NCAA Tournament Second Round: Duke (29-6) vs. Texas (23-11)

That was nice. Real nice. The first time we've really beat anyone convincingly in the first round since '04. Seriously, that's how bad it's been. 04 we throttled Alabama State 96-60, then the downward spiral started. 05 saw a ugly 57-46 decision against (16) Delaware State. 06 had an only slightly better showing, and underwhelming 70-54 game vs. (16) Southern, who felt the wrath of J.J Redick and Shelden Williams, (57 points combined), but no one else on the team. (13 points besides Redick/Williams.) ) 07, well you know, happened. Then most recently, last year, we were able to wake up from the (15) Belmont nightmare. By 1. But last night, we had a thing we hadn't seen in a while. A NCAA tournament game in which we completely bitch-slapped our opponent. Hard to believe we hadn't seen that in a while. We took control early, and were already in the bonus 7 minutes into the game. Some defensive lapses in the 1st half, but nevermind those. Elliot Williams and Lance Thomas had unexpected impressive showings, and the team balanced the scoring out. (6 in double figures). Jon led us with 15. Good win, 86-62. Now we have Texas.

Will this be the latest in the series of demolitions of Texas the past years? 2001 saw us destroy them 95-69 in the Preseason NIT. 04, we again saw Rick Barnes squad get systematically dismantled again, 89-61. Then, in 2006, we had the epic #1 Duke vs #2 Texas showdown, which resulted in a 97-66 Duke win, and 41 point from J.J Redick. Wow. I wonder sometimes how each time we have played Texas, they have fielded good squads in each matchup, but we completely obliterate them each time. Will this continue tommorow? You know, the last time we won our opener by 20+, we proceeded to blow Seton Hall out of the water the next round, 90-62. I don't know about this year though. Texas is playing pretty damn good lately. A.J Abrams, Bevo's leading scorer has the ability to take over games, at 16.6 PPG. He connected on 8 trifectas yesterday vs. Minnesota. Unless he becomes basically the 2nd player this year to torch us from beyond the arc (Jimmy Baron), then I think we will do fine. His supporting cast features 6-7 swingman Damion James who can also do a little scoring of his own. Cause for concern? Yes. He plays the 2-3. Mismatch here. He's a couple inches taller then the two possible candidates to guard him (6-5 Scheyer, 6-4 Henderson) (I think Elliot should guard Abrams by the way.). So, to fix this, you want Singler to slide over and guard him? One problem. Who checks F Gary Johnson, and hulking 6-10, 298 lb Dexter Pittman? Kyle? Dave? Zoubs? We've got some work for you tommorow. Meanwhile, Abrams has been revealed to only be 5-11, so here's our edge. Our 2, Gerald, is 6-4.  Which means G should be free to run free, with his defender giving up 5 inches to him. In the same way, Pittman and Johnson, the problem they appear to be, oddly, seem like they won't be able to check Singler as he hangs out on the perimeter. Weird how each player is a mismatch for each other. Oh well. The game isn't played on matchups, and we've had success this year against considerable size disadvantages. Go DUKE! Onto the Sweet 16 in Boston!

Duke 76, Texas 70