-Today in Beijing, an exhibition game between Georgetown and a Chinese professional team called the Bayi Rockets ended when a fight broke out in the fourth quarter. According to Wikipedia and other sources, the Bayi Rockets are a military team, and their players all serve in the People’s Liberation Army. When Georgetown coach John Thompson III led his players off the court, the game was tied at 64.
EDIT: We now have video.
Okay, I am here. The game is on tv. I’m trying to infuse myself with some November excitement. No, screw that- MARCH excitement.
Don’t miss my Duke in China primer on Grantland, or the bonus content on this very site. Here’s a semi-appropriate blurry picture:
I’ll be time stamping by time remaining in each quarter. If you’re watching between 8 and 10 eastern, refresh for new content.
8:04: Miles Plumlee with the first basket on a tip-in! There’s a lot of music playing during the game, and I guess every quarter is ten minutes long.
7:30: Seth Curry with a bomb! This is fun! Basketball!
7:15: Announcers are already saying China gets all the calls. A player they call “an excellent distance shooter” misses two free throws. White Raven with a vicious board, and Rivers gets a hoop plus harm. I think we’re all going to like that partnership.
Just in time for tomorrow’s first televised game, the good folks at Grantland are running my primer on the ‘Friendship Games.’
When you’re finished, come back here and click “continue reading” for some bonus content below.
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?
This theme of this post can best be described as: JOY.
When I heard those iconic four notes to kick off ESPN’s first Monday Night Football telecast of 2011 last night, I must have looked like a kid who just won first place in the Pinewood Derby. The lockout really is over! This is football! It’s real! No more pretending to care about the NBA, no more agonizing front-page coverage of golf (hobby, not sport), no more seeing UNC on the front page of ESPN for more accusations of academic and athletic impropriety.
(One can dream, right? Maybe just until October? Please?)
One of the best things about the UNC-Duke rivalry is the fans of the two respective schools. For the most part we both have loyal, intelligent fans who enjoy nothing more than to engage in debate and discourse. From discussion of the similarities between Coach K and certain members of the Muridae family, to reviews of Rashad McCants' latest acting role as a bisexual, cross dressing shoplifter, it's the conversation that occurs between fans that makes this the best rivalry in all of college sports. That's why when building this site, we wanted to encourage fan participation and some loyalty among our readers. We've been working on a number of features to make it both easier and more enjoyable for visitors to this website.
To take advantage of these features, the first thing you will need to do is register for the website. This will make commenting easy, as you won't have to reenter your name and email address every time, but it also provides some additional benefits. We've made registration convenient.
Every Monday, we'll be choosing one comment from the previous week that made our hearts swell with joy, pride, or love. Then we'll be choosing another that made the rest of our organs swell with shame, hilarity, or disgust. All comments are printed as written.
There was some great stuff last week, but the positive comment of the week is a no-brainer. It comes from a reader named Dot Harward on Devil Wolf's excellent Duke football post:
Loved your article! I have loved Duke football as a child then as a Duke grad. At 82 years I still love Duke football. Now at 82 years I find it difficult to walk from the parking lot to the stadium, but I am determind to be ther this year.
YES, DOT! YES!
New readers –
This is launch week on Tobacco Road Blues, the new site dedicated to Duke and UNC sports. This afternoon's post comes from Nate Friedman, a contributing writer and the first fully-UNC affiliated author on the site. He'll be covering UNC sports, and football in particular. If you're interested in writing for TRB, follow the contact link to the right. Enjoy.
-Shane
“It doesn’t make sense.”
I’m echoing several national-level writers, including ESPN’s Pat Forde and Heather Dinich, as well as CBS’ front man Gregg Doyel. All said that UNC had legitimate reason for firing head coach Butch Davis (Doyel in particular wanted his head on a platter) on Wednesday, July 27. All suggested this was a long time coming. All were shocked at the timing of the decision.
I understand the calls for Davis’ head, despite his relatively clean hands through this whole sordid affair. When the NCAA’s improper benefits investigation ballooned into a full-fledged scandal involving a tutor, academic plagiarism, and looming sanctions, it became seriously hard to believe the administration line that Davis knew nothing.
Did Davis orchestrate this whole mess?
An hour ago, I got this text from my girlfriend:
"Omg Tyler Hansboro is in my yoga class."
As many readers know, I have a special affinity for the big fella who never lost in Cameron. Normally, I would've been at this class with her, but a knee injury suffered last night while playing ping pong has me sidelined. DAMN YOU, CURS'ED LIFE!
I told her to remember EVERYTHING, but I think the text arrived late. Still, she came away with some good details. Here now is her full report of the episode I'm calling
(Props to @chrisalyss for the wordlplay.)
Girlfriend:
So I'm waiting in the lobby a few minutes before class starts, and a really tall guy with a dark-haired friend came in. He walked to the desk, and the woman there asked if he'd ever been to the studio before.
New readers –
This is launch week on Tobacco Road Blues, the new site dedicated to Duke and UNC sports. All week, we’re going to be running two of the ‘greatest hits’ from Seth Curry Saves Duke!, our previous blog, every day. The new content begins on Monday the 15th.
Today’s afternoon post was written on April 6, 2010, the morning after Duke beat Butler for the national championship. As you will see, I had a bee in my bonnet about the perception of Duke and all the hate, so I felt the need to write this diatribe. This was me at my most partisan, and I hesitated to include it here just because it won’t necessarily be the tone of this site. But it did have an impact, and anyway, tomorrow we’re going to feature some Carolina writers. So this will be a final hurrah, a nostalgic tip of the cap to extremism. Enjoy.
-Shane
Here’s the problem with all the Duke haters: they don’t allow for any gray area.