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You’d have a hard time beating this from Giannis Antetokounmpo, aka the Greek Freak. Check out what he said in 2023 about if he had gone to college: “I’m 6’11” and I can handle the ball, pass and get in the paint. You see players like that [at Duke]: Zion Williamson, Jabari Parker, Jayson Tatum, […]
about 1 month ago | 2 reads
As we discussed recently and as you’ve probably heard a lot by now, the anticipated Top Three picks in next June’s NBA Draft are BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, Kansas’ Darryn Peterson and Duke’s Carlos Boozer. In this article, CBS’s Adam Finkelstein still has it Peterson, Dybantsa and Boozer, but unless there is a clear standout that […]
about 1 month ago | 0 reads
Injuries can be really devastating for basketball players. Grant Hill’s career was ultimately defined by injuries and then the immense courage he showed in overcoming them. Jabari Parker’s career was knocked sideways by ACL injuries and he’s now in Europe instead of the NBA. And then there’s Harry Giles. Like the last two mentioned, Giles […]
about 1 month ago | 1 read
Frankly it’s not the kind of record basketball programs are eager to advertise. Before our current era of all-kinds-of-stats-circulated-all-the-time, some coaches and sport information directors actually worked to suppress sharing how many turnovers their teams or players committed. A negative stat, don’t you know? These days turnover totals are routinely available, just part of the […]
about 1 month ago | 0 reads
Former Blue Devil Kon Knueppel continues to dazzle in his rookie NBA season. His most recent accomplishment is getting to 100 threes faster than any other rookie. When you realize that that takes in guys like Reggie Miller, Steph Curry, Damian Lillard and the rest, it’s hugely impressive. Knueppel and his old Duke roomie, Cooper […]
about 1 month ago | 1 read
Back in 2006, we did a music post for Christmas with a James Brown holiday jam and a picture of JB in a Santa suit. Looked fun and what better way to celebrate Christmas? Until we woke up and realized that Brown had died on Christmas Day. Seemed like a fun idea up until that […]
about 1 month ago | 1 read
If you have access to The Athletic (we don’t but Barry Jacobs clued us in to this), there is an interesting piece up on Cameron Boozer, asking if he has emerged as the first pick. The criticism of Boozer has been over his athleticism, or alleged lack of athleticism really, and the Athletic article suggests […]
about 1 month ago | 1 read
Cooper Flagg turned 19 last weekend and the former Duke Blue Devil is well on his way to greatness in the NBA. After a bit of a slow start as he played out of position at point guard, Flagg is back at forward and absolutely destroying the league. He’s averaging 18.8 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.5 […]
about 1 month ago | 1 read
The pantheon of great basketball players has a problem with recency bias. Think about it: who do you think about when you think about the all-time greats? These guys are probably on your list: After that? Maybe Kareem, Magic, Bird. Maybe Olajuwon. Jerry West at least gets the logo. Usually left off are guys like […]
about 1 month ago | 4 reads
When last season began, 3-pointers were all the rage, due in part to the Boston Celtics’ success liberally employing the shot to capture the 2024 NBA title. But styles change. The value of the three remains apparent, but not as a predominant offensive weapon. Boston again converted the most threes among the pros in 2025, […]
about 1 month ago | 2 reads
In Monday’s ACC Action, UNC hammered ECU 99-51, Virginia did American dirty 95-51, Florida State swamped Jacksonville 87-63, Syracuse knocked down Stonehill 77-48 and BC got by Farleigh Dickinson 72-61. None of these mattered much at all and would have only mattered if any of the ACC teams had lost, a la Notre Dame against […]
about 1 month ago | 0 reads
The ABA had financial and organizational issues from the beginning but despite those issues, the league managed to gain a lot of talented players that played an exciting brand of basketball. A number of the stars later became quite prominent in the NBA after the merger: Rick Barry returned to league, Julius Erving, David Thompson, […]
about 1 month ago | 1 read
In Sunday’s ACC Action, Vanderbilt took care of Wake Forest 98-67, Pitt pounded Penn State 80-46, NC State beat up on Ole Miss 76-62, SMU sent Central Arkansas home 99-82, Purdue Fort Wayne shocked Notre Dame 72-69, Clemson clipped Cincinnati 68-65, Miami beat North Florida 105-67 and Cal clobbered Columbia 74-56. Remember Tyler Nickel? He […]
about 1 month ago | 0 reads
The Cleveland Cavaliers have been a decent NBA franchise for some time now, with the normal dips you expect, but when Ted Stepien owned the team from 1980-83, the Cavaliers made so many disastrous moves that the league ultimately put in a rule to restrict just how teams could trade draft picks. It became known […]
about 1 month ago | 1 read
Duke struggled to open the season and has taken some time to right the ship. Recently though, the Blue Devils got impressive wins over Virginia Tech, South Dakota State and now on the road over Belmont. Duke won 76-46 behind a tremendous game from Toby Fournier. The sophomore star finished with 26 points (9-15/1-2), 16 […]
about 1 month ago | 0 reads
Ordinarily, 11-1 against this non-conference slate would be a cause for celebration, but the way that 1 loss happened is hitting hard for Duke fans. The Duke Basketball Roundup gives you a deep dive into the 82-81 loss to Texas Tech including words of praise for Duke’s bench players and some pretty strong criticism of Duke’s […]
about 1 month ago | 1 read
Saturday night, Duke lost its first game of the year. The loss came on a neutral site, by one point, to a Top 20 Texas Tech squad with a pre-season All American (JT Toppin) and a dynamic young point guard (Christian Anderson) who may himself challenge for similarly lofty accolades. Despite that star power, the […]
about 2 months ago | 1 read
In Saturday’s ACC Action, Stanford took care of Colorado 77-68, Syracuse put Northeastern on a leash 91-83, Virginia Tech clipped Elon 82-81 in overtime, Georgia Tech got by Lafayette 95-81, Louisville smote Montana 94-54, Virginia reminded Maryland that the ACC is better, 80-72 and UNC escaped a gutty effort by Ohio State 71-70. This was […]
about 2 months ago | 1 read
People in our day tend to think that Mike Krzyzewski had it easy at Duke and that of course Duke is dominant because, well, it’s Duke and that’s just the way it is. But when Mike Krzyzewski was hired at Duke, it wasn’t like that. Far from it, in fact as his second and third […]
about 2 months ago | 3 reads
Duke has never had an undefeated season in basketball and it’s not going to have one now as Texas Tech tagged the Blue Devils with their first loss of the season Saturday, 81-80. And Texas Tech totally deserved that win, too. The Red Raiders started off well, going up 9-0 before Duke pushed back. Nik […]
about 2 months ago | 1 read
As a Duke grad and a guy who clearly loves basketball, Adam Silver understands that Cameron Indoor Stadium is a special place. Now he’s considering having NBA Cup games on campuses and in college arenas. Will that work at Duke? Well, maybe. There are some obvious issues, with the first being the size of the […]
about 2 months ago | 1 read
There were two Friday games but they were basically meaningless, given the level of competition: Mississippi Valley State got wiped by Florida State, 96-49 and Morgan State was clobbered by Cal, 97-50. There’s really nothing much to say about games like these. The Delta Devils came in 1-10 and let 1-11 and Morgan State came […]
about 2 months ago | 3 reads
There’s an endless argument online about whether or not Larry Bird could play today. The answer to that is pretty easy: he’d be far better today than he was in the 1980’s. Why? Because defense is more restricted today than it was in the 1980’s. When you look back at what guys like Bill Laimbeer […]
about 2 months ago | 2 reads
Here’s a bit of good news we didn’t expect: Duke quarterback Darian Mensah will return next season. We’re really surprised. First, he could obviously have entered the draft, but second, he had a great year and there was a chance that a team from, say, the Situational Ethics Conference might have poached him. Fortunately, that […]
about 2 months ago | 1 read
Date 12/20 || Time 8:00 || Venue Madison Square Garden || Video ESPN With the exception of Michigan on February 21st, Duke will finish off non-conference play on Saturday with Texas Tech in Madison Square Garden. Why the Garden? Well, first because Duke has a lot of alum in the area. They call it Cameron […]
about 2 months ago | 1 read