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Duke plays at Syracuse on Saturday at 1830 with coverage provided by ESPN. This will be another big test against the best zone defense around. We will need our 3 PT FG shooters, especially Andre Dawkins and Rodney Hood, to have a hot hand in the Carrier Dome. This should be bonusphere bombing at its finest! Creating good looks with ball movement and the extra pass will be critical.

Bob Green wrote:Duke plays at Syracuse on Saturday at 1830 with coverage provided by ESPN. This will be another big test against the best zone defense around. We will need our 3 PT FG shooters, especially Andre Dawkins and Rodney Hood, to have a hot hand in the Carrier Dome. This should be bonusphere bombing at its finest! Creating good looks with ball movement and the extra pass will be critical.

AMEN!!!!!!

Duke is a 2.5 points underdog at Syracuse. I'm confident we will win if we take care of business on defense and the offensive glass. My prioritized keys to the game:

1. Defensive intensity - make Syracuse work on offense, don't give up a lot of easy baskets
2. Rebound - especially on the offensive glass, we need to make the Orange pay for playing zone with 2nd chance points
3. Ball and player movement on offense - we must be fluid not stagnant, the extra pass creates a better look, drive and dish
4. Make shots - putting the ball through the hoop is necessary

I haven't been this stoked for a non-tourney/unc game in a long time. LGD!!
I am holding back from predicting points, or even an outcome. We might lose, we might win. It should be a great game regardless.

The over/under is posted at 135 so Vegas is looking for a score in the neighborhood of Syracuse 69, Duke 66. I believe we will score +70 seeing as we average 81.5 per game. For some reason, I am extremely optimistic about this game. It seems to me The Orange have everything to lose being undefeated, ranked #2 and playing at home, while Duke is rolling the dice with house money.

Bob Green wrote:The over/under is posted at 135 so Vegas is looking for a score in the neighborhood of Syracuse 69, Duke 66. I believe we will score +70 seeing as we average 81.5 per game. For some reason, I am extremely optimistic about this game. It seems to me The Orange have everything to lose being undefeated, ranked #2 and playing at home, while Duke is rolling the dice with house money.

I'll look at it slightly differently. Syracuse is on the top of the mountain now and we are climbing it again. They can afford a loss, though they certainly don't want one. We almost can't afford to lose this game if we wish to continue that ascent to the top 10 or top 5 again. Keep TO to a minimum, keep Ennis out of the lane and rebound ferociously are our keys.

I'm nervous about this game, but I know if our guys play the way they did against Miami, they will take care of business and win. GO DUKE!!!

Go Duke!!!!

Never been more proud!!!! How terrific to finally have a rival we can respect. BTW, we'll kill 'em in Cameron!
Love, Ima

25-15
32-17


I %$#^ing despise acc refs.

They're dead meat.

The most important thing right now is to make sure we don't get the cart in front of the horse. There are five games on the schedule before Syracuse arrives at Cameron and it is vital we win all five!

My dad called right after the game last night and, like me, loved the game. He made a good point about the fouls.
"If we spend all day shooting threes, we will never get to the line, there is a reason we had so many players with 4 fouls and they had none, and it's not the refs."
He did agree that the refs sucked, but he is also right in why we had so many. Syracuse spends all day long driving. That is going to create fouls and they were excellent at it. We spent all day beyond the arc, and got fouled once out there. If we drive more, they foul more, even if the refs only call half of them.
I am not going to blame this loss on the refs, I'm not going to blame the loss on anything. It was an incredible game that either team could have won, and for our guys to go into that atmosphere and play that game the way they did was amazing. Looking forward to their trip to Cameron.
Also, as Bob pointed out, I'm looking forward to all the games in between. This team is beginning to peak, and it is perfect timing.

CameronBornAndBred wrote:My dad called right after the game last night and, like me, loved the game. He made a good point about the fouls.
"If we spend all day shooting threes, we will never get to the line, there is a reason we had so many players with 4 fouls and they had none, and it's not the refs."
He did agree that the refs sucked, but he is also right in why we had so many. Syracuse spends all day long driving. That is going to create fouls and they were excellent at it. We spent all day beyond the arc, and got fouled once out there. If we drive more, they foul more, even if the refs only call half of them.
I am not going to blame this loss on the refs, I'm not going to blame the loss on anything. It was an incredible game that either team could have won, and for our guys to go into that atmosphere and play that game the way they did was amazing. Looking forward to their trip to Cameron.
Also, as Bob pointed out, I'm looking forward to all the games in between. This team is beginning to peak, and it is perfect timing.

Thank Galen for me, CBaB. He makes 100% sense and that makes me feel much better. I hate riding the "blame the refs" train. Well done, Duke!!! So proud of our guys!

A time time Game!!!

Next Play! Wake!

CameronBornAndBred wrote:My dad called right after the game last night and, like me, loved the game. He made a good point about the fouls.
"If we spend all day shooting threes, we will never get to the line, there is a reason we had so many players with 4 fouls and they had none, and it's not the refs."
He did agree that the refs sucked, but he is also right in why we had so many. Syracuse spends all day long driving. That is going to create fouls and they were excellent at it. We spent all day beyond the arc, and got fouled once out there. If we drive more, they foul more, even if the refs only call half of them.
I am not going to blame this loss on the refs, I'm not going to blame the loss on anything. It was an incredible game that either team could have won, and for our guys to go into that atmosphere and play that game the way they did was amazing. Looking forward to their trip to Cameron.
Also, as Bob pointed out, I'm looking forward to all the games in between. This team is beginning to peak, and it is perfect timing.

Jefferson's last 2 PF and 2 of Jabari's last three were complete bullshit. And, Hood was fouled on his dunk attempt. And Jabari should have been on the line 2-3 more times with the number of times he was hammered on the inside. There is some merit to driving and drawing fouls vs shooting from the bonus sphere.

Many of the fouls called on us were NOT on drives, they were touch fouls on the outside. Basketball rules state that every time one player touches another it is not a foul but Karl Hess don't need no stinkin' rules. So they called lots of fouls on us, on the outside, but ignored much of the rough play on the inside. The piece de resistance was the non-foul on the Hood drive at the very end. Even Dick Vitale said the contact there should have been called a foul.

I was surprised at the number of unc fans who told me at church today that we got hosed by the refs.

Nonetheless, it was a very good game. Hats off to Syracuse, who is extremely talented and play very well together.

Next play.

Lean real close to your computer and listen up: Rodney Hood got fouled and the foul wasn't called. I don't know if he could make the foul shots to win the game or tie the game or what, but he didn't have a chance to try. The referees were incompetent and inept...and any other word you want to insert in that litany. If we had WON, I would still say this about the refs. I rest my case...but let the record show I almost never gripe about refs...that's why this tirade is an exception.

Losing to 'Cuse at the Carrier Dome still earned us lots of respect in the polls. Up to 11.

I don't think everyone is seeing the bigger picture here... Syracuse is a really good team. They are 21-0 and the #1 ranked team for a reason. There is no reason to be disappointed in a two point loss on the road in the Carrier Dome. Would all of us be complaining if these calls were being made against Syracuse and this game was in Cameron?? No, we wouldn't be.

I totally agree that the fifth foul on Jabari was terrible and Jefferson's fifth was a very ticky-tack call. Hood definitely got fouled, but he also could have gone up with two hands and used his body instead of going for a "LeBron James" dunk. The Cuse will have to come down to Durham just like Miami had to late last year. There is no reason to be that upset about this game.