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In Sunday’s ACC Action, Vanderbilt took care of Wake Forest 98-67, Pitt pounded Penn State 80-46, NC State beat up on Ole Miss 76-62, SMU sent Central Arkansas home 99-82, Purdue Fort Wayne shocked Notre Dame 72-69, Clemson clipped Cincinnati 68-65, Miami beat North Florida 105-67 and Cal clobbered Columbia 74-56. Remember Tyler Nickel? He […]
about 2 months ago | 0 reads
The Cleveland Cavaliers have been a decent NBA franchise for some time now, with the normal dips you expect, but when Ted Stepien owned the team from 1980-83, the Cavaliers made so many disastrous moves that the league ultimately put in a rule to restrict just how teams could trade draft picks. It became known […]
about 2 months ago | 1 read
Duke struggled to open the season and has taken some time to right the ship. Recently though, the Blue Devils got impressive wins over Virginia Tech, South Dakota State and now on the road over Belmont. Duke won 76-46 behind a tremendous game from Toby Fournier. The sophomore star finished with 26 points (9-15/1-2), 16 […]
about 2 months ago | 0 reads
Ordinarily, 11-1 against this non-conference slate would be a cause for celebration, but the way that 1 loss happened is hitting hard for Duke fans. The Duke Basketball Roundup gives you a deep dive into the 82-81 loss to Texas Tech including words of praise for Duke’s bench players and some pretty strong criticism of Duke’s […]
about 2 months ago | 1 read
Saturday night, Duke lost its first game of the year. The loss came on a neutral site, by one point, to a Top 20 Texas Tech squad with a pre-season All American (JT Toppin) and a dynamic young point guard (Christian Anderson) who may himself challenge for similarly lofty accolades. Despite that star power, the […]
about 2 months ago | 1 read
In Saturday’s ACC Action, Stanford took care of Colorado 77-68, Syracuse put Northeastern on a leash 91-83, Virginia Tech clipped Elon 82-81 in overtime, Georgia Tech got by Lafayette 95-81, Louisville smote Montana 94-54, Virginia reminded Maryland that the ACC is better, 80-72 and UNC escaped a gutty effort by Ohio State 71-70. This was […]
about 2 months ago | 1 read
People in our day tend to think that Mike Krzyzewski had it easy at Duke and that of course Duke is dominant because, well, it’s Duke and that’s just the way it is. But when Mike Krzyzewski was hired at Duke, it wasn’t like that. Far from it, in fact as his second and third […]
about 2 months ago | 3 reads
Duke has never had an undefeated season in basketball and it’s not going to have one now as Texas Tech tagged the Blue Devils with their first loss of the season Saturday, 81-80. And Texas Tech totally deserved that win, too. The Red Raiders started off well, going up 9-0 before Duke pushed back. Nik […]
about 2 months ago | 1 read
As a Duke grad and a guy who clearly loves basketball, Adam Silver understands that Cameron Indoor Stadium is a special place. Now he’s considering having NBA Cup games on campuses and in college arenas. Will that work at Duke? Well, maybe. There are some obvious issues, with the first being the size of the […]
about 2 months ago | 2 reads
There were two Friday games but they were basically meaningless, given the level of competition: Mississippi Valley State got wiped by Florida State, 96-49 and Morgan State was clobbered by Cal, 97-50. There’s really nothing much to say about games like these. The Delta Devils came in 1-10 and let 1-11 and Morgan State came […]
about 2 months ago | 3 reads
There’s an endless argument online about whether or not Larry Bird could play today. The answer to that is pretty easy: he’d be far better today than he was in the 1980’s. Why? Because defense is more restricted today than it was in the 1980’s. When you look back at what guys like Bill Laimbeer […]
about 2 months ago | 4 reads
Here’s a bit of good news we didn’t expect: Duke quarterback Darian Mensah will return next season. We’re really surprised. First, he could obviously have entered the draft, but second, he had a great year and there was a chance that a team from, say, the Situational Ethics Conference might have poached him. Fortunately, that […]
about 2 months ago | 1 read
Date 12/20 || Time 8:00 || Venue Madison Square Garden || Video ESPN With the exception of Michigan on February 21st, Duke will finish off non-conference play on Saturday with Texas Tech in Madison Square Garden. Why the Garden? Well, first because Duke has a lot of alum in the area. They call it Cameron […]
about 2 months ago | 1 read
Only two games on Friday and neither one is particularly promising: Florida State hosts Mississippi Valley State and Cal welcomes Morgan State. ESPN lists FSU as a 39.5 point favorite and Cal is favored by 27.5. The Delta Devils are just 1-10, but they did take Utah Tech to double overtime and lost to Manhattan […]
about 2 months ago | 0 reads
At his worst, no one could stand Bob Knight. He alienated friends, players and bullied people who cared about him. That wasn’t his only side though, because Knight also was brilliant, well educated and had a tremendous sense of humor. This was demonstrated quite often but very well at this roast of Joe B. Hall. […]
about 2 months ago | 2 reads
Duke has struggled this season, and was just 4-6 coming into Thursday’s game against South Dakota State. After losing four straight, the Blue Devils got a solid win at Virginia Tech and got another against the Jackrabbits Thursday, winning 97-54. The game was close for most of the first quarter with South Dakota State down […]
about 2 months ago | 1 read
The last power conference test for Duke before we embark on the ACC schedule will be Saturday in MSG and the Duke Basketball Roundup is here to get you ready for the contest with Texas Tech. Jason and Donald have all the details including TTech’s shooter who doesn’t take 2-point FGs, the unexpectedly close game […]
about 2 months ago | 1 read
A look at team free throw shooting shared here earlier this season revealed remarkable across-the-board efficiency, with virtually every ACC squad converting at least 70 percent of its foul shots for several years now. This proclivity included 17 of 18 league teams in 2025, the exception being 17-17 Georgia Tech at .687 on 627 free […]
about 2 months ago | 0 reads
In Wednesday’s ACC Action, Wake Forest dodged an upset by Longwood 71-68. Syracuse trumped Mercyhurst 76-62, Pitt sunk Binghamton 103-63, NC State clobbered Texas Southern 108-72 and Stanford took care of UT Arlington 76-60. All of these are exam/Holiday games and there is usually some rust to knock off. Nonetheless, there were serious issues in […]
about 2 months ago | 1 read
Remember this past spring when NC State fired Kevin Keatts and fans made a big push to hire Will Wade away from McNeese State? Remember the cockiness he had when he took the job? How he promised, basically, to revolutionize Wolfpack basketball? He made some rather explicit promises…like this one: “Our time is now…When that […]
about 2 months ago | 0 reads
Well, that was an interesting game. On Episode 780, we recap the Duke win over Lipscomb where the theme was turnovers and sloppy play. Now, there was still some good from this game, and in a 24-point win, we still lead with it. Jon Scheyer became the fastest ACC coach to 100 wins, we saw […]
about 2 months ago | 1 read
At some point, you’d think people who make a living in basketball would figure this out: intelligence can compensate for athleticism. The classic examples are Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, but there are others: Steve Kerr, Don Nelson, Draymond Green, Charles Oakley, Stephen Curry and, most recently, Kon Knueppel. Knueppel is particularly relevant here because […]
about 2 months ago | 2 reads
In Tuesday’s ACC Action, Louisville fell at Tennessee 82-63, UNC dismissed East Tennessee State 77-58, Dayton beat Florida State 97-69, Clemson got by South Carolina 68-61, Miami stung FIU 98-81 and Georgia Tech slipped by Marist, 87-76. Louisville had to go without star freshman Mikel Brown, who was out with a back issue. However, the […]
about 2 months ago | 0 reads
For most of the junior league’s life span, the NBA and ABA had a testy relationship. The ABA did a lot of things the NBA did not like at all, like introducing the three point shot and having a flashier, fun focused game compared to the NBA’s stodgier, walk-it-up style. Plus the ABA really irritated […]
about 2 months ago | 1 read
It was a tale of two halves. Well, more specifically, Jon Scheyer’s 100th win as Duke’s head coach was a tale of turnovers in two halves. In the first half against Lipscomb, Duke seemed totally disjointed and tossed the ball away constantly, racking up 16 before the break, which was somewhat shocking for a team […]
about 2 months ago | 3 reads