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moonpie23
03-17-2010, 04:01 PM
http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/en/entry?entryID=3288143

Channing
03-17-2010, 04:03 PM
im surprised he has us going that far. last he saw us, we were being run off the court by GTown.

scheyeronfire
03-17-2010, 04:03 PM
I saw that. It seemed like the whole time he was reluctant to pick us and kept blaming it on Reggie Love. Whatever, I'll still vote for him.

pfrduke
03-17-2010, 04:31 PM
Anybody want to set an over/under on number of posts before this gets locked for veering into PPB territory?

davekay1971
03-17-2010, 04:35 PM
Clearly...he's a Carolina fan (da da da daaaaaa) :eek:

superdave
03-17-2010, 04:55 PM
Duke has a lot to prove in the NCAA tournament to make up for the last several years, well, since 2004 actually. The majority of experts are picking Duke to lose either in the Sweet 16 or Elite 8.

DukieInKansas
03-17-2010, 05:15 PM
Duke has a lot to prove in the NCAA tournament to make up for the last several years, well, since 2004 actually. The majority of experts are picking Duke to lose either in the Sweet 16 or Elite 8.

How can that be? We have the easiest route to the Final Four, don't we? ;)

mgtr
03-17-2010, 05:21 PM
How can that be? We have the easiest route to the Final Four, don't we? ;)

Plus, it is well known that we get all the calls!:D

superdave
03-17-2010, 05:25 PM
Plus, it is well known that we get all the calls!:D

Villanova roughed us up last year. That's the one thing that stood out from that game to me: They pushed, shoved, fought through every single screen we set and literally bumped or pushed our offensive players out a couple of steps from where they wanted to be.

If any tries that this year, hopefully Zoubek sets a wider screen and our guy plows over the defender and hit him in the you-know-what to send a message.

We're tougher this year. But we dont have a killer instinct yet. I think that's evidenced by us not getting to the ft line enough. But Kyle seems to be getting it. Maybe Kyle will get all the calls!

PDDuke85
03-17-2010, 05:36 PM
Looking forward to more insightful basketball picks from our future ESPN analyst in, say 3 years

OldPhiKap
03-17-2010, 05:38 PM
Putting politics aside, he is 0-1 so far (Winthrop, bye bye).

Lennies
03-17-2010, 05:53 PM
Obama picked Duke to beat Villanova last year, so maybe this is a good sign.

I think superdave gets the gist of last year's game exactly right. Villanova was incredibly aggressive and they knocked Duke back on their heels.

JaMarcus Russell
03-17-2010, 07:06 PM
Duke has a lot to prove in the NCAA tournament to make up for the last several years, well, since 2004 actually.

Yet no one is picking Syracuse, with a worse tournament record than Duke in the past 5 years, to lose early. Duke is measured at a different standard than every other program, even the top ones.

pfrduke
03-17-2010, 07:25 PM
Yet no one is picking Syracuse, with a worse tournament record than Duke in the past 5 years, to lose early. Duke is measured at a different standard than every other program, even the top ones.

Part of the reason is that people see Scheyer, Singler, Zoubek, Thomas, and assume that this is just the same cast of characters from last year, and thus bound for the same result. When in fact, while there are senior (and junior) holdovers, this team plays a different style than any recent Duke team.

With Syracuse, their roster got a more obvious overhaul, with guys like Johnson, Jardine, and Triche coming in and Flynn, Harris, and Devendorf departing.

bluepenguin
03-17-2010, 07:50 PM
I want to see Obama's NIT picks. tee hee

dukestheheat
03-17-2010, 08:11 PM
Well, I didn't vote for the guy anyways. He knows better than to mess with DUKESTHEHEAT, baby.

dth.

HaveFunExpectToWin
03-17-2010, 09:39 PM
The Nova pick is definitely wrong, but it's not his worst. Nova is strong and they did beat us convincingly last year.

I can't excuse his Murray St upset over Vandy. What the hey, Obama! The Dores go nine deep!

diveonthefloor
03-17-2010, 09:42 PM
Jeesh...
Doesn't he have more important things to contemplate?

Duvall
03-17-2010, 09:49 PM
I can't excuse his Murray St upset over Vandy. What the hey, Obama! The Dores go nine deep!

Good point. Vanderbilt is a dangerous #7 seed that could do some real damage if...

...wait, what? A #4 seed? Come on.

JohnGalt
03-17-2010, 10:10 PM
well, he hasn't been wrong about anything else yet, has he? :D

I'm crossing my fingers for the rematch. EVERYONE should be...

dukelifer
03-17-2010, 10:57 PM
Well the only time he saw Duke live was at the Georgetown game in DC. That game is why most folks are down on Duke.

BigZ
03-17-2010, 11:00 PM
Maybe he is still mad at K calling him out last year.

OldPhiKap
03-17-2010, 11:07 PM
Where's Joe Biden's bracket?


Given that Ron Paul went to Duke med, I assume he has us going all the way.

HaveFunExpectToWin
03-17-2010, 11:43 PM
Good point. Vanderbilt is a dangerous #7 seed that could do some real damage if...

...wait, what? A #4 seed? Come on.

Getting off topic, but 4 seed is very appropriate. Strong SOS, strong RPI, 4-2 vs RPI Top 50, and finishing 2nd in a good SEC East. This is the best Vandy team since 1993. No joke.

BigZ
03-17-2010, 11:56 PM
Where's Joe Biden's bracket?


Given that Ron Paul went to Duke med, I assume he has us going all the way.

ya Duke has a lot of famous politicians: Ron Paul, Richard Nixon, Elizabeth Dole, Ken Star.

devildownunder
03-18-2010, 12:05 AM
If Obama has us losing to Nova, that means he has us advancing to the elite 8, losing only to a team that smoked us last year (yes, I know neither team is the same). I don't exactly view that as him being down on us. Does he have to pick up to win it all or make the FF to be "up" on us?

I have said since January that anything beyond the elite 8 would be what I call "overreach" for this team, so if we bow out in that round, I'll be disappointed in the moment but I won't feel like we failed or choked or underachieved at all.

AZLA
03-18-2010, 04:49 AM
Obama's advice to Kentucky was Hans Solo esque -- "Great, Kid. Don't get cocky."

superdave
03-18-2010, 11:09 AM
Obama's advice to Kentucky was Hans Solo esque -- "Great, Kid. Don't get cocky."

Did anyone see John Wall dancing and mugging for the camera last weekend? My first though was "Wow. This guy looks really really stupid right now." Maybe he was dancing for the ladies...which I am not...but he looked like a guy trying too hard for the cameras.

OldPhiKap
03-18-2010, 12:01 PM
Did anyone see John Wall dancing and mugging for the camera last weekend? My first though was "Wow. This guy looks really really stupid right now." Maybe he was dancing for the ladies...which I am not...but he looked like a guy trying too hard for the cameras.

Did he dance better than Danny Green?

uh_no
03-18-2010, 12:28 PM
When in fact, while there are senior (and junior) holdovers, this team plays a different style than any recent Duke team.

.

I will not argue the importance of senior leadership on teams, but the fact remains that we depend on three pointers for scoring....this has not changed

we are also 2-3 against ranked teams

that is not the record of a good team.....thats the record of a 3-4 seed.....fortunately, we won a league with very few other very good teams other than us (the lack of wins against ranked teams demonstrates effectively the lack of other good teams...and good wins)

but fortunately, we are sitting in a bracket that looks like a HS tournament.....so a ff is not as far out of the question as it likely would be in another bracket

davekay1971
03-18-2010, 12:46 PM
I will not argue the importance of senior leadership on teams, but the fact remains that we depend on three pointers for scoring....this has not changed

we are also 2-3 against ranked teams

that is not the record of a good team.....thats the record of a 3-4 seed.....fortunately, we won a league with very few other very good teams other than us (the lack of wins against ranked teams demonstrates effectively the lack of other good teams...and good wins)

but fortunately, we are sitting in a bracket that looks like a HS tournament.....so a ff is not as far out of the question as it likely would be in another bracket

Going to disagree with your take...

This team can still score from the 3, but has proven time and time again that they can win games without effective 3 point shooting. Those games are ugly, defensive struggles, but we have consistently gotten decent offensive production from offensive rebounds and mid range jumpers. I would definitely not consider this team as being dependent on the 3 for scoring.

Our 2-3 record against ranked teams: all 3 losses came on true road games. We may play two games against Texas teams in Texas, but that's the closest we're going to get to a road game. I don't think anyone knows how much significance our performance on either true road or home games will reflect on our performance on neutral courts in the tournament. So far this season we've been effective, if not consistently overpowering, on neutral courts.

I keep hearing how there's no one in our bracket, and that strikes me as the take of someone who doesn't follow basketball very closely and only respects names that are recognizable as traditional basketball powerhouses. News flash: it's 2010. This year UNC, UCLA, UConn, Florida, Indiana, Arizona, etc, suck. Baylor and Texas A&M, on the other hand, are damn good teams.

nyr484
03-18-2010, 05:45 PM
hehe

The Nova pick is definitely wrong, but it's not his worst. Nova is strong and they did beat us convincingly last year.

I can't excuse his Murray St upset over Vandy. What the hey, Obama! The Dores go nine deep!

The Gordog
03-18-2010, 05:52 PM
Jeesh...
Doesn't he have more important things to contemplate?

Yeah. He should be working 12 hour days 7 days a week, that would be productive.

G man
03-18-2010, 06:19 PM
Jeesh...
Doesn't he have more important things to contemplate?

I am so sick an tired of hearing about who the Prez thinks is going to win what. Last I checked we are in one of the worst economic downturns in the history of the United States.

sagegrouse
03-18-2010, 06:37 PM
ya Duke has a lot of famous politicians: Ron Paul, Richard Nixon, Elizabeth Dole, Ken Star.

Picayune behavior is truly the last refuge of a scoundrel, and I would like to point out that none of those listed graduated from Trinity. Well, Liddy Dole was at least an undergraduate, being in the old Women's College.

WRT to Ron Paul's picks, his son Rand (also a Duke Med graduate -- an eye surgeon) attended Baylor. Could be some mixed emotions.

Now I read that Ken Starr will shortly become the President of Baylor University. I am not sure Duke will be in his bracket either.

sagegrouse

SoCalDukeFan
03-18-2010, 07:14 PM
Getting off topic, but 4 seed is very appropriate. Strong SOS, strong RPI, 4-2 vs RPI Top 50, and finishing 2nd in a good SEC East. This is the best Vandy team since 1993. No joke.

Lost. Obama got that one right.

SoCal

HaveFunExpectToWin
03-18-2010, 07:24 PM
Lost. Obama got that one right.

SoCal

Yeah, that hurt. A lot.

El_Diablo
03-18-2010, 09:04 PM
I am so sick an tired of hearing about who the Prez thinks is going to win what. Last I checked we are in one of the worst economic downturns in the history of the United States.

So what? We are also in March Madness.

mgtr
03-18-2010, 09:59 PM
I am so sick an tired of hearing about who the Prez thinks is going to win what. Last I checked we are in one of the worst economic downturns in the history of the United States.

What economic downturn? When I look at how my wife supports the local economy, I figure everything must be booming!:D OK, she doesn't spend as much on her interests as I do on mine, but mine, of course, are important!:D

-bdbd
03-19-2010, 11:15 AM
I will not argue the importance of senior leadership on teams, but the fact remains that we depend on three pointers for scoring....this has not changed. we are also 2-3 against ranked teams.
that is not the record of a good team.....thats the record of a 3-4 seed.....fortunately, we won a league with very few other very good teams other than us (the lack of wins against ranked teams demonstrates effectively the lack of other good teams...and good wins)

but fortunately, we are sitting in a bracket that looks like a HS tournament.....so a ff is not as far out of the question as it likely would be in another bracket

I don't necessarily disagree that our "region" is probably just the 3rd most loaded among the four. But what actually matters is just the 4 teams that we (or any other teams) must win against in region in order to get to the FF. If you look at those 4 likely match-ups, I don't know that I would actually prefer our (supposedly easy) path more than that of Kansas (in the "toughest" region).

KA: Lehigh (was a blowout of course), N. Iowa, MSU/MD, and then OSU/Butler/TN.
Compare that with Duke's path: APB, Louisville (?) (swept Syracuse), Tex A&M (in HOU! ), and Baylor/Nova (in HOU). So, hypothetically we get (2) the team that just got done sweeping the 'cuse -- i.e. talented but inconsistent, then we get (3) a large, hot, state school with huge vocal fanbase 100 miles from their campus, and (4) either the team that beat us by 30 a year ago OR another hot, top-12, in-state team playing near their home/fanbase. Of those four compared match-ups there might be ONE round that I'd prefer our match-up over KA's...

Of course all these match-ups can change, and there is a lot of talent in the MW region (mostly on the other half of that region from KA), but I'm just saying it really isn't clear which #1 has the easier path.

This weekend I'm rooting for CAL (first round), as well as Sienna and UT State, and ODU (Sat) and St Mary's (Sat)!!

:D :D :D :D

El_Diablo
03-20-2010, 11:08 AM
With the first round in the books, Obama correctly picked 25/32, putting him in the 96.6 percentile out of all ESPN brackets. :eek:

Other ESPN brackets:

Scott Van Pelt - 24
Mike Golic - 24
Mike Greenburg - 21
Bill Simmons - 21
Joe Lundardi - 21
Dick Vitale - 20
Matthew Berry - 17

devildownunder
03-20-2010, 11:37 PM
I think the prize is $10,000 -- $1,000,000 is you pick all 63 games accurately.

Yeah, fat chance.

YourLandlord
03-20-2010, 11:42 PM
At this point, Obama's staff members are praying for his bracket to fall apart. Imagine how his opponents' attack dogs will be able to spin it if he wins the pool? "Can't fix the economy but has time to watch enough basketball to correctly predict March Madness!"

OMG, the directions they'll take that.

It already did.

He had Kansas, Georgetown, and Villanova in the Elite 8.

CINCFAIL.

jwillrockyou
03-21-2010, 12:38 AM
this thread keeps getting on the edge of being just a bit too political...
can we try and keep the comments on the president's politics off the main board that's supposed to concentrate on basketball

-bdbd
03-21-2010, 01:29 AM
Wasn't this supposed to be about BASKETBALL and pools??

-bdbd
03-21-2010, 01:31 AM
About 2/3 of the entries in my office pool just went flying out the window with the KA and Nova losses. Now let's have someone take out KY and you'll start seeing some SERIOUS fun!!!


:p

El_Diablo
03-21-2010, 02:05 AM
I'd rather have him as an ESPN analyst though there is that little subvert the consitution effort for his health care bill.

What part of the Constitution exactly? Since you are obviously a Constitutional scholar, I am looking forward to your teachings. So as to avoid this becoming a verboten PP thread, you can PM me when you find it. :) Thanks.

Anyway, regarding his basketball picks, I am surprised that he is still in the 95.5 percentile of all brackets, considering he only has 4/8 Sweet Sixteen teams correct. He has the KU and Nova dead weight to pull him down for the rest of the tournament though, and with 680 PPR, he will start dropping soon.

Interestingly, for a change of pace, here is the top bracket on ESPN:

http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/en/entry?entryID=1614495

But before we start regaling this lewis dude as a genius, however, we have to note that this bracket is labeled as his eighth entry...so he had at LEAST eight brackets. Who fills out 8+ different brackets?!?!?

Saratoga2
03-21-2010, 08:41 AM
Anyone who had Kansas going deep and now has his/her brackets busted, join the crowd. Wow, what a loss to have them bow out as the #1 overall seed. They seemingly had it all, size, experience, guard play, a pro caliber wing, depth, and yet down they go.

It shows how hard it is to advance and how much parity exists in college ball today. So far we have the following seeding into the sweet 16:

9,6,5,2,1,11,3,10

diesel
04-06-2010, 02:07 PM
I wonder if Reggie Love is giving the POTUS a few pointers today on elementary mistakes to avoid (not picking the Blue Devils) in filling out Big Dance brackets?