When it comes to moving the needle, there's Duke...

Then everyone else.

Another day another need for a win.. this is one of the “easier” games we have remaining. That being said it’s in Atlanta and we all know how awful we play on the road. Game is scheduled for a 3pm tip on ACCN. At writing we are an 8 point favorite.


GT is 8-12 with their only good win coming against Miami. Tech is coach by Josh Pastner in his 7th year at the helm. Previously the head coach and assistant coach at Memphis. Josh played at Arizona where he won a national championship.

Until this team proves it can win on the road I dont care if we’re playing western Carolina I’m
not predicting a win.

Duke-72
GT- 74

Preview for tomorrow afternoon's game.

Programming: I won't be making the trip and I'll be covering another game (N.C. State-WF is at 1), so I'll be doing my best to track this one and have a quick story up soon after it ends.

Predictions:

Flip goes for another 18+, 12+ game.

Lively scores in double figures (would be the first time since he had 11 against Ohio State, his only double-figure game).

Jaden Schutt gets a few spot minutes.

If you saw the Cheaters-State game, or highlights you no doubt saw the foul (slap to the face) Leaky Black committed on Terquavion Smith. A Flagrant Two and ejection, and Leaky exited. Officials got it right.

However the worse part of this was not the foul in my opinion. Smith had celebrated a recent Pack win prior to the Cheaters loss sporting shades, and Armando Bacot stooped even lower than a UNC player normally does.

After watching Smith carted off on a stretcher, Bacot proceeded to conduct HIS OWN post game comments wearing shades. He even acknowledged it was a dig at the injured Smith, not knowing his condition at the moment. I suppose Hubert missed this too, like he missed the "F- you" chant hurled at Coach K.

OFC

I really have not been around as much the last couple of seasons in the group due to being a 24/7 caregiver for my father for part of the time and other family health situations.

Anyway - I realized most of my posts have been negative. mainly because I have posted on gamedays.

As Duke fans we have not had new Coach blues for over 40 years. I'm in my 50's and barely remember Bill Foster, and if my father had not been a Sports Editor at the time, probably would not have remembered K's first few seasons all that well. We have seen many schools go through the new Coach malaise, but our experience is pretty much nil unless you are a charter member of the OFC.

So I wanted to make this post, that I am all in for Scheyer. Sure it is easy for me to sit back and and rest on the Laurel's of my two-time Lazyboy ArmChair Coach of the Year Awards and criticize the job he is doing, but he has come into the most difficult environment (in terms of expectations) of any Coaching job in the country.

We all know he bleeds blue. We all know he has an incredible amount of determination. Whether we felt he should have been chosen or not he is our Coach and deserves some support along with the critiques. He deserves 3-4 years to give it his best shot, and I for one am going to watch and cheer during every game.

So if you do see a negative post - or 5 - from me, remember I love Scheyer for all he has given to Duke in the past and hope for a future that involves him having incredible success at Duke for many seasons to come.

After Saturdays game I’m looking forward to this one plus I like quick turnarounds! Todays game is scheduled for a 7pm tip on espn. VT at home is currently favored by 2.5 points.

We have appeared to be playing better basketball over the last two games, even the Clemson game in a L we looked like we had improved. Tonight gives us a chance to see if that can continue in another hostile environment. VT is 11-8 and currently on a very bad 7 game losing streak. Im sure they want to put a stop to the bleeding asap. They are coached by Mike Young in his 4th season. He has made the ncaa tourney 7 of the last 12 years, quite a feat for a coach that spent 8 of those years in a one bid league with wofford in the socon!


I think duke actually handles business today.

Duke-72

VT-68

Kinda surprised to hear this

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It's been a while since I saw a post from him. I know he was fighting cancer. The same type that Mike Irby the thr mod had . OFC

Preview for tomorrow night's game.

Programming: I'll be there with full coverage.

Predictions:

Hardly bold but I think Flip gets another monster stat line, something like 18-14.

Dariq Whitehead breaks out of a mini-slump and has at least 15 points.

Mark Mitchell starts out on Cattoor and takes him out of the game.

A monstrous win on Saturday could be the turning point for JS and this version of a very young Duke team . If Duke would have lost than it puts them in the middle of the ACC pack and down to 9 seed as well as a huge confidence builder beating a very good Miami team, other than the cheats twice it looks like their second half of the schedule lightens up a little bit. Keep in mind two of Duke’s losses come from top five teams.

I think realistically some where around a three seed. You know Duke will end up with the best one seed in their bracket but you never know in a one and done deal

Big time win today for the good guys in dark blue. Roach coming back was so huge for this group. I didn't expect him to play 27 minutes. I wonder how much he plays on Monday? Anyway, I loved the fight I saw out there today. That said, can we please start closing out the half strong?

A monstrous win on Saturday could be the turning point for JS and this version of a very young Duke team . If Duke would have lost than it puts them in the middle of the ACC pack and down to 9 seed as well as a huge confidence builder beating a very good Miami team, other than the cheats twice it looks like their second half of the schedule lightens up a little bit. Keep in mind two of Duke’s losses come from top five teams.

Won't have the preview ready for a couple of days, but do have something ...

Small feature on where Duke's growth stands.

I've talked earlier in the season about Duke, for as long as it's going to have the large, super-talented freshman classes, is always going to have an uphill battle when it comes to growing pains and learning curves. Tried to essentially give an update on that here, getting up to speed on energy/effort with games against BC and Pitt, but Saturday's loss showing that's not going to be enough to beat good ACC teams on the road.

Also, to add from the other thread: Jeremy Roach is 50-50 to play Saturday, as of last night. We're scheduled to have interviews on Friday, so there could be an update then (or sooner if something leaks).

Posting this a little early but with a noon tip I thought that would be okay.

Duke plays host to the Miami hurricanes for a noon tip on ESPN.. at the time of writing we are a 6 point favorite (huh?!?!?!?!) not sure how that came to be but Vegas is Vegas so who knows..

Miami ranked 17 comes into the game with a record of 15-3 with a lose to NC St being the only common one, they also hold an impressive win over Virginia. Miamis top 4 players are all averaging double figures with the top 3 being over 14 ppg(must be nice)
Miami is coached by Jim Larranaga, ninth most wins of active coaches with over 700. He is the only coach in ncaa history with 100+ conference wins at 3 division 1 schools. Coach played ball at providence then played a year over seas before going to davidson as an assistant coach(one thing in doing the Gameday thread I’m shocked at how many coaches have a tie to NC, it’s actually pretty incredible) he eventually became an assistant at UVA before head coaching roles at bowling green, George Mason, then Miami. In 11 yrs at Miami he’s been to 5 ncaa tournaments which seems low to me for as good as they’ve been.. 3 of those resulted in sweet 16 runs and one elite eight. Of course we all remember his amazing final 4 run in 06 with George Mason.

This one is like all the rest this year.. must win. We always play like crap after a break from games so I unfortunately expect the same.. at least we get it over with early in the day (kidding.. sorta)

Duke-63
Miami-72

Do we think/know if Roach suffered the same injury as Kyrie Irving that kept him out for an extended period of time at Duke? If so, it is likely we won’t see Roach the rest of this season

The only player on the team who looks like a lottery pick is Flip. Whitehead could go on reputation, but he needs some work and Lively needs a lot of work on the offensive side, but right now unless somebody catches on fire another year would be to their benefit.

Kinda shocking how he was the #1 rated recruit. Averaged a pedestrian 14 and 14 in high school. He played 14 minutes on the team USA summit and contributed 8 points 3 rebounds

Also eybl stats are super weak with 8.4 ppg and 6.4 rpg

Just weird. I get it. 7’2 athletic guy… but damn looking at production wise he should’ve been a top 50-75 guy. Did everyone get fooled as in scheyer and analysts alike?

Another tough game but this time back on the road.. after an impressive 2nd half win over Pitt we should learn if that was the start of a turn for this team or not. Game is scheduled for a 5pm tip on ACCN with Clemson a 2 point favorite at time of writing.

Clemson has been to me the surprise of the year in the ACC. They are a team I always like to root for outside of playing us and love when they can make the tournament. They are 14-3 and undefeated in conference. 2 of their 3 L’s I would consider “bad” against South Carolina and Loyola Chicago, the other L was against Iowa who is very solid, but we did beat them! Clemson is coached by Brad Brownell in his 13th season(can’t believe it’s been that long wow!) 218-166 at Clemson with 3 ncaa appearances (seems really low) and 1 sweet 16. Prior to Clemson he coached at Wright State and UNCW where he was quite successful at both.

Vegas tends to be right a lot and duke tends to not only struggle on the road but struggle at littlejohn. We have lost 2 of the last 3 on the road to Clemson (Pisgah was at all 3, those L’s suck leaving that place!!!) we have struggled mightily on the road this season. With all that said I’m going…

Duke- 77
Clemson-85

I know most of y’all probably don’t really follow Duke Women but the ladies are playing UNC tonight. This may be the best squad the women have had in a while. They’ll be hard to stop tonight if they can pressure Carolina and run like they have been. I hope Duke can win tonight and stay undefeated. #GoToHellCarolina

Recruiting update with Tyler on Rivals:

Here's a list of the underclassmen Duke has heard from who are planning to attend junior day on Jan. 21:

Trying to be more accessible and present on the board, so I want to try something ...

Please consider this a permanent AMA thread. Ask what I think of Duke basketball. Ask what I've heard about injury situations or coaching moves. Ask what the future of this site holds. Ask ... away.

I don't want to say "nothing is off limits" because I'm sure something is. But we'll cross that bridge if anything off limits is actually asked.

If I can add some transparency: There are far more negatives than positives to covering Duke *and* Wake Forest. For those familiar with NC geography, I live in Kernersville and will be moving closer to Durham in a few months. My goal is to grow the Duke site and in the near future (a year or two) move over to covering Duke only.

I plan on being here for the long haul -- or at least until Rivals tells me to get lost.