Clem-Son of a...

Just a quick reminder, I will be live blogging the Duke/UNC Part III on Wral tomorrow. Oh wait, Clemson ruined those plans and although UNC was able to escape an upset bid, Duke could not. I never call out Duke's effort but let's face it, this team came out lethargic and slept walked through the first half. They were sloppy with the ball, they took bad shots, and for some reason, continued to double in the post only to give up an open layup.

As I've stated throughout the year, Duke's lucky number is 3 not 7 and today it was very unlucky and led to a defeat. They shot 20% from the 3-point line and missed a number of open looks. Also, in the first half, Duke uncharacteristically gave up a number of open looks to Terrence Oglesby and Cliff Hammonds.

Clemson, who is the absolute worst free throw shooting in Division I basketball, seems to make them against Duke and fouling Cliff Hammonds, who shoots 43%, iced the game from the free throw line, looking like Rick Barry in the process. Congratulations to Clemson on practically winning a home game for them considering every fan in the building was a Clemson fan or a North Carolina fan, who is obviously rooting against Duke.

I would've loved to see Duke/UNC for a third time but if I'm a Carolina fan, I don't like this matchup and really wouldn't have rooted for it. I know Duke is their archrival but UNC matches up much better against Duke than they do against Clemson. I see Clemson exercising some demons again tomorrow and knocking off UNC in a nailbiter.

Getting back to Duke, they shot dreadfully and with Kyle Singler struggling, it will be hard to have a long extended run in the NCAA Tournament. I know it's tough to hear but if they don't hit a great deal of 3's, they can't beat average to good teams, they just can't. If they shoot it like they did against UNC in Chapel Hill, they can cut down the nets. The problem is that Kyle Singler looks exhausted and the only thing worse than his play the last two games is that awful opera singer ESPN sollicited for the ACC Tournament (how dreadful is that??)

Next up for Duke is the NCAA Tournament, either on Thursday or Friday. They will either be one of the last two 2 seeds so expect to go out West and play in UCLA's bracket or to be one of the better 3 seeds. I think Duke's overall body of work, despite a 5-4 record in their last 9, should give them a #2 seed. If I had to guess, I see Duke landing as the #2 out West where they would probably have to go through UCLA in Anaheim to go to the Final 4. Good Luck!

Much, much, much more after the brackets come out...