CrazieTalk.Net

Here are some links to check out as you pretend to be working.

Devils aim to put 'D' in Duke

Seth Curry ready to put his shooting touch to good use at Duke

Duke's Nolan Smith thinks key to repeat title is ... early losses?

Former Duke Star Jon Scheyer Looks To Once Again Defy the Odds

Practice began last night, so here are a few links to keep you up to date, as well as a pre-practice interview with David Cutcliffe from goduke.com.

Cutcliffe video interview on goduke.com

Renfree anxious to take over as Duke's quarterback

Scott, Blue Devils expect to rush to judgment this fall

Rebuilding Duke Football

GO DUKE!!!!

Well I have figured out that I could write pages and pages about Alabama, but I realize this team is just damn good.  Alabama is coming off of their perfect season that was capped off by a national championship win over Texas.  The offense that Alabama has this year is in my mind the best offense in the country.  They are returning almost everybody that played serious snaps last year.  Senior Greg McElroy will be the starting quarterback this year.  McElroy saw limited playing time in his first two seasons, but led the Tide to a 14-0 record and a National Championship last year.  This will be McElroy’s final year and it should be a big year for him.
 
The Crimson Tide has by far the best running back in the country.  Mark Ingram is the starting running back for Alabama.  Ingram is the reigning Heisman trophy award winner from 2009.  The Heisman is given to the best football player every year.  In the 2009 season Ingram ran for 1,658 yards and 17 touchdowns.  He also was a threat with 334 receiving yards and 3 touchdown catches. Another key running back is sophomore Trent Richardson. Many people believe Richardson is as good if not better than Ingram. Ingram will be the starter but we will see much of Richardson in the game.
 
The offensive line that Ingram will be running behind is being retooled a little.  The Crimson Tide lost two starting lineman but are replacing them with studs.  Redshirt freshman D.J. Fluker will most likely take over at the offensive tackle position.  But the 6’6, 340 pound lineman should be a fine replacement.  Returning for the offensive line from 2009 are guys like James Carpenter, Chance Warmack, William Vlachos and Barrett Jones.  It should be a young line, but a very talented line at that.
 
Julio Jones leads the field at the Wide Receiver position in 2010.  Jones was the #1 receiver coming out of high school two years ago.  His first two years were very good in the Alabama program.  Last year, as a sophomore, Jones was the leading receiver with 500 receiving yards and four touchdowns.  If it wasn’t for the amazing running game, he would have had many more touchdowns.  Juniors Marquis Maze and Brandon Gibson are very good receivers as well.  Seniors Darius Hanks and Earl Alexander will be key receivers this year for the Crimson Tide if they want to make another championship run.
 
If there are any concerns or weaknesses for the Alabama team, it is their defensive line.  Now even a weakness for Alabama, would be a strong point for probably any team in the ACC.  But Alabama did lose Lorenzo Washington, Terrence Cody and Brandon Deaderick from their starting defensive line.  But the replacements aren’t going to be scrubs.  Senior Luther Davis will most likely start at defensive end, replacing Brandon Deaderick.  Juniors Josh Chapman and Marcell Dareus will fill out the defensive line for the Crimson Tide.
 
The linebackers should be very strong this year for Alabama as well.  The Crimson Tide lost their defensive stud from a year ago, Rolando McClain.  McClain was the 8th overall pick in the NFL Draft this April by the Oakland Raiders.  Sophomore Dont’a Hightower is a very good linebacker standing at 6’5, 260 pounds.  Juniors Jerrell Harris and Courtney Upshaw will most likely be the other two starters in the linebacker group.
 
Junior Mark Barron will be the best defensive player for Alabama this year.  Barron is a lockdown safety in the defensive backfield for the Crimson Tide.  In 2009 Barron had 75 total tackles, and had a team leading seven interceptions.  Barron ran one of those interceptions back for a touchdown as well.  Barron will be joined by sophomores B.J. Scott, Dre Kirkpatrick and Robert Lester in the defensive backfield.
 
Leigh Tiffin was one of the best place-kickers in Alabama football history for four years.  Tiffin graduated this summer and will have to be replaced.  Head Coach Nick Saban did not waste much time in filling out that roster spot.  Saban recruited the #1 place-kicker out of South Lake Carroll High School.  Cade Foster is a true freshman this year and is most likely going to be the starting kicker for the Tide in 2010.  Punter is a confusing position for Alabama since they do not have one punter on their fall roster.  Walk-on quarterback Zach Koehler or freshman Jay Williams should be the starting punter.  Redshirt senior Terry Grant will be the punt and main kick returner for Alabama this year.  He is a very good returner and should be a hard guy to stop.
 
There is not much more to say about this team.  They are the preseason favorite to win the national championship, and should be #1 still when they come to Wallace-Wade on September 18th.  They are returning most of their starters from the 2009 national championship team, and they have the 2009 Heisman winner in Mark Ingram.  To sum it up, this team is simply great.  And they are coached by arguably one of the best coaches in the game today in Nick Saban.  I expect Duke to be ready to play and very pumped up.  But I do not think Duke’s revamped defensive line, and an average linebacker core will be able to slow down the running game of Alabama.  And even if they can, Duke will also have to deal with one of the nation’s best receivers in Julio Jones.  Duke’s offense might score some, but Alabama’s defense will be ready for Duke’s passing game.  Duke gets a couple touchdowns, but Alabama will shut down Duke for most of the game.  I would love to see Duke pull the biggest upset of the season, but if I had to bet all my money, I would pick Alabama.  Duke…Be prepared.  Alabama….please get Mono. 

Alabama:            45

Duke:                    20

Check in on Wednesday for the preview of Army.

Been a while since I've posted on here, but whenever some tidbit for the coming season is made available, you know I'm there.  While the most recent bit of news was of the unpleasant kind (it's never fun when a player leaves the team, it's sad when it's a player who you know can be good but just didn't quite get there; we all wish Chelsea the best at San Diego State), it's good to see something that gets me excited about the upcoming season.  I mean, BESIDES that whole #1 recruiting class thing.

As has become the habit of Coach P and her staff, another challenging schedule is on tap for the team.  They went out and got games against some of the best in the nation in preparation for a very challenging conference schedule, and what is always a challenging tournament environment.  The schedule is reproduced below from Goduke.com:

Nov. 13 vs. BYU
Nov. 15 vs. Southern California
Nov. 18 at Auburn
Nov. 21 vs. Western Kentucky
Nov. 24 at Pittsburgh
Nov. 27 at Charlotte
Nov. 30 at James Madison
Dec. 2 at Wisconsin
Dec. 6 vs. Texas A&M
Dec. 12 at Oklahoma State
Dec. 21 vs. Xavier
Dec. 30 vs. Temple
Jan. 4 vs. Kentucky
Jan. 31 at Connecticut
March 19 & 21 - Host the NCAA Tournament First & Second Rounds

I like the strength of this schedule, and one thing that I like in particular is that instead of the perennial early-season matchup against UConn, that game's moved to the final non-conference game of the regular season on January 31.  UConn is always a tough game, and giving our team plenty of time to learn about each other and our stellar recruiting class time to gel and get used to the coaching system will be big.  That being said, that will be a tough game, but likely one that is winnable considering the major losses to UConn from previous years.  They're supposed to be good, as always, but not invincible like the last two years.

Looking back to the beginning of the season, BYU is our firsst opponent, and not someone to sneeze at.  They made some strong progress towards the end of the season all the way to the quarterfinals of the women's NIT (losing to our friend Joanne Boyle at Cal, the eventual champions).  They should be an improved team from last year, as they only graduated one senior from last year's team, and their two top players are seniors with strong leadership qualities.

USC will be an interesting matchup, as even though USC missed the postseason altogether last year, they retained their top two scorers, both seniors this year, and they also brought in the number 7 recruiting class in the country (according to Hoopgurlz).  They didn't play particularly well on the road last year, with a road record of 7-5, and the team resembles a lot of ACC teams, with two very talented players that the defense can hone in on.  They have a little bit of height, though, so it should be a more interesting game than their ending record of last year would suggest.

Auburn and Western Kentucky will likely be somewhat less challenging than the firsst two games of the season.  Auburn ended the season with a losing record and only appears to have graduated one player (the website's a bit ambiguous, I'm not sure whether they've done any updating during the off-season).  However, they do feature the 20th ranked recruiting class in the country, which could mean some fresh talent on the floor and we're playing there, which will be another bonus for them.  Western Kentucky lost in the first round of the NIT last year.  This game appears to be a return game for the Caribbean Challenge last year, which we won handily.

Pittsburgh is in pretty much the same boat as Western Kentucky, they lost in the first round of the NIT and don't have a particularly stellar recruiting class coming in (not that it's a BAD class, just not amazing).  However, they do have senior leadership in their guard position and forward position.  This should be a good test for the team in gearing up for the conference schedule, especially in that it's an away game.

Charlotte returns its top scorer from last year's NIT team and adds 4 freshmen for this season.  The game's going to be at Charlotte, so it should be a good test away from home (but not too far).  They finished with an 18-14 record last year, so they'll probably be better, but the loss of senior leadership will likely hurt.

The next stretch will likely be the hardest of the non-conference schedule, with James Madison, Wisconsin, and Texas A&M over the course of a week.  James Madison's not going to roll over, as they're one of the stronger teams out of one of the stronger non-major-conferences, the CAA.  They made the NCAA last year, and even though we beat them in last year's game, it wasn't an easy one where we weren't able to really get a good rhythm going.  Wisconsin is supposed to be pretty good this coming season, so our ACC/Big Ten matchup with them is interesting.  Although they were unceremoniously bounced from the NCAA by Vermont last year, they return two of their top 3 scorers.  Texas A&M is always a good, strong game, and after last year's 95-77 drubbing that we recieved from them, we should give them a very warm reception at Cameron this year.  They retained their top and third scoring players, but they graduated their starting point guard.  They also bring in the number 10 recruiting class in the nation.  This game will be a good, tough match-up and a nice challenge for the team.

Oklahoma State will be an interesting game.  They graduated one of the top scoring players in the country and in full something like 60% of their scoring from last year.  That's going to be hard to replace, and I foresee a drop-off in talent.  It will be interesting to see how they react as the season progresses.  Xavier will be another interesting game to watch, as they were very highly ranked lasst year, only losing in the Elite 8 to Stanford (who, coincidentally, also beat us last year away from home and was a very good team).  Xavier returns their top two players (one of which is a behemoth at 6' 6") as seniors and brings in the #18 class in the nation.  Despite the conference they come from, they're going to be a tough match-up, and it will be a very good game for us to play in against a team who is likely to be very highly ranked.

Temple returns much of their roster from last year, so they will be a good team again, although not as intimidating as their conference-mates, Xavier.  Kentucky was a surprise from last year, getting very high in the rankings and making it to the Elite 8, where they lost to Oklahoma (jerks).  They should be good again this year, with a player on the Wade Watch list (so what, we've got Jasmine!) and a strong recruiting class coming in this year.

So, in all, there's really only one or two real gimmes on the non-conference schedule this coming season, and the team's really set itself up for great things if it can get the job done.  I'm always pleased with the schedules that Coach P's staff puts out, and this year is no exception!

Continuing a tradition of seeking out the toughest opponents, the Duke women's basketball team has once again set up one of the most challenging schedules in the country. Names on tap include Texas A&M, Kentucky and UCONN. Check out the full article, including quotes from Coach P at goduke.com.

http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=4200&ATCLID=204974540

2010-11 Duke Women's Basketball Non-Conference Schedule

Nov. 13 vs. BYU
Nov. 15 vs. Southern California
Nov. 18 at Auburn
Nov. 21 vs. Western Kentucky
Nov. 24 at Pittsburgh
Nov. 27 at Charlotte
Nov. 30 at James Madison
Dec. 2 at Wisconsin
Dec. 6 vs. Texas A&M
Dec. 12 at Oklahoma State
Dec. 21 vs. Xavier
Dec. 30 vs. Temple
Jan. 4 vs. Kentucky
Jan. 31 at Connecticut
March 19 & 21 - Host the NCAA Tournament First & Second Rounds