Yearly Archives: 2012

The Black Falcon Has A Question

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Lucas

5 Comments

(NOTE: This post probably won’t make any sense unless you’ve read this article. Even after you read that, it might not make a lot of sense, but I won’t have any excuses. And if you don’t know who the Black Falcon is, well, this site isn’t for you.)

SCENE: INSIDE THE UNC LOCKER ROOM, 30 MINUTES BEFORE THE KANSAS GAME

The room is packed, but silent. Tape, socks, and warm-ups are strewn across the floor. Each player is seated in front of his locker, listening to music, studying the playbook, or staring at the last-minute notes Roy Williams has managed to print on the whiteboard. Each player, that is, except for one…

BLACK FALCON: Hey, Kendall.

MARSHALL: (headphones in, focused on the last minute pointers he’s about to give to backup PG Stilman White)

BLACK FALCON: Kendall. Kendall!

MARSHALL: (still listening to music)

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Posted in Miscellaneous, UNC | Tagged Fun With The Black Falcon, Snark Alert, Way Too Soon | 5 Comments

Humility in losing

Posted on March 28, 2012 by KevinM

1 Comment

(Hey, don’t miss the latest Walk-Ons podcast below!)

I don’t know exactly how Coach K was feeling after he finished watching one of the more frustrating seasons in recent Duke history. The year ended with a historic loss to a 15 seed from a conference that until 2005 had not won a single game in the NCAA tournament. Was he thinking about the upcoming Olympics? Was he thinking about how this team needed some impact recruits? Was he wondering like the Warden in The Shawshank Redemption just how the heck Lehigh got the best of him?

Despite what he must have been thinking he addressed the media with nothing but respect for Lehigh. He didn’t blame the loss on Ryan Kelly’s injury. He accurately called C.J. McCollum the “best player on the court.” He gave them all the credit in the world for playing well and deserving the win. There wasn’t a snide remark from Coach K about the officials, his players or the fact that Duke was placed against a team that might have been the best 15 seed in the history of the tournament. There was a grace to the way that he lost that is often overlooked in a sporting world that places a 100% importance on winning.

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Posted in Miscellaneous | 1 Comment

Duke/UNC – Things Are Even

Posted on March 28, 2012 by KevinM

3 Comments

(Hey, don’t miss the latest Walk-Ons podcast below!)

The preseason #1 ranked team suffered a key injury to their point guard and ended up falling short of their expectations by not even making it to the Final Four. Am I talking about this year’s UNC team with Marshall or last year’s Duke team with Irving? I understand that UNC fans might complain more heavily because Marshall’s injury kept him out of two tournament games, while Irving’s injury only kept him out for the majority of the regular season. That’s fine if you want to make that argument, but regardless both injuries severely hurt their team in a way that won’t soon be forgotten.

Duke had a chance to go back to back, and with Irving that team would likely had a better #1 seed (not out West) and a more favorable path to the Final Four. There I would have liked to seen Duke play teams like VCU, Butler, Uconn or Kentucky. With Irving playing all year, I have no doubt that Nolan Smith and him would have learned to compliment each other to easily form the best backcourt in the NCAA. Duke’s season went down with Irving’s toe injury.

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Posted in Miscellaneous | 3 Comments

The Walk-Ons! Sweet 16, Elite 8

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Shane

What Could Have Been

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Nate

2 Comments

It started in the summer with the news that Leslie MacDonald, a role player from last year and the Tar Heels’ best returning 3-point shooter, would miss the year with a torn ACL. We winced, but knew this was a glancing blow. The Heels were supposed to be a juggernaut, and juggernauts don’t flinch when someone cuts off a finger. We would be fine. Students lined up for (not)Late Night With Roy at 4pm. We eagerly read along as ESPN launched a blog just for UNC on its basketball homepage. We soaked up commentary. Optimism reigned supreme.

The season began with great fanfare, highlighted by UNC’s annual pasting of Michigan State in a new, fancy venue – this time, an aircraft carrier. Even when UNC lost to UNLV and then Kentucky, we knew March was when it really mattered. As ACC play rolled around we started to get a sense of the team: they were nice kids. Off the court they loved hanging out together, communicating on Twitter so we could all feel part of their goofy lifestyle. Henson was the class clown, Barnes the businessman, Watts the elder statesman, with Kendall Marshall at the center of it all. This was, after all, the team that played outdoor pick-up against us mere mortals (sometimes spotting teams 9 points in a game to 11). On the court, they occasionally coasted on talent against inferior opponents. They won, mostly, but sometimes seemed uninspired. The Heels went through a lengthy, multi-game shooting slump where they developed a gritty defensive identity. Things started coming together.

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Posted in UNC | Tagged basketball, Carolina, Dexter Strickland, Harrison Barnes, John Henson, Kendall Marshall, Leslie Mcdonald, Nate Friedman, NCAA Tournament, Tar Heels, Tyler Zeller, UNC | 2 Comments

K’s Year Off

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Raj

26 Comments

I know this will be an opinion not shared by many of those who follow Duke, but to me, this was one of the worst coaching jobs K has ever done (apologies for the Bleacher Report quality intro but I’m still upset over the loss). I know people will point out how we beat many great teams during the course of the year and how we had a chance to win the ACC regular season title as proof of K’s genius, but to me those early successes simply mask the overall poor job he did this year. A poor job that by and large was the result of the stubbornness – which admittedly has over the last 32 years generally served him better than worse – that led to a highly uncharacteristic lack of experimentation that ultimately doomed the team.

K ultimately failed this team and potentially future ones in 3 ways: 1) not recognizing that our lack of perimeter defense was not something that could be fixed with simple willpower (why was this ever seemingly considered an option I will never understand), and the unwillingness to give 2) Cook and 3) Gbinije more run at the PG and SF spots, respectively. On the defensive front, I would’ve hoped following the Temple game, that K would realize that forcing our guards to pressure out on the perimeter was only leading them to get beaten off the dribble and forcing Mason, Miles and Kelly to constantly have to help which led to offensive rebound situations and increased fouls accumulated by the bigs challenging shots. It seemed to me at least that going to the 2010 sag defense ( as depicted by Luke Winn) could solve so many of our perimeter defensive problems.

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Posted in Duke | 26 Comments

Selfish Young Americans, Episode 5

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Shane

1 Comment

This week, Jim and I complain about NCAA refs, the rich getting richer, really old people getting divorced, traffic court being depressing, and parents getting dickish over cell phone bills.

SYA will have its own home shortly, but for now it lives on Tobacco Road Blues. For those unfamiliar, this is the comedy podcast done by myself and my pal SlimJim, where we talk about news and life and the world of selfish young Americans.

You can subscribe to the podcast here.

Here is our RSS feed. I have no idea what that does, but people seem to love it.

If you like it, tell a friend or write a review on iTunes or send me $400. Enjoy!

Posted in Miscellaneous | 1 Comment

Silver Linings in a Downpour

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Lucas

1 Comment

It’s been what–three days? Three hours? Three weeks? I can’t honestly say–the 2011-12 Duke season seems like a part of the distant past, even though those last two minutes versus Lehigh are still painfully vivid in my memory.

In a word, that game was brutal–it was the doomsday scenario that most Duke fans had thought about but never seriously entertained. A dreadful performance for the ages that was both shocking and unsurprising. A result that was both unfair to a team that had overachieved this year and one that was exactly what the squad deserved.

Now, writing on Monday afternoon, I’m still barely coherent–there’s so much to write about this game, but almost all of the clues had been there in our previous four games. Still, I have to swallow my anger and bitterness for a little bit, and try to make the case that this loss might be what Duke needs going forward. Without further ado, here are the five best things about Duke’s loss against Lehigh:

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Posted in Duke | Tagged Austin Rivers, Coach K, Duke-Lehigh | 1 Comment

The Walk-Ons! Round 2 and 3 Wrap-Up

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Shane

1 Comment

Today, Ben and I talk about the weekend in NCAA hoops- from Duke’s loss to Marshall’s injury to State’s win. We also touch base with our pals at Bleacher Report, get into some media gossip, and explore the classy world of Duke and UNC basketball twitter. I do three impressions in this episode, and Ben tells a truly awful story about a sports journalist, a ladle, and salad dressing.

You can also access our podcast RSS feed.

Thanks as always for listening. Time stamps:

0:00 – Ben’s trip to Greensboro for the NCAA Tournament

2:00 – Behind the scenes with the Blue Devils

13:30 – Shane reads Bleacher Report – Will Austin Rivers come back next year?

20:00 – Watch the Wrist – Did Creighton cross the line? Because fans on Twitter sure did.

37:00 – Listener text messages (Next year’s Duke roster, Roy Williams blowing kisses at Ben, strength of schedule and NC State’s first good win of the season, and what to do now that basketball season is over)

51:00 – Gossip from Greensboro

59:00 – Twitter Q&A (Inappropriate karaoke, Arcade Fire as a muse for a basketball article, Lehigh beat Duke t-shirts, poor attendance in Greensboro, nuclear fallout from a potential UNC/NC State matchup, anti-Kendall Marshall tweets)

Posted in Miscellaneous | 1 Comment

Bracing for a Tourney Loss

Posted on March 15, 2012 by daniel

1 Comment

I’m not very proud of it, but I’ve already braced myself for a Duke tournament loss. Rather than looking at the bracket with an eye for Snow Whites or Cinderellas, I find myself frantically scanning the teams, paranoid at not knowing which will beat Duke. This is the first year since the season that shall not be mentioned that I don’t have Duke winning in at least one bracket. Even in 2008, I had Duke taking the title, though we limped into March as a particularly weak 2 seed. (Sound familiar?) I’m tired of having my heart torn from my chest Temple of Doom style, so this year, I’ve decided to try an experiment and embrace any inklings of pessimism by evaluating Duke’s potential opponents by round and determining how acceptable a loss at that point would be. Won’t you join me?

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Posted in Miscellaneous | 1 Comment