Duke-China Part 1: The Live Blog

This is placeholder post. I prepared a Duke goes to China primer last night, but Grantland wants to use it so I’ll be linking to that this afternoon.

For now, Duke is playing its first game against the Chinese U-23 national team in Kunshan. It’s the only one of the team’s four games that wont be televised, and Taylor Doherty’s Chronicle live blog isn’t working, so I’m following @DukeBluePlanet’s twitter feed.

GOD, what is this, 1930? But with twitter?

Let’s get to it. I’ll be updating the post as the game goes along, so refresh often if you’re catching this “live.”

8:37am: Duke is up 21-15 in the second quarter. It was tied 11-11 after one, but Andre Dawkins’ one-handed jam spurred the Dukies out to a lead. Picture below:

That picture was taken this morning, but the camera was from 1973.

8:41am: While we’re here, sweet Jesus, Miami, what were you thinking? My favorite part of the story is how the U pretended not to know about Nevin Shapiro.

8:45am: And hey, want to read a little humor from yours truly. Check out last night’s piece on “seat poaching,” an art I’ve perfected. The editors were kind enough to put it on the main page, which was suh-weeet.

8:48am: Jeff Capel posted this picture of the Kunshan campus on twitter:

His exact twitter words: “Pretty amazing vision by the leaders at Duke.”

Yeah, they really picked out some prime turf there, Jeff. The mud on the left seems to be top quality.

8:50am: Score update! Duke is up 32-23 at the half. Dawkins and Rivers have 8. Ryan Kelly, the White Raven, has 6. They must just love the White Raven in China. I can only imagine how much of an impact he’s making. I bet White Raven statues will dominate the Chinese landscape less than three months after he leaves town.

8:54am: This tweet from DukeBluePlanet requires no further commentary from me:

Arena plays music during play, plus shooting star sound effect for most jumpers. And “baby you’re a firework” after made FTs by China.

8:56am: Except that it reminds me of this video of LeBron getting faced by some Taiwanese kid. Notice the smoke shooting out of the backboard after he jams it.

9:07am: I’m about to eat some cereal and an orange. I’ll let you know how that goes.*

*Probably poorly. In honor of the friendship games, I’m eating my cereal with chopsticks.

9:11am: No updates. I can’t believe this isn’t on television. I’m so pissed. This is the worst day of my life. So much hate. FML. Thanks for nothing, world.

9:14am: Sorry, I wanted to see if I could make everyone despise me for a second.

9:21am: Duke up 51-34! And, according to DBP:

China hit a 3 while Super Mario Bros theme played

9:24am: Correction – the Super Mario theme wasn’t playing over the loudspeakers. Marshall Plumlee was just humming it really loudly from the bench.

9:25am: More from DBP:

Big group of Duke MBA cross-continent students here. Local fans responded to “Let’s go Duke” with strong China chant.

Loosely translated, the chant was: “Pay your debt! Pay your debt!”

9:31am: Third quarter over, and Duke’s up 57-43. Austin Rivers leading the team with 13 points. I’ve never been so proud of our great nation.

9:55am: Duke wins by double digits! Austin Rivers leads with 18 points! See you guys with the official primer later this morning.