Revenge Baby With a Capital 'A'

January 21, 2006: With Duke trailing by 3 and All-American and National Player of the Year JJ Redick already having 41 points, Greg Paulus dribbled the ball off of his leg and the game was over without JJ touching the ball, Georgetown 87 Duke 84.

December 2, 2006: A little less than eleven months later, Greg Paulus avenged his mistake by scoring 13 points (all in the 2nd Half) to lead the Blue Devils to a come from behind 61-52 win over Georgetown at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Paulus, who has been in the doghouse with most Blue Devil fans, including myself, came out in the 2nd Half inspired and it really showed in his play whether it was diving after loose balls, draining perimeter jumpers, and even fronting Roy Hibbert on defense at one point. Throughout the infantile stages of this season, one thing about Paulus is that he has been vocal and has tried to lead this team in the absence of any Senior leadership. However, last night, he led by example and that's the best way to lead.

After DeMarcus Nelson hit two quick 3-pointers to give Duke an early 6-2 lead, they went ice cold from the field with one of their seemingly vintage scoring droughts. This allowed Georgetown to not only come back but build a comfortable 9 point lead for most of the 1st Half. When the Blue Devils looked over matched, it was their All-American candidate Josh McRoberts who stepped up to keep them in it and Martynas Pocius, who has made a career of keeping his seat warm, gave the Blue Devils an offensive jolt with 2 big 3-pointers. In fact, Pocius played so well that he cracked the starting lineup at the beginning of the 2nd Half only to pick up two of the quickest fouls in the history of college basketball. To me, the biggest play of the game was at 49-49 when Paulus tipped a loose ball to himself and took it down the court for a layup to make it 51-49 and gave the Blue Devils the lead to stay.

After a quiet 1st Half, Jon Sheyer contributed 9 big points including a great drive and fake on Roy Hibbert. DeMarcus Nelson had 12 points but it seemed like Dan Shulman and Dickie V didn't mention his name once after the first few minutes unless it was for a turnover or an errand pass. So far this season, defense has been the name of the game and last night was no different. After Georgetown scored 34 points in the 1st Half, backdooring them to death, Duke really stepped it up defensively, holding the Hoyas to only 18 2nd Half points, and that ultimately led them to a victory.

To get back to McRoberts, I urge all five of you that read this to find me another big man in the country that is more versatile. The knock on McRoberts is that he's not aggressive enough but look at all of things he does for this team: he's probably their best ball handler outside of Paulus, they use him to break the press, he's definitely their best passer, he can shoot (even though his shot is a work-in-progress), he can flat out defend, and he's shooting 90% from the free-throw line through 8 games.

Overall, this was without a doubt the best win of the young season so far. This young team didn't fall apart, regrouped at halftime, and came out firing in the 2nd Half. Sure, the crowd certainly helped them out big time tonight but they held their composure and that is a good sign when they go on the road during their tough ACC Schedule. To stay on the crowd, how about Coach K at the end of the game basically imploring the crowd to get on their feet for this team? Personally, I love it. Some Duke-haters will say that K was showing up Georgetown but you could tell he was extremely proud of his young Blue Devils.

Next up for Duke is Holy Cross on Wednesday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Ohh and sure Duke plays most of their early season games at home but I don't want to hear it when I see Top 25 teams playing the likes of LA Monroe, Nicholls State, and Sacramento State. At least, Duke schedules tough teams (as evidenced in my post about a week ago). Even when they play a mid-major, it's not cupcake city. Holy Cross went into Syracuse at the Carrier Dome and only lost by 8 so the Blue Devils cannot let up after two very good wins this week. I look for Holy Cross to push Duke but in the end, the Blue Devils should prevail.

Prediction: Duke 74 Holy Cross 56