MBB: Duke 75, UNC 58 - ACC Champs!

[BCGroup]

actually, he said "today, experienced talent beat talent" and the broader point he was making was that Duke's experience was a plus today. there was nothing wrong with he said. he was also HUGELY complimentary of Nolan Smith.

Thanks...I was reading tweets and that was clarified after I posted!

[Utley]

Did you notice how Prince Harry wouldn't look Nolan in the eye in the hand shake line?

Harry - you've chosen... poorly.

[devildeac]

I just wanted to say congratulations to our devils for the HUGE win, and their, what is it?, 18th ACC championship? Great game guys. K said in the interview that they played "decent" defense. DECENT? I thought it was GREAT defense. Anyway, so happy for our guys. Great job.

#19.

[camion]

Wow! It was just a beautiful game to watch. We jumped on them with both feet at the start and they never recovered. That was 40 full minutes of intense basketball. Kudos to Nolan, Kyle, Miles, Mason, Seth, Ryan, Andre and all other players and coaching staff.

This team was had a pretty impressive tournament with three double digit wins. That should lock up a #1 seed. If it doesn't the team in our bracket who is the one seed will cry foul.

[NSDukeFan]

Fantastic win, the team showed me a gear I wasn't sure we'd be able to find.

First off, we started well. What a difference, and it was keyed by the defense. They weren't getting any good looks, but they also failed to convert some easy shots. Offensively, Nolan was driving and Kyle was not settling for 3s. That created lof of inside out, balanced 3 point opportunities that we were able to knock down. Plus, we were all over the offensive boards.

I felt like we got away from what made us successful for a lot of the second half. All of a sudden, Kyle was back to front rimming 3s and Carolina was really starting to assert itself on the offensive glass. We also went away from the ball movement and balance that had keyed the first half. I felt a Heel run coming.

The key sequence of the game was with 5-6 minutes left when they cut it to 9. First, Nolan drove and kicked to Seth for a 3 which stopped a 5-0 Heel run. After 2 Marshall FTs, the Black Pigeon has a clean look from 3 and it went half down which would have cut the lead to 7. We come back and Kelly hits that corner 3. That was pretty much ballgame. If the Pigeon makes that 3, the crowd explodes and we have have wilted. Not on this day.

We are looking tough. Bring on the brackets!!! We should get the #1 out West but who knows?

Great post, except there was no wilting by Duke in this game, made 3, or not.

[hudlow]

He's a big ol' tiny-headed baby. No respect for the magnitude of the game. The preening doesn't go over well with the gods of karma.

Kind of a rinsed looking falcon.

They showed a short cut away of Roy talking to HB while he was on the bench. To me it looked like The Black Pigeon was rolling his eyes at his coach as if he had a better grasp on the situation than Roy.

But then again...

[burnspbesq]

For the last two weeks, he has had the Duke women as number eight overall, despite their number three RPI, number one SOS, and wins over two of the three other number two seeds. Risible.

[Reilly]

Good weekend--ate some turtle soup, some turkey, and now some sour, sour goat...

If you beat the goat into submission with defense, and then torch it to a crisp with 45 percent shooting from 3-land, and then stretch it and stomp it and throw down all over it, it's actually possible to wipe the smirk off the goat's face, get it to take off its glasses and shake its head, and make it cry, and then it tastes ... I dunno, sort of like chicken, or a championship, or something.

[Oriole Way]

Nolan had such a great game today, one of the best of his career. He was amazing from a passing perspective, he found his teammates wide open so many times for great looks. I think today was his best passing game ever, it was beautiful to watch and was a huge reason for the win.

[taiw93]

Great effort today. Nolan looked like the NPOY (on both offense and defense), Kyle took the ball inside a lot more and was very effective doing so (thank goodness!), Kelly played a great all-around game, Andre hit big shots and was great on defense, Seth was solid, etc. But, perhaps most importantly, the Plumlees (and Kelly as well), as they have been all tournament, were excellent. They positively bullied Henson inside on offense, and did a great job defensively and on the boards (with some help from Kyle). If they play in the next tournament like they did in this one, we have a pretty decent shot at a title. As for the Heels, they're still a really good team - and are a hundred times better than the way they played today and this entire tournament. However, this is just another example of how experience wins in March. Always.

My only minor gripe today was that the officiating was atrocious on both sides, as it was yesterday. Obviously, UNC fans will point out the (terrible) charge call on Srickland, but there were tons of calls on both sides (such as the lack of basket interference on Zeller) that just made me scratch my head.

[TruBlu]

What a great day it is to be a Blue Devil! An amazing game! Not only were we in control for the entire game, but the Heels can't even blame the refs or say that their players had bad games. Our defensive intensity ruled the court!! The Devil has fire in his eyes so watch out boys- it's March Madness!!

You are wrong about the Heel fans! Several have already piped in saying that the refs let Nolan get away with hand-checks early, setting the tone to rob the Heels. Just Damn!

You are right about it being a great day to be a Blue Devil! (I also enjoy hearing the Heels whine.)

[Buckeye Devil]

They showed a short cut away of Roy talking to HB while he was on the bench. To me it looked like The Black Pigeon was rolling his eyes at his coach as if he had a better grasp on the situation than Roy.

But then again...

Oh come on now. Dickie V says that he is so coachable!

[Bob Green]

They showed a short cut away of Roy talking to HB while he was on the bench. To me it looked like The Black Pigeon was rolling his eyes at his coach as if he had a better grasp on the situation than Roy.

Well Ol' Roy doesn't set the bar all that high so perhaps...

[ncexnyc]

Great team effort and a full 40 minutes of basketball. The score would have been a lot worse had we been able to play our game, as we clearly came out with passion and aggression, but the refs with their ticky tacky fouls kept the heels as close as they could.
I loved the way our kids never let a mistake or bad call deter them from the task at hand. Classic example, Ryan goes up weakly and gets his shot blocked, but comes right back down the court and immediately steps in front of his man for the easy steal. Every kid made similar plays throughout the game, they just kept coming and coming and the heels could never catch their breath.
Great effort and hopefully the kids will show up next weekend with the same fire and intensity we saw today.

[lotusland]

Great post, except there was no wilting by Duke in this game, made 3, or not.

Nolan was phenominal at the end. That is how you close out a win! He milked the clock and go us a good look with the clock winding down every time. He found Ryan and Seth for 3, hit Kyle down low who was blocked twice, hit Ryan underneath (Ryan fumbled the pass) hit an open 3 himself and knocked down 2 free-throws! What more can you do when it is winning time?

[hudlow]

It's really fun to take a stroll through IC right now.

They are arguing amongst themselves as to which ref helped out Duke the most and if the ACC Tournament Champion is really the ACC Champion.

Losers.

hud

[dukestheheat]

Nolan was phenominal at the end. That is how you close out a win! He milked the clock and go us a good look with the clock winding down every time. He found Ryan and Seth for 3, hit Kyle down low who was blocked twice, hit Ryan underneath (Ryan fumbled the pass) hit an open 3 himself and knocked down 2 free-throws! What more can you do when it is winning time?

The DEFENSE was the big advantage for Duke today! From the first play, I could tell that Duke had brought the defense and they just rode that all...game....long!

Congratulations Duke on the ACC Championship and this one is S-W-E-E-T!

GO DUKE!

dth.

[DukieInKansas]

Congratulations guys.

Thank you, kong123. I know it wasn't as much fun for you to watch but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I've been giving a friend at church a hard time due to a unc shirt he owns. He wanted to wait until after today's game before he turned it in for the nice Duke shirt I bought him. I think he'll turn it in easier now.

[TonyWR]

It's really fun to take a stroll through IC right now.

They are arguing amongst themselves as to which ref helped out Duke the most and if the ACC Tournament Champion is really the ACC Champion.

Losers.

hud

I have never, ever, ever known a Tar Heel fan to just admit defeat. They are incapable of it, they are extremely intimidated by those four letters D-U-K-E and when Duke beats them they can't handle it, lol. I personally love it, to shut their mouthy fans up is priceless.

Remember, you can't spell dunce without unc! IC is proof, enough said.

[Matches]

It's really fun to take a stroll through IC right now.

They are arguing amongst themselves as to which ref helped out Duke the most and if the ACC Tournament Champion is really the ACC Champion.

Losers.

hud

I can save you a few minutes: in a nutshell, we won because of the refs, even though the smurfs shot way more FTs than us. They were tired from playing 3 games in 3 days, even though we did that too. And anyway, the ACCT doesn't matter and our players don't succed in the NBA, except when they do and that's because they left early and anyway none of them have won an NBA title except for Ferry and that didn't really count and this is really all Larry Drew's fault. Plus we have white players and that makes us racist and no one likes racists.

GREAT effort today by the forces of good!