NCAA Tournament First Round: #6 Duke (28-6) vs Binghamton (23-8)

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of BeDeviled. Tonight, the Duke Blue Devils, the champions of the ACC take on the America East champion and first time dancer Binghamton in Greensboro, NC in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Binghamton? Who?. Exactly what I thought when I saw our matchup. FYI though, after a quick googling brings up the fact that they are a SUNY college, located in, you guessed it, the cozy town of Binghamton, NY. They claim, in their eyes to be one of one of the top public universities in the country. But, apparently, they don't look like they are competant Photoshoppers, unfortunately. Binghamton also claims to be one of the top schools for.......wait? They have a basketball team? A team that made it to the NCAA Tournament? And they've drawn Duke for their first round matchup? Tough luck.

Binghamton will get their shot at Duke tonight, after winning the America East Conference title for their first appearance here ever. Will they give Duke a run for their money, reliving the '08 Belmont nightmare? Yes they could, however, that is NOT likely. Different Duke team. That team had just about hit the wall at that point. Now, it looks like we're peaking right about now. Belmont is a much different team than Binghamton.

 Bearcat F D.J Rivera won't have any of that, as he of the 20.4 PPG has other ideas. Still, Rivera, only 6-4 while playing the 4 will likely draw the assignment of defending Singler. Really. Singler has looked like a man possessed at times in the ACCT, snaring rebounds everywhere, banging down low effectively at times, and connecting on many a trifecta here or there. Now you thought Rivera has a size disadvantage, wait til you here this. The Bearcats don't really utilize anyone over 6'6. While we might have some height problems of our own, that's a mismatch. We have to EXPLOIT it though, as that fact alone doesn't get us a free pass. Lets hope we see some Zoubs, as well as Singler doing some work down low. This team simply does not match up well with us, though the fact that this team is quick and athletic could present a problem here or there. Oh well....nothing K won't fix anyway. Look for the Bearcats to hang around for 10 minutes or so....until fading into the night, while Singler, Scheyer (ACC Tourney MVP, and Gerald) take the reins!

Go Duke!

Duke 80, Binghamton 62