I had Duke going down this round in my bracket, but it was to the hands of Texas.

I do wanna say that I am going to miss Singler and Smith next year. They had a great 4 years and gave so much to the Duke fans to cheer about. They will go down in my book as a pair of one of my favorite Dukies.

 

You know I'm not a Duke fan, but both of those guys were true Dukies, props to them both for being great amassadors for their school.

Man, I should have stayed up and watched this last night. Hope to catch the highlights on Sports center this morning.

I had Duke going down this round in my bracket, but it was to the hands of Texas.

 

Me too.

I do wanna say that I am going to miss Singler and Smith next year. They had a great 4 years and gave so much to the Duke fans to cheer about. They will go down in my book as a pair of one of my favorite Dukies.

 

You have very good points about Singler and Smith. Regardless of people liking Duke or not, it's nearly impossible to argue that they weren't good for the team and not liked.

I do wanna say that I am going to miss Singler and Smith next year. They had a great 4 years and gave so much to the Duke fans to cheer about. They will go down in my book as a pair of one of my favorite Dukies.

 

I echo your sentiment. I really hated seeing Nolan's last game be one of his worst performances this year. They will both be missed.

Im still trying to figure out if there was anything Duke could have done in that second half. Nothing comes to mind. I'll comment more on this game tommorrow. Gotta sleep this one off.

 

Rebounding would have been an excellent start. Arizona dominated the glass in the second half on both ends of the floor. Duke got 1 shot and that was it.

 

Other than that they looked shellshocked. This sucks.

That was as impressive a second-half performance as I've seen in the NCAA tournament in a long time.

 

Yeah, me too.

Coach K needs to go get Anthony Hickey. He would never let this happen.:thumb:

Duke finally ran into a team with NBA talent & athleticism, especially in the front court. They didn't really play one last year in the tourney, and Zona embarrassed them last night. The Plumlee brothers were pathetic IMO last night, getting dunked on time after time. And one of them wants to go to the NBA? Okay, Josh McRoberts JR.

 

I'll go ahead and say it, I think playing Irving was a bad idea. Look at how bad Duke's offense was in the 2nd half, Smith was really a non-factor last night. Don't know what he had, but they were quiet points. It's hard to bring anyone back just for the tourney, and I think it was going to kill them at some point.

 

I like Nolan Smith, and hated this for him. Hopefully he'll catch on somewhere in the NBA. I hope Duke and UK play next year, I'm tired of there always being the potential for a matchup, only to be disappointed.

Duke finally ran into a team with NBA talent & athleticism, especially in the front court. They didn't really play one last year in the tourney, and Zona embarrassed them last night. The Plumlee brothers were pathetic IMO last night, getting dunked on time after time. And one of them wants to go to the NBA? Okay, Josh McRoberts JR.

 

I'll go ahead and say it, I think playing Irving was a bad idea. Look at how bad Duke's offense was in the 2nd half, Smith was really a non-factor last night. Don't know what he had, but they were quiet points. It's hard to bring anyone back just for the tourney, and I think it was going to kill them at some point.

 

I like Nolan Smith, and hated this for him. Hopefully he'll catch on somewhere in the NBA. I hope Duke and UK play next year, I'm tired of there always being the potential for a matchup, only to be disappointed.

 

 

I couldn't disagree more. Kyrie played great last night and showed why he is a top 5 pick. Singler had a great first half as well. Nolan picked up 2 fouls early and never got into a good rhythm. Nolan even took over the point while Kyrie was out there and averaged over 17 points a game in games played with Kyrie. Last year he played with Scheyer and Singler so playing with Irving and Singler shouldn't hinder anything. Nolan just had a bad game. Getting murdered down low on the boards hurt more than anything else but when you have a talent like Kyrie Irving you don't leave him on the bench. He wasn't guarding Williams or Mo Mo either. Nothing I saw in the second half leads me to believe that Kyrie shouldn't have been playing.

Nolan was 3-14 from the floor while Kyrie was 9-15 from the floor and 8-9 from the line for 28 points. Nolan got his shots. They just didn't fall. Nolan finished with 8 points and only shot 4 free throws all night. Singler was 7-11 from the floor and had 18 points. I can't blame Kyrie's return for Smitty's bad game.

 

Arizona shot 54% from the floor, 60% from three and outrebounded Duke 40-27. Duke had 11 turnovers(Arizona had 12) and shot 82% from the foul line and 46% from the floor. Arizona simply played amazing in the second half.

 

 

Says Nolan Smith........"The way they played in the second half, they should win it all," Smith said. "Williams is a monster. They hit us full force, and kept hitting. They did everything right, and we did a ton of things wrong."

I had Duke going down this round in my bracket, but it was to the hands of Texas.

:thumb:

Man, I should have stayed up and watched this last night. Hope to catch the highlights on Sports center this morning.

 

The highlights will not do it justice. For the first 12 minutes of the second half, it seemed like Arizona hit every shot, got every loose ball, got every rebound while Duke forgot how to even throw a pass from one guard to the other out top. It was total domination and Duke just looked completely befuddled on what to do to stop it. As Cats3x said, Arizona had too many athletes for Duke and played at a higher speed than Duke the whole second half.

Duke finally ran into a team with NBA talent & athleticism, especially in the front court. They didn't really play one last year in the tourney, and Zona embarrassed them last night. The Plumlee brothers were pathetic IMO last night, getting dunked on time after time. And one of them wants to go to the NBA? Okay, Josh McRoberts JR.

 

 

I agree the only team Duke played last year that was more athletic than them was Baylor and Duke benefited greatly from some huge galls in the last few minutes. There are questionable calls every game and Duke did what was necessary and won the game, but the next two teams they faced weren't athletic enough to take advantage of Duke's lack of athleticism.

 

On a seperate note whos is Singler going to guard in the NBA? He can't gueard good college players off the dribble.