Sports Blog

A friendly reminder to join our challenge on ESPN here. You have until noon tomorrow to fill out your bracket and join the group. Winner gets space on the blog to trash talk to his or her heart’s desire. Plus a picture, if you want.

Is your basketball knowledge greater than ours? Here’s your chance to find out!

Duke earned a 1-1 draw against the MLS club New England Revolution in a scrimmage played Wednesday morning at the WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, NC. As part of its preseason schedule, the Revolution are spending a week in North Carolina, playing three games including this morning’s match versus the Blue Devils.

New England opened the scoring in the 13th minute when forward Zack Schilawski slotted one past Duke goalkeeper James Belshaw. Just a minute later though, the Blue Devils equalized as Nick Sih headed headed home a Blue Devil corner kick. Though just a scrimmage, the game became chippy at points with a couple of hard challenges that got players yelling. Each team had plenty of chances throughout the remainder of the match, but none found the back of the net.

The game marked the return of Revolution players Darrius Barnes (Duke ‘08) and Mike Videira (Duke ‘06). Barnes did not see any action in the contest while Videira played the final forty five minutes for New England in the center of its midfield. Videira had one of New England’s best chances in the second half as he nearly scored on a header in the 76th minute.

The game marked the third of seven spring matches for the Blue Devils. Duke fell 3-2 to the Carolina Railhawks on February 20 and 2-1 to N.C. State on March 4. The Blue Devils’ spring practices continue for the upcoming weeks with their next match not coming until April4 against CSN Cork. For the full spring schedule, click here.

President Obama filled out his NCAA tournament bracket with ESPN senior writer Andy Katz today at noon on SportsCenter.

The President predicted that Kansas, Kansas State, Kentucky and Villanova would all reach the Final Four.

A minor problem for Mr. Obama, however, was his misspelling of “Syracuse” when he chose the Orange to edge out Butler in the Sweet 16. When Katz informed the President that he forgot the “r” in Syracuse, Mr. Obama laughed at his mistake and joked that his daughters would tease him for the error.

Mr. Obama is an staunch supporter of North Carolina and even played in a scrimmage with the Tar Heels during his presidential campaign in 2008.

Even though his personal aide, Reggie Love, attended Duke and played on the basketball team, President Obama refused to put the Blue Devils in the Final Four and instead advanced the Wildcats.

“I finally break away from Reggie Love and pick Nova,” Mr. Obama told Katz.

Last year, President Obama picked eventual champion North Carolina to win the NCAA tournament. Do you think his predictions are right this year?

Carrick Felix, a 6-foot-6 wing player from the College of Southern Idaho, announced via his facebook page Tuesday that he intended to accept Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski’s scholarship offer and join the Blue Devils.

Carrick Felix

Felix is described as an extremely athletic player (a scouting report from Rivals.com described him as possessing “NBA Athleticism”) who is a tough-nosed defender on the perimeter and a hard, dedicated worker with upside on the offensive end as well. Felix averaged 14.8 points and 4.7 rebounds this season for the Golden Eagles while leading his team in blocks with 37.

“He’s an extreme athlete, a real high flier,” CSI coach Steve Gosar told Scout.com’s Dave Telep. “He’s got great conditioning and runs the court really well.

“He’s a great kid, he plays hard. He’s 6-feet-6, 195 pounds and a great kid. He’s all about winning. He’s got a big upside with three years to play. He’ll be all about the program. He’s got an unbelievable mom who has raised him to be a really good person.”

The signing of a junior college transfer is an unprecedented step for Krzyzewski, who has accepted only three transfer players during his entire tenure at the helm of the Blue Devils, all of whom came from four-year institutions—Roshown McLeod from St. John’s in 1995, Dahntay Jones from Rutgers in 2000 and Seth Curry from Liberty in 2009.

Due to NCAA transfer rules for players leaving junior colleges, Felix will not be required to sit out a season, as Curry has done this season. Felix will have three years of eligibility with the Blue Devils after he arrives on campus.

The signing of Felix was made possible when sophomore Olek Czyz opted to transfer to Nevada, opening up an additional scholarship available for the 2010-2011 season.

Felix’s athletic ability is on display in the following Youtube clips, which show him competing in his team’s preseason dunk contest. What do you think about the Felix signing and Coach K breaking with precedent by signing a JUCO player? Excited by the signing?

I’ve been pushing tempo-free stats to anyone who will listen all season long, but if you want to win the Chronicle Sports Blog’s Bracket Challenge, it never hurts to have some numbers on your side. Also, I can guarantee that you’re tired of listening to ESPN’s crew talk about “bounce-backability,” “toughness” and “athleticism” by now, if you weren’t already sick of it after the first 24 hours of coverage.

It’s fun to see that most of the statistically-based approaches to projecting the NCAA Tournament install Duke as the favorite.  Of course, the NCAA Tournament is a probability-based affair. You’d look at me as if I were crazy if I suggested that the better team wins every game. But you’d also look at me as if I were crazy if I suggested that knowing the better team prior to the start of the game tells you nothing about the likelihood of predicting who is going to win that game.

To statistically project the NCAA Tournament, people who do this sort of thing use a quantitative ranking of NCAA teams, like the Pomeroy or Sagarin ratings. A computer that compares the rankings of two teams can determine the probability that one team will beat another. Then, using some sort of super-powerful wizard computer, the computer plays out the NCAA Tournament 5000 or one million times, compiles the results, and spits out the probability of each team entered into the tournament winning one, two, three, four, five and six games. For reasons that I don’t really understand, this is called the log5 method.

So here’s a compendium of tempo-free links to help you make your bracket picks:

• Someone wrote a program that uses Pomeroy ratings to essentially simulate the NCAA Tournament one time. There’s a little slider so you can set the level of randomness anywhere from Dick Vitale’s Chalk City to Bracket Busting Random. Warning: Clicking this link  will kill your productivity for several hours. [Bill Mill]
• A Duke grad student used Pomeroy ratings and the log5 method to determine the probability of every team in the field reaching each round of the tournament. [Immaculate Inning]
• Ditto from above, except its not a Duke grad student and he’s using the Sagarin ratings instead of Pomeroy. [Wayne Winston]
• Finally, the great Ken Pomeroy himself has a log5, tempo-free preview of the entire South region, and other members of the Basketball Prospectus team have the East, West and Midwest covered. [South] [East] [West] [Midwest]

Kentucky and Duke won’t meet in this year’s NCAA Tournament unless both make it to the Final Four, but the two do have quite a history–recently, it has involved recruits John Wall and Patrick Patterson, and before that, it involved a certain foul-line jumper at the Meadowlands.

But now, the antagonistic relationship between the two bluebloods has entered a new arena: Congress.

A lovely Politico blog post today centered on the Republican Part’s primary race in Kentucky, in which two gentlemen, Trey Grayson and Rand Paul, are running. Grayson is a Harvard grad; Paul went to med school at Duke. So both have elite academic roots, right?

Well, not exactly, at least not according to Grayson’s newest campaign ads. In the spots, Grayson paints himself as a true Kentuckyite, and depicts Paul’s Duke connections as a negative. His slogan: Beat Duke. Vote Grayson. Simple, elegant, and a tad ridiculous, as Paul points out in his own respnse.

And who said sports don’t matter?

Thanks to former sports editor and current Politico writer Meredith Shiner for this little nugget.

The Chronicle’s Taylor Doherty and Andy Moore break down Duke’s path to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament.

As Duke fans prepare for the NCAA Tournament game on Friday, foes down the road are preparing for a bit of a bit of a different event. After a season in which the Tar Heels lost as many games as they won (16), North Carolina will be heading to the NIT Tournament for the first time since 2003.

But fear not, Tar Heels! You can still buy tickets to see the team play once more this season at the NIT Tournament—and it’s just $5! That’s $67 cheaper than Duke’s student tickets, if you care to know.

Below is an email sent to the Tar Heels’ student body. (Some information below has been withheld to protect the sender’s identity.):

From: UNC Ticket Office <studenttickets@uncaa.unc.edu>
Date: Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 5:22 PM
Subject: *** 2010 NIT First Round Basketball Tickets Available Now ***
To: [#######@email.unc.edu]

The UNC Men’s Basketball team has been selected to play in the 2010 NIT. As a UNC Student, you have the opportunity to purchase up to 2 tickets at a discounted price of only $5. The NIT First Round game will take place on March 16, 2010 at 9:30 pm. The game will be played in newly renovated Carmichael Arena. Tickets can be ordered on a first come first serve basis starting tonight, March 15, 2010 at 10:00 pm.

To take advantage of this offer, you must log on to your student UNC Ticket Office account online with your PID, [#########], and your Student PIN: [####]

NIT STUDENT TICKETS-CLICK HERE

Please remember, tickets will be sold on a first come first serve basis starting at 10:00 pm tonight, March 15, 2010, and you must log on to your student ticket account online.

UNC Ticket Office
800-722-4335
Monday-Friday – 8:30am-4:30pm
Join us on facebook at www.facebook.com/uncticketoffice

Former Duke quarterback Thaddeus Lewis has been opening some eyes at the NFL combine. Lewis, who has thrown for more yards and touchdowns than any player to ever put on a Blue Devil jersey, ran a 4.84 in the 40-yard dash. This ranked among the best times for quarterbacks in the nation.

Watch Lewis’ 40-yard sprint and other combine highlights here:

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-combine/09000d5d816c98ee/2010-Combine-workout-Thaddeus-Lewis

Ben Brostoff, a columnist for The Chronicle’s opinion section, recently got the chance to attend MIT’s Sloan Sports Conference, a one-day event focused on the increasing role of analytics (stats) in sports. At the forum, Brostoff rubbed shoulders with sports luminaries like writer Bill Simmons, Dallas Mavericks GM Mark Cuban and legendary 3-point assassin Steve Kerr, among others. Brostoff wrote this exclusively for The Chronicle Sports Blog.

Take a look at the attendees list for the MIT Sloan Sports Conference when you have a chance.

It’s incredible.

On March 6, the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center housed more influential minds at the tops of their respective sports than probably any previous gathering in human history. There were over 1,000 people at Sloan from sports management, media and fandom, plus an additional 400 on the waiting list. Panel discussions generated lines bigger than the ones at Alpine on a Monday morning: you had a better chance of finding an empty seat at Cameron that same night. Welcome to the big show. Everywhere you walked, there was a recognizable face.  Is that Bill Simmons talking to Brian Kenney about Sugar Ray Leonard? Are Adam Silver, Daryl Morey and Mark Cuban really humoring three Harvard kids waving resumes?  Wait… that can’t be… Steve Kerr? And a ragtag team of representative from MLB, NFL, NHL, FIFA, ESPN, Reebok, Nike, Bloomberg, EA Sport and Black Rock? In short, if you were anyone of consequence in sports, you were at Sloan.

You would figure, then, that Duke athletics would have a few representatives. Sports analytics should in fact be synonymous with Duke itself. This is how Duke has marketed itself for two decades: sports with an analytical, cerebral bend. Shane Battier, as portrayed in Chris Ballard’s “The Art of a Beautiful Game” and this must-read NY Times feature, perhaps best embodies this distinct Duke quality. Battier’s knowledge of analytics—for instance, Kobe Bryant’s effective field goal percentage from different zones on the floor, Manu Ginobli’s statistical tendencies—render him the unique player who combines athletic prowess and the scientific method. Battier’s four years at Duke weren’t marked by his athletic prowess a la Jason Williams, but rather a blend of ability and brains. He consistently made the right defensive rotations and rarely attempted low-percentage shots. Indeed, the Battier-style of play is pretty much the accepted standard for your typical Duke teams. Capable and smart.

Ironically, the Duke basketball brass might not actually be that smart by today’s sports standards. The team currently employs zero official basketball quants (think Dean Oliver of the Denver Nuggets) and does not delve into unorthodox statistical analysis (efficiency ratings, adjusted plus minus ratio, etc.) as a means of strategy evaluation. At least, that’s the team’s public relations stance. When The Chronicle’s Ben Cohen did a column on tracking offensive and defensive efficiency, he got this quote from assistant coach Chris Collins: “The numbers we use a lot are turnovers and offensive rebounds.  The other key is we try to get ourselves to the free-throw line. Those are probably the main ones that we look at—and obviously, well, shooting the ball.”

If we are to take Collin’s words at face value, then the team is doing only the most rudimentary statistical basketball analysis possible. Turnovers, offensive rebounds and fouls essentially mean nothing in a vacuum: they’re variables dependent on a range of factors, from pace to score of the game (What happens to John Scheyer’s assist/turnover ratio when Duke is up 10 with 5:00 left and K elects to run the shot clock down?) to lineups (What is Duke’s offensive rebounding like when the Plumlee brothers are at the 4 and 5? How about Thomas and Zoubek?). All of these factors, according to the basketball’s best and brightest—namely, Oliver, Morey, Cuban, Kevin Pritchard, John Hollinger and Mike Zarren (Celtics’ Basketball Operations Analyst)—can be relatively accounted for and weighted appropriately with enough patience and tinkering. Sure, these new statistical tools might not be perfect, but they’re certainly better at describing what actually happened in a game than the box score as constituted. The traditional box score might as well be thrown out the window. Points, free throw discrepancy, assists (which, by the way, are wholly determined by subjective scorekeepers), blocks and rebounds are worthless without context. Statistical analysis is the only empirical means of providing a way to corroborate what our eyes see with numbers on paper—the basketball guys at Sloan made this idea abundantly clear.

Yet, as I scrolled down the program and looked for Sloan’s Duke representatives, only one name appeared: mine. To be fair, I’m not sure any ACC schools sent their basketball people to Sloan. The analytics movement is mostly a pro-phenomenon, which makes sense. In the NBA, sample sizes can be large (five and six year analyses are possible), and data is less diluted. What I mean by the latter term is that everyone’s strength of schedule in the NBA is more or less the same, whereas in the NCAA comparing ‘09 Memphis with ‘09 UNC is virtually impossible: Memphis played in a watered down, woefully bad C-USA, while UNC competed in a conference chock-full of tournament teams and lottery picks. Perhaps Duke Basketball has no desire to invest in analytics because it has no legitimate application.

I for one am not sold on that train of thought. At the end of the day, the hard numbers, if interpreted and mathematically manipulated correctly, can tell a compelling sports story. A story, I would posit, that is more logical and accurate than any type of qualitative analysis. The statistical movement is now a staple of MLB and dominating the general management of the best NBA organizations. Not coincidentally, the eight NBA teams heavy on quantitative methodology—the Celtics, Lakers, Rockets, Thunder, Nuggets, Mavericks, Magic and Cavs—all are in prime position to contend for championships in the next several years. These teams unite around the idea that the same prized concepts we use in science and math should necessarily be a part of sports. These organizations’ decision-making processes are no doubt more rigorous and objectivity-based than their peers (just take a look at some of the research papers presented at Sloan—might I recommend Brian Skinner’s paper, The Price of Anarchy, which links hoops offensive schemes with Braess’s Paradox?). A strong analytic-minded managerial core is not sufficient to win a championship (cue discussion of talent and execution), but I’d argue it’s becoming progressively necessary.

College sports has yet to embrace Michael Lewis and the “Moneyball” line of thinking. Duke is in prime position to lead the way, boasting some of the best number-crunching undergrad and grad students in the world who will work for virtually nothing in order to get closer to the ground K and his cronies walk on. I doubt that K, Collins or any of the coaching staff knows much about Markovian chains, linear regressions or noise in data sets. However, there’s a plethora of students here who do, and they should be utilized effectively, even if it’s just in an experimental fashion. At the very least, Duke’s varsity teams should take a look at the value of analytics in their respective sports and see what the movement has to offer.

I’ll even save a few seats at Sloan next year.

We at The Chronicle Sports Blog are pleased to announce the second year of our Bracket Challenge. It’s free and it’s hosted on ESPN–where you probably already have a bracket filled out. Most importantly, it’s open to everyone. And we mean everyone! Here’s your chance to see if you can beat the experts pontificating from 301 Flowers.

(But don’t pick Cornell to go to the Sweet Sixteen. That’s my upset special!)

How do you sign up? Glad you asked.

Go to “Create or Join a Group” page on ESPN’s Tournament Challenge page. Search for “The Chronicle Sports Blog.”

Now, what’s in it for you? The winner will be featured in a blog post, with your picture if you chose. You’ll get the opportunity to trash talk as much as you want on the  post. We only ask that you keep it (semi) clean. There may be other prizes involved. We’ll let you know.

Entries will be accepted until the games start on Thursday. But don’t wait until then. Sign up now and tell your friends!

Photos by Ian Soileau

After winning the ACC championship earlier today, the Blue Devils were granted a No. 1 seed in the South region.

The real surprise isn’t that Duke was granted a top seed–the team has the No. 3 RPI in the country and won both conference titles–but that it was ranked above Syracuse by the committee. The Orange were the No. 1 team in the nation before losing their season finale to Louisville and dropping in the first game of the Big East Tournament to then-No. 22 Georgetown.

Should Duke advance to the Final Four, it will face the team to emerge from the East regional, headed by No. 1 Kentucky. We’ll fill you in on the details of the Blue Devils’ bracket as they appear.

UPDATE: Duke will play the winner of the play-in game between Winthrop and Arkansas Pine-Bluff. The rest of the bracket includes No. 8 California, No. 9 Louisville, No. 5 Texas A&M, No. 12 Utah St., No. 4 Purdue, No. 13 Siena, No. 2 Villanova, No. 15 Robert Morris, No. 7 Richmond, No. 10 Saint Mary’s, No. 3 Baylor, No. 14 Sam Houston St., No. 6 Notre Dame and No. 11 Old Dominion.

Duke 65-61 FINAL: Your 2010 ACC Tournament champions: the Duke Blue Devils. Check back here and at dukechronicle.com for postgame.

Duke 63-59 SECOND HALF 18 seconds remaining: Miller’s three hit all kinds of rim for Georgia Tech and Favors slammed it home to pull within one. But never count out Jon Scheyer. The senior captain just drained his second three of the game–on eight attempts, no less–to get the two-possession lead.

Duke 60-57 SECOND HALF 1:26 remaining: The Yellow Jackets are keeping things interesting, but do they have enough fight left in them? The Blue Devils have led the entire game and Georgia Tech is out of timeouts.

Duke is struggling just enough on offense to keep this game exciting. The team has only field goal in the last five minutes–Plumlee’s dunk.

Duke 56-48 SECOND HALF 3:37 remaining: The Blue Devils are already in stall offense, but Mason Plumlee just bailed out the team with a thunderous dunk on the last possession with the shot clock expiring. Don’t count out Tech just yet, though. They’re pressing relatively effectively, and have some long-range threats to keep things close.

Duke 54-43, SECOND HALF 5:20 remaining: Maurice Miller just prevented Nolan Smith from finishing what would have been a highlight-reel dunk on the break and flushed down one of his own, but Scheyer finally connected from beyond the arc, and this crowd couldn’t be more thrilled. This might be the loudest it’s been all day.

Duke 47-38, SECOND HALF 8:37 remaining: Even when he’s shooting 2-for-10, there’s one thing Jon Scheyer can do, and that’s draw fouls from beyond the arc. Scheyer drained three free throws after being fouled by Brian Oliver to push the lead back to seven. Nevertheless, the senior still looks really worn out today.

Singler, meanwhile, is still all over the place, but he’s making his free throws as Duke builds its lead.

Oh, and another fun sign: “NCAA Tourney dress code: No heels”

Duke 38-33, SECOND HALF 12:15 remaining: Georgia Tech’s trapping is really frustrating the Blue Devils, who just called timeout with 26 seconds on the shot clock to give themselves 10 more seconds to get the ball past half court. The Yellow Jackets just lost Glen Rice Jr. to an ankle injury, but they haven’t missed a beat. Freshman phenom Derrick Favors has 13 points for the Jackets.

Singler has three fouls for Duke, but he is staying in the game, a testament to how much the Blue Devils need him on offense, even though he is shooting 3-of-14.

Duke 35-30, SECOND HALF 13:18 remaining: It’s hard to believe Duke was ever outshooting Georgia Tech, given that Singler and Scheyer are a combined 4-of-20 from the field. The Blue Devils are so desperate for offense that Dawkins is back in the game in place of Scheyer, and the freshman just drew a blocking foul on Zachery Peacock.

Duke 33-26, SECOND HALF 15:51 remaining: Scheyer is really not feeling it today, not even from the foul line. He is shooting 2-of-7 from the field, including 0-for-3 from beyond the arc–on some pretty open looks, too. It’s a good thing Duke’s defense is so solid, as Lance Thomas just proved by forcing another Tech turnover, because Smith is the only one getting it done on the offensive end. Singler is working his tail off, but the shots aren’t falling for him.

Duke 29-22, END OF FIRST HALF: Singler nailed a short jumper to give Duke a seven-point lead heading into the half, and the ESPN crew is still fixing the wreckage that he caused when he dove out of bounds. The Blue Devils might have had a chance to add to their lead, but Dawkins dribbled the ball out of bounds on the final play of the half. 

Georgia Tech is starting to figure out a rhythm on offense, and is exploiting its advantage in the paint. The two teams each have 17 rebounds, but Duke has built its lead on superior shooting–not exactly the hallmark of this team. The Blue Devils are shooting 41.4 percent from the field to the Yellow Jackets’ 34.8 percent. Smith leads all scorers with 11 points despite playing only 10 minutes due to foul trouble. Zoubek and Singler have seven and six boards apiece.

Duke 26-20, FIRST HALF 1:18 remaining: Singler just took out Dan Shulman and Dick Vitale while trying to save the ball, and appears to have hit himself and the two announcers pretty hard. Shulman even lost his headset in the collision. Head coach Mike Krzyzewski called a timeout to regroup, but Duke will need more than that to rescue its currently stagnant offense.

Duke 26-15, FIRST HALF 3:53 remaining: Duke fans love their youngest Blue Devil. Andre Dawkins got this place roaring with a corner three, but he’s outdone himself with a thunderous slam that forced Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt to call timeout. Dawkins is getting extended playing time again with Smith in foul trouble, but today, the freshman is making full use of it.

Here’s an interesting feature on Dawkins’ journey this year at Duke.

Duke 19-14, FIRST HALF 7:58 remaining: Ugly stretch for Duke. Georgia Tech has done a good job of attacking the Blue Devils, especially in the paint, and the Yellow Jackets have also tightened up their defense. Kyle Singler is getting good looks off of curls and screens, but he is only 1-of-5 from the field after a monster showing against the Hurricanes.

Duke 17-8, FIRST HALF 11:33 remaining: So much for worrying about Scheyer–he looked just fine driving into the paint for the easy floater to put Duke up nine. Smith already has 11 points, just one less than he scored against Miami yesterday, and is beating the Yellow Jackets himself. Maurice Miller is the lone source of offense for Georgia Tech. He’s nailed two long threes to keep his team afloat, but the Blue Devils will settle for those looks if it means the Yellow Jacket big men don’t get the ball inside.

Duke 10-2, FIRST HALF 14:21 remaining: At this point, the only thing that could potentially stop Nolan Smith is foul trouble. The junior already has eight points and is scoring in a variety of ways, but has picked up a blocking foul and was saddled with foul trouble in the first half of yesterday’s contest.

The only thing that might concern Duke right now would be Jon Scheyer. He looks to have lost some of his bounce on offense, getting stuffed on a layup and missing a wide-open three from the corner. He hasn’t shot particularly well the past two games, so let’s see if he can bounce back today.

Duke 6-0, FIRST HALF 17:34 remaining: Beautiful start for the Blue Devils. First, a nice two-man game from Singler and Smith leads to a jumper in the lane. Then, Scheyer–active as always in the passing lanes–gets an easy layup off a steal. And Nolan Smith finishes it off with another bucket in transition. The defense is solid as usual for duke.

PREGAME: We’re live from the Greensboro Coliseum for the ACC Tournament final between No. 1 Duke and No. 7 Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets are the highest seed the Blue Devils have faced this far, and Georgia Tech beat North Carolina, Maryland and N.C. State to advance to today.

It’s a decidedly pro-Duke crowd here today and a pretty packed house too. This will essentially be a road game for the Yellow Jackets, as if the odds weren’t already against them. Sign of the day so far: “Thank you Carolina and Maryland 4 my ticket!”

Duke Starters:
F Kyle Singler
F Lance Thomas
C Brian Zoubek
G Nolan Smith
G Jon Scheyer

Georgia Tech Starters:
F Derrick Favors
F Gani Lawal
G D’Andre Bell
G Glen Rice Jr.
G Iman Shumpert

Photographs by Ian Soileau

Before the Blue Devils took the court to matchup against the Hurricanes this afternoon, ESPN commentator Dick Vitale provided a little entertainment by dancing with sidelines reporter Erin Andrews near press row.

I guess Digger Phelps isn’t the only one who gets to dance.

Duke 77-74, FINAL

After the teams traded baskets on the final possessions, the Blue Devils sealed their spot at the finals of the ACC Tournament by converting on free throws.

Be sure to check back later today for more content (including the video of Dickie V dancing with Erin Andrews!)

Duke 74-67, 32.8 left in the second half

Scheyer was fouled on the inbounds play and made both shots from the line.

Miami then proceeded to make an off balance shot and went to the line but failed to convert on the and-one.

Duke 72-67, 32.8 left in the second half

A dunk by Julian Gamble brings Miami within five points of Duke.

A tweet by former Blue Devil Marty Pocious (@LTUmarty): “Meet your passes #Duke !!! Heard it all the way over in Lithuania. Strong voice, coach..”

Duke 72-65, 41.5 left in the second half

A foul by singler put grant back at the line. The Miami guard—again—converted on both shots.

Singler was fouled on the next possession and extended the lead to seven with two makes from the charity stripe.

In the game for Duke: Scheyer, Smith, Singler, Thomas and Zoubek

Duke 70-63, 50.4 remaining in the second half

Miami’s grant made two free throws to cut the lead to five. A long Duke possession—ending in a bucket by Smith—brought the lead back up to seven.

Duke 68-61, 1:33 left in the second half

Another shot clock violate for Duke. Miami ball with less than two minutes to play.

Duke 68-61, 1:58 left in the second half

A trap by Miami forced Jon Scheyer to turn the ball over while trying to toss it to Kyle Singler. The Hurricanes failed to capitalize on the possession, however, and Duke held on to its seven point lead.

Duke 66-58, 5:52 left in the second half

As Duke Blue Planet just pointed out on its Twitter, Duke has played much better today since Krzyzewski ditched the jacket. Check out the photo here.

Reggie Johnson of Miami just picked up his fourth foul of the game.

Duke 62-Miami 50, 10:29 left in the second half

Should Duke win the ACC Tournament, Kyle Singler looks like the obvious favorite for the player of the tournament. The junior has 23 points, six assists and five rebounds today after scoring 18 points and grabbing 11 boards in Duke’s game against Virginia yesterday.

Duke 53-42, 13:05 left in the second half.

Scheyer just followed a fast break layup with a three pointer that gives Duke an 11 point lead. The senior now has 11 points.

On the floor for Duke: Smith, Scheyer, Singler, Thomas and Zoubek

Duke 43-42, 15:14 left in the second half

Spotted in the crowd: the youngest Plumlee brother, Marshall. He is a 6-foot-11, four-star center and will graduate high school in 2011.

Singler has eight points in the first 4:46 of the second half and now has 18 points on the game. The junior is carrying the scoring load for the Blue Devils—Smith and Scheyer have combined for just seven points.

Duke 38, Miami 35, 18:58 left in the second half

Singler hit two three pointers in the first 62 seconds of the second half to give Duke a three point lead. Miami called a timeout.

Also, some notable first half stats:

• Duke made 43 percent of its shots on 13-for-30 shooting
• The Blue Devils outrebounded Miami 19 to 11. Duke had nine rebounds on the offensive end alone.
• 3-pointers have been hard to come by. The Blue Devils shot just 2-12 during the first half. Singler is the only player to have connected from longrange and made 2 of his 5 attempts. He leads the team with 10 points.

Miami 35-32, HALFTIME

After picking up his second foul immediately after the timeout bon a charging call, Dawkins was replaced by Nolan Smith. Soon after, Singler became the first player on either team to reach double digits.

The Duke bench just got called for the technical foul after protesting Nolan Smith’s travel call. Miami barely hit the rim on the first shot but converted on the second. Since that foul, the game has gotten noticeable more physical and Singler wrestled for a ball under the hoop on one possession.

Krzyzewski took off his jacked (woah!) after Smith got called for carry that prompted incredulous looks from the Duke bench. All of a sudden everything possible seems to be going wrong for Duke. The crowd is on its feet.

On their last possession of the half, the Hurricanes nailed a 3-pointer to give them a lead at the half.

We’ll be back in 15 minutes!

Duke 30-23, 3:34 left in the first half

The tape across the Blue Devil mascot’s head reads, “U Won’t Win” for Miami.

Immediately before the timeout, Andre Dawkins got blocked on a 3-point attempt. The freshman is having a bit of a tough time so far today and is scoreless on his three shot attempts.

Duke 21-14, 7:54 left in the first half

Updates on Duke’s foul trouble:

• Smith came back inwith 10:09 remaining on the clock and hasn’t picked up a foul since. He has four points so far today.
• Scheyer took a seat on the bench after picking up his second foul with over ten minutes remaining the half.
• Miles Plumlee picked up his second foul just before the timeout.

The Miami band is currently playing “We’re Not Going to Take It,” but only because they already played I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho) by Pitbull during warmups.

Duke 15-9, 11:18 left in the first half

The Plumlee brothers are providing the crowd with some serious entertainment so far this half. Immediately out of the first timeout, Mason Plumlee delivered an alley-oop pass to Miles Plumlee.

Nolan Smith picked up his second foul in the half with 14:32. The Blue Devils will likely have to play without the guard for a good part of the first half. Andre Dawkins came in off the bench early to let Smith take a seat on the bench.

Nine Duke players have already logged minutes in today’s game. In addition to the starters, Ryan Kelly, Andre Dawkins, Miles Plumlee and Mason Plumlee have taken the floor.

Duke 8-7, 15:43 left in the first half Miami’s zone defense has proven difficult for the Blue Devils in the opening minutes. Multiple times, when Duke tried to get the ball into the post, the Hurricanes forced a turnover. Mason Plumlee earned the crowd’s loudest roar so far this game by completing an alley-oop delivered by Singler.

Pregame: We’re just minutes from tipoff in Greensboro, North Carolina as the Blue Devils will take on Miami in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament. We’re sitting behind ESPN’s Dick Vitale, Dan Shulman and Erin Andrews. Highlight of the day so far: Vitale dancing with Andrews, which I managed to get on tape. Check back on the blog later today for the footage. Oh, and Howie Schwab from the show “Stump the Schwab” is making an appearance here today as well. Duke is favored by 11.5 points this afternoon and if it advances will face the winner of the Georgia Tech and N.C. State.

Starters for Duke: Jon Scheyer, Nolan Smith, Kyle Singler, Lance Thomas and Brian Zoubek

Starters for Miami: Julian Gamble, DeQuan Jones, Reggie Johnson, Durand Scott, James Dews

Wow. Once again, Friday of Championship week was filled with a host of upsets, and many more near misses.  Most importantly for the Blue Devils, all three top seeds in the ACC Tournament (minus Duke, of course) were upset yesterday, and many in stunning fashion. The two lowest seeds in the tournament, conference cellar-dwellars Miami and N.C. State, upended Virginia Tech and Florida State respectively, while seventh seeded Georgia Tech took down No. 2 seed Maryland. And while Duke fans should be ecstatic about these outcomes in terms of winning the ACC title (although overconfidence could now be a legitimate concern for the Blue Devils), all these upsets might come back to bite Duke come Selection Sunday, as now the team lacks the opportunity to get one more impressive victory to boost its strength of schedule and RPI.

It isn’t as if Duke is the only team in that situation, however, as upsets have hit the Big-10 and Big East tournaments as well. West Virginia narrowly escaped an upset for the second straight night, narrowly beating Notre Dame, but most importantly the Mountaineers have not looked at all impressive in their two contests. Their offense has been atrocious at worst, and ugly at best, especially against two Bubble teams in the Big-East. While a win is a win, the case for the final No. 1 seed may come down to the “eye-test” and right now West Virginia isn’t looking too pretty. The Mountaineers still face a tough contest today versus a hot Georgetown team, and a loss could eliminate them from contention for that last top seed.

In the Big-10, the big news of the day was Minnesota’s upset of Michigan State, which actually could prove to have negative effects for the Blue Devils. If either Ohio State or Purdue wins the Big-10 tournament, either team would have a legitimate case for a top seed, whereas Michigan State had fallen out of that discussion. Now, Duke must rely on Minnesota to upset Purdue today (a possibility, considering one more win could propel the Golden Gophers into the NCAA Tournament), and hope a similar fate befalls Ohio State versus Illinois (as the Illini are another team fighting for their Tournament lives).

On a side note, I think it is safe to say that the ending of the Michigan vs. Ohio State game yesterday could be the best of Championship Week thus far. But I’m shocked that none of the talking heads on ESPN discussed the fact that, at least to my eye, Evan Turner’s fantastic buzzer-beating shot never should have happened. Look at the replay: you’ll see (if I’m not insane) that the clock doesn’t start until at least three or four milliseconds after Turner touches the ball.  That means he never should have had the time to get off his improbable shot, even if the Wolverines’ defense was atrocious on that final play. Just some food for thought.

Now that the slate of games is thinning as Championship Week comes to a close, I think it is pretty clear which games Duke fans will want to watch today: both Big-10 semifinals and the Big-East Championship. An upset in any of those contests would go a long way in securing Duke’s No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, especially now that the Blue Devils’ road to the ACC Title is much clearer with the plethora of upsets yesterday.

I’ll leave you with a preview of Duke’s showdown with Miami today, courtesy of Raycom (you’ll find it in the top-right corner of this page). I won’t be able to post tomorrow morning (I know you all were planning your day around it) because I’ll be flying back to Durham, but I’ll try to get something up before the Selection Show to offer my final predictions on Duke’s seed.

Check out my photos from today’s ACC Tournament win against Virginia. For a game summary, please see Hon Lung Chu’s liveblog.