To All Those Who Criticized

[NYC Duke Fan]

I remember a couple of months ago when there were some posts after some tough losses that said that at best Duke was just a good team and not a very good team.

Those posters were harshly criticized by a number of posters with comments , " an overreaction to a loss", " nausea setting in ", "the team is young they will only get better", etc.

Well the results speak for themselves. This year, Duke was just a mediocre team. This team just did not how to win close games, could not shoot free throws, could not defend when it counted in the final moments of games.

This post is not going to place blame anywhere, just to acknowledge that this team was just an OK team.

Will they be better next year? Well they can't be any worse, although I do not know how the deficiences that existed this year will greatly improve next year.

One last thing, let's stop with any Paulus bashing. This kid is one excellent ball player, with heart. He can play on my team anytime.

[feldspar]

You were right.

Do you feel better?

I'm guessing not.

[devildownunder]

You were right.

Do you feel better?

I'm guessing not.

I'm guessing he might if a bunch of the people who said he was an idiot came on here and apologized.

Yes, I know it will never happen.

[dukewray]

We sucked compared to year's past. It's tough for a die hard Duke fan to take. We had no one who could shoot off the dribble, no one who could stay in front of penetration (including our best defender Markie Nelson), we had no pure shooter (Jon's good, but not clutch at this point), NO inside presence (except Josh doing alley-oops, and that's still only 2 points)....and the PG bashing on Greg has been well deserved. The kid played a good game tonight...and no one else showed up. But tell me this, is he better than WFU's Ish Smith? I mean Smith lead the ACC in assists this year, and WFU sucked. As for next year, it's not going to get any better. We don't have a quick point guard coming in...we don't have a 6'8" 240 pound guy to bang down low.... And if history has shown us anything...ESPN will show something to the effect "Duke gets all the calls" or the Gerald incident which will affect our young players and screw us around mid-January. Maybe this is pessimistic....but I don't see it getting any better at this point.

[j(ay)mike]

He's one kid I've really enjoyed watching as the year progessed. HE improved quite a bit, and did so in the face of an inordinate amount of undeserved b.s. from all angles. He adjusted his game to pick up the scoring slack when he realized nobody else would do it. I thought he played like a warrior tonite.

[NYC Duke Fan]

No, I Do Not Feel Better. My point is to those who love to criticize when someone doesn't think that the Duke team is the second coming of 91-92 teams, should be a little more civil in their responses. You know who they are.

[Bob Green]

Will they be better next year? Well they can't be any worse, although I do not know how the deficiences that existed this year will greatly improve next year.

They can't be any worse? Were you a Duke fan in 1974? I was and I can assure you this year wasn't that bad. We all need to get a grip and accept the fact that we won 66.67 percent of our games this year. That may not be up to our standards, but it ain't shabby!

Bob Green
Yokosuka, Japan

[Johnny B]

Thank-you Bob for the perspective. We often get light-headed breathing the rarified air of the last few years to be able to see straight!

It was not the best season, but we will always be here supporting our team no matter what happens. Now I feel a strange need to dress in green and scream....GTHC!