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December 20, 2007

Probably Not Good For Mike Cook

Filed under: Basketball,Injury,Players — Dennis @ 10:00 pm

Near the beginning of the OT against Duke, Mike Cook went down with what looked to be a really ugly knee injury. He was on the flooring screaming in pain and had to be carried off the court. Obvious it’s not good to speculate on injuries but usually when you see a knee just give out like that it’s a good guess to say he could be out for a long period of time. Maybe (but hopefully not) a very long period of time.

On the postgame radio show, Jamie Dixon was obviously shaken when talking about Cook’s injury — not just because he’s an important part of the starting lineup but also because he’s a senior who might have just played his last game for Pitt.

Gilbert Brown replaced Cook on the court and will probably be the one who takes his spot. Great job by the entire team to battle back; not just by coming back from such a huge deficit but also for playing tough after seeing a teammate go down like that. More info on the injury as it comes out.

6:40: Family (huge Duke fans) from North Carolina are here for Christmas and I’ll be watching the game with them tonight. I am prepared to win or lose excessive amounts of money tonight depending on the outcome.

6:50: On PTI today, Tony Korheiser gave Pitt a 4% chance of winning and Michael Wilbon gave us at 25% chance. Jay Bilas says on SportsCenter that Duke is also built more for the postseason. It’s still December…

7:02: The team looked fired up in the pregame.

We have tip-off. Go Pitt.

7:05: The clocks at MSG are performing about as well as the Knicks have this year. Still waiting…

7:08: Finally we’re actually going to play. DeJuan Blair gets an early 2 on a nice move. Already we’re seeing the Duke screen plays at the top of the key lead to a wide open lane. Can’t expect Blair to switch on a pick to cover a quick guard. Duke is picking up the defense at about 3/4 court, much earlier than we’ve seen from any other team this year.

7:11: Maybe Blair should have dished it to Fields for the break, maybe he shouldn’t. Oh well. Four offensive turnovers already — ouch.

7:16: Sam Young with a horrible missed dunk.

I feel like on at least two occasions, Ronald Ramon was maybe going to shoot a 3 but was confused by the NBA three-point line.

Stuart makes a good point in the comments: “Duke seems to have a good plan with making Ramon bring it up – its taking Fields out of the game and causing Ramon to turn it over way too much.”

7:28: Gil Brown has knocked down a jumper and blocked a shot which lead to Blair basically getting tackled. Both teams look sloppy — Pitt more than Duke, though. Duke is up 3 with 9:20 left in the half.

7:35: Even more turnovers. Traveling, stepping out of bounds, offensive fouls, bad ball handling…

Dixon takes his first timeout of the game after Paulus nails a three.

7:41: Duke is just a team of tall white dudes who know how to flop. The refs are starting to lean towards Coach K and we haven’t scored in about 5 minutes. The double teams on Blair are starting to work and he’s getting trapped in the lost post without a place to pass it to. On defense it looks like Pitt has never seen a team use a screen and Duke has all kinds of open shots and drives. The Duke family members have taken over my basement.

13 turnovers and counting.

7:55: So that was a pretty ugly half of basketball. We have no leader on the floor and the entire team needs to collectively calm down. Not at all impressed with Ramon, which makes me realize how much better I felt with Antonio Graves last year. If Ramon isn’t even going to hit his three pointers (0-3) then why does he even play? Sam Young and Mike Cook need to both settle for less jump shots and drive more. Too much of the offense is happening very far from the basket, which is a combination of Duke’s good defense plus Pitt’s offense which is playing like crap. The “help defense” being played on Blair has been working very well for Duke and ‘m sure we’ll see plenty more in the 2nd half. Oh, and hitting some free throws would be nice too.

Halftime: Duke 34 — Pitt 22
(more…)

Quick Links Before Pitt-Duke

Filed under: Basketball,Opponent(s) — Chas @ 3:41 pm

Not a lot of time, so here are some more stories going up to game night.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette‘s Ray Fittipaldo picks Duke by 7 by the end of his weekly chat.

Rivals.com heart’s DeJuan Blair, in hindsight.

New York looking forward to a night at the Garden (Newsday).

Dick Weiss is grooving on the game and focuses mainly on Pitt, esp. Sam Young.

Blue Devils are also excited about this game.

“The game is a real big-time game,” Duke senior DeMarcus Nelson said. “I think that’s something everyone in this locker room really embraces. These are Final Four and Elite Eight type of games that Coach loves to schedule.

“Two undefeated teams, two big-time teams. I think the game speaks for itself. Madison Square Garden has always been a home away from home for us.”

Can’t wait.

For the record, Dennis will be handling tomorrow night’s live blog.

I’m going to be on DVR delay on account of a holiday concert at my daughter’s school. Can’t wait. Wife is insisting I completely cross to the dark side and video tape the slew of off-key singing. And she won’t let me bring a flask. Not that I’m bitter. So, I’m turning off my cell in case any of my “friends” thinks it would be good to call or text me while the game is happening or for several hours afterwards. Urgh.

Now, for those of you who get the MSG Network (either from living in the area or via the sports package on satellite), at 6:30-7 pm they will be previewing this game. The featured guests will be Will Brown, the head coach of Albany, and Manhattan Coach Barry Rohrssen. Albany played Duke on Monday and is a close friend of Coach Dixon. Rohrssen of course was a vital Pitt assistant under Howland and Dixon.

MSG Network chose Brown because he just faced Duke and because Brown is good friends with Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon. Brown will be joined in studio by Manhattan coach Barry Rohrssen, a former Pitt assistant.

Unbeknownst to MSG at the time, Brown also was briefly hired at Pitt by then-coach Ben Howland to be his director of basketball operations in 2001. Brown never started the job because UAlbany coach Scott Beeten lured him away to become his top assistant and recruiting coordinator.

Sam Young goes candid with SI.com’s Luke Winn in a Q&A.

Luke Winn: You had a self-imposed ‘ban’ on talking to the media for most of your sophomore season, when you were coming off the bench behind Levon Kendall at the power-forward spot. Why the ban?

Sam Young: Last year, I was pretty frustrated. I consider myself a hard worker, and I was working hard all offseason, and then had a knee [injury] be a problem for me all season long. I felt like I probably wasn’t the best player at the three [small forward] on the team. But at the four, I felt like I was the best player, and that basically added to my frustration. I was put in a position where I couldn’t win, basically. And then when the media asked me questions, they often put me in a position where I wanted to say some things that I shouldn’t. So I felt like the best thing for me to do, if I didn’t have anything positive to say, was to be quiet.

He does admit, though that he was injured. The thing Young has had struggles has been the defensive side. Really, but for the defense he would be an ideal small forward. He has the size, the range and ability to go to the hoop. I realize he prefers being at the power forward, but Coach Dixon was right in terms of flexibility for the team and Young’s development/NBA goals to try and play him at the three.

WagerWeb.com looks at the Pitt-Duke game.

No. 6 Duke at No. 11 Pittsburgh: Duke has been overshadowed by top-ranked North Carolina, but the Blue Devils are outscoring their opponents by an average of 25 points per game. However, Duke also has played only two road games thus far. Pitt has been just as impressive as Duke and is 6-0 at home, but the Panthers have not faced a true quality team. They have beaten solid squads Duquesne, Washington and Oklahoma State in their last three games and are 10-0 for the fifth season in a row under coach Jamie Dixon. I like Pitt in this game, especially considering oddsmakers will overvalue Duke – as usual.

Interestingly, Vegas isn’t touching this game with less than 24 hours. Most have this game “OFF.” Only one place is going with Duke -5.5.

DeJuan Blair gets a national AP piece going into this game.

Blair is so excited about his first game against a national power like Duke, he is worried he won’t be able to sleep the night before. For real.

“To just play against them and see what they can do on a big stage, see how they can come into the game, I can’t wait,” he said.

Blair may be matched against another star freshman, 6-7 Duke forward Kyle Singler, who averages 13 points and 6.1 rebounds. Blair has not seen Singler, who is from Medford, Ore., except on TV.

“He’s a good player, a fundamental player, but he’s not too physical, I guess,” Blair said. “I don’t know if he likes to bang or not, but we’re going to see on Thursday.”

I’m guessing that will be going on the Blue Devil bulletin board. He also gets puffed by Joe Starkey.
Seth Davis at SI.com can’t believe the excitement for this game.

Indeed, this game is generating tons of buzz for a variety of reasons. Though there have been some pretty good matchups thus far, the nonconference portion of the college hoops season has for the most part yielded forgettable games. (Some notable exceptions were UCLA-Texas, Arizona-Kansas and Gonzaga-Washington State.) Duke-Pitt is just the third game this season that features a matchup of two teams ranked in the top 10 of at least one of the polls. (Duke is 7th in the coaches’ poll, Pitt is 9th.) Finally, it is happening in the media cauldron of New York City, and neither Isiah Thomas nor Roger Clemens is invited.

Moreover, the Panthers and Blue Devils will have the stage to themselves Thursday, while Saturday’s Georgetown-Memphis tilt, even bigger rankings-wise, will have to share the bill with several other compelling games that day.

Ultimately he picks Duke to win by two.

Almost 50 years to the day, Pitt beat Duke in OT 87-84. They were led by Don Hennon who set the school record of 45 points in a game.

His 45 points remains the second-highest scoring game by a Duke opponent in 103 years — more than Lew Alcindor or Michael Jordan or Ralph Sampson ever scored. No Duke opponent has ever surpassed Hennon’s 20 field goals made.

Hennon’s feat is even more remarkable considering it came during an age when there was no 3-point line, no one-and-one bonus and no shot clock.

Duke has become much more of a transition fast break team. Pitt, for all it’s increased tempo, still likes to slow things down — mainly on defense.

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