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9:40:00 AM EST
Hearing Rogue Wave
Dear ESPN/USA Today Coaches, Lose the Duke Bias
Coming into last night's Maryland-Duke game, both teams were 8-6 in ACC play and 22-7 overall. Maryland's non-conference quality wins(!) include Michigan State, Winthrop, Illinois, and Vermont, while Duke's include Georgetown, Air Force, Indiana and Davidson. In the two team's only previous meeting this season, the Terps beat the Blue Devils by 12 up in College Park. So where do the 31 coaches voting in the ESPN/USA Today poll rank the two teams? Well, Maryland is out of the top-25 and Duke is at 14, naturally.
Fortunately, this worthless poll holds no sway over the Selection Committee's seeding of the field of 64 65. And even more fortunately, Maryland beat the snot out of Duke down in Durham last night, ushering in a delightful era of freshman "General" Greivis Vasquez dropping daggers and dimes while full-on mocking the Crazies. The kid fell one rebound shy of a triple-double while owning Greg Paulus, while Mike Jones ("WHO?") and D.J. Strawberry nearly matched their 45-point effort from three nights ago in that huge win over UNC. Maryland is unexpectedly peaking, just in time for tournament play.
Aside from the Terrapins' stellar performance (pop that jersey, Ekene, pop it like it's 2005), a few things are worth mentioning from last night's ballgame ...
1. ESPN's telecast was godawful. First, they stayed with 'Nova-UConn way too long, forcing Maryland and Duke fans to miss the first seven minutes of the game. Then, with the Terps protecting a lead down the stretch, ESPN's video went out formaybe three minutesan eternity, so we were forced to listen to Mike Patrick and Dick Vitale call the game as if they were radio guys. High comedy, but also pure torture.2. Speaking of Vitale and Patrick, they should be banned from calling Duke games. It's such a struggle listening to those two. My brother has done this justice before.
3. I previously penned a post about the Cameron Crazies titled 'Duke Is for Dorks,' but, wow, those kids just keep taking it to new levels. Take a look.
Also, this post pales in comparison to the email thread that began yesterday with my buddies, including the Bull, who is a Duke fan. It ended earlier this morning with him completely out of ammo and resorting to tarnishing the memory of one Leonard Kevin Bias. Low blow, Bull. I hope we meet again in the ACC Tourney.
Mike Jones Stays Flossin' in Maryland's Win Over Duke [FanHouse]
McRoberts Has No Time For Stupid Dribbling [Saved by the Blog]
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If it makes you feel any better... the half of the country that isn't into college basketball hears "Duke" and thinks:
a) second-rate Ivy League backup school
b) the place where the girl got Big Dan's Tavernized by the Lax team. -
duck fuke
not our rivals -
I liked when Dickie V and Patrick were off on some random tangent talking about Jimmy Valvano or something when the feed went out the second time and they didn't mention anything about the game for a good minute then all of a sudden stopped talking mid sentnce and came back with "we're having more technical issues, Duke is bringing the ball up the court...." I can hear the producer yelling into the head sets SHUT THE HELL UP WE HAVE NO FEED. TALK ABOUT THE DAMN GAME. I"M GOING TO BE FIRED IF YOU DON"T SHUT UP NOW DICK.
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"...owning Greg Paulus."
I've read that phrase waaaaaay too much this season (and it's been true every time).
Good thing Coach K recruited such a great backup. What? We have no backup PG for the SLOWEST EFFING PERSON IN THE COUNTRY? Jeezy Creezy. I hate Greg Paulus. No, I'm not bitter.
3/8/07 8:32 PM
Doesn't mean I'll forgive you the gratuitous slap at Duke, though.
(But yeah, they never should've been in the top 10 this year and shouldn't be near the top 15 now.)