Duke/Carolina thoughts and then some

So last night, the greatest rivalry in College Basketball (and arguably all of sports) renewed itself another year -- Duke and North Carolina. Now, while the first half was dinner, the second half, us Duke fans didn't get any share of the dessert as my Dukies ultimately lost 79-73. You know, coming into the game last night, I flipped on the TV, with 19:58 to go (I accidentally missed the first two minutes! So what?! Sue me!), and Paulus shredded the defense with a pass to a wide-open Jon Scheyer, he knocked down the bucket. So I sat there thinking, "ahh, there's no way can beat Carolina. Not on this night, no." Then, I gained motivation to start thinking we would as we had a 5 point lead at halftime. I truly believed that the Devils could hold on just for twenty more minutes to beat the #5 Heels.

Alas, I cannot really say what went wrong, except I was unfortunately wrong. My prediction on here was wrong, and my thought on the end result was wrong. But who am I kidding? They are a good North Carolina team this year -- not great; but good. I expected we would hold up on Forward, Tyler Hansbrough, and we did ... for what you would usually expect, holding him to 16 points. What really got him going in the second half was drawing contact into an already frustrated Josh McRoberts (who in the end, finished the game off with 4 fouls.) The contact that was drawn really got him to the line a pretty good amount of times to knock down some freebies, and allowed some extra pressure to fall back for Carolina, and really it landed on us, and we couldn't create very many opportunities down the stretch. And when we did, they were so seldom because the Tar Heels' defensively, really stepped up during the final minutes and caught us off-guard on some points that could have been.

Oh, and it didn't helped that we had three more turnovers (16) than the Tar Heels (13.) What makes it even worse for the guys and gals that have disacknowledged Greg Paulus all season long is that he didn't even have any turnovers. The two Dukies that did were McRoberts and Nelson at 4. Turnovers undoubtedly makes you feel like puking, too. It doesn't get any worse than watching someone turn it over (Josh McRoberts) and then fall flopping face first to the hardwood in attempt to make it look dramatic. 'Dude needs to just let it be as it is, ackowledge the mistake, hold his head high, and play the game the way it's meant to be played. That is another factor that hurt us in the end, the motivation and the control that really helped us thrive in the first half with all the fluid energy we were playing with. You know, Greg Paulus really helped us with that too in the first half, and that's something you can't show with stats, you would just have to watch the game to know. However, in the second half, the emotion for the 'Devils just got carried away, and that really knocked us out in the finall eight minutes, as Brandan Green put the icing on the cake, as Wes Miller added the sprinkles to the cupcake, we lost to Carolina in another rivalry game that you wouldn't be surprised at. March 4th, we'll have our vengeance in some way or another.

Tyrus Thomas: He's full of something!

Moving onto the NBA: Chicago Bulls' Rookie Forward, Tyrus Thomas, said this to the press on Monday: "Ok, I'm here to pick up my check, and call it a day" regarding the NBA All-Star Weekend Slam Dunk competition. The next day, the league fined him $10,000 for the comments. However, Tyrus apologized and said he was sorry for any negatie feelings from this comments. You know, there's actually a nasty, devilish part of me that wants to give this guy a standing ovation for telling the truth on what he's acting there to do instead of lying to the media. However, I don't want to now, because that's what he actually feels about the NBA, and it's a pathetic aspect of the game. He isn't sorry, he just feels he has to say that he's sorry so that his "image" or he reputation won't decrease because of this. Sure, the mainstream NBA fan will think nothing less of it, due to they probably not even knowing who he is. However, us basketball enthusiasts willl look back, and say "So this is what the NBA is coming to? A player admitting that he's only playing for the money, which most are holding back from us."

This type of behavior from the players kind of makes you want to rip your hair out, since you know how the majority in the league feel, but what about the minority? I think they should all believe, and think that it's an honor to have a chance to be a professional basketball player, and acknowledge that they have actually stepped onto the courts that the great Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird have played in. Instead, they disgrace the sport, open widingly saying that they're out for the money. That's wrong, and sick when you think about it, even if they're telling the truth and being honest. The media and the fans (including me) don't want to hear this, really. We want to hear "I can't wait until All-Star Weekend. It's going to be an honor to perform in front of Dr. J, and MJ." Right?

Right, and a wrong in my opinion. The majority of the NBA fans want to hear that, but fans similar to me enjoy hearing the truth, however that doesn't belittle the main strength that you should go out there and make a fool of yourself saying that you are going out there for the money. Play it smart, Tyrus, get some charisma going on, and play it cool. How do you think guys in other sports like Peyton Manning do it? They play it cool, and keep their mouths shut when it comes to silly comments because they know the media is on them enough as it is with other things. You're still a Rookie, and you haven't amounted to anything yet. Start building your skills, then talk, and when you do open your mouth, make sure you don't have the crackpipe stuck in there, because if you do, chances are you'll come out with another BULLShit statement.