As college basketball teams get ready to start the season they take the court in exhibition games against feebler opponents. These opponents are generally small schools who will get paid well for the game. Players on the teams are talented but not nearly as good as the big schools. They specifically lack height. On the basketball court you often see exhibition teams sending out teams of little people when compared to bigger schools. You feel bad for the exhibition teams who trot out their 6’8″ centers against the seven footers of bigger schools. I’d compare it to watching your buddy approach a super hot girl at a bar to try and get her number. You know it’s a mistake, you’ll know he’ll be met with catastrophic failure, but you root for him because he’s the eternal underdog. As he walks across the bar you see he’s nervous, he even knows he’s going to fail, but he’s accompanied by a desperate sort of confidence. He has nothing to lose. If he tries and fails then life continues as normal, but if he tries and succeeds then he has achieved greatness.
Tag Archives: The Plumblebees
Exhibitions against Little People
Predicting the Plumlees
Reading through various preseason reports and articles I’ve noticed a pattern has begun to emerge regarding the Plumlees and their potential contributions to this years Duke Blue Devils. Instead of relying solely on words to describe the play of the Plumlees I will show you what they will bring to the table.
Miles will be doing a lot of this:
Miles with the jump hook from 10 feet
Hey Little Brother, Don’t Mind my Testicles on your Head
This past Friday, October 14, Duke had their official start to season with the Countdown to Craziness event. From what I’ve read about the event Duke fans should be very excited by Seth Curry and surprisingly Quinn Cook. Mason Plumlee has received poor reviews from internet message board basketball coaches while the eldest Plumlee has garnered rave reviews. I ask myself how much I can trust the words of anonymous fans, but I sorely wish for Miles Plumlee to be a spectacular all-american center so I will trust the internet entirely. When it comes to Mason Plumlee I will ignore anything bad anyone says about him and claim that he is a spectacular all-american power forward. I haven’t read anything about Marshall Plumlee because I want to keep my image of him completely unblemished. He will always be a goofy smiling, crayon eating and dunking machine to me.
The Doldrums
This is the worst time of year to be a college basketball fan. Let me explain. In the springtime after March Madness we all sit around and evaluate the “what ifs?” and “should haves.” As we move into summer we accept that college basketball is still far away. We decide whether we want to watch golf, baseball or stab our own eyeballs with forks. From personal experience I can declare that the fork stabbing is far more entertaining than baseball or golf. We’re frustrated there isn’t college basketball, but we’ve come to accept it.
However, as we venture forth into fall we feel that college basketball is right around the corner. We can almost taste it. We want to see Sportscenter highlights of Duke or UNC crushing a team by forty. We want to see Virginia Tech squeak by cupcakes and laugh as they don’t get picked for the NCAA tournament yet again. We want to see Wake Forest actually lose to the Polytechnical School for the Deaf and Blind. But we can’t always get what we want.
Miles Plumlee Dunked on Kyle Singler
1:36 seconds into the video (below) Miles Plumlee takes a ball from Kyle Singler and dunks over everything. Miles Plumlee is an unstoppable force. Hell, just watch the entire video and savor that brilliant tournament. The 09-10 NCAA Tournament is probably my favorite sporting event of all time. I expected another early Sweet 16 exit but the Devils used brilliant defense combined with the “Big Three” and beat all comers. Once Lance Thomas half-dunked over the entire Baylor team I felt like we had a fantastic chance to make the final four. My nerves were firing during the Butler game and I still couldn’t believe how close Hayward’s last shot was. If his shot had gone in I would’ve quit sports forever. During March Madness highlights we would no longer see Christian Laettner banging his magical jumper, we would see Gordon Hayward knocking down a clutch half-court shot after Kyle Singler was illegally leveled by Matt “The Creeper” Howard. Enough reminiscing, we’ve got work to do.
Mason “I really miss Kyrie Irving” Plumlee
I just dunked and now I'm going to give up a bad foul trying to block a shot on defense!!!
Look at those biceps. They make me salivate with jealously and maybe a bit of romanticism. This, my friends, is Mr. Mason Plumlee. A six foot, ten inch, 235 pound monster of an athlete. When he committed to Duke I was extremely excited. He was oft compared to Josh McRoberts. Fast, athletic, with a handle and impressive passing abilities. Thus far Mason has shown flashes of potential, but has yet to live up to that billing.
The Youngest Plumblebee
(Editor’s note: for the foreseeable future, Marc is on “the Plumlee beat.” Enjoy him every Tuesday)
Ladies and Gentlemen… let me introduce Marshall Plumleeeeeeeeeeee! Standing at a towering 6″11′ with a weight of 225 pounds he is ready to dunk over the entire universe. I’m disappointed that Duke lists him at 6’11” because we all know the fear a seven footer strikes into the heart of opponents. That extra inch changes everything. A seven footer is a majestic rarity. Someone who is 6’11” is just another regular Joe running into door frames and cabinets.
The Plumblebees
(Editor’s note: When I asked Marc if he wanted to write for the site, since I know him to be a funny and interesting dude, he asked me if someone had taken “the Plumlee beat.” I told him it was all his.) 
Hello friends! My name is Marc. My first sports memory is watching Christian Laettner crush the hopes and dreams of every Kentucky fan on that wonderful day back in 1992. I jumped around the living room like a maniac and gushed with glee as my dad replayed the shot over and over again because we taped the game on our high tech Hitachi VCR. Since that day Duke Basketball has been the only sport I’ve truly followed. The Carolina Hurricanes have a fun bandwagon to hop on if they are in the playoffs, but does anyone outside of Raleigh really care about the regular season? The Panthers have been an unmitigated disaster for the past few years and this year looks to promise some new lows! Shane’s article on the Duke-Richmond game brought up wonderful memories of the John Fox Run-Run-Pass-Punt offense. This year I’m expecting a variety based upon Run-Sack-Interception playcalling. I’ve lived in North Carolina for twenty-three years and I haven’t been able to really focus on anything but the Blue Devils. Continue reading
The 2009 Duke Season Preview!
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 November 13th, 2009, as Duke prepared to play its first game against UNC-Greensboro. It was the season preview for the basketball team that went on to win the national title. I’m including this one because while going through my old posts, I couldn’t help but notice the first sentence under the “prognosis” section:
There’s no way this team contends for a title.
Even back then, my predicting instincts were keen. Enjoy.
-Shane
The Duke Basketball Preview
Let’s get (deep, restorative breath)….pumped.
First, hot off the presses, one of our starters is out with a broken wrist. His name is Mason Plumlee (younger brother of current Dukie Miles), and he looks like this: Continue reading