Luke Winn on the boys

[wilson]

Winn's work is generally good...statistically sound and rooted in a solid knowledge of the game. He's awfully complementary of our team right now, saying among other things that they're "not overrated at #7," and that they're "a lot closer to Carolina than most believed in the preseason." By no means faint or undue praise:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/si_...d-on-duke.html

[oso diablo]

good read. thanks.

[Cavlaw]

Luke Winn confuses me. He looks like he's too young to know anything. Yet he does.

[billybreen]

Good summary of what we know so far. It's still really early, but the early returns are good.

[wilson]

Luke Winn confuses me. He looks like he's too young to know anything. Yet he does.

You're not alone. He, like most of his colleagues at SI, really knows his sh!t and expresses it eloquently. Not prone to the bombast prevalent elsewhere. I generally go to SI for substantive, in-depth analysis before any of the other major sports websites or, ahem, "Worldwide Leaders.".*

*Rick Reilly's impending defection to ESPN will shift the balance somewhat, and I'll not stop reading Gregg Easterbrook or Bill Simmons, but the way I see it, those are sort of different animals than, say, Peter King or Tom Verducci (to name a couple).

[dcarp23]

*Rick Reilly's impending defection to ESPN will shift the balance somewhat, and I'll not stop reading Gregg Easterbrook or Bill Simmons, but the way I see it, those are sort of different animals than, say, Peter King or Tom Verducci (to name a couple).

Not to get too off track here, but Reilly has always been the one negative to SI in my mind. I feel he fits right in with a lot of the personalities at ESPN who come across as feeling that they are as big as the games and athletes that they cover.

[VaDukie]

Winn's impression is especially impressive because he didn't even have us in his preseason top 16. Seems the media is catching on to what a lot of us thought in August and September...

[throatybeard]

Not to get too off track here, but Reilly has always been the one negative to SI in my mind. I feel he fits right in with a lot of the personalities at ESPN who come across as feeling that they are as big as the games and athletes that they cover.

Likewise. I've taken SI since 1994. I quite reading Reilly with any sort of regularity like 10 years ago. Self-promoting silliness. Fly fly swiftly to ESPN.

[Cavlaw]

The only times I hit ESPN's webite are to check TV listings and scores (since I find their scoreboard interface/gametracker preferable to SI's).

[Duvall]

The only times I hit ESPN's webite are to check TV listings and scores (since I find their scoreboard interface/gametracker preferable to SI's).

I've found yahoo better than either.

ESPN.com really is a remarkable site - it gets significantly revised every year or so, and every single time they manage to make it worse. Not most times, every time. You would think that once in a while ESPN would come up with an improvement, if only by accident, but nope.

[Classof06]

Given the fact that Winn didn't have us in his preseason Power 16, I'd say this is the most complimentary article Duke has gotten from the national media all year. Bilas has been giving us props all year but when he praises Duke, people just label him a homer.

I thought Winn contradicted himself a little bit, though. Early in the article, he says Duke is likely to finish third or fourth in the league behind UNC and Maryland [and presumably NC State]. But he later says that we look to be a stronger contender to NC State and we're closer to UNC than many people thought. To be honest, I think we currently look much better than either State or Maryland, but ACC play will bring everything to light.

[ikiru36]

I thought Winn contradicted himself a little bit, though. Early in the article, he says Duke is likely to finish third or fourth in the league behind UNC and Maryland [and presumably NC State].

Easy to have mis-read, but when he talks about us finishing 3rd or 4th behind Maryland and UNC, he appears to me to specifically be writing about pace of play/possessions per game, not ranking the teams overall or predicting place of finish in the league.

[wilson]

Given the fact that Winn didn't have us in his preseason Power 16, I'd say this is the most complimentary article Duke has gotten from the national media all year. Bilas has been giving us props all year but when he praises Duke, people just label him a homer.

I thought Winn contradicted himself a little bit, though. Early in the article, he says Duke is likely to finish third or fourth in the league behind UNC and Maryland [and presumably NC State]. But he later says that we look to be a stronger contender to NC State and we're closer to UNC than many people thought. To be honest, I think we currently look much better than either State or Maryland, but ACC play will bring everything to light.

Good point, but on the other hand, climpsun right now looks better than State or the twerps.
In the end though, I agree that third or better is a very reasonable expectation for this year's team, based on the sample of games we have thus far.

[rthomas]

Likewise. I've taken SI since 1994. I quite reading Reilly with any sort of regularity like 10 years ago. Self-promoting silliness. Fly fly swiftly to ESPN.

I really liked Rick Reilly's book, Who's Your Caddy?: Looping for the Great, Near Great, and Reprobates of Golf. He caddies for a whole lot of people like Casey Martin, Trump, Deepak Chopra (my favorite), John Daly, Jack Nicklaus and a bunch of other people and then wrote about each adventure. Fun read.

And his books "Missing Links" and "Shanks for Nothing" are very very laugh-out-loud funny, although I'm sure it helps if you golf. Golfing is so funny.

Otherwise don't know anything else about him. I never read SI.

[DukieInKansas]

I'll be sorry to see Rick Reilly leave SI. He has written some great stories. The story of the lung transplant recipient was especially moving.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...903/index.html

[wilson]

I agree with some that Reilly can be heavy on the schmaltz, but to me, the self-conscious, borderline smug attitude in his writing is part of the schtick. I too think he can be laugh-out-loud funny. He also knows a lot about a lot of different sports. My mother (somewhat mystifyingly, considering she doesn't pay for it) gets SI every week, immediately reads Rick Reilly, and promptly tosses the mag aside. I think he's a refreshing addition to sports columnists. His piece a couple of weeks ago about "Why I'm a sportswriter" (or something to that effect) captured a lot of why I like him.

[VaDukie]

Easy to have mis-read, but when he talks about us finishing 3rd or 4th behind Maryland and UNC, he appears to me to specifically be writing about pace of play/possessions per game, not ranking the teams overall or predicting place of finish in the league.

Yeah I thought the same thing at first too, but he was referring to possessions per game.

[SilkyJ]

Good point, but on the other hand, climpsun right now looks better than State or the twerps.
In the end though, I agree that third or better is a very reasonable expectation for this year's team, based on the sample of games we have thus far.

Re: clemson, I'll believe it when i see it. They've gotten out to one of these 9-0 or 11-0 or 17-0 starts a bunch of times and then they never make the tourney. Last year was the year I thought they might finally capitalize on that start...we'll see about this year...

[Billy Dat]

First off, Win takes an interesting approach to his rankings in that he really breaks a sweat to unearth interesting facts, often non basketball related, about each team. In a world where so many reporters mail it in, he really seems to work hard. Anyway, here's a tidbit from his Michigan State description this week (they are #10) which adds some more color to the dialogue on this board about our 2007-08 schedule:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...ankings/1.html

"Here's how many times each of my top 10 teams are venturing into opposing venues in 2007-08:

"* (4) UNC: at Ohio State, Kentucky, Penn and Rutgers
* (4) Washington State: at Baylor, Gonzaga, Boise State and Idaho State
* (4) Butler: at Ball State, Evansville, Florida Gulf Coast and Southern Illinois
* (3) Kansas: at USC, Georgia Tech and Boston College
* (3) Georgetown: at Old Dominion, Memphis, Ball State
* (2) Texas: at UCLA, Rice
* (1) Memphis: at Cincinnati
* (1) Michigan State: at Bradley
* (1) UCLA: at Michigan
* (0) Duke: none "

[patentgeek]

First off, Win takes an interesting approach to his rankings in that he really breaks a sweat to unearth interesting facts, often non basketball related, about each team. In a world where so many reporters mail it in, he really seems to work hard. Anyway, here's a tidbit from his Michigan State description this week (they are #10) which adds some more color to the dialogue on this board about our 2007-08 schedule:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...ankings/1.html

"Here's how many times each of my top 10 teams are venturing into opposing venues in 2007-08:

"* (4) UNC: at Ohio State, Kentucky, Penn and Rutgers
* (4) Washington State: at Baylor, Gonzaga, Boise State and Idaho State
* (4) Butler: at Ball State, Evansville, Florida Gulf Coast and Southern Illinois
* (3) Kansas: at USC, Georgia Tech and Boston College
* (3) Georgetown: at Old Dominion, Memphis, Ball State
* (2) Texas: at UCLA, Rice
* (1) Memphis: at Cincinnati
* (1) Michigan State: at Bradley
* (1) UCLA: at Michigan
* (0) Duke: none "

Just to quibble a bit, I think Duke's game with Temple is on the road (although perhaps not at Temple's gym), as was the Davidson game - I don't think you could realistically call either of those neutral sites. Add to that the 3 games in Maui and the neutal site game with Pitt, and that's 6 non-conference games away from Cameron. Not exactly the same as visiting the on-campus facility of a perennial powerhouse, but not a cupcake schedule either.