Lots of freaking basketball.
- The big headline is that Duke lost to Michigan in Ann Arbor on Saturday. Now, Michigan is a much improved team and John Beiline is obviously a very good coach for turning around the huge pile of horse dung Tommy Amaker left behind. Still we were told after Duke torched Purdue on Tuesday that the Blue Devils were legit and serious contenders for the title should UNC falter. The spin coming from Duke apologists or those who sung their praises last Wednesday morning. For every great peformance from Duke i.e. whipping Purdue, winning some tournament in New York you have Rhode Island and Michigan. Duke still lacks an inside game of consequence plus I am not sure if you can lean on Kyle Singler to do everything. And spare me the talk of Duke players being mentally fatigued from exams. If these guys cannot walk and chew gum at the same time, they should quit basketball.
- The ACC won the ACC-Big Ten Challenge 6-5 this season marking the closest contest between the two conferences. There were two losses that jumped out. Miami lost to Ohio State after being ahead by double digits in the first half. The Canes Jack McClinton was ejected for slapping an OSU player but strangely not suspended for the next game. I am sure Krzyzewski will mention that this is further proof of how poorly Gerald Henderson was treated two years ago. Georgia Tech lost to Penn State which means either PSU is pretty good or GT is not that good or both. And someone please fire Leonard Hamilton. Losing by 14 to Northwestern?
- Maryland is 2-0 versus the state of Michigan and was able to do what Duke could not, beat Michigan.
- Wake Forest, at present, might be the 2nd best team in the ACC. Not that beating Indiana or Bucknell earns you serious points but they have the most complete rotation outside of UNC. Wake's biggest problem is they are turnover prone averaging 18.4 per game. The Deacs rebound really well and they might provide stiffest challenge to the Heels from a matchup perspective when the two teams meet in early January.
- Virginia Tech is perhaps the biggest disappointment so far. The Hokies have three losses to Xavier, Seton Hall and Wisconsin. These are not bad losses but not a sign of an upward trend I am sure Seth Greenberg was looking for.
- NC State was not part of the Challenge because they finished 12th last season(*snicker*) The Pack did lose to Davidson allowing Stephen Curry to go off for 44 points. The Pack are a difficult bunch to assess at this point with the exception of the point guard play. It sucks. It may not get better. That kind of thing usually breaks a season, it did for them last season.
- And speaking of Stephen Curry. Yes, the media is in love with him and he has been a scoring machine. However there was a Davidson fan on 850's blog hyping Curry and even saying that Lawson or Ellington would sit on the bench if Curry were at UNC. That got me to thinking about who was the better PG Lawson or Curry. Here are the stats:
Curry: 32.7 mpg, 29.2 ppg, 7.0 apg, 2.80 A/TO, FG: 51%, 3P: 44%, 3.0 spg, 2.8 rpg.Lawson: 25.6 mpg, 16.1 ppg, 6.9 apg, 6.11 A/TO, FG: 55%, 3P: 54%, 3.0 spg, 2.4 rpg.
I won't offer much in the way of comment other than to leave you with this question: Besides the points someone tell me why Curry is a significantly better player?