Tomorrow night’s game is the one we expected to see in the second round of last year’s NCAA tournament until VCU stormed the party. Duke easily took care of Albany, but so has everyone else. Likely one of those games Duke scheduled knowing they needed to get back into the swing of things after a break for finals. Thursday at MSG is a good test for both teams though.
Duke’s probably starting five will look something like this:
G — Greg Paulus: Shooting 50% from three point land. In his first two years it began to look like he might have made a mistake by playing basketball instead of football. As a junior, he’s starting to show his worth.
G — Gerald Henderson: Has been hot lately, putting up 10+ points in 8 of last 10 games
G — DeMarcus Nelson: Only senior on whole team and plays the leader role. Season high 23 points on Monday over Albany
F — Kyle Singler: 6-8, 220 lb and one of the best freshmen in the nation; tied for team lead in points per game and has team lead in rebounds per game (6.1)
F — Brian Zoubek: Over 7 feet tall, which is 5+ inches taller than DeJuan Blair who will likely be the defender on him. Should be a great test for Blair on a big time stage.
Similar to Pitt, Duke will only go about three deep from the bench. Both teams are very comfortable with the rotation they’re in at this point regarding how many guys see the court.
Young v Singler is going to be the match up of the game. Both can shoot from the outside and both can guard perimeter oriented forwards.
Comment by dan 12.19.07 @ 8:11 pm
WOW! GRAY WITH A DOUBLE DOUBLE – First real minutes he sees all year, 29, and he goes 4 for 6, 10 pts 10 boards, and chicago beats washington by 11! 5 assists, only 2 TOs.
Noah only got 8 minutes….and i don’t see wallace listed at all in the box score…injured?
Comment by Stuart 12.19.07 @ 9:52 pm
You should hear the love-fest for gray now over at blogabull.com – i guess when gray was in the game, they were a +18, which was the highest of anyone on the team. They’re all ready to cut wallace and start gray…
Comment by Stuart 12.19.07 @ 10:13 pm
see yinz at the garden…lets go pitt!!!
Comment by Tray 12.19.07 @ 11:09 pm
Whew…Thank goodness we don’t have that big, “slow”, “unathletic”, “liability” slowing down our offense anymore! And all of you know who you are…
Comment by HbgFrank 12.19.07 @ 11:11 pm
ESPN said Ben Wallace has a bone spur in his foot and they don’t know how long he’s going to be out, so it looks like Gray’s gonna have the opportunity to prove himself over the next few weeks.
Comment by Jeff 12.19.07 @ 11:30 pm
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[EDITED DOWN, since I think we get it. — Ed.]Â
Comment by BEAT DUKE 12.20.07 @ 3:06 am
I caught a good amount of the coverage of the Bulls game, and the comments were on the order of: Gray has been the key to the offense. Deng flashed open and Gray found him and he’s rewarded with two free throws. Gray makes another stop on the defensive end and the Bulls score a quick duece on the other end in transition. That’s right…Aaron Gray STARTING THE FAST BREAK with the outlet pass. I always thought Gray would be an NBA player (not a star, but a rotation-guy) and have been following the Bulls way more than is palatable as a result…looks like he might finally get a shot with the Wallace injury. Also interesting to note: Tyrus Thomas was praised a lot last year because of his per-48 minute stats and overall energy when in there…and yet he’s not getting a whole lot more pt than Gray or Noah. And we all know the lovefest the media had with Noah just because he’s ugly. Gray seems to be doing all the right things right now. Hopefully it continues, as we could certainly use a recognizable NBA player (apologies to Mark Blount).
Comment by Maz 12.20.07 @ 10:54 am
More Gray love:
Comment by Stuart 12.20.07 @ 12:24 pm
Even more!
“But there was consensus in the locker room afterward that the player most responsible for the dramatic turnaround was 7-foot rookie center Aaron Gray.”
Seriously, who expected even one great game out of him? Much less his first?
Comment by Stuart 12.20.07 @ 12:34 pm
gray last night had a double double 10 and 10 rebs and 8 assists. pretty good night for a big slow stone hands white guy
Comment by Buzz 12.20.07 @ 10:33 pm
