Duke at BC

I thought it was going to be ugly. For the last 3 minutes of the first half and the first 5 minutes of the second half it was ugly. Duke was just killing the Eagles, stretching a 10 point halftime lead to 17 in 57 seconds. Then something unthinkable happened. BC came back. The same team that laid down and died in front of NC State a few weeks ago took the #2 team in the country's best shot on the chin and got back up again. That may finally be the statement that I've been waiting all season for from this team. You can't ever relish a loss, especially not a home loss in conference, but to hang in there with (in my opinion) the best team in the country down to the last second is a positive step.

Don't get me wrong. There were glaring negatives in this game. Craig Smith once again completely disappeared on a big stage scoring only 8 points and fouling out with 3 minutes to play. He is without a doubt the most overrated player in college basketball, one who pads his stats in the first half of games and against weak competition. They also turned the ball over way too much in the first half, committing 11 turnovers that turned into 10 fast break points in the first 20 minutes. During Duke's end of half run BC looked lost and totally overwhelmed by the Blue Devil's defensive pressure, routinely throwing lolly-pop passes that were easily intercepted and sent the other way. The Eagles were also out-hustled for the majority of the contest. Duke seemed to get every crucial rebound (including Greg Paulus' missed free throw late that turned into 2 more free throw attempts for McRoberts) and they were even able to fast break on missed shots which is simply says that BC was not putting out the effort to get back. As the game progressed the ball handling got better but BC was never able to consistently get into their offense off the first pass as Rice and Hinnant were unable to make effective entry passes through the Duke defensive pressure that never relented.

All that being said BC somehow managed to stay in the game. I give a ton of credit to Sean Marshall for covering J.J. Redick and for not backing down an inch. I know he went for 28 but it was as quiet a 28 as I could have hoped for, with 9 of his points coming from the free-throw line, many of those in late game fouling situations. And what BC fan didn't love seeing Marshall get into Redick's face after the Eagles had forced Duke to take a timeout. Sure he should have gotten a technical foul for it but that kind of fearless cowboy attitude is what it takes to upset great teams. Not to mention the slightly scared, "Who the (bleep) is this kid, I'm the best player in the country," look on J.J.'s face afterwards was priceless. In addition to his great defense Marshall also scored 14 points and was the emotional catalyst, along with Jared Dudley, all night long.

Speaking of Dudley, he is everything that Smith is not. He comes to play on the biggest stage and relishes the pressure and the spotlight. His season high 28 points and fearless attitude were two of the main reasons BC was able to stay in the game. Everytime he would score one of his ridiculously ugly up and under wiggle layups the Duke players would look at each other like, "Okay, how the hell did that go in?" His passion for the game and cheerleader antics gave the record crowd at Conte Forum something to cheer about all night. He was clearly the MVP of the game in my book.

Another positive surprise was the crowd. At first I thought that Gene D. had finally gotten the idea and let the students fill the lower levels, then I realized he had just tricked us again by giving out yellow t-shirts to everyone. Regardless, Conte Forum resembled (I won't say rivaled) a big time college basketball venue last night, complete with taunts to Redick and Williams and a goofy new free-throw distraction that looks like a controlled spasm mixed with the "Hanging Tough" dance. Dick Vitale kept referencing the atmosphere and even the Duke players were surprised at how the BC fans affected the game. Sean Dockery said, "It was a great atmosphere and it gets better every game but this was one of the best ones we've had." (Sidenote: How well coached is Duke, they look at a hostile environment that wants blood and refer to it in positive terms. It's amazing how they relish playing on the road when they know it's the Super Bowl for every team they face.) The only critique I have for the Conte Forum faithful, please for the love of God stop making shadow puppet birds when BC is shooting free throws. Just put your hands up in the air like everyone else, shadow puppets suck, period. You don't see Duke fans miming out giant D's at Cameron do you?

Getting back to Smith for a second, he drives me crazy. Not only was he totally useless last night he also had this to say after the game. "There wasn't much I could do but sit there and be a cheerleader. That team was picked to be the national champions and you lose to them by two points. That says something." Yeah Craig it does say something, but what you just said says even more. It says that you are not a winner, that you don't have the killer instinct to want to win every game. It says that you are satisfied with coming in second place as long as the team that beat you was supposed to be better. It says that you think scoring only 8 points, 0 in the second half in your team's biggest game is good enough. It's not good enough Craig, you should have wanted to win that game, not just to stay close with a superior team. You never hear great athletes talk about almost winning games, you hear them talk about wins and losses, there is no grey area here. That is why Craig Smith is not a winner.

Anyway, a couple more things about this game. First, I liked the decision by Al Skinner and Jared Dudley to go for a quick 2 with 20 seconds left trailing by 3 rather than force a long range shot. BC is not a 3 point shooting team, it's not their game. Going for the 2 and hoping that Duke misses a free-throw was the right decision, because if you miss the 3 with 20 seconds left and Duke gets the rebound the game is over. The entire idea of fouling and hoping to play 2 for 1 or 3 for 2 is to extend the game. Scoring a 2 there extends it further and makes Duke hit free throws, which unfortunately they did.

However, on the next posession Tyrese Rice should have pulled up to try to tie the game with 10 seconds remaining. At that point even if he makes the layup they're down 1 with only 7 seconds to play. Assuming they can foul within 2 seconds and that they make the free throws that leaves only 5 seconds and no timeouts to get the ball all the way up the court to try to tie. That's not enough time. On the other hand, there is no way that Sheldon Williams did not foul Rice. He hit him with the body, in the face, and on the arm. In fact, I think he might have been trying to foul him hard enough so that he couldn't make the shot and would have to shoot free throws instead. That was a terrible no-call and was indicative of the way the whistles were going all night. Sheldon Williams shot and made more free throws than BC attempted, and Craig Smith did not attempt a single free throw in the game. I like the idea of letting the kids play, but you have to let them play on both ends. Give credit to the Blue Devils though, as usual they made almost 79% of their free throw attempts. Something is off however when one team shoots 37 free throws and the other shoots 13, especially when the team shooting 13 plays the more physical interior offense.

So what can we take from this game? First of all Al Skinner should try to use this game to teach his team about mistakes. They could have pulled the upset last night if they had been a bit more sure handed and if they had stayed out of foul trouble. Al needs to hammer that point home, but he shouldn't be too negative. They showed a lot of heart last night, and while no one should celebrate losses like Smith did, the team can grow for this experience and take confidence in the fact that they clearly have the capability to beat a top-tier team. Duke on the other hand can look at this game as one where they didn't play particularly well in the second half, and only shot 44% from the field and were able to pull out another tough victory in an incerdibly hostile environment. They were also able to handle the late game situation as well as anyone I've seen (excluding one bad pass) and that is an invaluable ability down the stretch and in the conference and NCAA tounaments. First and foremost for me was that last night's game was fun. It was great to hear Dickie V. say things like, "Here come the Eagles baby, this place is electric," about my school. When I was there Troy Bell was the only player anyone ever mentioned and we were never on TV until the tournaments. Now we're in the ACC, the big-time, and Conte Forum responded last night. Now they just need to keep it going, it should be like that in there every night guys. Lock it up.