In Part 1 of our recap of Duke-Carolina, Ben and I obsessively pick over the minute details of game’s last two and a half minutes. Our wide-ranging theories are the capstone on the greatest Duke victory of the year.
My written takes on the game can be found at Grantland here (serious, stayed up til 5am writing it) and here (a lot of jokes, took me about 10 minutes).
Ben’s take can be found here, at the Oxford Public Ledger.
Enjoy the pod! Part 2 up later tonight or tomorrow morn.
I’ll link my magnum opus on Grantland in a second, but at the end of the Ryan Kelly interview, when all the other reporters had trickled away, I couldn’t resist asking him one last question.
Me: You like the nickname ‘White Raven’?
Kelly: (laughs) I’ve heard that one before. Someone actually- someone was just telling me the other day, that now the Cameron Crazies all say that every time I make one, and flap the wings.
Me: What do you think?
Kelly: It’s pretty good.
(Ed’s Note: Don’t miss the first Tobacco Road Blues podcast, previewing tonight’s game.)
“My best friend is a Duke fan.”
Shudder.
About twice a year (sometimes three), I think these words to myself and physically recoil. How could I be associated with such a being? How could I justify my fandom as a Tar Heel when treason runs so close to home?
In short? I rationalize. Sam and I were friends before I went off to UNC and he went off to Duke. We shared social circles, experiences, friends. We’ve traveled abroad together. Once, we almost got murdered in a Greek soccer riot (true story). We are both hyper-competitive people: Sam crushed his ex in mini-golf on their first date. I once forced my dad to drink a “Cup of Shame” of milk and lemon juice from a sippy cup because I had just defeated him in a game of chess. We are very similar.
Yet twice a year, I mentally lump Sam in with the rest of… those dark blue people. Sam becomes an dookie. I dredge up my anemic highlight reel of dookies fulfilling their stereotype:
Amigos,
The Devil Wolf and I had ourselves a chat about an upcoming game you might have heard of- DUKE-CAROLINA. THE ONLY SHOW IN TOWN.
Let the Tobacco Wars begin.
Thanks for listening. Click here to download the episode to your hard drive.
It is pretty amazing how quickly things have changed in the Duke – UNC rivalry over the past three years. Everyone knows that UNC won the title in 2009 and Duke won the title in 2010, but it goes deeper than that. There was a point in the past three years where it seemed like one school wasn’t just doing slightly better than their rival, but that one team had such a upper hand that it almost didn’t even seem like a rivalry.
On November 13, 2009 Harrison Barnes picked UNC over Duke. UNC had just come off winning the 2009 title and was 2-0 at the start of the 2009-2010 season. There was optimism in Chapel Hill, because Duke didn’t seem to be Duke any more. They hadn’t made it to the Final Four since 2004 and seemed to be the type of team that lost out on the top recruits (ex. John Wall, Greg Monroe, Harrison Barnes) and lost in the tournament to athletic teams like like Villanova the year before. It was clear who was winning the rivalry. This was the peak for UNC.
On September 30th, 2010 Austin Rivers picked Duke over UNC and Florida. Duke had just come off winning the 2010 title and were the pre-season #1 ranked team for the 2010/2011 season. They replaced Jon Scheyer, Brian Zoubek and Lance Thomas with future #1 pick Kyrie Irving and Seth Curry. There were some concerns about their size (could the Plumlees replace Zoubek’s productivity?), but most people were optimistic about lineup of future NBA players like Nolan Smith, Kyle Singler, Kyrie Irving and Mason Plumlee. They would start off the year beating good teams like Michigan State and Marquette and destroying a supposedly very good Kansas State team in a road environment (Kansas City) that had me texting my brother-in-law (a UNC grad) about being surprised if Duke didn’t win the title. UNC had come off a year, where they went 5-11 in the ACC, lost to Duke by 32 and didn’t even make the NCAA tournament.
Hey my friends,
Big news here at Tobacco Road Blues. You may have noticed that the posting has “slowed” a bit, meaning that I’ve basically ignored the site for a couple weeks now. Posting here takes more time than I’ve got, unfortunately, and nobody has sent me $1,000 in unmarked bills to keep me interested. So the paid work takes precedence.
However, the site will not die. Instead, it will serve as a temporary home for two podcasts I’ve hatched.
The first, which will start next week and live here permanently, is a college basketball podcast. I don’t have a title yet, so if you’ve got something good, lay it on me. It won’t be just about Duke and UNC, though of course we’ll talk about them a lot. But we’re also going to take a more general look at what’s happening in the college bball world, from the Big Ten to the SEC to the Pac-12. (Don’t worry, just a few minutes on the Pac-12.)
The second podcast, which will likely have a new home eventually, is called “Selfish Young Americans.” It’s a comedy podcast, because we need more of those in this world, hosted by me and a rotating cast of characters. I made the first one this morning with my pal Stephanie, and it is now available for download. Soon, you’ll be able to subcribe on iTunes and everything like that. I apologize in advance for this episode, because I was out late the night before and had a bit of a hoarse voice. I’ll try to be more responsible in the future.
Anyway, I think it came off okay, and I know we’ll get better as time goes on. Here’s the description:
Stephanie joins Shane to chat about peacocks, Mayans, the beauty of the German language, and the Jonestown Massacre. At various points, you can hear her eat almonds. If that’s your kind of thing. There are a few swear words interspersed throughout this episode.
I have no idea what an RSS feed does, but here’s ours: http://syapodcast.libsyn.com/rss
You can follow us on twitter here: @SYAPodcast
The only other thing is that you’ll probably have to turn the volume pretty high to get it a decent level. My mistake on that one, it’ll be better next time.
Thanks for checking it out. Please feel free to give me feedback, because I’m sure we need it. Always say something nice before you start to get down to business and tell me that I’m a no-talent hack. If you like it, send it out to your friends and grandparents. And hey, enjoy the Super Bowl tomorrow. BUT BE SAFE, YOU GUYS!
(Note: I wrote the vast majority of this column before the Maryland game. I argue down below that the offense is better when we don’t throw it down low to Mason Plumlee. After he turned into a stud-muffin last night and literally won the game with his superior post play, I was forced to reevaluate everything that I wrote. However, I think it still holds up for the most part. The guards do stand around and the offense grinds to a halt when they feed him down low, and maybe that had something to do with everyone else’s poor play. Still, a win is a win, and that win was because of the offense running through Mason Plumlee.)
Duke’s first five games in the ACC have taken fans on an emotional roller coaster ride like no season that I can remember. Georgia Tech upset us because we couldn’t put away a vastly inferior opponent and make a statement after the painful loss to Temple. Virginia gave us some of our confidence back because we knew how tough they would be and watched our guys fight hard and come out victorious. Clemson brought us back to the same feelings we had about the Yellow Jackets as Duke built a lead and failed to execute down the stretch against a vulnerable team. The Wake Forest game brought back memories of teams of old as streaky 3-point shooting and a roaring crowd led Duke to crush the Demon Deacons. And then Florida State brought us crashing back down to earth as they used their always tough defense and found some hot scoring to end the home winning streak and once again make us question the viability of this Duke team as a contender. There is an unfortunate pattern emerging as this season matures. EVERYONE seems to be shooting over 50% against Duke. Because of this, there are a host of teams that are going to have a shot at beating the Blue Devils with a simple formula: play good enough perimeter defense so that Duke guards don’t score their way to an insurmountable lead, and provided that you have a few players who can score when given the opportunity, you will have a shot to win at the end.
Hey guys, I just got some new audio equipment, and I’m psyched to present my first ever podcast: Predictions. I think you can listen at the link below. I’m still figuring this out. Leave comments if you agree with my predictions.
I’ve been charting every Carolina defensive possession since the 2004-05 season. This concept, aided by Luke Winn’s terrific Sports Illustrated piece, is finally getting some national attention. It’s a great way to measure individual defensive contributions and to see who’s making consistently timely and effective help-side rotations (the backbone of Roy Williams’s- and virtually any– defensive system). Click on the Winn link to read a little more about the charting process. (And here’s a piece by David Hess with even more on defensive charting.)
Some definitions:
FG-FGA: the made field goals and field goal attempts that a player is responsible for (both as a primary and help defender)– same for 3Pt-A and FT-FTA
Pts All.: the number of opponents’ points that a defender is responsible for allowing
TOF: forced turnovers (including offensive fouls drawn (OFD))
Defl.: deflections
DR (ORA): defensive rebounds and offensive rebounds allowed
Denies: when a player can deny an opponent or force an offensive reset by making a strong individual defensive play (of the type that doesn’t force a turnover or missed shot– i.e., wouldn’t otherwise show up in the defensive box score)
Defensive Box Score vs. Boston College |
|||||||||
| Player | FG-FGA | 3Pt-A | FT-FTA | Pts All. | TOF (OFD) | Defl. | Floor burns | DR (ORA) | Denies |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marshall | 1-4 | 1-4 | 0-0 | 3 | 2.5 (0) | 5 | 1 | 1 (0) | 2 |
| Strickland | 1-2 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 2 | 4 (0) | 6 | 2 | 2 (0) | 3 |
| Barnes | 3-7 | 1-5 | 1-1 | 8 | 4.5 (0) | 8 | 1 | 4 (0) | 0 |
| Henson | 6-14 | 1-5 | 1-2 | 14 | 3 (0) | 6 | 0 | 6 (2) | 0 |
| Zeller | 0.5-8.5 | 0.5-1.5 | 0-2 | 1.5 | 4 (0) | 2 | 0 | 6 (1) | 1 |
| Bullock | 0.5-0.5 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 2 (0) | 1 | 0 | 5 (0) | 0 |
| McAdoo | 3-6 | 0.5-1.5 | 0-0 | 6.5 | 0 (0) | 0 | 1 | 4 (1) | 0 |
| Hairston | 3-5 | 1-3 | 1-4 | 8 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 | 1 (1) | 1 |
| Watts | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 (0) | 2 | 2 | 0 (0) | 0 |
| Simmons | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 | 0 (1) | 0 |
| Hubert | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 | 1 (0) | 0 |
| Dupont | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 |
| White | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 |
| Team | 5-7 | 4-6 | 0-0 | 14 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 | 0 (1) | 0 |
| Totals | 24-57 | 9-27 | 3-9 | 60 | 20 (0) | 30 | 7 | 30 (7) | 7 |
Boston College Shooting by Level of Contestedness:
But not like John Henson trying to make a post move. We’re off the rest of this week, for the most part. Apologies!