

The Duke contingent at BvB weigh in on a good win against Wake Forest and a tough loss against Florida State, and as per usual there is pessimism a plenty. The Tar Heels played only 20 minutes of good basketball this past week and they loose Dexter Strickland for the year, so how can the UNC contingent be feeling good? How will the Heels cope with a shorter rotation? What is going to happen with the log jam at the top of the ACC? Can we figure out what is going on inside the confusing rate maze that is Dick Vitale’s brain? Find out the answers from this week’s edition of Blue vs Blue.

The Duke Blue Devils are 16-3with wins over the ( currently) 5th,10th,19th and 20th ranked teams and tied for first in the ACC… and no fan who is paying attention is altogether happy.

Are we just spoiled? Are we overly critical? Do we expect too much?

The answer to all of these is probably yes. Years of winning ball have made your critically thinking Duke fan far more concerned about HOW Duke wins than THAT Duke wins, the latter being more or less a given with a program that rarely loses more than 6 games a year.I mean, I just saw my first Duke loss in Cameron in 2 years!

After a spectacular showing in 3 games in Maui, during which Duke seemed to noticeably improve game-to-game, the Blue Devils wandered out to Columbus and got pummeled in a game against OSU, the extremity of which pummeling many attributed to fatigue ( which I still believe is true). But the fact is, with perhaps the exception of the first half against Washington, this Duke team seems to be coming apart more than coming together or, more accurately said, playing apart instead of playing together. Yes, they are getting wins, but the impression one is left with that they are getting by. Here are some reasons why that might be.

1. Chemistry – Going in to the season, the biggest question facing Duke was how they would fill the leadership void left by Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith. 17 games into the season, they are no closer to answering that.The truth is that NONE of the upperclassmen have ever possessed what one would describe as natural leadership skills, but, more dismaying  is that none of them seem to have cultivated any during their tenure. Coach K’s constant referral to this team as “young”, is inaccurate and I think he knows it ( I mean, when most of your minutes come from 4 Juniors and a Senior, you just can’t legitimately claim that). What he means( but can’t say) is “immature”, which is just shocking for a Duke team with that many upperclassmen. If the 2010 National Championship team epitomized Coach K’s “fist” philosophy of the true gestalt nature of any successful team, ( a collective fist causing more damage than five individual fingers – a fitting metaphor for a West Point man), then this team is trying to beat opponents by poking them to death (and can’t decide which finger to use). There seems to be a fair amount of self-interest ( occasionally bordering on disinterest) and an overall lack of passion and effort from this team at times. The warrior spirit of Kyle and the irrepressible elan of Nolan have been replaced by, the fragile Andre Dawkins, the non-communicative Seth Curry, the cerebral but non-assertive Ryan Kelly, the hard-working but often unsure Miles Plumlee, and the taciturn Mason. The only player who seems to bring consistently strong intangible skills night in and night out is probably the least skilled basketball player of the bunch, Tyler Thornton. But he is smart and determined and plays his ass off on defense ( albeit often too aggressively in order to compensate for his lack of quickness) He precisely embodies what this team sorely lacks, and so will continue to get playing time. Talent we’ve got. In fact, I would argue that it’s mostly by out-talenting people that we’ve won as many games as we have, not by out-playing them. Look no further than the first 3 ACC games in which Duke gave up an average of 16 offensive rebounds a game if you need additional evidence of the Devils getting out-hustled. It’s consistently hard, team oriented play that we desperately need if we have any prayer of getting past the second round in March.
2. Defense – This entry could largely be encapsulated with “See Above”, since the kind of pressure man-to-man favored by Coach K is predicated on communication, which is itself a product of team chemistry. If defense is truly a barometer of chemistry then my previous paragraph is well supported ‘cause this may be the worst defensive Duke team in years.As it currently stands, Duke is dead last in the conference in FG% defense, 8th in 3pt FG Defense, and 11th in scoring defense. Going back to 2003-04, there is not a single season that Duke didn’t finish in the top 5 in at least one of those categories and only finished out of the top 5 in scoring defense once ( this was 2005-06 , where they finished 7th. For reference, this was J.J.’s and Shelden’s senior year, when they lost to LSU in the Sweet 16. Similarly, that was a high scoring group that could not keep up with opposing guards on the perimeter and had no one resembling a wing player on the roster). In my estimation, there is not a single player on this team that plays defense at a level that is consistently above average. Tyler Thornton is very aggressive, hard-nosed and plays very well off of the ball but simply doesn’t have the lateral agility to stay in front of most guards. Mason and Miles are very good shot blockers and pretty decent most of the time defending the low post. As for the rest, it’s fairly simple : they just can not keep the ball in front of them. The number of easy buckets this team gives up is just staggering. Duke perimeter defenders ( and Ryan Kellyy) are either not quick enough ( Seth, Tyler, Ryan) ,defensive minded enough ( Andre and Austin) , or practiced enough (Quin). Nor do they communicate well. By comparison, the championship team of 2010 wasn’t the quickest group in the world either but they 1) had height at all positions 2) were tough minded 3) had one outstanding and versatile defender in Lance Thomas and 4) ( the most important one in my opinion) they had leadership, they communicated, and they played defense as a team. So, yeah, I’m back to beating that drum again.
3. End of Games – Huh. That kind of sounds like “ End of Days” which would be apropos for this group come March if they don’t fix this. Duke was outscored in the last 7 minutes of these three games ( MSU 22-11, Michigan 25-16, Washington 28-16), the last 5 against UVA ( 10-4) and the last 3 against FSU ( 13-6) Those were each case studies in how NOT to close out a game : turnovers, bad shots taken early in the shot clock ( it’s enough to make me long for the oft maligned clock-sucking offense of yore), missed free-throws and poor defensive execution. This mostly stems from lack of experienced and confident leadership from the point guard spot. Seth and Austin and Tyler have not proven themselves worthy of leading the team in late game situations and Quin ( somewhat mysteriously) hasn’t gotten the chance. Tell me Duke fans, who do you absolutely trust with the ball if DUke is up 3 with 2 minutes to go ? Hmmm? Yeah, see, that’s a problem. That’s why , at the end of the UVA, GT and Clemson games, Duke resorted to handing the ball to Ryan Kelly 35 feet from the basket and praying he would get fouled. If handing it to a 6’11” guy at half-court at the end of a game is your best option for ensuring a win, you can bet there are some straws being grasped at. Someone ( a guard,preferably) needs to step up and be that guy. I’m still pushing for Quin Cook here ; he’s got the handle and seems to be a pretty decent decision maker as evidenced by his strong assist-to-turnover ratio. What is more likely the case is that this will be Austin’s role, and, until or unless he refines his decision making, that sword is going to cut us as often as it proves harmful to our opponents.

I realize that this could read like a lot of bashing on a team that’s won some pretty good games and I know that the slope separating honest appraisal from overt negativity can be a slippery one. This team had more question marks surrounding its makeup and potential than any Duke team in quite a while, and it has been at times enjoyable and interesting ( in addition to frustrating) thus far to see ( and not see ) answers bubbling to the surface. All of these issues are potentially fixable and no one ( hopefully) is at any risk of considering this a lost season. The success of this team will and should be measured in its growth as a team, not in wins and losses.