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Cooper Flagg turned 19 last weekend and the former Duke Blue Devil is well on his way to greatness in the NBA. After a bit of a slow start as he played out of position at point guard, Flagg is back at forward and absolutely destroying the league. He’s averaging 18.8 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.5 […]
The pantheon of great basketball players has a problem with recency bias. Think about it: who do you think about when you think about the all-time greats? These guys are probably on your list: After that? Maybe Kareem, Magic, Bird. Maybe Olajuwon. Jerry West at least gets the logo. Usually left off are guys like […]
When last season began, 3-pointers were all the rage, due in part to the Boston Celtics’ success liberally employing the shot to capture the 2024 NBA title. But styles change. The value of the three remains apparent, but not as a predominant offensive weapon. Boston again converted the most threes among the pros in 2025, […]
In Monday’s ACC Action, UNC hammered ECU 99-51, Virginia did American dirty 95-51, Florida State swamped Jacksonville 87-63, Syracuse knocked down Stonehill 77-48 and BC got by Farleigh Dickinson 72-61. None of these mattered much at all and would have only mattered if any of the ACC teams had lost, a la Notre Dame against […]
The ABA had financial and organizational issues from the beginning but despite those issues, the league managed to gain a lot of talented players that played an exciting brand of basketball. A number of the stars later became quite prominent in the NBA after the merger: Rick Barry returned to league, Julius Erving, David Thompson, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]