BC-Ya!

Granted it wasn't easy or vintage but Duke escaped with a much needed W against BC this afternoon. Whether it was a hangover from the UNC game or the fact that they traditionally struggle on early afternoon regular season games, the Dukies came out uninspired, let BC dictate the pace, and that coupled with a ton of missed shots, led to BC leading at the half.

BC continued to take punch after punch and repeatedly got back up and punched back and they did this for most of the game. When the Eagles came back to take the lead in the 2nd Half, I started to get a little nervous but my man crush came through once again. Kyle Singler hit big shot after big shot, culminating with his huge three out of the corner to make it 66-65 and Duke never looked back. Singler finished with 24 points and 10 rebounds and those numbers don't even speak to how important he was in this game. In addition, he continues to show his toughness when he stepped in and had some words with Spears after Spears tried a Steven Segal-esque choke hold on Gerald Henderson. What else can I say except I love this kid and if he stays four years, he will have a special Duke career, up there with the likes of Battier, Redick, and Hurley (not Laetneer, no one will ever top what he did).

DeMarcus had 23 points but let's face it, I would hold my breath if he was at the foul line late in the game. He, along with Lance Thomas, is dreadful from the line and these missed free throws could cost them come tournament time like they did for the 2002 team. Overall, coming off of a great UNC win and Maryland on the horizon, you can't blame Duke for coming out with very little intensity but the main thing is that they won and they continue to move one step closer to that prized #1 seed in Charlotte, which would be huge for their Final 4 chances.

A few other points:

1) I love Greg Paulus, I do but can he stop slapping the floor? I became a Duke fan based on Bobby Hurley doing that but when he did, not only did they not score, the other seemed to never get a shot off. When Paulus does it, not only does the other team score but it usually turns out to be an open look by the guy he is guarding!

2) Is Lance Thomas turning a corner? He was spectacular against UNC and today, he was excellent collecting 6 points, 5 rebounds (all offensive), and 1 block.

3) Brian Zoubek returned today, albeit 2 minutes. When Zoubek went down, I wrote a post saying that it would hurt Duke immensely because they needed all the size they could get. Some people then wrote to me and said I was nuts and I came back with a rebuttal insisting that it would. I don't normally say this but I WAS WRONG, I WAS DEAD WRONG!

4) Big game tomorrow on ACC Sunday night hoops. If Clemson can beat UNC, that would give Duke a 3 game lead over UNC, Clemson, and Maryland (which would really be 4 with wins over each and Duke having the tie break).

Next up is Maryland on Wednesday night at Cameron. If there is a team that never gets phased by Cameron Indoor, it's Maryland. Watch out! Prediction coming later in the week...

Thanks again to all of the positive comments on the live blog and to everyone else who didn't comment but read it. I really appreciate it...